This article is written to challenge the position that baptism is merely a symbolic, post-salvation ordinance. When one looks into the Bible to ascertain God’s expectation regarding salvation- what does the data reveal? To what does the evidence point?
Argument 1: Mark 16:16 (The Mandate)
- The Text: Mark 16:16 – “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”
- The Baptist/Reformed Premise: Baptism has absolutely nothing to do with one’s salvation (i.e., belief alone saves).
- The Challenge: Then WHY did Jesus himself explicitly include baptism alongside belief as the path to salvation? The sentence is structured as a single path: Belief + Baptism = Salvation. The absence of belief alone results in condemnation, which supports the necessity of belief, but the inclusion of baptism in the saving statement is a significant and deliberate conjunction that cannot be ignored. Belief is a prerequisite to baptism and belief and baptism are prerequisite to salvation!
Argument 2: Acts 8:36-38 (The Urgency)
- The Text: Acts 8:36-38 (The Ethiopian Eunuch) – The Eunuch asks, “See, here is water. What prevents me from being baptized?… So, he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.”
- The Baptist/Reformed Premise: Baptism is merely an outward sign performed post salvation to show others a faith you already possess.
- The Challenge: Then WHY did the eunuch and Philip stop the journey and immediately perform the baptism in the middle of the wilderness? If it were a non-essential formality, it could have easily waited until they reached Jerusalem or a local church community. The urgency and immediacy of the act demands it was deemed essential to the proper completion of his conversion and reception of the Gospel.
Argument 3: Romans 6:3-4 (The Identification)
- The Text: Romans 6:3-4 – “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
- The Baptist/Reformed Premise: Salvation is solely a spiritual transaction accomplished through belief that has no necessary connection to a physical act.
- The Challenge: Then WHY does Paul define the act of being “baptized into Christ Jesus” as the mechanism through which the believer is united with Christ’s death and resurrection? Baptism is described here as the covenant act that literally places the believer into Christ, enabling them to “walk in newness of life,” which is the essence of salvation/justification.
Argument 4: Colossians 2:12-14 (The Circumcision and Forgiveness)
- The Text: Colossians 2:12-14 – “…having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses…”
- The Baptist/Reformed Premise: Baptism is simply a ritual and has no power to effect a change in one’s spiritual status or relationship with sin.
- The Challenge: Then WHY does Paul link the event of being “buried” and “raised” in baptism directly to the statement, “having forgiven us all our trespasses” and being “made alive together with him”? In this passage, baptism is the New Covenant counterpart to the “circumcision of Christ” (v. 11), marking the point where the sinner, “dead in trespasses,” is forgiven and made alive.
Argument 5: 1 Peter 3:21 (The Direct Link)
- The Text: 1 Peter 3:21 – “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
- The Baptist/Reformed Premise: Baptism is a non-essential ceremony that does not save.
- The Challenge: Then WHY does Peter state it so explicitly, using the unequivocal phrase: “Baptism… now saves you“? Peter even preempts the physical-act-only argument (“not as a removal of dirt from the body”) by explaining it is a spiritual transaction (“an appeal to God for a good conscience”) that is made effective by the power of Christ’s resurrection.
- The Clarification: Peter also clarifies who is working during the baptism. All of our Baptist/Reformed friends consistently say that baptism is a work and we aren’t saved by our works (Ephesians 2:8-10). In this passage, Peter says that baptism is the “powerful working of God” (ESV) or as often quoted (KJV) “through the faith of the operation of God.” When the Bible demands that baptism is a work of God, with what authority would one call it a work of man?
Argument 6: Galatians 3:26-27 (The Clothed Identity)
- The Text: Galatians 3:26-27 – “…for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
- The Baptist/Reformed Premise: One becomes a “son of God” solely through belief (v. 26), and baptism is irrelevant.
- The Challenge: Then WHY does Paul immediately follow up the statement about becoming a son through faith with the explanation that it is done by being “baptized into Christ” and “putting on Christ”? The act of “putting on Christ”—the essential step in adopting a new identity as a son of God—is explicitly defined here as the result of having been baptized.
The If-Then-Why structure reveals a consistent pattern in the New Testament:
- The verses link salvation, forgiveness, and new life to the action of baptism in a way that is far more integral than a mere symbolic ritual.
- These connections do not negate faith, but rather show that baptism is the divinely appointed means (the action/covenant) by which a believer’s faith is completed and united with the death and resurrection of Christ, resulting in salvation.
Nothing in this article has been written to hurt feelings or offend anyone. What one believes, teaches and obeys is of eternal importance.
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