Question
I am having a conversation with a friend about how to be saved, baptism, etc. I asked her to tell me, if she was asked by someone how to be saved, what she would say.
She said: “I would tell them that they need to accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior via a simple prayer (our direct connect to God). Admit (Confess to God that you are a sinner. Repent or turn away from your sin.) Believe (Trust that Jesus is God’s Son and that God sent Jesus to save people from their sins.) Confess (Give your life to Jesus. Ask Him to be your Lord and Savior.). That’s really it. I believe from the moment that you say that prayer God welcomes you into His family. Your name is written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life and it can never be erased. No requirements. No age limits. Just faith alone.
Now do I think everyone needs the Roman Road or see all the Bible verses to back up their belief, no. I believe there are situations (especially during mission or evangelical work) where God just shows up and pours His love on people in such a way that they can no longer deny that He is real, and that they need him as their personal Savior and Lord. I believe anyone who asks has been led by the Holy Spirit to a place where they know that God is real, and they just need a little guidance in the process. No evidence needed. Do some people come to faith intellectually? Sure. But I do believe that God knows us so intimately that He knows the best way for us to come into a knowledge of Him… and that everyone will make a choice who they believe in before the rapture of the Church.
Do I think baptism is necessary for salvation? Absolutely not. I believe is an outward sign of an inward decision, and that God took away the necessity of baptism in order to be saved when He died on the cross (same as the veil being torn in two in the temple, out with old covenant and in with the new covenant). God has eliminated all barriers to Him. The Heavens are open. We can talk with him about anything, whenever – and He can minister to us. I believe Baptism of the Spirit is a second experience, and that we have to invite the Holy Spirit into our hearts to comfort us, guide us into all truth, and to give us the power and confidence to show God and all of his attributes to people.”
I realize that this is a lot, but I focused primarily on the baptism saving part. I then asked her how she would explain Acts 2:38, where it says that we need to baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.
She replied: “Oh see, now that is an interesting question… it is SO interesting that I spent nearly two weeks in Biblical Hermeneutics talking about it, and had to write an essay about it. Let’s just say it is a debatable thing for one reason: it depends on how you interpret the Greek. Personally, I believe the word ‘eis’ in Acts 2:38 means ‘because of’ not ‘for’ as it has been translated in so many translations of the Bible.”
It would be like a slap in Jesus’ face for me to believe that God could not redeem me without some kind of prerequisite. I would never put conditions on God like that. I replied that it wouldn’t be a slap in God’s face to figure that there are conditions for salvation, because the Lord Himself said in Mark 16:16 that we must believe and be baptized to be saved.
She again went to the Greek argument she had used for Acts 2:38.
Answer
Thanks so much for forwarding this information to me. I am happy to respond.
First, the only way we can know the will of God for us is through His Word (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Whatever we say pertaining to salvation must be in accordance with the Word of God (1 Peter 4:11).
With that in mind, where do we read in Scripture that anyone was ever taught “to accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior”? Where do we ever read about a lost sinner outside Christ being directed to pray for salvation? Where was any alien sinner (Ephesians 2:11-12) ever instructed to confess his sins? How can anyone “speak as the oracles of God” and teach such doctrines unknown to Scripture?
How can anyone claim God will not blot sinners out of His book? Israel in the wilderness was our example of the danger of falling away from Christ (1 Corinthians 10:1-12). But the Lord declared to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book” (Exodus 32:33).
How can any believer in Christ claim there are no requirements for salvation? “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21)
How can any Bible believer assert that salvation is by “faith alone”? “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only” (James 2:24). And, if salvation is by faith alone, why do we have to pray, admit, repent, and confess? That’s four things in addition to faith. Are they requirements?
Are there no age limits? We certainly must be old enough to believe. “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24). And we have to be of the age to be able to repent. “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19). Little children do not need salvation, for they are safe, being free from sin. “But Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven’” (Matthew 19:14).
The only power God exercises to draw the sinner to Himself, regardless of the situation, is the Gospel. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek” (Romans 1:16). The sinner must learn the gospel to be saved.
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me” (John 6:44-45).
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). “Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures” (James 1:18). “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21).
“Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because ‘All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.’ Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you” (1 Peter 1:22-25).
Of course God has the power to save us apart from our intellect, but He chooses not to do so. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Saving faith is based on the acceptance of evidence.
Is water baptism necessary for salvation? It stands between the sinner and salvation (Mark 16:16; 1 Peter 3:21), the new birth (John 3:5; Titus 3:5), the remission of sins (Acts 2:38; 22:16), calling on the name of the Lord (Acts 22:16; 1 Peter 3:21), being in Christ (Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:26-27), putting on Christ (Galatians 3:26-27), being sanctified and cleansed (Ephesians 5:25-27), putting off the body of the sins of the flesh (Colossians 2:11-12), and having our hearts sprinkled with the blood of Christ (Hebrews 10:22).
The Scriptures nowhere teach that baptism “is an outward sign of an inward decision” (or “inward grace”). They do plainly assert baptism is “an appeal to God for a good conscience” (1 Peter 3:21, New American Standard Bible, English Standard Version).
How could baptism have been taken away by the death of Christ on the cross, since baptism in the name of Christ never was part of the Old Testament but of the Great Commission of Christ (Mark 16:15-16; Matthew 28:18-19) and is plainly commanded in the New Testament? (Acts 2:38; 22:16)
There is only one baptism in effect by the authority of the Lord today (Ephesians 4:5). It is water baptism (Acts 10:47-48). All we need to be everything the Lord wants us to be is provided by the Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Isn’t it a shame that someone who claims to believe the Bible spent two weeks in “hermeneutics” (the science of Scripture interpretation) trying to figure a way to get around a plain verse of Scripture? “Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’” (Acts 2:38). That passage is so clear it takes the help of a theologian to misunderstand it.
But the best interpreter of Scripture is Scripture itself. Jesus declared concerning the fruit of the vine in the Lord’s Supper, “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28). “For the remission of sins” is word for word the same in Matthew 26:28 and Acts 2:38. Did Jesus shed His blood “because of” the remission of sins or ‘in order to” the remission of sins? When you answer that question, you’ve uncovered the meaning of Acts 2:38 and discovered the purpose of baptism.
I didn’t put in those requirements, God did. And, after all, aren’t believe, admit, repent, and confess requirements?
