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In my last post I outlined why I think the Bible is clear that baptism is something God requires of us to be saved.

One of the most common questions people raise after such a claim is that the Bible itself gives us examples of people being saved or having received the Holy Spirit before their baptism, after baptism, or without ever being baptized!  So how could anyone claim baptism is a condition for salvation?

Let's take the examples one by one.

The Thief on the Cross

The clearest example is the thief on the cross from Luke 23:39-43.  The thief defends Jesus to his fellow criminal and then asks Jesus to remember him when he comes into his kingdom.  Jesus replies in v. 43:

Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.

It seems very clear the thief was not saved until the very last moments of his life.  And since he was hanging on a cross, about to die, it was impossible for him to be baptized.  So clearly this is an instance of a person who was saved without being baptized!

But this alone does not make a case against the biblical requirement of baptism for those who now want to be saved.

Why?  Because Christian baptism had not yet been instituted at this point in time.  Not until after Jesus' great commission in Matt. 28:19-20 do we have the official institution of Christian baptism and thus only after Jesus' death and resurrection is baptism required of someone to be saved.

Passages like Rom. 6:3-4 and Col. 2:12 make clear that in baptism we are being buried with Christ in his death and also raised with him to a new life.  That would not be possible if Christ himself had not yet been buried and raised!

Now, am I saying that if someone wants to repent today on their death bed and it is physically impossible for them to be baptized, that God will refuse them eternal life because of that technicality?  Of course not.

I'm simply saying the thief on the cross is not a good example of salvation apart from baptism because Christian baptism was not yet a requirement for salvation at that point in history.

The Samaritans in Acts 8

In Acts 8:14-17 we read:

Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.  Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

Here it seems that the pattern of Acts 2:38 is not followed and the Holy Spirit was not given to these believers at the time of their baptism, but later.  How can this be?  Does this mean that baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit are not connected?

By no means.  Rather this was a special circumstance that God used to set an example to the Jews.

Jews and Samaritans had much animosity toward one another in general.  This is why the story of the good samaritan that Jesus told was such a shock to his hearers.  Jews took pride in being the chosen people of God and often thought that anyone who was not ethnically an Israelite could not be saved.

But, as we know, when Jesus came he extended salvation to anyone, Jew or Gentile (Rom. 1:16) and taught that the gospel was to go not only to Jerusalem, but also to extend to Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

By having Peter and John go personally to these baptized believers and granting them the Holy Spirit in the presence of these two prominent Jewish Apostles, God was revealing to the entire Jewish community that salvation was indeed being offered to those outside of ethnic Israel, even Samaritans!  It seems as though God intentionally gave the Holy Spirit to these believers in an unusual way just to make this point.

So the story of the Samaritans in Acts 8 should not be seen as a case against baptism being the time at which we receive the Holy Spirit, but should be seen as a special circumstance during the beginnings of the church not meant to be normative for believers today.

Cornelius and His Household in Acts 10

Much like the special circumstance God used to teach the Jews a lesson in Acts 8, there is a similar occurrence in Acts 10, which God uses to teach Peter and the rest of the Jewish leaders an important lesson - that salvation has indeed been offered to the Gentiles; it is not reserved exclusively for Jews.

Through some divine circumstances Peter and some of his Jewish friends arrive at the household of Cornelius, a Roman military officer and a non-Jew, but someone who loved God and believed in Christ.

In Acts 10:44-48 we read:

While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.  And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles.  For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God.  The Peter declared, "Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?"  And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.  

Here we see the reverse of what happened in Acts 8.  These people received the Holy Spirit before they were ever baptized, again shedding doubt on the connection between the gift of the Holy Spirit and baptism suggested in Acts 2:38.

Yet again, however, this is not a case proving there is no connection between the Holy Spirit and baptism, but rather a special circumstance in which God intentionally broke the normal pattern in order to show the circumcised believers (Jews) that Gentiles had indeed been accepted into the church and could be saved!

We see this clearly in the passage above when we read, "The believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles." (v. 45)

It is also important to note here that there were other things that happened that are not normative for a salvation experience like the people speaking in tongues and the Holy Spirit falling on them in a visible manner.  These things give even more evidence to the idea that God was intentionally doing something out of the ordinary to prove a point.

Conclusion

After examining all three of these passages it should be clear that they are not proof-texts that can be used to sever the biblical connection between baptism and salvation or baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit.

In Acts 2:38 God makes clear that baptism is the time at which we receive the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Rom. 6:3-4 and Col. 2:12 make clear that we are buried with Christ and raised to new life with Christ in baptism.  And as we discussed in the previous post, 1 Peter 3:21 shows us that the time at which God saves us is our baptism.

If you look at the beliefs of numerous denominations across the country one thing you will certainly find is wide disagreement on the subject of baptism.

Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

Before moving on, just so we're clear, the "this" to which baptism corresponds according to Peter is the flood of Noah.

Baptismal Regeneration

Now the real issue I want to address is the phrase used here, "now saves you."

Recently, on the Ask Pastor John podcast, (which is consistently very good by the way!) Baptist preacher, writer, and theologian John Piper said of this phrase that it "sounds kind of dangerous... sounds kind of like baptismal regeneration," and then he went on to quote the rest of the verse and explain why it's not actually dangerous.

I disagree with Piper on what baptism actually is and does, but in this one statement he's exactly right and I'd like to use it as a jumping-off point to explain what Peter means by "now saves you," in the verse above.

First, Peter does not mean that the physical act of getting dunked under water is what brings about your salvation.  No... Christ's death on the cross did that.  Not everyone who has ever been baptized is automatically saved.  That's what "baptismal regeneration" means.

There have been and will always be people who get baptized for the wrong reasons (their friends were doing it, they felt peer pressured into it, they wanted to be liked, etc.) and baptism does not save those people.

A youth minister I knew once fell into the baptismal pool while decorating for VBS.  He was completely immersed.  Was he re-baptized?  Absolutely not!  It's the same as if he fell in a pool.

Salvation By Works?

However, what Peter does mean when he says "baptism now saves you," is that baptism is part of the salvation process.  Many denominations of churches today simply gloss over this fact and act as if baptism has no part in salvation whatsoever.

A statement as clear as "baptism now saves you," can only mean one of two things.  Either (1) baptism is what does the saving (which is clearly unbiblical, God does it), or (2) we are saved in the act of baptism or at the time of our baptism.  It would be dishonest to read such a statement, even with the caveat that comes immediately after, and conclude that Peter meant the exact opposite of what he says, that baptism does not save you.

Is this a type of works-righteousness and therefore heresy like that described by Paul in the book of Galatians?  Absolutely not!  Rather God has given certain conditions that all people must meet if they want to be saved.  Being baptized is simply obediently meeting one of those conditions.  The biblical phrase is "obeying the gospel." (See 2 Thess. 1:8; 1 Peter 4:17)

It is not salvation by works simply because we do something God told us to do to be saved!  God tells us to believe (John 3:16), to repent (Luke 13:3), and to confess (Rom. 10:9-10) in order to be saved.  Would anyone claim that it is salvation by works to require repentance of someone for them to be saved?  Hardly.

The Bible shows us, in many books and in many ways, that being baptized is one of God's conditions for salvation (Mark 16:16).  Baptism is the God-ordained time at which we receive the forgiveness of our sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).  It is the point in time in our conversion where we cross over from death to life (John 5:24).  In it we are buried with Christ (Rom. 6:3-4) and in it we are raised to new life (Col. 2:12).  It saves us (1 Peter 3:21) in the sense that God saves us when we get baptized.