In a post last week, I answered those who believe that baptism by water is necessary for salvation on the basis of Acts 2:38, showing that there is no justifiable reason—that one can substantiate from the Bible—to believe that water baptism has anything to do with one’s soul salvation. If you missed that post, let me know and I will send you a copy. Just email me (trbcpastor@sbcglobal.net) your email address.
I mentioned that besides the Acts 2:38 “proof text,” there are a few other passages used by folk who make water baptism an essential element for salvation. I will deal in this discussion with two of them.
First, there is Mark 16:16: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” Mark is quoting Jesus as part of His great commission to His apostles, also found in Matthew 28:18-20. Matthew’s account differs considerably from Mark’s; nevertheless, Mark 16:16 needs to be addressed.
Both clauses in Mark 16:16 are categorically true! “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” Would anyone argue with that? Mark said that salvation is a matter of believing. He could have left off the reference to baptism and the statement would still be correct. He could not have omitted “he that believeth.” He included baptism, not to show that it is a necessary component of salvation, but to indicate that salvation followed by baptism is the norm. The 3,000 people who were saved on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:41) were baptized: “And they that gladly received His word were baptized.” The “received his word” was the trusting Christ as Savior; the baptism followed their conversion as a public testimony, marking them as followers of Christ.
Salvation and baptism were routinely coupled together in the book of Acts, highlighting the importance of publicly confessing Christ as Lord and Savior; not because baptism was to be equated with salvation, but because the two go together, just as faith and works are coupled by James in his epistle. Works never saved anyone (Eph. 2:8,9), but when one is saved, works will follow. Baptism by water never saved anyone; but when one is saved, baptism naturally follows closely thereafter.
The second clause in Mark 16:16 can also stand alone: “He that believeth not shall be damned.” It is important to note that Mark declares that the person to be damned is he who does not believe, not the person who does not believe and is not baptized.
Just as Acts 2:38 cannot rightly support baptism by immersion as part of one’s salvation experience, so Mark 16:16 is no proof text that baptism by immersion is essential for one to be saved. What can be proved from Mark 16:16 is that believing is the sole requirement for salvation, and that not believing is the sole determinate for God’s sending anyone to perish in Hell.
Second, thereis Acts 22:16. This verse reads: “And now why tarriest thou? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” Ananias of Damascus spoke those words to “Brother Saul,” who had personally met “Jesus of Nazareth” as he was on the road to Damascus to bind and deliver the people of “this way” to prison and to death. Paul later recounts this conversion experience in Jerusalem, just after he was almost pulled to pieces by the Jews in Asia.
In this personal testimony, the once persecutor of Christians tells how he was led to Damascus, blinded by the encounter with Christ, and met Ananias—who, instructed by the Lord, told Paul that God had separated him (Paul) to be a witness to all men of what he had seen and heard. In that context, Ananias said to this new-born believer: “Why tarriest thou? arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” It is evident that Paul, struck blind when he met Christ on the road to Damascus, at once trusted Him as Lord and addressed Him as such: “What shall I do, Lord?” To which Jesus said, “Go into Damascus and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do.” (Acts 22:10).
Paul was already a believer when he got to Damascus, but he had obviously not had a chance to be baptized. So Ananias said, “Arise, and be baptized [in view of the washing away of] thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” The conjunction that connects “be baptized” with “wash way thy sins” is, like the preposition eis in Acts 2:38, very fluid in meaning and can be translated in multiple ways—again, depending on the context. One cannot conclude, on the basis of this common conjunction, that baptism and washing away of sins are one and the same act. That would contradict the New Testament’s clear teaching concerning salvation being a matter of grace alone, through faith (believing). So, Ananias is saying in essence, “Paul, you trusted Christ as Lord when He met with you three days ago in that extraordinary experience; now, as a confession of your faith and in the light of the fact that your sins have been washed away, you need to be baptized, having called on the name of the Lord.”
“Calling” in the Greek text is an aorist middle participle from ‘kaleo’—to call. The sense is that ‘having called on the Lord, now (you should) be baptized.’” Furthermore, “washing” is also an aorist imperative: “you washed away your sins having called on the name of the Lord.’”
Translating from one language (Greek) to another (English) is always a challenge; and it is not uncommon that in the process some meaning is veiled in words, word order, and in the nuances of the various tenses. But the end result of any particular verse in the translation process must be consistent with the totality of Scripture. Admittedly, the English translation of Acts 22:16 is difficult; but it must be understood against the backdrop of all of the Bible; and in the Bible, works, including the external act of water baptism, is never shown to be a part of one’s salvation.
Again, nothing in the book of Acts, or in the epistles of the New Testament, or anywhere in the whole of scripture, establishes that anything but believing by faith brings eternal salvation to one’s soul. Nothing.
“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation…For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Rom.10:10,13)
YOU and GOD 