Is Baptism Crucial for Salvation?

Essence of Wholesome Religion

Baptism shouldn’t be essential for salvation. In any other case, the thief on the cross, to whom Jesus says, “At present, you’ll be with me in paradise,” wouldn’t be saved. We distinguish in theological phrases between what’s of the essence of religion and what’s maybe of the essence of a wholesome religion. So, baptism is of the essence of a wholesome Christian life.

Repeatedly, Peter calls on his hearers to repent and be baptized. Baptism is an indication and a seal of God’s grace to us, that he’s marking us out as belonging to him. And so baptism is one thing that we needs to be longing for—for us and, I might argue, for our kids as properly. Simply as underneath the outdated covenant believers and their youngsters had been circumcised, so too underneath the brand new covenant it’s that signal and seal.

It’s about what God does. It’s about God’s guarantees to us and to our kids, which can also be the place Acts 2 goes. They offer us assurance that the guarantees of God are usually not simply typically true, but additionally are for us. Once we get signed and sealed with the water of baptism, that’s pointing to the cleaning that solely the Holy Spirit may give us, and that God guarantees he’ll give to those that repent and switch to Christ. There’s no after all about God’s mercy. It’s not pure for sinners like us to be welcomed in.

And so we should always rightly worry the query, What if my sins are too nice? What if God doesn’t welcome me in? Baptism reminds us that God has marked you out as belonging to him. He stamped his seal upon you as belonging to him, and he’s subsequently calling us to consider within the guarantees and to belief that what God has instructed his folks from the start of his objective with Abraham. These issues are true for us personally.

That’s why we apply the signal of baptism not simply generically to the church constructing, for instance. We apply it particularly to folks as a result of God offers with folks—believers and their households. And so it’s God’s assurance to us. Now, it doesn’t imply that with out that signal and seal the fact isn’t current. It’s potential for folks to be Christians and never have the mark positioned upon them. There may be quite a lot of causes for that, some higher than others. What issues, clearly, is what that signal factors to. It’s not the signal itself, however the signal itself factors you to a actuality, and so it encourages us as believers, and our kids, that this promise is for you.

Iain Duguid is the creator of Turning the World Upside Down: Classes for the Church from Acts 1–8.

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