Baptism meditation

Hebrews 12:7: God deals with you as with sons.

One of the privileges of membership in the body of Christ, one of the privileges sealed and effected by baptism, is the privilege of double-fatherhood. Today in baptism, God the Father marks your son as His son; by his baptism, Ezekiel receives an enduring sign that He can call the heavenly Father his Father.

Isn’t one father enough? No, it’s not.

Adam had only one Father, but every believer since has had two, and needed two. Double fatherhood became absolutely essential when our father Adam fell. Adam passed on an inheritance of corruption and depravity, and all fathers are Adams. Left to ourselves, we make a fine mess of the world, then die and pass the mess on to our children, who repeat the pattern with their children. If you doubt it, you haven’t been paying much attention to Washington, DC the last few weeks.

If we each had only one father, the human race would be racing toward disaster. But the Father of Adam and Jesus has not left us to the mercy of our fathers. He shows Himself, intervenes in our history of calamity, and disciplines so that we share in His holiness.

This is a great assurance to both you and your children. The one guarantee of parenting is that you’re going to mess up your kids, one way or another. You have failed, and you will fail, as parents. Your discipline and teaching will be full of gaps and twisted by sin. You’ll be saying this when they really need to hear that . You’ll pass on bad habits you don’t even see until your son is an adult. If you were on your own raising your children, it would be perfectly rational to despair.

You know that he has another and perfect Father, and so you can rest and live in hope. You know his heavenly Father will instruct him in ways that you cannot, convict him and deliver him from sins you never know about, provide the precisely suitable discipline that you cannot.

And it is a great assurance for him. He will be in dangers where you cannot rescue him. He will face battles that you cannot fight. He will find himself in darkness and you won’t be there to flip on the light. But he can live without fear because he knows his heavenly Father never leaves and always sees.

As your son grows, remind him that his baptism means he has two births and two fathers. And instruct him to rely wholly on the other One.