In our generation, a vast amount of ink and breath is wasted in writing
and preaching about infant sin, infant salvation, idiots, etc. There is
one thing certain about it, and that is, that our writing and preaching
about infant sin, infant salvation, Christ dying for infants and
idiots, never saved an infant, an idiot, or anybody else. We do not, by
our writing and preaching about them, make them sinful or righteous. It
is simply writing and preaching _about_ them, and not _to them_, and
certainly can do them no good. It is purely curious and speculative,
pleasant for men and women to talk about, who will not love and obey
the Savior themselves.
There are some things so clear in themselves that all can see them
on the mere mention of them. Infants and idiots can not understand,
believe, receive, reject, or obey the gospel. They can not repent,
pray, praise God or rejoice. The gospel is simply not addressed to
them. Infants and idiots are plainly and simply not _gospel subjects_.
How are they then to be saved? What salvation do you mean? Salvation
from _sin_, do you say? What sin? They never _sinned_, and have no
_actual_ sin, as the schoolmen style it. They are under no guilt. They
never transgressed any law, human or divine. They never rejected Christ
nor the gospel. They have no _personal_ sin or guilt; no personal
condemnation, and need no personal justification. The justification
we receive in believing and obeying the gospel, is from our _own
sins_, actual sins, sins we have committed ourselves. Infants have
no sins of this kind and need not this justification. The remission
of sins received, in turning to God, is for _sinners_; those who, in
their own persons have committed sins, and not for infants, who have
never sinned—who have no sins of this kind. They have no guilt, no
condemnation, and need no salvation from “old sins,” as Peter has it,
or past sins. They have no sins of this kind.
But, then, this is only a partial view of the matter. We all need
something more than this. We need another salvation beyond pardon, or
salvation from actual sins; we need to be ransomed from the grave,
raised from the dead; our bodies changed, glorified, immortalized.
The infant and idiot need this. This salvation is future. “As in Adam
all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” “By one man,
sin entered into the world.” “In Adam’s fall, we sinned all.” But we
are not under the guilt of Adam’s sin; only under the consequences.
These consequences came on us without our will, volition or consent;
without our action. We had no power to avert the calamity. It came
on us unconditionally. The first Adam, without our volition or
action, involved us in it. The second Adam, the Lord from heaven,
unconditionally removes it from us. Without our volition or action, he
takes it away. The first Adam involved us in death. Our turning to God,
becoming christians and obtaining remission of sins, does not save us
from death. We all die the same as those not Christians. After we die,
the best of saints, we need the same ransom from the grave, as infants
do. To be made alive; to be changed, immortalized and glorified. This
is the salvation from Adam’s sin, or the consequences of it, and this
is needed for the saints and infants alike.
“If one died for all, then we are all dead.” I. Cor. v. 14. This
includes infants and idiots. Christ then died for all. “As in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” The same “all” that
die in Adam shall be made alive in or by Christ. Christ, then, died for
all,—all that die in Adam,—and will make the same “all” alive, or
raise them from the dead. He, then, in dying for all, died for infants
and idiots, and secured for them resurrection from the dead, and they
need to prepare them for the world to come.
They can receive no gospel, and need none; they can not repent, and
need no repentance; they can not pray or commune, and need no prayer
or communion; they need no religion, and are simply not subjects of
religion. They need no church. The gospel, repentance and remission of
sins, the church and all that is in it, is for pardoned persons—those
washed from their sins—the redeemed by the blood of Christ, and not
for those who never sinned, had no guilt, and needed no pardon—those
who have no faith and know not the Savior.