Baptism: Why You Cannot Be Saved Without It!
(The following is an
excerpt from the tract ‘Baptism’ prepared by
Gaston D. Cogdell. There
is no copyright and it is used by permission
of
the author).
Jesus
began His early ministry by being baptized (Matthew 3:15-17). Jesus was
acknowledged by God as His Son and received the Holy Spirit in visible form at
His baptism (Matthew 3:16-17).
Immediately
after His baptism, Jesus Himself began to teach and to baptize (John 3:22).
Jesus told Nicodemus that unless a man is “born of water,” an obvious reference
to baptism, he cannot enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5).
The
last thing that Jesus commanded His apostles to do after His resurrection was
to go and preach the gospel to everyone in the world and to baptize everyone
who believed (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16). The very first thing the
Apostles did in carrying out this Great Commission of Christ was to command
everyone who believed that Jesus was the Christ to repent and be baptized for
the remission of sins (Acts 2:41-47).
THE GREAT COMMISSION BAPTISM MUST BE PRECEDED BY TEACHING
Matthew 28:18-20 “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded
you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”
Here
in the first giving of the universal commission under which we now operate,
Jesus set forth two things that we, as His disciples, are to do, teach and
baptize. Only those who are taught are to be baptized. Infants cannot be taught
and so, cannot be scripturally baptized.
JESUS PUT BELIEF BEFORE BAPTISM, AND BAPTISM BEFORE SALVATION
Mark 16:15-16 “And he said unto them, go ye into all the world and
preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”
Here,
in another record of the Great Commission, under which we now operate and will
until the end of time, Jesus put baptism before salvation and after faith (“he
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved . . .”). Jesus put belief
before baptism, and baptism before salvation. To change that order and to put
baptism before faith as do those who practice infant baptism, or to put
salvation before baptism as those do who teach that we are saved by faith alone,
is to alter and amend the word of Christ as given so plainly in the Great
Commission.
BAPTISM IS A PART OF THE NEW BIRTH AND ONE CAN’T ENTER THE KINGDOM OF GOD WITHOUT IT
John 3:5 “Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man
be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.”
Here,
Jesus states emphatically to Nicodemus that one must be born of water in order
to enter the Kingdom of God. There is no doubt about it. He says that one must
be born of water. That birth of water is baptism and not questioned by any
reputable commentator. If Jesus said one must be born of water to enter the
Kingdom of God, who has the right to say that one can enter the Kingdom of God without
being born of water, i.e. without being baptized?
To be born of something means to “come out of
it.” Obviously, one can’t come out of the water unless he goes into the water.
Here, Jesus is saying one must be immersed in water in order to be saved.
BAPTISM MUST BE PRECEDED BY REPENTANCE AND IS FOR REMISSION OF SINS
Acts 2:38 “Then Peter said unto them, repent, and be baptized every
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
Here,
on the day of Pentecost after the resurrection of Christ in the first full
Gospel sermon ever preached, the apostle Peter told the Jews who wanted to know
what to do to be saved to “repent and be baptized” for the remission or removal
of their sins. Repentance and baptism are for the same purpose. Thus, if one
can be saved without baptism, one can be saved without repentance. These Jews
already believed that Jesus whom they had crucified was the Christ, the
Messiah, and that is why they asked Peter and the other apostles what they must
do (Acts 2:37). Obviously then, belief alone was not enough to save
them. Peter told them that they had to repent and be baptized. That the purpose
of baptism is the remission
of sins is stated plainly
here, and the 3,000 Jews who constituted the first congregation of the Lord’s
church were baptized for the removal of their sins. If baptism is for the
remission of one’s sins, then one’s sins are not removed until he is baptized.
One
is saved in the act of baptism because salvation is the removal of one’s sins.
One is saved from his sins and from their guilt and eternal consequences. Any
church that practices a baptism not for the remission of sin is practicing an
unscriptural baptism which has the wrong purpose
and significance and is
not a valid baptism from the New Testament standpoint.
Acts 22:16 “And now why tarriest thou? Arise, and be baptized and wash
away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.”
Here,
Saul of Tarsus who became the Apostle Paul, was told by a preacher sent to him
by God, to arise, be baptized, and wash away thy sins. If the 3,000 on
Pentecost were baptized for the removal of their sins, and Saul of Tarsus was
baptized to wash away his sins, does that not make it plain that the purpose of
the baptism of the Great Commission is that our sins might be removed? And does
it not follow that we are saved at that point and not before?
Whoever is baptized for a different reason than for
the remission of sins is not baptized for the same reason that those who obeyed
the gospel under the preaching of the apostles were baptized and therefore is
not scripturally baptized. In order to be valid, baptism must not only be
performed in the right way, but it must also be performed for the right reason.
It
is most significant that when Saul was told he must be baptized to remove his
sins, he had already done all the things that the religious
world today says one must
do to be saved, yet he was not saved, for he was still in his sins. He had seen
Christ and confessed Him as Lord. He had a penitent faith in Jesus and asked
Jesus, “What wouldst thou have me to do, Lord?” (Acts 22:10). In his
deep repentance, he had fasted and prayed for three days and nights (Acts
9:9-11). Yet he was still in his sins and had to be baptized to wash them
away (Acts 22:16). Although most preachers nowadays tell men that
baptism has nothing to do with their salvation, faithful preachers of the
Gospel still tell men, as Ananias told Saul, that they wash away their sins in baptism.
1 Corinthians 12:13 “For by one spirit are we all baptized into one
body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been
all made to drink into one spirit.”
Here,
we are told that we are all baptized into the body, which is the Church of
Christ (Ephesians 1:22-23, 4:4-6). Christ is the head of the body, the
church, and He is the head of nothing else. He died for the church, His body,
and He didn’t die for anything else (Ephesians 5:25, Acts 20:28, Colossians
1:18). If we are outside that body which is His church, then we do not
receive the redemption purchased by His death for that body.
1 Corinthians 12:13 says that we are all baptized into one body. That’s how we
get into that one body which is the church, and there is no other way, for it
says that we are all baptized into it. If one can be saved without
baptism, we can be saved outside the body for which Christ died, of which He is
the head, and which we are told is the fulfillment of all His plans (Ephesians
1:22-23).
Ephesians 4:4-6 “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are
called in one Hope of your calling; one Lord one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and
through all, and in you all.”
Here
we are told that there is just one valid baptism, which means that if immersion
is scriptural baptism (and every single church and
denomination agrees that
it is), then it is the only scriptural baptism because there is just one true
baptism. Furthermore, here we see that the doctrine of baptism is put in the
same category of importance as the doctrine of the one true church or body, the
doctrine of the one true spirit or Holy Spirit, the doctrine of heaven, our
only hope, the doctrine of Jesus Christ, the only Lord, the doctrine of the one
and only true faith, and indeed, it is placed on the same level of importance as
the doctrine of the one and only true and living God and father of all.
There
are seven important things listed here in Ephesians 4:4-6 of which there
is only one true and correct representation and in which the Christian must believe.
Baptism is one of those seven things. Yet most of Christendom today holds that
baptism is of small importance!
1. Are we not saved by Holy Spirit baptism rather than water baptism?
If
one admits that water baptism should be practiced at all, and almost all
churches do practice water baptism, or what they call water baptism in some
form, then one must admit that it is the only baptism now in force, for we are
told that there is only one baptism. (Ephesians 4:4-6). Holy Spirit baptism
was made a miracle which could be administered only by Christ. It occurred only
twice, once upon the Apostles at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4), and once upon
the household of Cornelius (Acts 10:44-48), and had nothing to do with
the salvation or remission of sins of those who received it either time. We
will all be immersed by Christ either in the Holy Spirit or in Hell Fire on the
last great day (Matthew 3:11-12). The baptism of the Great Commission
under which we operate today is a baptism that one man can administer to
another. We are commanded to baptize everyone who believes the Gospel (Matthew
28:18-20). No man can choose to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, and no man can
baptize another in the Holy Spirit. Only the Lord can do that. Water baptism
then has to be the baptism of the divine commission under which we now operate,
as is made plain by the scriptures (John 3:5, Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 2:38,
Acts 8:36, 39, 1 Peter 3:21, Titus 3:5, Ephesians 5:25-27, Hebrews 10:22).
2. If one says that one must do something, such as be
baptized, in order to be saved, is he not therefore saying that one is saved by
works, whereas we are told in the scriptures that we are saved “by grace” and
that salvation is a gift?
Although
salvation is by grace and is completely unmerited and unearned (Ephesians
2:8-9), it is not unconditional! God has set certain terms that we
must meet and conditions that we must fulfill in order to be saved. When we
have met those terms and conditions, we have in no sense “earned” salvation any
more than the children of Israel earned the City of Jericho by marching around
it, or Naaman earned the cleansing from his leprosy by dipping in the Jordan
River seven times (Hebrews 11:30, 2 Kings 5:14). Baptism is a
precondition to salvation, and baptism to be scriptural must be preceded by faith and repentance. Almost all
churches teach that one must believe in God and Christ, repent of his sins, and
confess Jesus as Lord in order to be saved. These are all works, things that
one must do. Jesus Himself said that believing on Him is a work (John 6:29).
Baptism, however, is not a work. It is not something that one does, but
something that one allows another to do to him! One submits to baptism. The one
doing the baptizing performs the action, not the one being baptized! Of all the
things that one must do to be saved, believe, repent, confess, be baptized,
take the Lord’s Supper, and live, a Christian baptism is the only one that is
not a work. Yet it is the one thing singled out by most religionists as unnecessary
to salvation because they say, “Salvation is by grace and not by works, and
baptism is a work.” Obviously, it is not, but the other actions which they
themselves admit are necessary prerequisites to salvation (faith, repentance,
confession of Christ as Savior and Lord, living a Christian life) are works.
3. Is infant baptism valid?
So
called infant baptism is not baptism at all. In the first place, sprinkling or
pouring is not the burial in water required by the Scriptures (Romans 6:3-4,
Colossians 2:12). In the second place, the infant is not a penitent
believer, which the Scriptures require that the candidate must be (Acts
2:38, Mark 16:15-16, Luke 24:47, Acts 8:37). It is strange indeed that
those who insist that we are saved by faith alone also insist that infants who
have no faith at all should be baptized. The infant is completely incapable of
either believing or repenting, and in fact, has no sins for which to repent. There
is no mention of infant baptism in the scriptures or in church history until
Tertullian in the third century mentioned it in his tract on baptism, and he
vigorously opposed such a practice. Let us ask the reader the following
questions:
(A) Is it permissible to
force anyone to be baptized and if one is compelled without his consent to be
baptized, is his baptism valid?
(B) Can an unconscious
person be baptized and would the so-called baptism of an unconscious person be
valid?
If
the answer is “no” in each of the above instances, then infant baptism is
obviously not valid, because the infant is compelled without his consent to be
baptized, and he is totally unaware of what is taking place and unconscious of
its implications at the time it is happening. It should be stressed here that
we are talking about the invalidity of infant baptism and not child baptism.
An infant is a child, but a child is not necessarily an infant. Children should
be baptized as soon as they are old enough to be responsible and accountable to
God rather than to their parents for their deeds. The practice of forcing
unbelievers to be baptized, whether they be infants or adults, is contrary to
the Gospel and to the spirit of Christ. We are told that “where the spirit
of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17), which of
course, is the opposite of coercion. The Scriptures teach that guilt for sin is
not transmittable (Ezekiel 18:20). All mankind suffers in this world
from the consequences ofAdam’s sin, but no one will be punished for the guilt
of Adam’s sin in the world to come, any more than we will be rewarded for
Noah’s righteousness at the Last Judgment. Noah is the common ancestor of us
all, just as much as Adam. There is every likelihood that even Adam and Eve
will be in heaven; that even they who committed the original sin will not
suffer its eternal consequences because of their repentance and God’s
forgiveness. Reflect also that the parents of most infants being baptized have themselves
been baptized to remove the stain of Adam’s sin and could not therefore
transmit to another what, even according to the Catholic Church, they themselves do not any longer possess. Little
infants are born free of sin. In fact, Jesus said that we must become like
little children in order to enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:3-4),
and that those who are in the kingdom are like them (Matthew 19:14). We are
baptized in order to become like little children already are. The Scriptures
explicitly state that one is to be baptized to wash away his own sins and not
those of someone else. (Acts 2:38, 22:16)
4. Are sprinkling or pouring valid forms of baptism?
Sprinkling
and pouring are not valid forms of baptism at all. There are three separate
Greek verbs used in regard to three distinct acts: Baptizo means to immerse,
Rantizo means to sprinkle, and Ekkeo means to pour. Sprinkling and pouring are
not forms of immersion, and therefore they are not kinds or forms of baptism,
which means “to immerse.” The Greek word baptizo was not translated into the English,
but was transliterated or anglicized. Obedience consists of doing exactly what
the Savior required, and He required and still requires, immersion. Just as the
bloody sacrifice of Cain did not portray the coming sacrifice of Christ and was
rejected by God (Genesis 4:3-5), so do sprinkling and pouring fail to
portray that sacrifice. Sprinkling and pouring do not portray the Lord’s burial
and resurrection as does immersion, which is a burial and a resurrection with
and into the death of Christ (Romans 6:3-4, Colossians 2:12). Scriptural
baptism requires “much water” (John 3:23). It requires us to go down
into and to come up out of the water (Matthew 3:3, 16, Acts 8:38-39). It
is a “birth of water,” which means a coming forth out of the water (John 3:5).
It is a burial in water (Romans 6:3- 4, Colossians 2:12). It is a “planting”
(Romans 6:5). Immersion fulfills all of these requirements for
scriptural baptism, while sprinkling or pouring fulfill none of them. The
Western or Latin Church (the Roman Catholic Church) baptized by immersion for over
1000 years and then began to practice sprinkling and pouring, although it
continued to also practice immersion for another 500 years. The Eastern
Orthodox or Greek Church (the Greek Catholic Church) has never practiced
anything but immersion. We quote from the Catholic Encyclopedia, “In the Latin
Church, immersion seems to have prevailed until the twelfth century. After that
time, it is found in some places even as late as the sixteenth century.” It was
not until the Council of Ravenna in 1311 that the Roman Catholic Church
officially declared sprinkling to be an acceptable
substitute for immersion
in baptism. Philip Schaff, Presbyterian and one of the greatest of all church historians,
said, “The question now arises, when and how came the mode of pouring and
sprinkling to take the place of immersion and emersion as a rule? The change
was gradual and confined to the Western churches. The Roman Churches, as we
have seen, backed by the authority of Thomas Aquinas, the ‘Angelic Doctor’,
took the lead in the thirteenth century, yet so as to retain in her rituals the
form of immersion as the older and better mode. The practice prevailed over the
theory, and the exception became the rule. This change in the Anglican and
other Protestant Churches from immersion to pouring and from pouring to sprinkling
was encouraged by the authority of Calvin, who declared the mode to be a matter
of no importance, and by the Westminster Assembly of Divines (1643- 1652),
which decided that pouring or sprinkling is ‘not only lawful but sufficient’.
The Westminster Confession declares, ‘Dipping of the person into water is not
necessary; but baptism is rightly administered by pouring or sprinkling water
upon the person.” But the Episcopal ritual retains the direction of immersion, although
it admits sprinkling or pouring as equally valid (Teaching of The Twelve
Apostles, pp. 51-53, Notes on Lange’s Commentary, N.Y. 1890). In view of the
great importance given to baptism by the Lord in His Word and in view of the
fact that there is universal agreement that immersion is valid and scriptural
baptism so that all churches will accept immersion even if they do not practice
it, should one
settle for sprinkling or
pouring, which are highly questionable, to say the very least? Should one
gamble so needlessly when the destiny of his eternal soul is at stake?
5. If the thief on the
cross was saved without baptism (Luke 23:43), why can’t we be?
The
thief on the cross who confessed Jesus as Lord and to whom Jesus said, “Today
shalt thou be with me In Paradise,” died under the Mosaic Covenant. The New
Covenant and Christian Dispensation with its baptismal requirement did not come
into effect until the death and resurrection of Christ and actually was not
inaugurated until the Day of Pentecost (Acts, chapter 2). We learn from Hebrews
9:15-17, “For where a testament is, there must also of necessity, be the
death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead...”
