Some friends of mine have a tiny baby in critical condition. The thoughts of loved ones around them have gone to the eternal status of the child.
It’s interesting to me that many people wonder about the state of the child, but often overlook their own state!
But I though perhaps the consideration arises in the minds of many Christians, Can this child be saved?In order to answer that question Biblically, we first must consider what saved means. The word always means delivered from some peril, whether large or small. In other words, saved must always have an object, and so there must be a salvation FROM something.
Therefore, before answering the question, we must know what the child needs to be saved from. Biblically, we immediately think of sin and sins.If we are not saved from the penalty of sin, we know the consequences are eternal separation from God, and the appropriate punishment for our misdeeds.
Some might say that children are not sinners. This is not true, according to the Bible. Children ARE sinners, even in their mother womb. Psalm 51:5 reads, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.So this is clear that the nature of sinner is the only nature known to us in the womb, except, of course in the miraculous circumstance of the Lord birth.
We also know that, although sinners by nature in the womb, babies do not sin in the womb. Romans 9:11 reads For the children (Jacob & Esau) being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth; Once babies emerge from the womb, they can start sinning, one surmises, at least in thought. Therefore, it is possible to find sins even in very, very young babies.
But an important factor, often overlooked is found in Deut 1: 39: “Moreover your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it.Apart from the context, we can see the assertion by the Lord that the children of the Israelite exiles from Egypt had not reached a certain state of knowledge concerning good and evil. This condition has come down to us as the age of accountability.It not a precise age, and has to do with knowledge, but it is certain that a vast number in the wilderness had not reached it.
Religious people have tried to name this age. Jewish religionists (who today are among those who have stumbled by failing to receive the Lord Jesus Christ) attempt to place circumcision as necessary in securing eternal life to children who have not reached this age of accountability.
They have their counterparts in those Christians who would require an infant sprinkling, pouring, or immersion for the same purpose.
But what do such rites teach? They teach that without these rites, a child is condemned or consigned to hell when God does not. I remember when I was young, and in a Roman Catholic school, they told us that unbaptized infants went to limbo which was just like heaven, but without God. Well, I dont know what I thought then, but today I think anywhere without God is a nasty place indeed! I also know they just made that stuff up.
So, back to the original question: can an infant be saved? Actually the question SHOULD be Does an infant need to be saved from his sins?The answer is no.He may have them, but God has not imputed those sins to him, until he reaches an age where he knows good and evil: an age of accountability.
I personally agree with Dr. J. Vernon McGee on this point, who said he thought that time was much later than most people have speculated.
In my own case, I received Christ as my Savior by faith when I was 24 years old. I dont think I had been accountable for my sins very long before that. When I realized my sins were my own responsibility, it scared me seriously, and I was sure glad to discover God's plan of salvation in the meritorious work of Another.
