Who Are Saved? (2)

I wrote a piece in the last News under the title: "Who Are Saved?" I wish now to respond to some correspondence on that article: "I don’t have a problem with the answer given to this question (except, perhaps, how the last paragraph was worded) but I would suggest that elect infants, for example, who are utterly incapable of hearing or believing the gospel and of exercising faith, are nevertheless saved when regenerated and brought into union with Christ and by having the merits of His sinless life, sacrificial death and resurrection, indeed, His righteousness, applied and imputed to them. The gospel, the Person and work of Christ alone, saves and saves 100% of the time. However, I would submit that faith is not without exception the instrument of salvation."

It is interesting that the Westminster Confession addresses itself to this question: "Elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit, who worketh when, and where, and how he pleaseth. So also are all other elect persons, who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the word" (10:3).

The Canons of Dordt also express themselves on this question: "Since we are to judge of the will of God from His Word, which testifies that the children of believers are holy, not by nature, but in virtue of the covenant of grace in which they, together with the parents, are comprehended, godly parents have no reason to doubt of the election and salvation of their children whom it pleaseth God to call out of this life in their infancy" (I:17)

It is true that some infants are saved by the power of God’s grace, even though they never hear the gospel. This is very obviously the implication of the articles quoted above. Both speak of infants who die in infancy. I would even broaden that a bit and include in infants who die in infancy the elect children of believers who die before birth.

I am somewhat reluctant, however, to agree totally with this statement: "elect infants ... are utterly incapable of hearing or believing the gospel ..." God works powerfully in mysterious ways. I would not rule out the possibility that elect children who die before or soon after birth are capable of hearing the gospel. We do not know what effect the Psalms a mother sings while pregnant, the godly conversation of a covenant family in the home, and the singing and preaching in church that comes to an unborn child, has on an elect, though unborn, baby. Doctors tell us that within minutes of birth a baby is able to recognize the voice of its mother and distinguish it from other voices. Cannot a child, born again by the wonder of regeneration and united to Christ by faith, hear the voice of its heavenly Father? God works "when, and where, and how he pleaseth."

I also take exception to the last statement of the letter: "I would submit that faith is not without exception the instrument of salvation." I insist (and I have an idea the correspondent would not dissent) that if we remember that faith is, first of all, the bond that unites us to Christ, then faith comes with regeneration. Regeneration unites the elect with Christ because faith is a part of regeneration. It is true that there may not yet be the exercise of faith but even here we must be careful. We do not know very much about a newborn child. I have seen newborn children at a very young age respond to a Psalm, a prayer, even the sacrament of baptism when administered. Child psychologists tell us that many things have influence on a newborn babe: the colour of the walls in the nursery, the loving "baby-talk" of a mother, the music played (whether a Psalm or raucous rock), the general atmosphere of the home (whether peaceful and happy or riotous and characterized by squabbling). The Lord’s voice is powerful enough to give new birth to an unborn child; is it so hard to imagine that the Lord’s voice is powerful enough to elicit a response—even though it be in a very infantile way?

There are also children who are born with severe mental handicaps. Sometimes these handicaps are so severe that the child can show almost no response to stimuli. But we must be careful that we do not deny that God can work in strange and marvellous ways in His elect in spite of the severest of handicaps. I have stood at the bedside of dying saints who lay in a coma for days before dying. I have held their hand, told them to squeeze my hand if they heard me, and read to them from Scripture and prayed with them. They could and did squeeze my hand. The Spirit of Christ is very powerful and His work is greater than we can imagine. We must not sell short His power.

Nevertheless, the main point of the correspondent’s letter was only that, at least as far as we can tell, in the case of infants (and those severely mentally handicapped) God saves His elect without the preaching of the gospel. With that I agree; I thank the correspondent for calling this to our attention.