Is Baptism Necessary for Salvation?
00:00:00.000 | We have 40 questions in the inbox about Acts 2 38.
00:00:08.240 | There in the text a bunch of seekers have gathered and Peter says to them, "Repent and
00:00:13.360 | be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your
00:00:17.920 | sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
00:00:21.640 | Indeed, 3,000 people repent and are baptized.
00:00:25.040 | It's an amazing sight.
00:00:26.840 | The text also appears to put water baptism prior to conversion or in the moment of conversion.
00:00:31.840 | Likewise, Paul was told to "rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name"
00:00:38.680 | in Acts 22 16.
00:00:41.160 | Dozens of listeners have written in over the years to basically ask, "Are we saved, Pastor
00:00:44.880 | John, after water baptism, before water baptism, or in water baptism?"
00:00:50.560 | What would you say?
00:00:51.560 | I would first answer by making the question more precise because the way I'd pose the
00:01:00.040 | question is, are we justified before, in, or after?
00:01:06.240 | Are we united to Christ?
00:01:08.440 | Do we become one with Christ and God becomes 100% for us before, in, or after baptism?
00:01:15.800 | Because in the New Testament, the word "saved" is used for what happens before, in, and after
00:01:22.320 | baptism.
00:01:23.320 | Ephesians 2 8, "We have been saved."
00:01:29.080 | First Corinthians 1 18, "We are being saved."
00:01:33.240 | Romans 13 11, "Salvation is nearer to us now than when we believed."
00:01:39.640 | So being saved happened before, happened now, is happening now, will happen finally in the
00:01:47.640 | future.
00:01:48.640 | So the word "salvation" in the New Testament is broad and includes pieces of salvation,
00:01:55.360 | and what's really being asked is, when did it all start?
00:02:02.120 | The first moment of union with Christ, the moment of justification, which is not a process
00:02:11.000 | like sanctification is, but decisive.
00:02:14.200 | If God is for us, who can be against us?
00:02:18.640 | When did that start?
00:02:20.600 | At what point does God count us a child, not a child of wrath, which we all are by nature,
00:02:28.920 | Ephesians 2 3, but a child of God, so that from that point on, He is 100% for us with
00:02:40.160 | no wrath?
00:02:41.960 | When did that happen?
00:02:44.080 | What was the decisive means that brought it about, that united us to Christ, that justified
00:02:53.720 | us?
00:02:54.720 | So that's my question.
00:02:57.000 | I think that's really what they're asking.
00:03:01.000 | And it's the same, I mean, they're right to be concerned about it.
00:03:04.960 | There are texts that are puzzling.
00:03:07.240 | So let me give my answer from texts and then show how that point relates to baptism.
00:03:17.720 | So Romans 3 28, "We hold that one is justified by faith, apart from works of the law."
00:03:26.600 | Romans 5 1, "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God."
00:03:35.240 | Romans 4 5, "To the one who does not work but believes in Him, who justifies the ungodly,
00:03:44.040 | his faith is counted as righteousness."
00:03:47.960 | John 3 16, "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in
00:03:54.240 | Him should not perish but has eternal life."
00:04:00.960 | Acts 13 38, "Through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone
00:04:10.040 | who believes is freed or justified from everything from which you could not be justified by the
00:04:17.280 | law of Moses," and on and on and on I could go.
00:04:20.520 | I had a bunch of others, and I thought, for time's sake, I'll just leave them out.
00:04:24.000 | So here's my inference from those texts and many others like them.
00:04:29.800 | Justification, being put right with God by union with Christ in the divine miracle of
00:04:37.360 | conversion and new birth, that point is by faith and faith alone on our part.
00:04:45.600 | God uses faith as the sole instrument of union with Christ and thus counts us righteous and
00:04:55.800 | becomes 100% for us in the instant that we have faith in Jesus.
00:05:03.720 | That's my answer, and now the question is, okay, how do you talk about baptism and how
00:05:11.120 | do you understand those texts that were quoted that seem to connect baptism to that act,
00:05:19.120 | that beginning?
00:05:20.600 | So let me give some answers to that.
00:05:22.960 | First thing I would say is that the thief on the cross was told by Jesus that that very
00:05:28.600 | day he would be with Him in paradise.
00:05:30.860 | He was not baptized, and therefore, though I know he's a special case, I don't think
00:05:36.440 | you build a theology of baptism on the thief on the cross, but one thing it says is baptism
00:05:45.160 | is not an absolute necessity, because it wasn't in his case.
00:05:52.480 | Here's the second thing I would say.
00:05:54.240 | Paul treats baptism as an expression of faith so that the decisive act that unites us to
00:06:03.560 | Christ is the faith, and it is expressed outwardly in baptism.
00:06:11.560 | Here's a very key text for me, because when I went to Germany, I was a lone Baptist in
00:06:17.360 | a den of Lutheran lions, and they were loving lions.
00:06:21.440 | They just licked me.
00:06:22.440 | They didn't eat me, but they did not approve of what I believed.
00:06:27.720 | I remember taking a retreat with 12 little cubs and one big doctor father named Leonard
00:06:34.240 | Gulpult, and we were talking about baptism the whole weekend, and this was my text.
00:06:40.160 | This was my text that I put up.
00:06:41.960 | I said, "In," this is Colossians 2, 11 and 12, "In Him," in Christ, "also you were circumcised
00:06:49.480 | with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of flesh by the circumcision
00:06:56.680 | of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with
00:07:07.160 | Him through faith."
00:07:11.100 | You were buried with Him and raised with Him in baptism through faith in the powerful working
00:07:20.020 | of God who raised Him from the dead.
00:07:23.300 | So the burial with Christ in the water and the rising with Christ out of the water, it
00:07:30.560 | seems to me from that text, are not what unites you to Christ.
00:07:35.740 | That is the going under the water, the coming up out of the water, that's not what unites
00:07:39.800 | you to Christ.
00:07:40.800 | It is through faith that you are decisively united to Christ.
00:07:47.000 | And here's an interesting analogy, since circumcision was brought into the picture there, and there's
00:07:52.420 | kind of an image of circumcision in Colossians 2.
00:07:55.920 | If you go to Romans 4, 11, Paul says, "Abraham received the sign of circumcision as a seal
00:08:07.560 | of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was uncircumcised.
00:08:15.320 | The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised,
00:08:22.960 | so that righteousness would be counted to them all."
00:08:26.320 | So if you just take the analogy, and that's all it is, it's just an analogy between baptism
00:08:31.740 | and circumcision, then this text would say that baptism is a sign of a righteousness
00:08:41.760 | that we have before we are baptized, because we have it through faith and through union
00:08:50.280 | with Christ.
00:08:51.280 | Then we go to the relevant text in Acts that the questioner raised, like Acts 22, 16.
00:08:59.880 | "Rise and be baptized, and wash away your sins."
00:09:05.440 | Now if you stopped right there, you'd say, "Well, there it is, you know?
00:09:09.720 | The water is the forgiving agent."
00:09:14.320 | But that's not where you stop.
00:09:15.600 | It says, "Rise, being baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name."
00:09:24.700 | So the sense, I think, is the same.
00:09:28.220 | Baptism is the outward expression of calling on the name of the Lord in faith.
00:09:34.960 | It's not the water that effects our justification or union with Christ.
00:09:40.760 | The water is a picture of the cleansing, but the faith in the heart, the call on the Lord
00:09:47.440 | from faith is what unites us and forgives us.
00:09:52.600 | Now that's the meaning that 1 Peter 3:21 actually picks up on when it says, in relationship
00:10:01.420 | to the flood and Noah's rescue through the ark, through the water, it says, "Baptism,
00:10:09.360 | which corresponds to this," that is the salvation of Noah's family in the ark and the flood,
00:10:15.000 | "Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you."
00:10:19.040 | That's probably the most clear text for those who want to say that baptism is salvific,
00:10:26.280 | actually does the saving.
00:10:27.720 | It says, "Baptism saves you," and then immediately, as though he knows he said something almost
00:10:32.740 | heretical because it would so compromise justification by faith, he says, "Not as a removal of dirt
00:10:39.900 | from the body, but as an appeal."
00:10:43.640 | So now we're back to this call issue.
00:10:46.340 | Wash away your sins by calling on his name, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience
00:10:52.760 | through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
00:10:54.580 | In other words, the call of faith from the heart, not the water.
00:11:00.540 | And he explicitly says, "Not the removal of dirt from the body."
00:11:04.500 | In other words, it's not the actual functioning of the water that does the saving, even though
00:11:10.140 | I just said baptism saves you.
00:11:12.180 | What I mean is that this outward act signifies an appeal to God that's coming from the heart,
00:11:20.740 | and it's that faith that saves.
00:11:23.620 | So when John the Baptist calls his baptism, or Mark calls his baptism, a baptism of repentance
00:11:32.740 | for the forgiveness of sins, it probably means a baptism signifying repentance which brings
00:11:41.220 | forgiveness, because repentance is simply the way of describing the change of mind that
00:11:48.400 | gives rise to faith.
00:11:50.820 | Now here's one last important text that they're raising.
00:11:54.820 | In fact, this is where you begin, Acts 2:38.
00:11:58.460 | Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness
00:12:05.380 | of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
00:12:09.900 | So it looks like repent, condition number one, be baptized, condition number two, and
00:12:16.940 | forgiveness will be given to you.
00:12:18.620 | And I've been arguing, because I think so many texts teach it, that no, repentance and
00:12:24.180 | faith as one piece are what obtains forgiveness, not the baptism.
00:12:30.820 | So what, you disagree with this text, Piper?
00:12:33.500 | Who do you think you are?
00:12:36.420 | And I think that text should be read something like this.
00:12:41.620 | And I remember seeing this years ago and then finding it other places.
00:12:46.700 | Suppose I say to you, Tony, you want to go from Phoenix to LA on the train and it's about
00:12:54.380 | to leave, and I say, "Grab your hat and run or you'll miss the train."
00:13:00.620 | Now I just gave you two commands, like Peter gave two commands, repent and be baptized.
00:13:07.580 | But only one of them is a cause of getting to the train on time, namely running.
00:13:15.660 | Run!
00:13:16.660 | That said, grab your hat.
00:13:20.060 | Grabbing your hat is an accompanying act, not a causative one.
00:13:27.420 | It may be very important.
00:13:29.140 | Now there may be all kinds of reasons why you should have a hat.
00:13:32.100 | Like why did you tell him to grab a hat?
00:13:34.100 | Well, I've got my reasons, you know, for all kinds of reasons.
00:13:37.660 | But grabbing the hat does not help you in the least get on the train on time.
00:13:44.320 | Now that's the way I think we should hear Peter when he says, "Repent and be baptized,
00:13:51.980 | every one of you, and make the train of forgiveness."
00:13:55.300 | You get on the train of forgiveness if you repent and are baptized.
00:14:00.940 | And the repentance, the change of mind that includes faith, gets you to the train.
00:14:06.980 | And baptism is important for all kinds of reasons, but it's not causative in the same
00:14:13.540 | way that repentance is.
00:14:15.540 | So here's my bottom line answer to the question.
00:14:19.460 | Faith precedes baptism.
00:14:23.020 | That's why I'm a Baptist.
00:14:24.460 | Faith precedes baptism and is operative in baptism.
00:14:29.800 | So we are justified at the very first act of genuine, saving faith in Christ, and then
00:14:38.820 | baptism follows, and preferably would follow soon, as an outward expression of that inward
00:14:46.860 | reality.
00:14:47.860 | That's good.
00:14:48.860 | Yeah, you don't want to forget your hat in Phoenix.
00:14:50.780 | You'll sunburn your head.
00:14:51.780 | Good.
00:14:52.780 | Well, I'm glad there's a good reason for it.
00:14:56.340 | Indeed.
00:14:57.340 | And we recorded this episode in the studio in advance of Pastor John leaving for his
00:15:01.140 | second stint in Europe in 2019.
00:15:04.580 | He is currently ministering in Holland, France, and Germany until early October.
00:15:09.980 | A huge international year for him.
00:15:11.820 | Remember, he was in South America earlier in the year and in Europe once before already
00:15:16.700 | this year.
00:15:17.700 | Would you pray for his safety and for Noel and for the fruitfulness of their ministry?
00:15:22.060 | I would appreciate it.
00:15:23.060 | Again, they're in Holland, France, and Germany this time around.
00:15:27.180 | Well, how does John Piper want you to use this podcast in your life?
00:15:33.120 | By God's grace, we have a large listenership now.
00:15:36.040 | There's a lot of you who listen in every time.
00:15:38.460 | But each of us also have friends and spouses and pastors and parents in our lives who we
00:15:43.820 | should also be seeking out for advice.
00:15:47.060 | So how does this podcast, Ask Pastor John, fit within the constellation of voices that
00:15:52.620 | God has put in your life?
00:15:53.940 | It's a really important question.
00:15:55.580 | We've never addressed it head on, and we need to.
00:15:58.100 | It's up next on Wednesday.
00:15:59.500 | I'm your host Tony Reinke.
00:16:00.500 | We'll see you then.
00:16:00.500 | We'll see you then.
00:16:02.480 | [BLANK_AUDIO]