IS BAPTISM NECESSARY?

Hugo McCord

A sincere and devout young couple, members of a community church, do not think they need to be baptized, for their pastor has taught them that (1) salvation is by faith only; and (2) the thief on the cross was saved without baptism; and (3) what would happen if a person, in a car on his way to be baptized, was in a fatal car wreck?

I. FAITH ALONE

Salvation is by faith (John 3:16; Acts 10:43; 13:39; 16:31), but “not by faith only” (James 2:24). “The demons believe, and tremble” (James 2:19). “Many among the rulers believed in him, but because of the Pharisees, they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue” (John 12:42).

Salvation is by repentance (Acts 11:18), but not by repentance alone, for “if you do not believe [in Jesus], you will die in your sins” (John 8:24).

Salvation is by confession (Matthew 10:32; Acts 2:21), but not by confession alone: “Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,’ will enter into heaven’s kingdom, but the one who does the will of my heavenly Father” (Matthew 7:21).

Salvation is by baptism (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16), but not by baptism alone, for baptism does not “wash away your sins” (Acts 22:16) unless it is preceded by (1) faith (John 8:24; Acts 2:36; 16:31) and (2) repentance (Acts 2:38) and (3) a confession (Romans 10:9-10).

II. THE THIEF ON THE CROSS

Jesus had “power on earth to forgive sins” (Mark 2:10) without baptism, as in the case of (1) a paralytic lying on a stretcher (Mark 2:5), and (2) of a sinful woman (Luke 7:37, 48), and (3) of a penitent tax collector (Luke 19:1-9), and (4) of the thief on the cross (Luke 23:43).

He could do so today if he wanted to, but he who knows best, just before he left the earth, gave his law for salvation to last “unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20): “he who believes and is baptized shall saved” (Mark 16:16). That law for salvation began to be practiced on Pentecost Sunday (May 28, A.D. 30), and is to continue “unto the end of the world.”

III. A FATAL CAR WRECK

Which man shows more humility and respect for the Lord’s plan and urgency for salvation: the one who works night and day to bring as many lost people as possible to the “baptism that now saves us” (1 Peter 3:21), or the one who thinks he has found a defect in the Lord’s plan and talks people out of being baptized? I believe the Lord has given an answer:

This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word (Isaiah 66:2, NIV).