Baptism

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I have recently ‘Liked’ the Jesus my Lord Facebook page.  The first post which appeared on my Facebook wall was a quote from Mark’s gospel chapter 16 verse 16, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

It was interesting reading some of the responses to these words from Jesus.  One of which was from a Facebook user Natalie Sneddon, who directly contradicts Jesus with her comment, yet summed up the feelings of many of the other people commenting – “You do NOT have to be baptised to be saved and accepted into heaven.  Once you find God and let him into your heart and life, you are saved!”

“Is baptism required for salvation?” is a big question for many people.  I hope to answer this in the blog entry.

Firstly, let us start with this scripture.  Jesus tells us that we must believe and be baptised to be saved.  The meaning is fairly clear.  However, many bibles will point out that this scripture does not appear in the earliest manuscripts which have and therefore there is some question about the reliability of this quote.  Let us then look at other scriptures to see if this verse is consistent with the rest of the Bible.

Let us look at the point when Jesus ascended into heaven.  These are the last words Jesus spoke to his disciples while he was on earth.  Final words are generally important and are met to have a lasting impact.  This is how Matthew records them in Matthew 28:18-20:

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Jesus gives three commands:

1. Go and make disciples
2. Baptism these new disciples
3. Teach them to obey everything he taught his own disciples

Baptism is in the top three of Jesus’ final commands.  Wow!  It must be important.

It is interesting to note the things that Jesus missed out of these final words.  No explicit mention of helping the poor, going to church, showing justice and mercy or loving your neighbour (although all these are implied by the third command).

The Early Church

The Christian started on the day of pentecost.  What was the early church’s view on baptism?

The apostle Peter ends his speech on this day with the following words (Acts 2:38-41):

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

Peter tells the crowd to first repent and then get baptised to receive the promise of forgiveness of sins and the gift of the holy spirit.  3,000 accepted this message and became Christians.   Luke, who wrote the book of acts, distinguishes those who accepted the message from those who did not by baptism.

This pattern of belief, repentance and baptism is repeated throughout the book of Acts (the book where we most people become Christians).

• The Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:36-38) - As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?”  And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.  
• The first gentile convert, Cornelius (Acts 10:47-48) - Then Peter said, “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.”  So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days. 
• Lydia’s conversion (Acts 16:14-15) - One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.  When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.
• The jailer and his household (Acts 16:30-33) –  He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”  Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized.
• The apostle Paul, formally Saul (Acts 22:15-16) - You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard.  And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’

Baptism in the Letters

There are many references to baptism in the letters.  Romans 6:3-7 reads

Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—  because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

Paul here makes the link between baptism and Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection.  The expectation is that all Christians partake in baptism, it is not optional.

The Old Testament

The Old Testament points time and again to towards God’s plan in the New Testament.  Jonah in the belly of the fish for three days and the bronze snake on top of a pole in the time of Moses are both a foreshadow of the Cross of Christ.  The first passover points us towards Jesus as the pure passover lamb of God with his blood staining the cross rather than the Israelites’ door posts.

Salvation in the Old Testament is also a foreshadow of salvation in the New Testament.

In 1 Corinthians 10:1-2 the apostle Paul writes:

For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea.  They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

Paul directly relates the salvation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt to freedom by passing through the Red Sea to baptism (cf. Romans 6).  The waters of the Red Sea were essential to the salvation of the Israelites.  Of course, it had to be accompanied with faith in their God, the others who passed through the water without faith were not saved (ie. the Egyptians pursuing the Israelites).

Common objections against baptism for salvation

1. What about the thief on the Cross?
   The thief was saved by Jesus as they both died on the Cross.
   This was a different time.  Jesus had not yet died, been buried or risen to a new life at this time, so the salvation process described in Romans 6 cannot apply here.  We however, live in a time after Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection, so we do need to believe, repent and be baptised  to be saved.
2. We are saved by faith alone or by grace alone
   Both can’t be true.  Faith and grace are very different things.
   Grace is what God gives us.  We cannot change the grace of God or how it is given.  But we can choose to accept it or not.
   Faith is ours.  It is our belief.  God does not have faith.  In heaven we will not have faith, it will be sight.  Until such a time, we have faith.
   Salvation happens at the point when grace and faith meet.  When we accept God’s grace through our faith and obediently get baptised in his name – Colossians 2:11-12In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.An illustration to highlight this:  I could tell you that there is a cheque for $10,000,000 with your name on it waiting at the top of the Empire State Building in New York.  All you have to do is collect it, and it is yours to keep.  It takes faith to make your way to New York and accept the gift.  Have you earned it? No, not at all.  If you believe the cheque is there, but don’t collect it, will you be $10,000,000 better off?  No, the cheque will remain with your name on it, but you will not have it.  Likewise, we do not earn our salvation by being obedient to God and repenting and getting baptised.  But, by faithful obedience, we accept the gift of salvation which God gives by his grace.
3. Baptism is just a symbol and not essential
   The only scripture to baptism and symbolism together is 1 Peter 3:19-21
   
   After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves youalso—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus ChristHowever, it doesn’t say that baptism is a symbol, but that water of Noah and the flood symbolise baptism.  Like the Israelites and the Egyptians, those saved on the Ark were separated from those who died by water.  Both of these are foreshadows of the waters of baptism in the name of Jesus.

Conclusion

Is salvation essential?  Remember what Jesus says in Mark 16:16 “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved”.  Many people will still disagree with Jesus on this, but on the judgement day, it is his word we will be judged against.

John 12:47-49 “If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.  There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day. For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken.

I accept that people can be sincerely wrong.  But once they have been shown the truth they have a choice.  They can either be sincere or be wrong, to be sincerely wrong is no longer an option.

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