You Don't Need to be Baptized...Unless
(Transcribed and paraphrased from a tape by Mark Roberts)
Acts 2:37-38
Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?" And Peter said to them, "Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
I have decided that I am going to give up, I am going to quit, I am going to surrender. For as long as I've been preaching I've been using Scriptures like this to tell people that if they want to be saved they must be baptized. And when you say something like that to anyone in the various denominations, it provokes a fairly strong reaction in people. I've had many opportunities in my college experiences to teach people about baptism and they always want to disagree. When you study with any denominationalist and try to say that baptism is necessary for salvation, they'll say that that is not right at all. They'll say that all you need to do is pray this little prayer and ask Jesus into your heart and you just receive the Lord and you don't need to be baptized. And I have tried since I was old enough and knowledgeable enough to do so to use passages like Acts 2:38 and many others to tell people that they have to be baptized in order to be saved. But I have decided that I'm going to quit doing that.
I have decided that I've going to stop disagreeing with people when they say you don't have to be baptized in order to be saved and I'm going to do something quite different just to shake things up a little bit. I'm going to tell people in that kind of situation that you don't have to be baptized in order to be saved. I'm going to agree with them. Now what do you think of that? Have I lost my mind? Have I turned aside to join the ranks of the denominations? Have I abandoned the Lord and His Holy Scriptures and the Church and all my brethren? Well no I have not quite done that.
Well when one of these people says to me they don't have to be baptized, and I agree with them, they are probably going to be wondering "what is the catch?" Well there might be a little catch. After I say that you don't have to be baptized, then I'm going to make just one or two little comments. I'm just gonna say, "You don't need to be baptized unless...". And then I'm just going to say just one or two more, just little things that I hope will cause people to re-evaluate this understanding that they can be saved by faith only. I hope that this one or two little comments will help them re-think what is so commonly believed and taught all over this world, and instead to seek what the Scriptures say about how to be saved. Because I'm gonna tell people, "Oh, you don't need to be baptized. No!"
"You don't need to be baptized unless, for example, you've ever sinned." You see, if you've never sinned, then you don't need baptism at all. Sometimes I wonder if we miss this point in all the debates and discussions we have about baptism and in all our studies of salvation. The question that we are talking about is not do you have to submit to some kind of religious ceremony or what kind of religious membership induction do you have to go through. That is not what we are talking about at all. What we are talking about here is the forgiveness of sins. How does a person obtain from God the great blessing of being forgiven of sin? This is a crucial matter.
Look in Romans 6:23. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. How does one go about obtaining that free gift? How do you take the wrapping paper off of it, if you will, because I don't want to die. In fact, Romans 3:23 says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." We are separated from God by our own doing, our own deeds. We have sinned-all of us.
Well, now wait a minute. What about little Dustin and Roman, ages 17 months and 3 months old? They are beyond the age understanding. They do not have the capacity to reason, to understand God's law, to do right or to do wrong. They are incapable of sin, and we are certain that they are not born with the sin of Adam; so many passages in the Bible press personal responsibility before the Lord. Jesus said that we need to become like little children in Matthew 18. So the little ones, indeed, are not in some sinful state in need of forgiveness nor are they depraved. So if someone came to me and said I need you to baptize my little baby, I would say, "I'm sorry, baby doesn't need to be baptized because baby hasn't ever sinned."
Well back to our discussion at hand. Have you ever done anything wrong in your life? Ever been selfish? Ever had evil thoughts? Ever done anything less than what God would have you to do? Romans 3:23 says you have. And I think that all of us know better than to claim any moral perfection. What are we doing to do then, now that we are stained by sin? What are we going to do now that we are sinners? Well I would recommend to you the same thing told to Saul in Acts 22:16.
And now why do you delay? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.
And if you look back in Acts 2:38, it is unmistakeable, the application to baptism here. Verse 38 says to be baptized for the remission of sins. Let me give you one more. In Colossians 2:12-13, Paul explains that even when you were dead in your sins and trespasses, Christ had made you alive and forgiven you of them. having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised upwith Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions..." This is an impressive set of passages that all keep pounding away the idea that baptism deals with the stain of sin. That baptism is all about taking care of sin. Did you ever notice in the book of Acts that nobody ever argues about baptism? There is not a single case in the book of Acts where an Apostle told someone they needed to be baptized and that person replied "well I don't think so-I think I can just pray through." There is not a single time in the book of Acts where a person argued that they can't be baptized because if they did it would be a work of merit and that would exclude the grace of God. People in the book of Acts didn't argue about being baptized. Do you know what they did do? They were baptized!
Could that be because they had been deeply convicted of sin? Because they realized their guilt and their need for forgiveness? And because they would do anything to have the stain of sin removed from their souls? And so when an Apostle said, "With faith in God, we're going to have those sins cleansed and removed in baptism" those people happily complied. But I'll tell you this: if somebody says "I don't think I need to be baptized," I'm gonna say, "Wow! I never met anybody who was sinless before! Because if you are sinless, then you don't need to be baptized, because baptism is for the remission of sins!"
I may say just one or two other little things about baptism too. I may just have something to say about baptism being related to newness of life. Because that is a key concept in New Testament Christianity. The thread of forgiveness is picked up and built on in Romans 6:4. "walk in newness of life" Baptism is the beginning of this new life. Jesus makes that point in John 3:5, in His conversations with Nicodemus at night. Born of water-born anew. In Ephesians 4, we find one more passage in this connection. Eph. 4:22,24. "put off the old man put on the new man." I think sometimes people may misunderstand this aspect of baptism and salvation. I think some people make the mistake of viewing baptism as a "punch your ticket stub for entry into heaven" type ordeal, a one time act that you do it and you are certainly saved from then on. But the Bible never explains it in any kind of fashion like that. Baptism is the beginning, it is the genesis of our new life, it is the start of our walk with God, it is the start of our Christianity, a life now that is dominated by the wishes of Christ Jesus, our master. A life in which we have new priorities, a new agenda, a new way of thinking, and a new way of living. A new life. Newness of life.
But I think I understand what happens if you are not baptized. Romans 6:4. I think I can figure that out. If you look there, let's just read that and see what would the text say if a person was NOT baptized? It might read sort of like this: "Therefore, since you were NOT buried with Him through baptism into death, even so you are NOT arising to walk in newness of life." I believe that is exactly what the text would say. And in John 3:3, it would most assuredly say, "Since you have NOT been born of water and the Spirit you can NOT see the kingdom of God." And in fact if you look again at the text in Ephesians 4, it seems to say that if you have not been created a new man (verse 24), then you are still back in verse 22, the old man growing corrupt according to deceitful lusts. If you are not a new man, walking in newness of life, then you are still in the old ways, aren't you?
And that is why this discussion is so important, because baptism is an "either-or" sort of thing. People in the world treat as kind of a good idea, sorta thing you maybe ought to do if you ever get around to it sometime, you kinda oughta do it, but you don't HAVE to. Well now wait a minute. That isn't what Romans 6 just said. That isn't what Jesus says. That isn't what Ephesians says. Either you are a new person in Christ, or you are NOT! That's pretty serious, isn't it? Either you are walking in newness of life, or you are NOT walking in newness of life! So the next time someone says that you don't need to be baptized, I'm gonna say, "Well that's just right. That's exactly right. If you can be saved without being born again, if you can be saved while you are still the "old man," if you can be saved while living in the worldly ways of living and without having newness of life, that you don't need to be baptized. Because baptism will make you a new creature in Christ.
I might say something else in that regard as well. A person really doesn't need to be baptized if they can be saved outside of Jesus Christ. In many ways, baptism is not unknown or a new thing in the New Testament. When Peter preached that first Gospel Sermon in Acts 2 and told people in verse 38 that they needed to be baptized in order to be saved, he was not coining a new term. People did not scratch their heads and wonder what it meant to be baptized. They didn't think he was talking in a strange language or making up new words. The word baptize was actually very common among New Testament Jews and it had a long and honorable history among them. If you read about the tabernacle in the Old Testament in Exodus, you read that the priests had a large bowl in which they washed with pure water as they prepared to go in and serve God. 1st Kings 7 tells us that Solomon made a huge bowl that held 15,000 gallons of water and the priests washed as they prepared. So washing in water, and being pure and holy, had a very strong meaning in the Jewish mind. Before New Testament times came, it became even strong by something known as "proselyte baptism." If a gentile desired to become a Jew, it had become accepted by the time of the New Testament that they way for him to become a Jew was to be washed, and not just his hands and feet. His whole body was washed; he was immersed, dunked, plunged under the water, so that when the man came up out of that water, he had gone down an old man (a Gentile) and he came back up a new man, part of the special covenant family of God, receiving all the blessings to which any other Jew was entitled. And the writers of the New Testament did not miss the opportunity to illustrate that connection with Christian baptism. 1 Corinthians 12:13. Just as proselyte baptism made a gentile a member of the Jewish body, the text says that Christian baptism makes one a member of the Christ's body. See also Galatians 3:27.
And just as there were benefits of being a Jew, there are benefits of being a Christian. In fact Paul tells us that all spiritual blessings are found in Him (Eph 1:3). Every spiritual blessing like forgiveness of your sins, salvation, hope of heaven, the avenue of prayer. Every blessing is found in Christ Jesus. Well how do you get into Christ Jesus? Read Gal. 3:27 again. Do I even need to ask? Can a person be saved OUTSIDE of Christ? And when you realize this it makes the scene on the day of Pentecost all the more interesting because here you had all these Jews being told by Peter that they needed to do what Gentiles, what proselytes, had to do. Can you hear them saying, "Well Peter what do you mean we have to be baptized? We don't need to be baptized, we are already God's chosen people? We already have a covenant relationship with God. We are already Jews. We are not gonna do what Gentiles have to do, we are already here!" Do you see that anywhere in the Scriptures? No. Peter says to all those Jews standing around him to repent and be baptized for the remission of their sins, to become part of the new Israel of God, to become a new person in Christ Jesus. If you want to receive the spiritual blessings that are only found in Christ, you have be baptized into Christ. So I'm ready. The next time someone tells me that you don't have to be baptized to be saved, I'm gonna say, "Wow! I guess you have found a way to be saved outside of Jesus! You must know of a way of having the spiritual blessings of Jesus apart from being in Christ. And that means you don't need to be baptized. Because all spiritual blessings are in Christ. And indeed, being baptized is what puts a person in Christ.
But sometimes people don't understand all those kinds of things. And so maybe you have to take a more simple route. You may have to talk about simple obedience. Sometimes people say, "Just show me one passage where Jesus ever commanded me to be baptized." I can do that. Turn over to Mark 16:16. It is pretty straightforward. It looks to me like Jesus is saying that if you want to be saved, you need to couple faith with baptism. I don't see how any other conclusion is possible. But someone is gonna say, "Now Jesus said that in the first part, but did you notice in the second part that He did not say that if you are not baptized you would be condemned?" And people start to tinker with that passage, and they say that Jesus didn't say it was wrong to not be baptized, it is only wrong if you don't believe.
And on and on they go with it. They seem to see three different groups of people in that passage. But if you look very carefully at that passage, you'll see that there are really just two groups. Jesus says there are gonna be two kinds of folks. There are going to be people who believe, and they are baptized, and they are saved. And they there are going to be people who do not believe, and therefore are not baptized, and therefore are not saved. That is all the groups I see here-the ones that believe and are baptized, and the ones who don't believe and aren't baptized. Yet today people are just sure that they can find a third group. They think they see a group of people that want to believe, but don't want to be baptized, but are still gonna be saved. You read anything about that group there? I don't see anything about a group of people who will believe, resist baptism, and still be saved. Jesus said that believers will be baptized, they'll be saved; non-believers won't be baptized, they won't be saved. This is all Jesus is talking about. Jesus never says anything about that third group because there is no third group in that Scripture. In fact, when you look carefully at that passage what you'll see is that Jesus is setting up a progression. That Jesus knows that baptism is the act, that as our faith grows and develops and culminates, it tells us to do, to be plunged in water for the forgiveness of our sins. And Jesus realizes that people who don't believe, who don't have that faith growing in them, will never have the desire to have their sins forgiven by baptism. Kinda like if I told you, "If you start my car, and put it in gear, you can drive it where ever you want." It won't do you any good to just put it in gear because you have to start it first. And I don't need to say, "If you don't start the car and you don't put it in gear, you can't go anywhere." Adults with the ability to reason understand this, and Jesus understood this. All I have to say is, "If you don't start it, you can't drive it." Nobody is going to come back and say, "Well what if I don't start it, and I put it in gear, can I drive it then?" That would be silly. It is a progressive set of instructions.
And in the way, Jesus, in Mark 16:16, is saying the belief comes before baptism and leads to baptism, which gives one salvation. In the same way, unbelief will not cause a person to confess, repent, be baptized, or be saved. Unbelief will cause them to be condemned. Only Jesus didn't need to say all that because adults with the ability to reason ought to be able to draw that connection and conclusion. Perhaps we might illustrate it like this: your faith, your belief, is the foundation under which everything else you do for salvation is built. Upon that belief, that foundation, you confess your faith in Christ, you repent of your sins, you are baptized, and live in faithful obedience for as long as you live. But if at any point in time you fall off of that foundation of belief, all of your other efforts crumble. So if you start off with unbelief, like Jesus describes in the second group, none of the other is ever even going to occur. Doesn't that make sense?
Again, Jesus knows nothing about those who claim they believe, but refuse to be baptized, and still be saved. It doesn't look that way at all. Baptism is an obedience issue. Even if you don't understand the remission of sin thing, or the concept of being raised up to walk in newness of life, or about finding all spiritual blessings in Him, even if you don't understand any of that, nobody can deny that Jesus said you need to be baptized. Period. End of discussion. So if someone says they don't think they need to be baptized, I'm gonna agree. I'm gonna say that that is just alright, if you think that the best way to be saved is to just disobey the words of Christ. Because baptism is for those who will couple faith and obedience in order to be saved.
One more passage in 1 Peter 3:21. Peter makes a point here as he speaks about Noah and the flood and the water there. He says there is a correspondence, and anti-type, which saves. He says that baptism saves us. I have probably read and quoted that scripture a thousand times to people I have studied the issue with. And I will continue to quote that passage because this is a matter of eternal life and eternal death. No matter what men may say or what men may write, the Bible is a consistent, eternal, unchanging voice. What do you need to do if you want your sins forgiven? What do you need to do if you want newness of life? What do you need to do if you want the spiritual blessings? What do you need to do if you want to obey Christ? You need to be baptized. That is how it was preached on the that day of Pentecost by Peter and the Apostles. That is how I'm gonna preach it today. I'm gonna preach it that if you are not baptized, you can not and will not be saved. I'm gonna preach that if you are not baptized, you are lost and dead in your sins. I pray that you will give earnest and deep thought to what we've talked about tonite, that if you are not yet baptized, you will find faith in your heart here today and couple it with a desire to obey the Lord, and that you will tell someone today, "I need to be baptized." And I hope that if that invitation applies to you, you will find a baptized believer and allow them to help you do something about it TODAY!
Posted by David F. Sims, doing my part to "turn the world upside down" (Acts 17:6)
All quotes taken from the New American Standard Bible, unless otherwise stated.
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