How Does Baptism Save Us?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Well, happy Thanksgiving week to those of you

00:00:07.080 | who listen to us in the States or in Canada.

00:00:10.680 | Thanks for joining us again.

00:00:12.540 | Well, the Apostle Peter says of Paul's writings

00:00:15.520 | that there are some things in them

00:00:17.500 | that are hard to understand.

00:00:19.760 | That's what he said.

00:00:20.760 | That's true, but dare I also say

00:00:23.740 | that this is also true of Peter.

00:00:25.240 | There are some things in Peter that are hard to understand.

00:00:27.440 | And speaking of hard texts and Peter's writings,

00:00:30.280 | we looked at 1 Peter 3.19 last time on Friday.

00:00:34.400 | Today, we're back at it to ask,

00:00:36.060 | why does Peter say that we are saved through baptism?

00:00:41.560 | That's his claim in 1 Peter 3.21.

00:00:44.080 | Why does he say it?

00:00:45.640 | A listener named Josh wants to know.

00:00:47.880 | Pastor John, hello, my question is this.

00:00:50.000 | Why do we say that baptism does not save

00:00:51.960 | when 1 Peter 3.21 clearly says it does?

00:00:55.140 | So also writes a listener named Tom.

00:00:57.900 | Pastor John, hello, I sometimes meet people

00:00:59.780 | from church backgrounds that say water baptism

00:01:02.100 | is necessary for salvation.

00:01:04.660 | And they cite 1 Peter 3.21 to prove it.

00:01:07.940 | I know that we are saved by grace through faith

00:01:10.220 | and not by any work of ours, including baptism.

00:01:14.260 | But could you help frame a response to those of us

00:01:16.500 | who engage with people from church traditions

00:01:19.100 | that believe in baptismal regeneration?

00:01:23.420 | - One of the great divides between, say,

00:01:28.260 | the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant evangelicals

00:01:33.260 | is the way each understands how God's grace,

00:01:38.860 | God's saving grace, comes to the human soul

00:01:43.860 | in a saving way.

00:01:46.560 | Protestants believe that God's saving grace

00:01:53.060 | comes to the soul decisively by faith alone.

00:01:58.060 | In other words, the only act of the soul

00:02:03.500 | in the instant of new birth or in the moment

00:02:07.460 | of passing from spiritual death to new life,

00:02:11.620 | in the moment of being counted righteous by God,

00:02:16.620 | being decisively adopted into his eternal family,

00:02:22.220 | the only act of the soul in that instant,

00:02:27.220 | which is decisive from the human side, is faith.

00:02:32.020 | All other acts of obedience, all other acts of symbolism

00:02:38.180 | of what happens spiritually, all other acts of expression

00:02:42.500 | or demonstration or confirmation of that new birth

00:02:47.280 | or justification or adoption, all those other acts

00:02:51.580 | are the results of faith, made possible by faith.

00:02:56.220 | They are not part of faith.

00:02:59.300 | And so they are not the human instrument

00:03:03.020 | by which we are born again or justified or adopted.

00:03:08.020 | Now, Roman Catholics don't see it that way.

00:03:12.540 | Rather, Roman Catholicism says that God's saving grace

00:03:17.700 | comes to the soul essentially through the physical acts

00:03:22.700 | of sacrament administered appropriately by a human priest

00:03:27.820 | or his authorized substitute.

00:03:30.900 | The two clearest examples of how this works

00:03:34.000 | are baptismal regeneration, that is, born again

00:03:38.780 | by means of the act of baptism,

00:03:41.720 | and transubstantiation in the Eucharist,

00:03:46.100 | that is, the bread and wine actually become,

00:03:50.020 | get transubstantiated into physical body

00:03:55.020 | and blood of Christ.

00:03:57.740 | The actual bread you're holding in your hand

00:04:00.060 | is the very physical body of Christ,

00:04:03.020 | the cup that you drink, the physical blood of Jesus.

00:04:06.060 | That's transubstantiation so that this physical dimension

00:04:11.060 | of imparting saving grace is preserved.

00:04:15.660 | So in baptism, the priest or his authorized representative

00:04:20.100 | applies the water to the infant,

00:04:23.400 | and by that ecclesiastical and sacramentally physical act,

00:04:28.400 | the child is saved.

00:04:31.380 | Here are the very words of the Roman Catholic Catechism,

00:04:34.700 | section two, chapter one, article one, paragraph 1213, quote,

00:04:39.700 | "Holy baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life,

00:04:43.740 | the gateway to life in the spirit,

00:04:46.540 | and the door which gives access to the other sacraments.

00:04:50.140 | Through baptism, we are freed from sin

00:04:54.180 | and reborn as sons of God.

00:04:57.220 | We become members of Christ,

00:05:00.780 | are incorporated into the church

00:05:03.060 | and made sharers in her mission.

00:05:05.980 | Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration

00:05:09.780 | through water in the word," close quote.

00:05:13.100 | Now, Protestant evangelicals would protest.

00:05:15.940 | That's where we get the name.

00:05:17.020 | We protest.

00:05:18.020 | No, we say, no, baptism does not free from sin.

00:05:23.020 | It does not cause one to be reborn.

00:05:27.780 | It does not unite to Christ in a saving way.

00:05:32.380 | All of that happens through faith alone

00:05:37.260 | in the first instant of saving faith,

00:05:40.700 | after which all acts of obedience confirm faith

00:05:45.700 | and confirm new birth and confirm forgiveness of sins

00:05:49.580 | and confirm membership in Christ.

00:05:52.420 | Now, when Josh asks this question,

00:05:56.100 | he puts his finger on a couple of key Bible texts

00:05:59.780 | that underlie this evangelical position.

00:06:03.820 | For example, Galatians 2.16, he says, and I'll read it.

00:06:08.020 | "We know that a person is not justified by works of the law,

00:06:12.500 | but through faith in Jesus Christ."

00:06:15.740 | So we also have believed in Christ Jesus

00:06:20.740 | in order to be justified by faith in Christ

00:06:25.300 | and not by works of the law,

00:06:26.940 | because by works of the law, no one will be justified.

00:06:31.300 | Now, the reason this text is so important

00:06:33.860 | is that the context has to do

00:06:36.820 | with whether circumcision in that day

00:06:40.860 | was effective for justification,

00:06:45.260 | the way you would ask today if baptism.

00:06:47.820 | Was baptism effective for justification?

00:06:52.220 | We know that because Paul says in Galatians 5, 3, and 4,

00:06:57.220 | "Whoever accepts circumcision

00:07:01.100 | is obligated to keep the whole law."

00:07:03.180 | You are severed from Christ.

00:07:05.260 | You who would be justified by the law,

00:07:07.980 | that is, by circumcision.

00:07:10.500 | In other words, the issue was,

00:07:13.100 | if the first act of true saving faith

00:07:17.140 | is the point at which justification happens,

00:07:21.180 | then you simply can't add anything to faith

00:07:25.380 | to make it happen.

00:07:26.820 | You can't add circumcision,

00:07:29.220 | and by implication, you can't add baptism.

00:07:33.020 | The decisive act of justification and adoption

00:07:37.380 | and new birth are performed by God

00:07:40.860 | through that first act of saving faith.

00:07:44.860 | Therefore, no other acts can make those divine acts happen.

00:07:49.860 | They've already happened at that first act of saving faith.

00:07:55.980 | So how then are we to understand baptism?

00:07:59.520 | Two passages.

00:08:02.020 | First the Colossians 1,

00:08:03.140 | and then we'll end up on the 1 Peter 1.

00:08:05.840 | Here's Colossians 1, 11, and 12.

00:08:09.500 | "In Christ, you were circumcised

00:08:13.060 | with a circumcision made without hands

00:08:16.100 | by putting off the body of flesh

00:08:19.620 | by the circumcision of Christ."

00:08:21.820 | Now that, so far, is a picture of the new birth

00:08:26.860 | described as a kind of spiritual circumcision,

00:08:30.120 | the old, unbelieving, blind, rebellious self is cut away,

00:08:35.020 | and a new person comes into being, a new creation.

00:08:39.660 | Then he goes on now in the next verse, verse 12.

00:08:42.580 | "Having been buried with him in baptism

00:08:45.500 | in which you were also raised with him through faith

00:08:49.660 | in the powerful working of God

00:08:51.340 | who raised him from the dead."

00:08:52.860 | So here, baptism is described as an act

00:08:57.100 | signifying the new birth of burying the old self,

00:09:01.980 | rising from the water with the new self.

00:09:05.500 | What keeps us from misunderstanding

00:09:08.420 | that act as a physical cause of new birth

00:09:12.260 | is the phrase "through faith."

00:09:15.500 | You were raised with Christ through faith.

00:09:18.620 | In other words, Paul is jealous

00:09:21.500 | not to picture the physical act of baptism

00:09:24.900 | as the decisive cause of this new birth.

00:09:29.060 | It's an acted out picture of what is happening,

00:09:34.060 | and the spiritual effect of what is happening

00:09:37.260 | is through faith.

00:09:39.880 | That's a really crucial phrase there in Colossians 2.12.

00:09:44.300 | Now, 1 Peter 3.21, I think,

00:09:48.180 | should be understood in the same way.

00:09:50.860 | Peter has just referred to Noah's flood.

00:09:54.540 | And the rescue of eight people in the ark.

00:09:58.340 | And then he says, "Baptism, which corresponds to this,

00:10:02.780 | now saves you not as a removal,"

00:10:06.460 | so he qualifies, as soon as he says "saves you,"

00:10:10.580 | he qualifies this way,

00:10:12.340 | "not as a removal of dirt from the body,

00:10:15.260 | but as an appeal to God."

00:10:18.220 | Baptism as an appeal to God for a good conscience

00:10:23.100 | through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

00:10:25.820 | In other words, the waters of baptism

00:10:29.300 | are like the waters of Noah's flood.

00:10:31.480 | We are saved from that judgment.

00:10:35.420 | How?

00:10:36.740 | Peter clarifies and qualifies,

00:10:39.620 | lest we think it's the actual physical enactment

00:10:42.940 | of passing through the water that saves.

00:10:45.220 | He says, "Salvation happens not,"

00:10:48.760 | a big not, "as a removal of dirt from the body,

00:10:52.260 | but," and then he gives baptism a particular slant,

00:10:56.620 | "as an appeal to God for a good conscience."

00:11:00.660 | This appeal is an act of the heart

00:11:04.500 | looking away from itself and from all human instruments

00:11:10.480 | and calling on God, appealing to God for grace to save.

00:11:15.780 | This appeal is the heart's cry of faith.

00:11:22.680 | That, Peter says, is the instrument

00:11:25.920 | that receives the saving grace of God.

00:11:29.920 | The physical act of baptism is the parable,

00:11:32.760 | it's the drama, it's the emblem,

00:11:36.120 | but the reality of new birth is not physical

00:11:41.120 | and it's not received by physical acts.

00:11:44.840 | It's received by faith and faith alone.

00:11:48.500 | Then baptism follows as a beautiful,

00:11:51.920 | obedient enactment of the effects of faith.

00:11:56.080 | - Yes, a beautiful, obedient enactment.

00:11:58.440 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:11:59.280 | And speaking of 1 Peter 3.21,

00:12:01.520 | this text has popped up over the years

00:12:03.180 | and in two other interesting places in the podcast.

00:12:06.220 | One was on believer baptism and the mentally disabled.

00:12:11.080 | That was APJ 305.

00:12:12.880 | And then, should we baptize the dead?

00:12:16.700 | That's APJ 1019.

00:12:18.800 | Check those out.

00:12:19.640 | You can find APJs 305 and 1019 at askpastorjohn.com.

00:12:24.640 | Well, Thanksgiving is coming up Thursday

00:12:28.320 | and to prep for that,

00:12:29.200 | next time we are going to pray our way to Thanksgiving.

00:12:33.280 | I'll explain more next time.

00:12:34.740 | I'm your host, Tony Reike.

00:12:36.200 | We'll see you back here on Wednesday.

00:12:38.000 | (upbeat music)

00:12:40.580 | (upbeat music)

00:12:43.160 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

How Does Baptism Save Us?

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