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Jeremiah 31 and Baptism

By Ben Merkle

This passage is often cited as a strong argument against the practice of paedo-baptism. Jeremiah tells us that there will be something different about the New Covenant. In the New Covenant everyone will be regenerate, eliminating the category of unregenerate covenant member (which had been a possibility in the Old Covenant). This initially can appear to be a strong case for the Baptistic position. With the New Covenant now open only to regenerate souls, the church must be careful who it applies the sign of the Covenant to. It makes sense to guard the sign and seal of the Covenant from unbelievers by waiting until someone has professed faith.  There are two difficulties with this interpretation. First the Baptist assumes that all of Jeremiah 31 describes the New Covenant from its very beginning. Second, the Baptist fails to notice that Jeremiah is prophesying, not giving a didactic message.

The Culmination of the Kingdom
The Baptistic take on Jeremiah 31 assumes that the entire passage is in effect from the very inception of the New Covenant. But Jeremiah is describing the fulfillment of the New Covenant. He is not describing the New Covenant only as it will first appear (although he does prophesy its initiation), but he also describes the long term fulfillment of a postmillennial hope.

First, we know that this prophecy begins its fulfillment with the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. The author of Hebrews writes, "But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. For if the first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second" (Heb. 8:6-7). He then continues by citing Jeremiah 31:31-34. The New Covenant of Jeremiah was considered to have already begun at the time of the writing of the book of Hebrews. In this covenant God promises to the Israelites "their sins and lawless deed I will remember no more." This language is reflected at the first Lord’s Supper. "Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins’" (Mat. 26:27-28).

Clearly, the promised New Covenant was initiated by Christ in the first century. However, Jeremiah’s prophecy does not describe only the advent of the covenant, but also the sort of affect it will have on the world. God’s Spirit will be poured out and all of Israel will turn to God. He continues in chapter 33, describing how the nation of Israel will be restored, will be ruled by a "Branch of righteousness," and will multiply, becoming a number that can’t be counted. "As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the descendents of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me" (33:22). The New Covenant of which Jeremiah prophesies culminates in an eternal nation of Israel, that can’t be counted, and all regenerate.

Jeremiah’s prophecy of the restoration is echoed by Ezekiel 37. In this passage the renewal of Israel is portrayed by a valley of dry bones coming back to life. God declares, "...you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves. I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land" (Ezek. 37:13-14). This passage is followed by the promise of an eternal King to rule over the nation, David.

This kingdom was established by Christ, and given to the disciples of the early church. "Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32). The declaration of this kingdom was one of the main reasons behind the persecution of the disciples. "Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king—Jesus" (Acts 17:7). The last we hear of Paul, he is busy "preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence..." (Acts 28:31).  Jeremiah’s prophecy of the kingdom did not find its fulfillment all at once. Jesus explained how the kingdom was to come. "Then He said, ‘What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden; and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.’ And again He said, ‘To what shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened’" (Luke 13:18-21). We are promised that this kingdom will begin small and then grow to fill the earth.

When Jeremiah describes the New Covenant church consisting of regenerate people only, he is clearly describing the covenant people at the fulfillment of the New Covenant. So while it is true that Jeremiah teaches that there will be a time in the New Covenant where all of the covenant members will be regenerate, this is referring to the culmination of the New Covenant, not its inception. But the fact does remain that at the culmination of God’s covenantal work, which was begun with the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, we will be left with an entirely regenerate covenantal people.

The Alternative
Let’s consider the alternative for a moment. The baptistic position generally holds that Jeremiah is describing how the New Covenant will look from the beginning (as opposed to its culmination). Depending on one’s view of baptism, this will lead us to one of several problems.

First of all, either baptism joins one to the New Covenant or it doesn’t. If being baptized does not join someone to the New Covenant, then there is no real problem with baptizing babies. Jeremiah says that everyone in the New Covenant will be regenerate, but if baptism doesn’t join a person to the New Covenant, then the fact that someone is not regenerate shouldn’t stop us from baptizing the person. They may very well be unregenerate, but the baptism doesn’t bring them into the New Covenant. The Baptist wants to argue that baptizing babies is inconsistent with Jeremiah 31, but if Jeremiah 31 isn’t talking about baptism, then there is no contradiction.

However, if one claims that baptism does make the recipient a member of the covenant, then Jeremiah doesn’t teach baptistic theology. Rather, this passage teaches baptismal regeneration. The Baptist interprets Jeremiah 31 as if it was a pastoral epistle instructing us. But Jeremiah is prophesying . For instance there is a difference between being told to "be perfect" and being told that "you will be perfect." The first is a command that we are to strive towards in our sanctification. We know that we won’t get all the way there in this life, but we are to be working towards that end. The second however is a promise of what will be. We have this promise, that in the resurrection we will be made perfect.  In Jeremiah 31 the Baptist reads the passage to teach that we are to strive towards getting a closer correlation between the number of people who have received the sign of the covenant and the number of the elect. But this reading has the hidden assumption that Jeremiah is a pastoral epistle, telling us what we are to be striving for. But Jeremiah is prophesying. He is telling us what will be. When Jeremiah 31 finds its fulfillment there will be no inconsistency between the Covenant sign and the number of the elect. The Jeremiah passage is not giving us theological instruction.

The Baptist Fence
Taking several steps back, we see that the Baptist position ignores the whole point of this passage. Jeremiah is promising that a time will come when there will no longer be a dichotomy between the outer and the inner man. The Baptist would have us interpret this passage to imply that at the fulfillment of Jeremiah 31 the church will need to be much more careful about who they baptize (hence the prohibition of baptizing babies). But the sense that Jeremiah gives is drastically different. The main point of this passage is not that we ought to be baptizing far fewer people (and cautiously examining them to make sure that no unregenerate souls get through), but rather, when this prophecy finds its fulfillment, we will have run out of people to baptize. Jeremiah describes a time when baptizing an unregenerate person will be an impossibility. "No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord" (31:34). At the fulfillment of this prophecy we could turn a hose on a stadium filled with people and not hit an unbeliever.

To the Least
As this prophecy finds its fulfillment in the New Covenant kingdom, it will become more and more difficult to live next door to an unregenerate soul. But the promise is even greater than that. The Lord promises that they shall all know him, and then He specifies "from the greatest to the least." It certainly is ironic that, in order to attack paedo-baptism, one would pick a passage that describes the expanding of the covenant specifically to "the least." The Hebrew word translated "least" in this passage is the word Katan. BDB defines this adjective as "small, young, unimportant." Katan is the word that Joseph’s brothers use to describe Benjamin in Genesis 42-44, translated—"youngest." The same word describes Jerubaal’s "youngest" son in Judges 9:5, David, the "youngest" brother in 1 Samuel 16:11, and Jehoahaz, the "youngest" of the sons of Jehoram in 2 Chronicles 21:17. The phrase "least to the greatest" is used throughout Scripture to describe something all encompassing, including the oldest to the youngest. Jeremiah 31 promises an expansion of the Covenant to the young, not a retraction of it.

The New Covenant promises the gradual expansion of the kingdom of God throughout this world. The effects of this covenant will be wide, covering the entire earth. But not only will the New Covenant have width, but it will also have depth, reaching from the Greatest to the Least.