Expert: Ernie Laurence, Jr. - 8/18/2011

Question
Hello, I have friend, a baptist, he is quite knowledgeable on defending faith only. We have many discussions in school that pertain to the necessity of baptism to salvation. I have presented him various passages that presents the order of salvation.

To demonstrate:

Mark 16:16-(1) Belief, (2) Baptism, (3) Salvation.
b. Acts 2:38-(1) Repent, (2) Baptized, (3) Remission of sins.
c. Acts 22:16-(1) Arise, (2) Baptized, (3) Wash away sins.
d. Galatians 3:27-(1) Baptized, (2) Into Christ.
e. I Pet. 3:21-(1) Baptism, (2) Saves.

Here's his response:

The Order of Salvation, that my friend presents is based on a faulty understanding of Greek Grammar. He presents several passages in which an apparent sequence is given. However, this is not the case. In Greek, there are several grammatical differences from English. The primary difference is that Greek is not bound by a certian word order. That is to say that in Greek the sentence "Store to I wen tto get juicy oranges many" is identical to "I went to the store to get many juicy oranges." They convey the same meaning, regardless of the word order. That means that the passages in question very easily could have been written in a different order and meant the same thing. Acts 2:38 could have been translated "Remission of sin, Belief, Baptism" or "Baptism, Belief, Salvation" and still meant the same thing. The implication that this has is that the order of words does not necessarily indicate sequencing unless specific temporal sequences (typically then) is used. So the point falls apart because it is entirely based on sequencing that he eroneously read into the text. In addition, He friend asks "Is it not strange that the Holy Spirit never one time had these in the right order?" My response is to point at the four examples presented in my first round in which Baptism is not a part of the equation at all. The order that is presented in those four examples is "Faith" leading to "Saved" which then leads often to "Go and sin no more (be obedient)."

Answer
Hey Dan,

Thanks for the question.  Your friends assertion on the Greek structure is not the whole picture.  Greek word order is relaxed to some degree, but the word endings are more important.  These endings are called the morphology of the words and they are critical.  But this is at best a tangential point.

The true issue is that each step in the path to salvation is a logical progression.  For instance, Romans 10:17 states that faith comes by hearing the Word of God.  So hearing the Word logically precedes believing it.  Believing then logically precedes other actions because no one acts unless they believe there is at least some possibility of achieving the desired outcome.  Romans 10:9-10 is powerful because it says that belief is unto righteousness.  Verse 14 (and even 9-17 entire) addresses this logical progression.  How can a man call on the Lord (which is a specific phrase with a specific meaning, but ultimately is a reference to the point of salvation) if He does not believe?  Note that logically Paul places calling on the name of the Lord (which is the point one is saved, whatever calling on the name of the Lord means) after belief.  For those who teach Faith only, they imply that salvation comes before calling on the name of the Lord and since Paul was told in Acts 22:16 to wash away his sins calling on the name of the Lord, then they logically imply that salvation comes before having your sins washed away!

They must address the topic of salvation in the way they have because if they approach it conceptually (in other words, what does the Bible say about each of those steps to salvation rather than what "order" are they presented in any given sentence) it is devastating to their case.  Faith must follow hearing.  Confession of faith must follow faith.  Belief, confession, and repentance are all to salvation (Romans 10:10; 2 Cor. 7:10).  Therefore salvation comes after all of these others.

Most importantly is how immersion is described in the NT.  It is the point we die to the old man and rise up as the new creation (Rom. 6:3-5).  It is the point we are born again and enter the kingdom, the church (John 3:3,5).  It is when we obey from the heart that pattern of doctrine that we are made free from sin (Rom. 6:16-18), yielding ourselves to Christ through obedience.  It is immersion that doth also now save us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 3:21) as an antitype of the Flood that destroyed the wickedness in the world and saved Noah and his family from that wickedness by a type of new Creation (1 Pet. 3:20).  In every place, immersion is the pivotal point, the point of transition.  According to 1 John 5:6,8, it is at the point of water immersion that we contact the blood.

Once a person is immersed, then you teach them the rest and they are to go and sin no more (Matt. 28:19-20).

Focusing on word order in a sentence is a distraction, a smoke and mirrors tactic to draw discussion away from the logical process of redemption through understanding the concepts.

In Truth and Love,
Ernie