ORIGINAL SIN AND INFANT BAPTISM
The teaching of original sin has, through history, given rise to the practice of infant baptism. Yet when both are weighed carefully against Scripture, it becomes clear that neither reflects the pattern or message of the New Testament. If one assumes that babies are born guilty of sin, it naturally follows that some act must remove that guilt—but such reasoning begins from a premise the Bible does not teach. The Word of God never speaks of infants being baptized. Instead, every baptism recorded in Scripture follows personal faith and repentance—never precedes them (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; Acts 8:36–37).
Some have drawn a parallel between baptism and circumcision, suggesting that as infants were circumcised under the old covenant, so they should be baptized under the new. But the two are not the same. Circumcision was a physical sign given to male infants within Israel’s national covenant (Genesis 17:12). Baptism, however, is a spiritual act of faith—a burial with Christ in which both men and women, having repented and confessed His name, rise to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3–4; Colossians 2:11–12). The covenants differ in nature and purpose, and it does no service to either to blend them together.
Those who affirm original sin sometimes point to Psalm 51:5, where David confesses, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” Yet David is not teaching that guilt is inherited. He is expressing, through the poetic intensity of Hebrew psalmody, his deep awareness of personal sinfulness. His words are not a statement about the moral state of infants, but a confession of the depth of his own need for mercy. Likewise, when Paul writes that we were “by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3), his meaning is shaped by the context: he is describing the habitual course of life, the learned ways of a world estranged from God (Ephesians 2:2). “Nature” here means custom, pattern, or disposition—not an inborn moral stain.
Nowhere does the Bible teach that babies are born sinful or that baptism can remove a hereditary fault. Instead, faith and repentance are always joined to baptism as the conscious response of a believing heart. A newborn cannot yet believe, repent, or confess Christ. The Lord’s attitude toward children is not one of condemnation but of welcome: “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14). The Gospel Jesus preached is personal, not parental; living, not ceremonial. It calls not for sprinkling the innocent, but for preaching the Word to those who can understand, believe, and obey.
Infant baptism, though practiced with sincere motives, arises from a misunderstanding of the Gospel’s nature. Salvation cannot be transferred by proxy or ritual—it must be received by faith. The story of redemption is filled with examples of conscious trust and repentance: the thief on the cross believed and was saved through faith in Christ (Luke 23:42–43). The Ethiopian eunuch heard the message, confessed his belief, and was baptized out of conviction, not tradition (Acts 8:35–38). Wherever the Gospel is rightly preached, belief precedes the water, and repentance comes before the river.
This is the beauty of biblical baptism: it is the testimony of a heart awakened by grace, a personal meeting between the sinner and the Savior. God does not hold infants guilty of inherited sin; He receives them in love. And when they grow to know right from wrong and hear the call of the Gospel, He invites them—as He invites every soul—to come willingly, believe deeply, repent sincerely, and be born again into the life of His Son.
Bryan Dewayne Dunaway
