This is one of those issues I used to think about, went back and forth on, and then got bored of, and honestly haven't thought about a whole lot since. But I really do love God and his only begotten Son, and I know he is Lord and he lives in me; and this has always been a "given." Yes, I can't even remember a moment in time when I made this incredible decision for God; neither can I remember a time when I haven't loved God. My parents had me baptized into the Triune Name when I was less than a month old, and I still live in that baptism to this day. It has daily significance in my faith toward God, repenting, dying and rising all throughout the rest of my life. And I'm thankful for this gift, just as I am thankful for the Christian discipline they gave me.
I know a lot of Christians will think I was robbed of my "choice" to be baptized and follow God, and yet, I do not feel violated against my will, or that my baptism isn't efficacious or invalid. I know people will think that my faith isn't genuine because it was given to me as a gift, and I didn't have a chance to really please God and make it my own, as if I needed to add more credentials. But still, I do feel as if it is my own, even if I don't remember any change in my life. But as a side note, I don't see Baptists playing the coercion card when their fellow members bring their kids to church to hear the word. If their little ones don't want to go to church are they going to stop disciplining them in the Lord? Or aren't they unwittingly forcing their faith on their kids because they aren't old enough to make a choice? Are they going to stop bringing kids to church and let them starve? I hope not, even if it does make for a boring testimony.
I know a lot of Calvinists and Lutherans scoff at decision theology because of doctrines like predestination and total depravity. That isn't my battle. My beef with American Evangelicalism and decision theology isn't that they make a decision. It's that they don't know how to be given to. They don't see salvation as something to be passively received in faith; but rather they see faith as an active force which in itself pleases God - not because of what they receive in faith, namely Christ and all his benefits, but because of what they do by their own will. Its as if we are saved just by one work. You can't just accept Jesus as your Lord, but you have to really make Jesus your Lord, just hoist him up and then pat yourself on the back.
However, the Gospel isn't: "Make Jesus your Lord." But rather "Jesus is Lord." If we were to equate decision theology in a different context, it would be as if the black slaves had said, "I made the state set me free" after they were emancipated. But they were already declared to be free. Their freedom was something they received and it was this news that brought the freedom. Likewise, the Gospel is an accomplished fact. God has reconciled the world to himself. Even while we were still sinners and enemies Christ died for us. This is good news. In decision theology the Gospel is merely propositional, in Lutheran theology it is proclamation. And if it is proclamation it just needs to be received in faith. Faith is passive. It doesn't mean it is not our own, or that our will was overridden, but rather it means that we didn't have to do anything for it. Faith is a gift even as the word is a gift. After all, how can you have trust without the promise? But like all good gifts even faith can be rejected. The reason scripture says to have faith, is because everything has been done by the Son. Faith pleases God and justifies us not because it is something we do (although that is part of us) but because in faith itself, Christ is present with all his gifts, and he comes to us through our hearing.
As an aside, if I hear some gut wrenching story that were true, about a man wrongfully accused of murder, and then is exonerated by the court because he was framed, I would have these strong feelings and convictions of justice. I would hardly call it fickle emotions or even a decision or choice. There seems to be something deeper than both options. And yet it is still something in me that is a type of synergy. In the same way "Jesus is Lord" has the same weight to it. My faith is a strong conviction that is stirred by the Holy Spirit in a way that doesn't coerce me. But it was still brought about by God's work and proclamation, as his words are spirit and life.
When it comes to convictions of God, I don't see faith as something ruled out from children or even infants. Because I think faith is a trust and dependency on Christ. Christ said, let the children come to me. To these belong the kingdom. I think that is also how I came to Jesus. My parents brought me to Jesus and God worked in me. And I can say with scripture: "You made me trust you at my mother's breasts, on you I was cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God." Psalm 22.
God makes us trust him. This is also a gift.
I think that is why Christ said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" because children know how to be given to. That's all they have is total dependency. I think they have even greater faith than adults. In Lutheran churches we like to joke, "all baptisms here are infant baptisms, and if someone is an adult we teach them back into infancy before they are baptized"
And baptism itself is a gift because it is a promise of the Spirit that gives us a good conscience in Christ's death and resurrection, offers us the forgiveness of sins and we are sealed with God's name. But I can see where this goes against the grain of American Evangelicalism. If baptism is another law God requires of our obedience, and doesn't do anything, not a gift of the Gospel, and certainly not something that benefits you the rest of your life, I can see why it is postponed in many churches.
But at any rate, I don't feel imposed into my heavenly family any more than I felt imposed to live with my earthly family. Even if it seems like I was born into baptism, isn't it almost the same way with all churches where children are born into discipleship? Unless parents these days have stopped teaching their children... and isn't that how we make disciples, baptizing and teaching? Don't children receive these as gifts, or just one and not the other?
But I do feel blessed to have received such a gift of baptism, that I was considered a full member of the community, baptized and washed into the same church as everyone else. I was taught that Jesus is my Lord. And I believed it. I wasn't presented with a propositional Gospel where I needed to ask Jesus into my heart or else I was going to hell. And I never struggled about saying the right prayer or if I really meant it. Rather, the gospel was proclaimed as an accomplished fact for me, and that God really meant it, and I never doubted it. As a disciple I do not follow Jesus merely through the law, but into his death and resurrection.
"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God" It seems to me that grace creates faith, faith doesn't make grace. Perhaps, the way not to frame it is by faith through grace.
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