Expert: Hoyt Roberson - 2/22/2011

Question
My son is being baptized this Sunday and i was going over a couple of verses with him on why baptism is needed for salvation.  His father and I are divorced and his dad believes you are saved by faith and thought our son was going to baptized in his church some other time. It really caused a heated debate tonight!!!!! I know all the verses used on both sides and the debate on both sides but how do we try to integrate these verses to see if they maybe meet in the middle somewhere.  Are they really just black and white?

Answer
Cindy,

My first observation is, if your husband accepts faith only, then he must believe your son to already be saved. In that case, what difference does it make to him if your son is baptized?

But that's not what you asked. The question about whether we are saved by grace, faith, repentance or baptism depends on where we come into the discussion. In one aspect, we are only saved by grace - and this is where the "not by your own works" really comes in. If God had not decided to accept humankind back, we wouldn't have a prayer.

On the other hand, Paul's statement about "faith, not by works" requires an understanding of what he was arguing. In context, Paul is arguing that Jews don't have a leg up just because they have the Law and keep it. In fact, Paul says that even Jews who keep the Law are saved by both grace and faith. But they must have faith because we have moved past the grace entry point. And so we must understand what Paul was saying.

Paul though goes on and assumes his readers/hearers have been baptized (see Romans 6), and the baptism of the disciples of John, Paul runs across in Ephesus (Acts 19). It is instructive that Paul, the author of Romans, has these folks baptized. It is clear that baptism was de riguer for even those met by the Apostle of Faith.

What do we have then? For the sake of argument, let's say John's disciples in Ephesus were saved (they're called disciples) already. Paul still has them baptized.

Baptism, at its heart, is an expression of one's faith in God and Jesus as His Son. How it saves you we don't know. We do know that baptism is depicted as a regular activity in the New Testament of those who believe, and is spoken of as "normal" by both Paul and Peter.

Jesus' reason for being baptized was "to fulfill all righteousness." If that's the case, perhaps His followers could be baptized for the same reason.

Again, if your son is already saved, being baptized to fulfill all righteousness and in imitation of what Paul and Peter expected of their disciples seems to be reasonable.

Are we saved by grace? Yes.
Are we saved by faith? Yes.
Are we saved by repentance? Yes. (didn't discuss that one, but I don't know of any denomination that suggests people are saved without it)
Are we saved by baptism? Yes.

In the first century, faith, repentance, and baptism all ran together; there really was no understanding of them as separate "parts" that could be picked and chosen as we wanted. If someone had faith, they decided to follow God (repented) and then were baptized as a cleansing and public declaration.

The question would be, "Why wouldn't you be baptized?" If the response is "Because someone's trying to make me," I suggest that is somewhat of a defensive and reactive reason.

You didn't ask this question, but I feel compelled to address this. "Salvation" is more than a point in time event. "Being saved" is an ongoing life in God and it is this life into which we are ushered when we are baptized. This life is intended to be an ongoing maturing. This is the transformation that Paul speaks of - a growing into the very character and life of God.

We are not "saved," and then just do whatever we want. We decide to follow God, and then live into that decision.

Blessings to you, your ex, and your son.