BAPTISM & SALVATION

BAPTISM & SALVATION?

            Some say that the two are necessary for one to be saved while others proclaim that would be a work necessary for salvation. Scripture says that salvation has no works by man involved lest they should boast after their arrival into His Kingdom.

            Those that make this a necessity use Mark 16:16 as their foundation where it says: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” While they focus on the underlined portion of the first part of the verse, they neglect to recognize the last half of the verse which is important for the context. The context of this verse is not giving baptism as a condition for salvation because the person in the last half of the verse could be baptized and lost. Therefore baptism is seen here as a response to belief not as a cause.

            When I accepted what Christ had done for me personally and asked for forgiveness I was saved and I immediately sensed that I was. My life up to that point had been a wandering looking for meaning for my life and after several failing attempts to find that meaning and after injuring several that I loved, I found that meaning and purpose.

            The first purpose was to tell others what had transpired and Who was involved in that work that brought me to the Savior Jesus Christ. It involved a preacher using scripture. And now I see it took the Father drawing, the Son voluntarily dying in my place and the Holy Spirit enlightening me to that work of salvation for me. That is a trinity of Persons working towards my entering the Kingdom of God. The appropriate symbol for that work is baptism by triune immersion commanded in Matt. 28:18-20. That was my first work as a saved man commanded by the King of that Kingdom that I shall rule and reign with. I fought His love and replaced it by my definition which hurt those that I supposedly did love.

            The works came after salvation not before as Paul taught me in Eph. 2:9 “Not of works, lest any man should boast.” But of Him which called me “(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth.)”

            They also use Acts 2:38 where it says “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” The context shows that baptism is in respect to, or because of, the remission of sins. For would better be translated “because.” Then this verse does not go in contention with Paul’s statement in Eph. 2:9. Scripture does not fight scripture. It agrees with other scripture.