Expert: Dr Don Howe - 3/7/2011

Question
baptists say that we are saved by grace through faith, right, and not by works then why did God include baptism as a part of salvation, is believing the only step to salvation. isn't believing doing a work?

Answer

    Dan, thank you for your question. Good question. But the Bible does not say we are saved by baptism. We are saved by faith, and baptism is just an ordinance of the church in which a person is publicly showing they have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Baptism is not part of Salvation but accepting Jesus as Savior is required.  

  Baptism is an ordinance of the church and that is all. But if you start putting stipulations that baptism is necessary for salvation and this is work salvation, and that is not biblical. Many religions like put the burden of works salvation on the members just to say that you have to do other things other than believing to be saved. The Catholic Church is just one example. If man has to do other things to be saved, then the Jesus dying on the Cross was not enough to be saved.

  A “work” is something we have to do to gain something. Salvation is something we receive as a free gift not as a work. There is nothing we “do” as Jesus did it all on the Cross. The Greek word to believe is pisteuō which means to have confidence in. So we have confidence in that Jesus Christ is Lord and Our Savior.

  Then one may ask “what is the reason baptism is not necessary for salvation?” It is because we are justified by faith (Rom. 5:1; Eph. 2:8), not by faith and a ceremony (Rom. 4:1-11). You see, a religious ceremony is a set of activities or forms peformed by someone. In the Bible circumcision was a ceremony where one person performed a religious rite on another person. Likewise, baptism is also a ceremony where one person performs a religious rite on another person. But, we are saved by faith alone and anything else we do, including ceremonies, will not help.

  If we are saved by faith, then we are saved by faith when we believe, not when we get baptized, otherwise we are not saved by faith. Furthermore, if baptism is necessary for salvation then anyone who receives Christ on his deathbed in a hospital and who also believes Jesus is God in the flesh, who died and rose from the dead for his sins, etc., would go to hell if he doesn't get baptized before he died. This would mean that we were not justified by faith because if we were, then the person would be saved. Also, if baptism is necessary for salvation, then all babies who die go to hell since they weren't baptized. Remember, when someone says that baptism is necessary, there can be no exceptions -- otherwise it isn't necessary

  So baptism is just  a ceremony that represents an outward representation of an inward reality. When we add anything to baptism then it becomes a form of work. Believing is a gift.

  Blessings,

Dr Don Howe, RN, PhD, ThD