Baptism, the Bible Way
Baptism came up in the comments to a few of my recent posts, prompting me to put down on paper what I believe about baptism. Back when I was becoming a sacramentalist, I took out a Bible and a piece of paper and wrote down everything I could find in the Bible about baptism, and fortunately I still have the paper. This is what I found, organized and commented..
Baptism is part of salvation
Mark 16:16
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
John 3:5
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Matt 28:19
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
Titus 3:5
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.
1 Pet 3:21
And corresponding to that, baptism now saves you– not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience– through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The last verse is the key. I’ll assert right alongside Peter that baptism saves is. However, baptism doesn’t save us merely as an arbitrary initiation ritual or as a physical cleansing. Rather the specific blessings of the New Covenant are bestowed on us in baptism. Baptism is the appeal to God for a good conscience which saves us–not a private decision, the sinner’s prayer, or an instantaneous act of regeneration. The next two sections will deal with this point.
Baptism washes us from our sins
Acts 2:38
And Peter said to them, “Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 22:16
‘And now why do you delay? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.’
Heb 10:22
…let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Eph 5:26
…that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.
The scriptural writers clearly talk about baptism as being the moment when we receive the forgiveness of sins promised to us by the Gospel. In this respect they agree with all of the early church writers; indeed, all writers in the church everywhere up until after the Protestant Reformation.
Baptism unites us with Christ and bestows on us the Holy Spirit
Rom 6:3-4
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Col 2:12
…having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
Gal 3:27
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
Acts 2:38
And Peter said to them, “Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
1 Cor 12:13
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
We are united with Christ in his death and resurrection through baptism; and as a result we are filled with the Holy Spirit, one of the promises of God. Baptism is the circumcision without hands that is the new mark of the Covenant. Once again, many Protestants want to ascribe these actions to an act of faith, a prayer, or some other unbiblical ceremony. But the Bible is clear–baptism is the means by which we are brought into the Body of Christ and enjoy all of the benefits thereof.
Conclusions and Concessions
I’ll do this part in a question-and-answer format.
Q: Does this mean that you have to be baptized to be saved?
A: It means that baptism is a part of salvation, like I said above. Preaching salvation without baptism is not preaching the whole Gospel.
Q: But didn’t Paul also say “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved” (Rom. 10:9)?
A: He sure did. This center of salvation is faith and confession, and baptism should not be considered apart from these things. Baptism is not something additional to faith, but rather is the means by which we obtain the promises of God in faith. There is no contradition between saying that baptism saves and faith saves. Faith is made real in baptism.
Q: So I’ll ask again, if somebody does unbaptized, will they go to Heaven?
A: Don’t you know yet that “going to Heaven” is a gross oversimplification of what salvation means? But I’ll answer the question anyway: it depends. In the Bible we have only one example of someone saved without baptism: the thief of the cross, and this was pretty clearly an exceptional case. After all, the command to baptize wasn’t even given until after the resurrection. The other near-example is the household of Cornelius, which is filled with the Holy Spirit before being baptized. This was also an exceptional case, because God needed to do something dramatic to prove to the Apostles that Gentiles were just as much a part of the Church as Jews. Note that even they were baptized straightaway afterwards.
From this we conclude that baptism is not optional–it is the normative, required element of faith. However, we don’t want to rob God of His sovereignty. God may choose to save people apart from baptism as part of His will, but we can’t count on such a thing. Telling people that they are saved because of a personal decision or particular prayer is unbiblical.
Q: So do you mean that I wasn’t saved when I prayed that prayer?
A: You certainly weren’t joined with the body of Christ, cleansed of your sins, and filled with the Holy Spirit then. That doesn’t mean that nothing happened, though. It’s quite possible that God began to work in you at some point before your baptism. After all, no one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws them (John 6:65), and the drawing of the Spirit can be felt and produce evidence in a person’s life before baptism. In fact, a personal decision for Christ may be valid as just that–an individual committment. There’s more to Christianity than having an individual committment, though.
Q: What about babies?
A: Babies are cute and I hope to have one someday.
Q: Yeah, but should we baptize them?
A: I don’t know. This is a complicated question that calls in our theology of baptism, sin, faith, covenant, and more. I can’t give a short answer here.
February 20th, 2005 at 4:16 pm
Thanks for the info. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do myself. I think a point is that this can be preached to the believer as a source of hope. When is the last time an evangelical preacher preached, “you’ve been baptized into Christ” as an appeal to dealing with sin. In 20 plus years I never heard it and was left to look at my experience to measure myself. You wrote “becoming a sacramentalist”… maybe that’s what’s happening with me!!!
February 20th, 2005 at 6:04 pm
Very interesting. I think I’ll send this to my dad and talk it over with him.
February 20th, 2005 at 10:08 pm
As tinde sa spun ca e ok botezarea copiilor mici, dar cred ca Dumnezeu asa a randuit ca fiecare sa dea socoteala de faptele sale. Ai vreun argument din Vechiul Testament in care spune ca micutii au fost botezati? Eu nu-mi aduc aminte decat de Numeri 6 in care se vorbeste de binecuvantarea copiilor mici. Eu cred ca acesti micuti trebuie sa ajunga la o convingere a lor si pe urma ei au dreptul de a decide ce vor sa faca, chiar daca parintii nu sunt de acord cu ei! E bine sa incredintam copii nostri in mana lui Dumnezeu, dar nu cred ca ar fi corect sa-i botezam! “Cine va crede si se va boteza va fi mantuit!”
February 21st, 2005 at 5:12 pm
Irresistible Baptism
Perhaps the intent is being lost on me due to my own emphasis on the matter, but it looks like the views presented here come dangerously close to the view that baptism saves ex opere operato rather than its saving efficacy being…