Baptism Necessary for Salvation?

Revealed Apologetics

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In this video, I want to address the question of baptism. Is baptism necessary for salvation?

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And we're doing the old fashioned way. I got my Bible here and usually I have everything up on the screen, but we're gonna do the old school.

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Just have the Bible right here in front of me and hopefully we can get this done in an orderly way that I'm not gonna be flipping through things and being awkward about it.

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So just bear with me. So is baptism necessary for salvation? When we ask the question, if something's necessary, what we're saying is that whatever the thing we're asking about is necessary, that means it is without exception.

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So if we find one exception in which someone is saved without being baptized and we put that issue in proper context, then the question really is sufficiently answered.

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But be that as it may, there are various scriptures that people use to promote this idea, which

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I think is false. It is a heretical idea. Baptism doesn't save.

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Now to provide a very basic, quick response, and then we'll kind of go into a little bit more detail.

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There are a couple of scriptures, two of which, for example, are used to support this idea. 1

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Peter 3, verse 21, which we'll look at and Acts 2, verse 38, where it says, what must we do to be saved?

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And the response there is repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. Okay, now, of course, just in short,

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I mean, this is really why it's very important that we kind of have a full grasp on our broader theology. In Romans chapter five, verse one, in Ephesians chapter two, verse eight, and other portions of scripture, it is clearly taught that we are saved by faith and not by what we do.

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For example, Romans 4, five, one of my favorite passages in Romans there. Romans 4, five says, but to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

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So if you have faith and works, Paul says, but to the one who does not work.

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So you remove work and what do you have left? You have faith. Faith is left there alone. I would argue that that's actually a good scripture to use when discussing the issue of salvation by faith alone.

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We are justified by faith. We are made right before God by faith, not by what we do.

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We are not saved by a ceremony. A ceremony is a set of activities or rituals that are performed by one person upon another within a religious context.

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So for example, a wedding would be a ceremony. Circumcision would be a ceremony. And of course, baptism would be a ceremony.

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And in Romans chapter four, verses one through 11, the idea of circumcision is brought up there.

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And we learned that Abraham was not justified by circumcision. He was justified by faith, right?

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But to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

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It is the righteousness that is accredited to Abraham because of his faith.

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And that's actually prior to circumcision, okay? Now think about this. If we're saved by faith then, then we're saved when we believe, not when we're baptized, okay?

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If we're saved by baptism, then we would be saved when we are baptized. And that's clearly not the case.

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And what we have interesting, I think, in first Corinthians chapter one, verses 14 through 17, especially verse 17 there.

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Paul, speaking of baptism, he says, look, listen, Christ did not send me to baptize, okay?

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Well, we need to ask the question, well, why not? If Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles and he's bringing the gospel of salvation to the

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Gentiles, why is he almost downplaying this issue of baptism? I think that's a fair question to ask.

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Now, I'm not saying that Paul downplays baptism in a general sense.

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Baptism is very, very important. But within a soteriological context, it seems to me that he's saying, hey, look,

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Christ sent me to preach the gospel, not to baptize, right? So I think that's an interesting kind of point to think about.

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Now, we also have in scripture instances where people are saved prior to being baptized.

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So if that baptism is necessary for salvation or we are saved at baptism, that stands refuted when you have instances of people saved prior to baptism.

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Consider Acts chapter 10, verse 44 through 48. Let me read the passage here. Acts chapter 10, verse 44 through 48.

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It says, while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came down on all those who heard the message.

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The circumcised believers who had come with Peter and were amazed because of the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even upon the

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Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and declaring the greatness of God. Then Peter responded, check this out, can anyone withhold water and prevent these people from being baptized who have received, okay, past tense, the

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Holy Spirit, just as we have. He commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

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Now notice what's happening in this passage. The Spirit of God is coming upon the Gentiles, okay, and they are speaking in tongues.

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Now, interestingly enough, the gift of tongues, the gift of the Spirit is given to believers according to, let's see here, 1

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Corinthians chapter 14, verses one through five, okay? So you can have people who are not saved speaking in tongues legitimately, right?

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So this gift is being exercised and manifested in these Gentile believers prior to their baptism.

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So again, suppose one of these people got hit by a camel on their way to be baptized.

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Are they not saved because they weren't baptized? Well, of course not, okay? The Spirit's gifts manifest themselves in believers who are indwelt by the

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Holy Spirit. So I think Acts chapter 10, verses 44 through 48 is a good, a counterexample of this idea that we are saved at baptism and that baptism is necessary, okay?

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Now, what about 1 Peter chapter three, verse 21? We'll spend a little bit more time here, okay?

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Let's read it real quick. 1 Peter chapter three, verse 21 says the following, baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscious towards God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him, okay?

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So 1 Peter chapter three, verse 21 in the NASB, it says, and corresponding to that, baptism now saves you.

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Now, the key word there is correspond, okay? In the Greek, there is antitupon, and antitupon can refer to a copy, the type of a thing that resembles another.

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It can be kind of a counterpart of something else. And so baptism corresponds to something according to this passage.

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Well, what does it correspond to? Well, let's continue to read verse 20, chapter three, verse 20.

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It says, who in the past were disobedient when God patiently waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared?

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In it, a few, that is eight people, were saved through water, okay? Now, baptism corresponds to something here.

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Does it correspond to the water or does it correspond to the ark? Now, some people think that it corresponds to the ark because the water didn't save Noah.

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As a matter of fact, it was the water that destroyed everything, right? This is the water is what brought the judgment, okay?

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So some people think it's the ark, some people think it's the water. I actually think it's referring to the water, but it's that very fact that it's pointing to the water that demonstrates that that which baptism corresponds to is not salvific.

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Because if baptism corresponds to the water and the analogy that baptism is supposed to be corresponding to is the water during the times of Noah, you have the

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Noah context there, the water didn't save Noah, the ark did.

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So the correspondence of baptism with the water can't be salvific, especially here, Peter says, he says, baptism which corresponds to this now saves you not as the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscious towards God.

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So this is not speaking of the fact that baptism literally saves you. I mean, the sort of baptism here, if we can kind of say the world was baptized, you had a removal in the times of Noah of evil and Noah passes through this baptism and enters into new life, okay?

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And it's in reference here to having a good conscious towards God. It seems to be talking about faith. What is real baptism?

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Real baptism is a baptism that is done as an act of faith. It is the fruit of a faith that is there, which of course the

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Bible says is also granted by God, right? So faith is granted by God, Ephesians chapter two verses five through eight and Philippians 129.

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So does baptism save? No. Do the scriptures that are often marshaled to support this idea demonstrate that baptism is necessary for salvation?

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No, okay? Now a more comprehensive study can be done here, but just to kind of give you some food for thought and to keep this video somewhat short,

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I believe that the Bible clearly teaches that we are saved by faith and not a ceremony.

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We're saved by faith and not works that we do. And this is very important, especially within the context of evangelism and apologetics.

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What we are offering the world is the gospel of grace. It is this idea that God has demonstrated his love by sending his son and he, in Christ, is reconciling men to their maker, right?

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And we are saved and reconciled not by what we do. This is the earmark of all false religions, all of the religions of the world try to construct a system of salvation in which the works of the individual is what makes one right with God.

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And that is not what the Bible teaches. So apologetically, we should go out of our way to demonstrate that salvation is by grace through faith alone in Christ alone, and not by the things that we do.

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As the famous saying goes, I don't remember the reference here, but the famous saying goes that we bring nothing to salvation except the sin that made it necessary.

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And so we are saved completely and solely by God's grace. That is the powerful gospel message and it has great apologetic and evangelistic import as well.

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And so we should make sure that we discuss these issues, not just with the atheist and the agnostic and the skeptic, but also with these other religious systems that are either cults or distortions of Christianity in this specific area, teaching that salvation is by faith and fill in the blank, baptism or whatever the case may be.

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So I hope this is helpful and hopefully provides kind of a foundation to kind of dig into this a little bit deeper.

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Folks who hold to this position often bring a whole host of scriptures and we need to be ready to respond to them.