When looking at baptism, covenantal Reformed types who embrace paedobaptism often employ an argument that ties the covenantal sign of Circumcision to the Covenantal sign of Baptism.
The argument goes something like this:
Covenantal Theological Support
- Abraham was circumcised as a sign of his faith-before-circumcision: Romans 4:11
- The Church is the true Israel (Romans 9:6-8), the Israel from above (Gal. 4:26)
- The Church doesn’t replace Israel, it moves it forward (Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25)
- The Church consists then of the true expected sons of Abraham (Rom 4:16; Gal. 3:7, 15-17)
- So the Church gets circumcised (Col. 2:11) in the sign of faith-before-works which is baptism (Colossians 2:11-12 )