Expert: John Fields - 3/6/2010

Question
Dear Mr. Fields. Holy salutations to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. On my above mentioned subject, there is a bit of a controversy regarding the same. When it comes to the plan of salvation the question is asked, what does one have to do in order to be saved. Many will scripturally and rightfully say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Now my question is, what about what Peter said on the day of pentecost, for this is what the early church had to obey in order to be saved when he said, 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 Holyghost. Why is it that most in christianity today do nor declare what Peter declared on the above quoted verse? The Lord bless you richly. I await your reply.

Answer
I appreciate your question and the fact that it is a VERY important question. Many of us tend to approach areas of particular study with preconceived ideas and notions. None of us is exempt from this. That said, there is NO area in which it is more important to humble ourselves and approach as empty vessels needing to be filled than God's Word. Pride goes before a fall and MANY are on their way down due to not approaching this question correctly.

What we MUST understand to properly grasp the import of this issue is that God is PERFECT and He cannot tolerate sin. He is the perfect judge who WILL punish sin. Psalm 7:11-12 (11) God is a righteous judge, And a God who has indignation every day. 12 If a man does not repent, He will sharpen His sword; He has bent His bow and made it ready. Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is DEATH. James 2:10 tells us that whoever is trying to keep law and stumbles in just ONE point is guilty of breaking the whole thing. The only way to enter into God by trying to keep law is to be PERFECT. This is IMPOSSIBLE for us! But it is NOT impossible for God. He is perfect, and Jesus manifested the perfection of God in His human form so that ONLY He could pay the penalty for sin by choosing to die a sacrificial death in our place. Because He was not paying the penalty for His own sins He was able to pay the penalty for ALL of the sins of the whole world. Colossians 1:22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach. 1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. Jesus became the embodiment of sin before God so that we could be the embodiment of righteous perfection before God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Because of what Jesus has done, the person who has biblically put their trust in God through Jesus will be under a different standard than the world. That standard is mercy through grace.

The standard the world will be judged by is according to whether or not they have kept the moral law perfectly. Since none have kept it perfectly, none in the world can be saved.

If a person is 99% moral but outside of Christ they will be lost. Stunningly, even a very worldly person who is loyal in Jesus can have ABSOLUTE confidence in their salvation. God saves those who love Him enough to come to Him as they are through faith and love. Over time, as they grow in faith and love they will not be satisfied to settle for moral laxity but will grow. Like a baby in real life, a person must be born into the family BEFORE they can learn how to act within that family. Moral understanding is grown into over time NOT natural from the beginning.

So why do so many people refuse to come on the terms that God has set? The Devil has become involved and confused people's minds on this.

Many people rightly understand that we are not saved by works and that we MUST NOT depend upon our law-keeping in order to be saved. When we are doing what we are doing in order to be saved by keeping law we are doing our works for ourselves. God wants us to serve Him in love not ourselves in selfishness. Galatians 5:4 says "You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace." That is a very clear warning of what happens when we rely upon ourselves for salvation. We have a modern proverb which says, "Jesus is my Co-pilot." A better one is "If Jesus is your Co-pilot you need to get OUT of the cockpit."

The mistake that people have made is that they have rightly understood that salvation is not by works but wrongly concluded that baptism is a work. BAPTISM IS NOT A WORK OF MAN!

In Titus 3:5 it says "He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit." The word "washing" in washing of re-generation is literally the word laver. This pictures the big bronze laver that the priests washed in prior to entering the sanctuary to perform their duties. If they went in WITHOUT washing first, they were to die! They washed themselves entirely in the water and THEN put on the white priestly garb so they could serve. So Paul is calling the baptismal pool the laver, thereby tying it to what we can learn about the laver! There is nothing EXCEPT baptism which can be compared to the laver, a pool you must wash in before you can put on white robes and keep from dying. Paul said we are saved NOT by our own work but by this "laver" or "washing" of regeneration. To be born is to be generated. To be RE-born is to be RE-generated, in other words, "born again."

In Galatians 3:27 it says "For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." Here is essentially the same thing referred to a different way. Just as the priests washed in the laver and THEN put on white robes, we are washed in baptism and JESUS clothes us with the rich white purity of Himself.

So we are shown VERY clearly that baptism is not a work of ours to earn salvation, it is the work of God to forgive us THROUGH the loving sacrifice of His Son Jesus. He forgives us, we don't forgive ourselves. That's HIS work. When a person is immersed they do NOT immerse themselves, it is the work of another.

It is absolutely wrong to think that baptism is a work of ours to save ourselves. The Bible shows it is not. We must educate those who think that baptism is a work by making them think deeply about the illogic of their position.

Is faith a work? Many will say no it is not. But according to John 6:29 faith is a work (Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." ).Can anyone else believe in my place as to belief that Jesus is the Son of God? No, I must believe for myself, it is a work of mine to love God not a work I do to serve myself. Can anyone else repent for me or confess Jesus for me? No, I must personally do these things. Do I baptize myself? As stated, I do not baptize myself. It is GOD'S work to save me not my work to save myself, just as Titus 3:5 says.

Finally, consider the so called "sinner's prayer". If it is a prayer to God for salvation that saves me, can anyone else offer that prayer for me? No, I would need to offer that prayer on my own. Prayer is a work you do compared to baptism which is NOT a work you do. So how can a work of prayer done to receive salvation be said not to be a work while at the same time a work that is done TO ME can be referred to as a work I DO to be saved. It makes no sense. Welcome to what the Devil does. He takes people's good intentions and wraps them all up in some false ideas and tells lies that get told and retold over time so that they are believed intensely and un-biblically.

The way to fix this is to approach people humbly and lovingly with the truth and let them see that what they are saying about baptism, that it is not needed for salvation, is untrue. As 1 Peter 3:21 says, we are saved when we are baptized. I hope this helps.