Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.
One way of looking at it is to say, “See, unbelief is the only thing this passage says condemns a man.” This is true, but it does not take into account the whole sentence. To borrow an analogy from Dave Armstrong, consider this:
1) One must come in 1st place.2) One must be free of any performance enhancing drugs.
(Of course, there may be other criteria not mentioned here that could possibly prevent one from receiving a gold medal, but we know for sure that these two are necessary.)
Jesus answered, “Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.”
In opposition to those who say that by “born of water and spirit” Jesus is referring to baptism, some people say that that the “water” part merely refers to our natural birth. They claim that such an interpretation would contradict the Bible, which they believe clearly advocates “faith alone“. I don’t believe that we are saved by faith alone simply because I don’t believe the holy Spirit would inspire the only passage in the bible where faith and alone are together to say “See how a person is justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:24 emphasis added) if the truth were the complete opposite. Apart from that, it seems odd to me that Jesus would tell people who have already been naturally born that they must be naturally born. Jesus often shows much more insight than that when talking to specific individuals, knowing exactly what they lack, and addressing them along those lines (e.g. Matthew 19:16-22, John 4:7-19).
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other apostles, “What are we to do, my brothers?” Peter [said] to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit. For the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call.”
This passage takes place right after Pentecost. Peter had just preached the gospel to the crowd there, and the passage says they “were cut to the heart”, and they asked “What are we to do, my brothers?” It seems evident to me from their response that these people believed and accepted the gospel. Yet, similar (in it’s twofold command) to the passage in Mark above, Peter responds: “Repent and be baptized”… for the forgiveness of your sins”. The Bible Knowledge Commentary, on this passage, suggests that “a problem revolves around the command ‘be baptized’ and its connection with the remainder of 2:38.” Their objection to the view that both baptism and repentance result in the forgiveness of sins (the more natural reading) is solely based on the belief that other parts of scripture base forgiveness on “faith alone”. Of course, none of their cited passages contain “faith alone”, and, as I mentioned earlier, the one place in scripture where “faith alone” occurs would not suit their objection. Let’s look at this passage without the word “baptism” it it at all:
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other apostles, “What are we to do, my brothers?” Peter [said] to them, “Repent, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit. For the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call.”
Taking the word “baptism” out of this passage, to me, clearly shows its connection with forgiveness. The phrase “in the name of” is either connected with repentance or baptism (or , as I believe is the case, both); so what sense does make to repent “in the name of” when Jesus specifically commanded to baptize in the name of the Father, the son and the holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). The passage is quite clear that whatever is done “in the name of Jesus Christ” is done for the forgiveness of sins–”for the promise is made to you and your children and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call.”
So Ananias went and entered the house; laying his hands on him, he said, “Saul, my brother, the Lord has sent me, Jesus who appeared to you on the way by which you came, that you may regain your sight and be filled with the holy Spirit.” Immediately things like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. He got up and was baptized, and when he had eaten, he recovered his strength.
“A certain Ananias, a devout observer of the law, and highly spoken of by all the Jews who lived there,came to me and stood there and said, ‘Saul, my brother, regain your sight.’ And at that very moment I regained my sight and saw him.Then he said, ‘The God of our ancestors designated you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear the sound of his voice;for you will be his witness before all to what you have seen and heard. Now, why delay? Get up and have yourself baptized and your sins washed away, calling upon his name.’
This account is a little different than the first, saying that at his baptism, his sins were forgiven. Objectors to this interpretation claim that the phrase “sins washed away” is only referring to a symbolism of when he was “saved” when he believed in the Lord ( there is evidence that Paul already believed before his encounter with Ananias [Acts 22:10]). I see no evidence that this is so. This account more clearly shows the urgency in which baptism held. “Now, why delay?” Paul had not eaten or drank anything for three days! It makes sense that he was baptized first because supernatural life is more important than natural life. Of course baptism is symbolic in several ways–but it is not only symbolic, as this passage shows.
Romans 6:3-4
Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.
The Church is Christ’s body. If we were baptized into Christ Jesus, we were also baptized into the Church. It says that in being baptized into Him, we were baptized into his death–buried with Him–through which we are also born again in Him. Simply put, this passage is saying that we must die with Christ to be born again, and that it is God’s will to do this instrumentally through baptism.
1 Corinthians 12:12-13
As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.
This passage shows more clearly the theme of Christ’s body as the Church–how we are all individual members of Christ’s body, yet we are one body–which may be a deeper statement than first appears. Baptism is given as a sort of proof or reason for this, since “in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” Those who hold that baptism is merely symbolic claim that baptism in this passage is not baptism in water, but a “baptism of the spirit.” I find this implausible since, earlier on in this same letter, Paul’s reference to baptism is unmistakably water baptism:
1 Corinthians 1:13-15
“Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?I give thanks (to God) that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,so that no one can say you were baptized in my name.”
In fact, both passages are addressing the same theme–unity. In both passages, Paul urges the unity of the body of Christ with baptism, which is clearly referring to water baptism since Paul talks about how he is thankful that he didn’t baptize many of them.
1 Peter 3:18-22
For Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God. Put to death in the flesh, he was brought to life in the spirit.In it he also went to preach to the spirits in prison,who had once been disobedient while God patiently waited in the days of Noah during the building of the ark, in which a few persons, eight in all, were saved through water.This prefigured baptism, which saves you now. It is not a removal of dirt from the body but an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.
I don’t think it gets much clearer than 1 Peter 2:21 that baptism is not merely symbolic. Peter says “This [the great flood of Noah] prefigured baptism, which saves you now.” He has to be referring to water baptism because he says that the Flood prefigures baptism. In the flood, Noah was “saved through water”; as is the same in baptism–that’s what they have in common!
A Few More Things
One thing that those who object to baptismal regeneration argue concerns the thief on the cross. They argue that he was saved without water baptism. I think the important thing to address concerning this type of argument is the nature of the necessity of baptism. For instance, those who argue this would hold that faith is the only necessity for salvation. Yet do they condemn infants or the mentally handicapped who do not believe because they have no capacity to believe? Of course not, they simply pray for God’s mercy! It seems (to me) to be self evident that the only ones required to believe are those who have such an ability. All of the miracles of Jesus and the prophets show how things that are definitely considered necessity (such as both a human mother and father to conceive a child) can have exceptions (the virgin birth). Not that such exceptions are common, by any means. Other exceptions given are examples of people receiving the holy Spirit at times other than baptism, but this kind of argument neglects the fact that there are quite a few examples people, such as the Apostle Paul, who were filled with the holy Spirit on more than one occasion in Scripture. Would those people assert that each time they were filled with the holy Spirit they were saved? Certainly not. I do not claim to completely understand what being filled with the holy Spirit always means, but it doesn’t seem to me to be any proof against baptismal regeneration. So the existence of examples, such as the thief on the cross, or others of people being filled with the holy Spirit, does not negate the clear Scriptural command to “repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins”.
Please keep in mind that these verses in no way diminish or abolish the necessity of faith. For those able to believe, faith is always necessary for one to be baptized.
