Part II. Can Babies Be Baptized for the Right Reason?

A. Each Individual Is Responsible to Serve God from Proper Motives.

Romans 6:17,18 - To be freed from sin, one must obey from the heart the teaching delivered. This includes obedience in baptism (v3,4). God is pleased only when we serve Him from the willing choice of our own hearts. Our acts of service are valueless if someone else forces them upon us against our will or without our consent.

Acts 2:40,41 - People were commanded to be saved, and they responded by being baptized. Each individual personally made his own decision. No one else can obey God for us, and no one else can make that choice for us.

Other people may teach and encourage us to obey God, but they cannot decide for us whether or not we will obey. This includes obedience in baptism. Since a baby cannot possibly make this decision and cannot communicate any such decision to us, to baptize it anyway would violate God's law of personal responsibility.

[See also the notes below on Ezek. 18:20 and 2 Cor. 5:10. Cf. Rom. 2:28,29; 1 Pet. 1:22; 3:21; 2 Cor. 8:5; Rev. 22:17; Phil. 2:12; 1 Cor. 13:1-3.]

B. Each Person Should Be Baptized for the Purpose of Receiving Forgiveness of Sins.

Again, since God is no respecter of persons, the purpose of baptism must be the same for all who are baptized. He did not give two different purposes, one for adults and another for babies. What are the proper purposes for which all must be baptized?

Mark 16:16 - He who believes and is baptized will be saved.

Acts 2:38 - Repent and be baptized for the remission of sins.

Acts 22:16 - Be baptized and wash away your sins.

1 Peter 3:21 - Baptism also now saves us.

As shown above, our service to God pleases Him only if it is offered from the right motive and purpose. So the person who is baptized must do it for the purpose of being forgiven or saved from his sins.

Consider the Lord's Supper as an illustration. Even if a person does the right actions, but if his reasons are wrong, he displeases God (1 Cor. 11:23-29). Likewise, if a person is baptized, but if he does not do it to receive forgiveness of sins, then the baptism is not Scriptural. But a baby cannot understand the meaning of baptism, so how can he be baptized from a proper motive?

(See the links at the end of this study for further information about the purpose of baptism.)
C. A Baby Cannot Be Baptized to Receive Forgiveness, because It Has No Sins to Be Forgiven.

Since baptism must be done for the purpose of receiving forgiveness of sins, a baby could Scripturally be baptized only if it was guilty of sins and needed forgiveness. But is a baby guilty of sin?

How could a baby become guilty of sin?

We become sinners when we transgress God's law (1 John 3:4; James 1:13-15; Isa. 59:1,2). But a baby cannot understand God's law, so how could it be held accountable for violating it?

Some people believe that babies need baptism because they have inherited guilt from Adam. But consider:

Ezekiel 18:20 - The child does not bear the iniquity of the father, but the wickedness of the wicked is upon himself. The only person held accountable for Adam's sin is Adam, not his descendants.

2 Corinthians 5:10 - Each one will be judged according to what he has done in the body, good or bad. This means no one will be condemned for Adam's sin, except Adam!

Note that this also confirms that no one will be justified because someone else decided to do good. Specifically babies are not held accountable for a parent's decision to have a child baptized.
Each person will be judged for what he chooses to do, not for what others choose to do.

Further, the Bible says that Jesus was without sin (Heb. 2:14,17; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 John 3:5). How could He have been without sin if babies inherit the guilt of Adam's sin?

If a baby is guilty of sin, what happens if it dies before it is baptized, or if its parents refuse to baptize it?

If babies are guilty of sin, if one dies without baptism, then wouldn't it follow that he is eternally lost? Almost no one will accept this conclusion, yet to deny the conclusion is to admit that babies really are not guilty of sin.

Further, since baptism is essential to salvation, if a baby is a sinner, then its salvation from sin must depend entirely on the actions of others. It must rely entirely on its parents to choose to baptize it. It has no choice in the matter, and cannot possibly influence its own destiny. This contradicts all the scriptures we have quoted showing that salvation is a matter of individual choice (2 Cor. 5:10; etc.).

Since salvation is a matter of individual choice, and since a baby cannot choose or express a choice to be baptized, we conclude that the baby is not lost to begin with. Therefore it does not need baptism.

What condition is a baby in?

Since we now know that babies have committed no sin and have inherited no sin, it follows that they must be innocent. Notice other Scriptures that confirm this conclusion:

Psalms 106:37,38; Jeremiah 19:4,5 - Babies sacrificed to idols were "innocent."

Hebrews 12:9 - God is the Father of our spirits, in contrast to human fathers (fathers of our flesh). Adam was a father of our flesh, but not of our spirit. God is the Father of our spirits.
Would God give us sinful spirits? [Zech. 12:1; Ecc. 12:7]

Matthew 19:14; 18:3 - The kingdom is for those who are like little children. To enter the kingdom, we must be converted and become like little children. If children are sinners, would this not mean that we must be converted and become like little sinners?

Yet other passages show that to enter the kingdom we must become innocent or cleansed of sin (Col. 1:13,14). Therefore, becoming like little children must mean, among other things, that children are innocent.

But since Jesus said to let little children come to Him, some people say this means we should baptize babies so they can come to Him. But Jesus did not baptize the babies who came to Him. They came into His physical presence so He could touch them and pray for them (Matt. 19:13; Mark 10:13-16), not so He could baptize them. They were already acceptable to Him just as they were, without baptism.

A baby does not need forgiveness because he is not guilty. He is in a safe condition, not accountable for sin until he is old enough to be able to understand and accept the responsibility to obey God. Since baptism is for the remission of sins, and since a baby has no sins, it follows that babies do not need baptism.

Some people admit that babies have no sin, but they baptize them anyway as a "dedication" to encourage parents to train the child properly. But where does the Bible say this is the purpose of baptism? The purpose of baptism is to receive remission of sins. And furthermore, we have learned that no one can decide that another person will be dedicated to God. Each person must decide that for himself.

So no matter how you look at it, infant baptism perverts the purpose of baptism.