Water sustains life, but Scripture also records occasions when it brought death. The flood and Israel’s crossing of the Red Sea cannot be explained simply by calling water a symbol of cleansing. We need to understand what God was doing in each event and how Scripture explains it. The same Bible that describes those real events also uses water to picture the cleansing and life that sinners receive through Christ.
Water Under God’s Rule
God created water and gave it its place. It has no spiritual power independent of Him, whether a passage describes a drink for someone who is thirsty or a sea too dangerous to cross. Genesis begins with God ordering His creation by His word:
Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”
Genesis 1:6
The Hebrew word mayim is the ordinary word for water or waters. It does not name a divine force competing with the Creator. In Genesis, God speaks, separates the waters, and orders what He has made. Later passages describe water bringing judgment or sustaining life, but the water always remains under His authority.
The sea’s turbulence reminds us how little we can command, but the psalmist addresses the LORD as its ruler:
You rule the raging of the sea; When its waves rise, You still them.
Psalm 89:9
The water that overwhelms human strength has not escaped God’s rule. When He commands it to serve His purpose, its danger cannot thwart Him. That is true when He judges through the waters and when He makes a path through them.
Scripture also uses the sea to portray turmoil beyond human control. Revelation 13 shows a beast rising from it. I understand its emergence from the sea as a picture of rebellious power arising amid the world’s upheaval:
Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.
Revelation 13:1
That image does not make saltwater morally evil. We need to distinguish the created sea from the rebellion pictured through it. Isaiah uses its restless movement to describe wicked people who cannot find peace:
But the wicked are like the troubled sea, When it cannot rest, Whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
Isaiah 57:20
Isaiah’s comparison reaches beyond a person’s outward behavior to his relationship with God. Someone can become more disciplined or repair a damaged reputation while still refusing to repent. Those changes may benefit his daily life, but they cannot remove the guilt that separates him from his Maker. He needs the reconciliation God provides through Christ.
Judgment and Rescue Through the Waters
In Noah’s day, the world had become corrupt and violent. God would judge that wickedness, but Scripture does not describe an uncontrolled outburst. His patience gave people time to respond, while His warning made clear that He would not continue to bear with them indefinitely:
And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”
Genesis 6:3
Genesis says Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD before describing his obedience. God told him to build an ark, and he acted on that word instead of inventing his own way to survive. The refuge and the warning both came from the LORD, who announced the coming judgment:
And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die.
Genesis 6:17
The waters engulfed the old world, while God preserved Noah and his family in the ark. Their survival did not make the judgment less real. God had provided a refuge before the flood came, and Noah responded to His grace with obedient faith. I need to recognize both God’s mercy and His judgment instead of using one to explain the other away. The study on Noah and the ark follows the full account.
The ark was God’s appointed refuge, and I understand that provision as pointing forward to Christ. Optimism and advice about improving ourselves cannot remove our guilt or save us from judgment. Jesus, the sinless Son of God, willingly gave Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Wicked men tortured and crucified Him, inflicting real suffering on His innocent body. His shed blood and death completed His saving sacrifice before He was buried and rose bodily from the dead. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. Father and Son remained united in providing the refuge we need.
Centuries before Christ’s coming, Israel faced Pharaoh’s army with the sea blocking their escape. In Exodus 14, God commanded them to move forward, then made a path they could not have produced for themselves:
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided. So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
Exodus 14:21-22
Israel crossed on dry ground, but Pharaoh’s pursuing army met judgment in the same place. The LORD opened a path for His people and brought the waters back over those who persisted in opposing Him. The outcome depended on His action toward them, not on a spiritual quality in the water itself. The study on the Exodus places this rescue within Israel’s deliverance from Egypt.
When Israel later came to enter the promised land, the Jordan was overflowing its banks. The priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of the people, and their feet touched the water before the river stopped. Joshua describes what followed:
that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan. So the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho.
Joshua 3:16
The ark of the covenant testified to God’s presence with His people. The priests carried it into the river because He had commanded them to do so, and He stopped the water so the nation could cross. They could neither control the river by a ritual nor purchase a miracle by taking those steps. Their obedience expressed trust in what God had said. We should not confuse that response with earning His help, or use dependence on Him as an excuse to disregard His commands.
These crossings also help us understand how Scripture speaks of baptism. Looking back to the earlier Red Sea crossing, Paul described Israel’s identification with Moses:
Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
1 Corinthians 10:1-2
Being baptized into Moses identified the people with the leader God had appointed. Paul was not saying that seawater had washed away their guilt. He used Israel’s later failures to warn the Corinthians that extraordinary spiritual privileges did not excuse disobedience. We cannot use God’s past kindness as permission to neglect what He commands now.
Baptism and True Cleansing
Christian baptism likewise identifies the believer with the One he follows. The New Testament gives it to people who have believed in Christ, as a public testimony of salvation. It does not produce the new birth or remove guilt by washing the body. If I trust the act while refusing Christ, I have put my confidence in something that cannot save me.
The Greek verb baptizō can describe dipping, immersion, or washing, depending on its use. Those meanings describe an action, but they do not establish what that action accomplishes spiritually. We have to read what the passages teach about Christ and faith. Baptism by immersion publicly portrays a believer’s union with Him in burial and resurrection; applying water to the body does not create that union. The study on baptism in the Bible examines the relevant passages more fully.
Peter’s statement that baptism now saves us deserves careful attention. He has just described eight people being brought safely through the flood in Noah’s ark. Baptism corresponds to that deliverance, but Peter immediately qualifies what he means:
There is also an antitype which now saves us–baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
1 Peter 3:21
Peter excludes the removal of bodily dirt and speaks instead of a good conscience toward God, through Jesus Christ’s resurrection. Noah’s family had not been rescued by floodwater cleaning their bodies. The ark God had told Noah to build carried them through the judgment. I understand baptism here as the outward confession of trust in the crucified and risen Savior who delivers us, rather than the physical means of making a sinner spiritually alive.
The expression translated “the answer of a good conscience toward God” has been understood as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, or as an answer or pledge expressing allegiance to Him. The debate concerns the Greek noun eperōtēma. Either reading directs attention to a person’s response to God, while Peter explicitly grounds the deliverance in Jesus Christ’s resurrection.
Paul describes the inward cleansing in his letter to Titus as God’s merciful work through the Holy Spirit:
not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
Titus 3:5
Regeneration means the new birth, the Spirit’s renewing work that makes someone a new creation. Neither a pastor nor the person being baptized can produce that inward renewal by performing the physical act. Baptism should testify to what God has done through Christ. For someone who has genuinely been born again, it is obedience and public confession, not a payment for eternal life.
Jesus Over the Waters and Death
The Old Testament’s teaching that God rules the sea prepares us to recognize what Jesus was doing when He walked toward His disciples on the water. Their boat was being battered by waves, and the wind was against them. When they saw Him approaching, they mistook Him for a ghost and cried out:
Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.”
Matthew 14:25-27
Peter asked Jesus to command him to come out onto the water. At His word, Peter left the boat and walked toward Him, but the wind frightened him and he began to sink. He cried to the Lord to save him, and Jesus immediately took hold of him:
And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Matthew 14:31
When Jesus and Peter entered the boat, the wind ceased, and the disciples worshiped Jesus as the Son of God. Peter’s brief walk had depended on Jesus’ command and power; it did not give Peter authority over the sea. The Lord came to His disciples in their danger, enabled Peter to walk, and rescued him when he doubted.
Jesus reassured them with the words “It is I,” ego eimi in Greek. Those words can simply identify the speaker, so I would not rest the whole argument for His deity on the expression alone. Here, however, Jesus was walking over the sea and enabling Peter to do the same. His actions reveal the divine authority the Old Testament attributes to God as ruler of the waters. The study of Jesus walking on water follows the full passage.
Jesus confronted Peter’s doubt, so we should not excuse unbelief as though it did no harm. Yet Peter was rescued by the Lord’s hand, not by recovering perfect composure while he sank. If I am afraid, I need to turn to Christ instead of waiting until I feel strong enough to ask for help. This rescue gives me reason to trust Him, but it does not promise that every faithful believer will be spared drowning or other physical harm.
Earlier, in Matthew 12, Jesus had used Jonah’s experience to point to His death, burial, and bodily resurrection. Scribes and Pharisees demanded a sign while resisting the words and works already before them. He answered that, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the great fish, the Son of Man would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Jonah had gone down into the sea because of his disobedience, and God appointed the fish that preserved him and returned him to land alive. Christ, however, was completely sinless and willingly accomplished the saving work to which Jonah’s deliverance pointed. Jonah did not atone for anyone’s sins. The study on Jonah considers the whole book.
Living Water and Everlasting Life
At Jacob’s well, Jesus offered a Samaritan woman something the well could never provide. Ordinary water would relieve her thirst for a time, but the water He gave would bring everlasting life:
Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
John 4:13-14
Jesus exposed the woman’s sin, revealed Himself as the Messiah, and offered life she could never earn through religious achievement. The gift came through Him personally, rather than through a sacred substance with power apart from Him. She had come to draw water from the well, but only the Savior could meet her need for everlasting life. The study on living water explores that promise further.
John 7 records a public invitation at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. The crowd was divided over Jesus, and the authorities opposed Him, yet on the last day He called the thirsty to come to Him and drink:
He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
John 7:38
John explains that Jesus meant the Holy Spirit whom believers would receive after His glorification. Everyone who believes in Christ now receives the Spirit to dwell within him. Cleansing and new life are God’s gifts, received through faith, and a genuinely born-again person’s conduct should give evidence of that life.
The invitation was to come to Jesus Himself, even while the crowd argued about His identity. Attending the feast or trusting a sacred object could not give them the life He offered. We need personal faith in Christ, because the living water describes His gift of life and the Spirit He gives. We cannot separate either gift from the Savior and treat it as a power of our own.
The Deepest Crossing
The promise of living water concerns more than surviving a flood, crossing a river, or escaping a storm. A person could experience any of those rescues without receiving inward cleansing and new life. Jesus addresses that deeper need directly in John 5:24:
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
John 5:24
Jesus says that the person who hears and believes already has everlasting life, has passed from death into life, and will not come under condemnation. The believer is not left waiting to discover whether his religious performance will eventually make him acceptable to God. The Red Sea and Jordan crossings were real events, as were Noah’s preservation and Jonah’s deliverance, but our salvation rests in Christ Himself. He completed His saving sacrifice through His shed blood and death before He was buried and rose bodily from the dead.
Christ died for the whole world, and God’s offer is genuine even though people can resist His grace. Everyone who repents and believes is forgiven and declared righteous before God. He gives that person the new birth, and the Holy Spirit indwells and seals the believer, who is eternally secure in Christ. This assurance gives no permission for lawlessness. Someone who has truly received new life should show evidence of it in his conduct; a superficial profession cannot prove that regeneration has occurred. Obedience is the fruit of salvation, not a means of earning eternal life or keeping ourselves saved.
If you have believed but have not been baptized, baptism is the proper public step of identification with Christ. If you have been baptized, that memory should not become an excuse to neglect Him now. The act should confess your trust in the Savior, and the water must never become a substitute for the One who gives life.
The life Christ promises also has a future fulfillment in the new heaven and new earth. John says there is no more sea, and he places that statement alongside God’s promise that death, sorrow, and pain will be gone. Earlier in Revelation, the sea has been associated with danger and the rise of beastly power. I understand its absence as part of the passing of that former order, with its threat and separation. This does not mean the oceans were morally evil or that John has explained every feature of the new earth’s geography.
The absence of the sea does not mean the absence of all water. Revelation 22 shows the river of the water of life flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. His people will dwell with Him, free of the death and danger that belonged to the old order. The water is part of the life He provides, and its source directs our attention to the God who gives it. For those who belong to Christ, the future is everlasting life with Him instead of judgment.
My Final Thoughts
I cannot cleanse my own guilt any more than I could have stopped the Red Sea. God has provided the Savior I need, and Christ calls me to receive His life by faith. My obedience, including baptism, should testify to that trust instead of becoming an excuse to rely on a religious act. These passages give us reason to take God’s judgment seriously and receive the refuge He provides, with our hope resting in the Son who brings sinners from death into life.
Does a person become a Christian when he is baptized, or is he baptized because he has already become a Christian? I believe Scripture teaches the second. Christ saves the sinner who comes to Him in repentance and faith; baptism then publicly confesses that faith. If we reverse that order, we send someone to the water for what he needs to receive from Christ. We also need to understand why the Lord commanded baptism, so that confidence in His grace leads us to obey Him.
Salvation Comes Before Baptism
Water baptism identifies a believer with Jesus Christ. Going beneath the water pictures His death and burial, while rising from it pictures life with the risen Lord. The person openly confesses that he belongs to Christ. Treating baptism merely as a family milestone misses the personal faith it is meant to express.
Teaching someone that water causes new birth encourages him to expect a ceremony to make him acceptable to God. Before arranging a baptism, we need to explain the gospel so that the person understands whom he is trusting and what Christ has done to save him.
Jesus could offer the perfect sacrifice for our sins because He was without sin. He willingly gave Himself to be slain, enduring the torture and death wicked men inflicted on His innocent body. He completed His saving work through His shed blood and death before His burial and bodily resurrection. The Father and Son remained united in that redemption. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. We are justified, or declared righteous before God, by grace through faith in Christ. Water cannot give us that standing, any more than church membership or personal reform can.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9, NKJV
Paul describes salvation as God’s gift received through faith. If baptism completed our justification, trusting Christ would leave us waiting for another act before God could declare us righteous. Romans 4:5 instead speaks of God justifying the ungodly person who believes in Him.
But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.
Romans 4:5, NKJV
The person Paul describes has no righteous record to offer God, yet God counts his faith for righteousness. He is already declared righteous through faith, so a later baptism cannot be the act that gives him that standing. Titus 3:5 likewise appeals to God’s mercy when describing the new birth.
not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
Titus 3:5, NKJV
I understand the “washing of regeneration” as the Holy Spirit’s inward renewing, rather than water producing spiritual life. When I use the word regeneration, I mean that someone has genuinely been born again. A ceremony does not cause that life, and a Christian label cannot establish that someone has received it. The study on being born again explains this further.
Knowing that water cannot save does not release a believer from Christ’s command to be baptized. He is being asked to confess the Savior who has already given him life. I can take that obedience seriously without making it a condition that finishes salvation. For a fuller explanation of salvation, see the study on soteriology, the study of how God saves sinners.
Romans 6 and the Meaning of Baptism
Paul discusses baptism in Romans 6 while confronting a misuse of grace. If God freely forgives sinners, should believers keep sinning so that there will be even more grace? That argument would turn His generosity into an excuse to continue doing what He condemns.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
Romans 6:1-2, NKJV
Paul reminds the believers that they have died to sin. He is not saying that they have become incapable of sinning; later in the chapter he tells them not to let sin reign in their mortal bodies. Nor is he threatening the loss of genuine salvation. These people now belong to Christ, so sin has no rightful claim to continue ruling their lives.
Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:3-4, NKJV
Because baptism normally followed faith promptly in the New Testament, Paul could speak about conversion through the sign that accompanied it. I understand being baptized into Christ here as our union and identification with Him. The Holy Spirit joins the believer to Christ, and water baptism publicly expresses what God has done inwardly.
The Greek verb translated baptize is commonly associated with dipping or immersing. That meaning fits the burial and resurrection imagery in this passage. Together, the wording and the picture lead me to believer baptism by immersion. Going into the water and rising from it expresses that identification more clearly than a few drops of water.
In baptism, a believer declares that he belongs to the crucified and risen Lord. That confession is incompatible with insisting that Christ has no claim on his conduct. Paul brings baptism into the discussion of continuing in sin because new life in Christ changes whom we serve. The confession made in the water should be borne out in the life that follows.
The Pattern in Acts
Acts records people responding to the gospel and then being baptized. At Pentecost, those baptized were the people who had received Peter’s message.
Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.
Acts 2:41, NKJV
Peter had told the Jewish crowd that the Jesus they had crucified was risen and was both Lord and Christ. They were cut to the heart, and those who received his words responded in repentance and faith. Their baptism followed that acceptance of God’s testimony about His Son. Receiving the message meant welcoming that testimony, not merely listening to a sermon.
The Ethiopian official in Acts 8 was returning home while reading Isaiah 53, but he did not know whom the prophet was describing. The Holy Spirit directed Philip to him, and Philip began with that passage to preach Jesus. When they came to water, the man asked to be baptized.
Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?” Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
Acts 8:36-37, NKJV
Philip required a personal response to the gospel. The man confessed his faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God before he was baptized. Before agreeing to baptize someone, we should ask whom he is trusting for salvation.
Cornelius’s household shows us that God accepted these believers before they entered the water. Cornelius was a Gentile and a Roman army officer. Peter preached to his household about Jesus’ ministry, death and bodily resurrection. While Peter was explaining forgiveness through faith in Christ’s name, the Holy Spirit came upon the hearers. They received Him before Peter commanded their baptism.
“Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then they asked him to stay a few days.
Acts 10:47-48, NKJV
Peter appealed to the Spirit already given to these Gentiles as his reason to baptize them. Since they had received Him before entering the water, the water could not be the means of receiving Him. They responded to God’s saving work by being baptized.
Water Baptism, Spirit Baptism, and Who Should Be Baptized
Before Pentecost, Jesus reminded His disciples of a distinction John the Baptist had already made. John baptized with water and directed people to the One who would baptize with the Holy Spirit.
for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
Acts 1:5, NKJV
People perform water baptism, while God joins the believer to Christ and places him in His body through Spirit baptism. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:13 that all believers were baptized by one Spirit into one body. God does this when a person believes; it does not depend on a pastor administering water.
When I read “baptized into Christ”, I distinguish the inward work from the water baptism that confesses it. Conversion and water baptism normally occurred close together, but the outward act cannot produce the inward life. Acts 10 records people receiving the Spirit before water baptism. In 1 Corinthians 1:17, Paul also distinguishes his commission to preach the gospel from performing baptisms.
Colossians 2 approaches that inward work through the image of a circumcision “made without hands,” something only God can perform. Paul then speaks of burial and resurrection with Christ through faith in God’s working.
In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
Colossians 2:11-12, NKJV
The words “through faith in the working of God” direct our trust to the One who raised Jesus from the dead. Water baptism can express that faith, but it cannot supply the spiritual life it pictures. God does the inward work, and the believer confesses his dependence on Him.
I believe water baptism belongs to someone who has personally responded to the gospel in repentance and faith. Infant baptism does not follow that order. Parents should love their children, pray for them and teach them Scripture as they grow. A parent’s faith cannot take the place of the child’s own trust in Christ.
The household baptisms do not establish a different order. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas spoke the Word of the Lord to the jailer and everyone in his house. The account then describes baptism and rejoicing in connection with belief in God. It does not state that infants were baptized apart from faith. The word household by itself cannot tell us the ages of everyone present, much less establish that someone was baptized before he could respond to the gospel.
Someone sprinkled as a baby can come to saving faith in Christ, just as someone taught incorrectly about baptism can be saved. Christ saves the person who trusts Him. Once that believer understands His instruction, he should be baptized in obedience to it. A ceremony arranged before he could believe cannot take the place of his own response to Christ.
Public Confession and the Beginning of Discipleship
Jesus Himself was baptized before beginning His public ministry. He had no sin to confess and needed no cleansing. John recognized that Jesus was greater and initially resisted baptizing Him, but Jesus explained why he should proceed.
But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him.
Matthew 3:15, NKJV
His baptism was different from ours because He needed neither repentance nor forgiveness. He was obeying the Father as He began His public ministry. If Jesus was willing to be baptized, I do not see how I can dismiss His command to me as unnecessary.
After His resurrection, Jesus commanded His followers to make disciples, baptize them and teach them to observe all He had commanded. The work cannot end with counting baptisms, because the people baptized still need to learn how to obey Him.
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.
Matthew 28:19-20, NKJV
Baptism makes a personal confession public and identifies the believer with Christ and His people. The church should welcome that profession of faith and help the new believer learn to follow the Lord.
Galatians 3 likewise connects baptism with belonging to Christ. Paul first identifies believers as sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, then describes those baptized into Christ as having put on Christ. I understand that order to place faith before the public identification.
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Galatians 3:26-27, NKJV
A uniform can declare allegiance to an organization without making the wearer a member. In the same way, baptism openly confesses belonging to Christ without making someone a child of God. Baptism is a joyful confession because Christ has already given the believer new life. Like the Lord’s Supper, it directs us to the Savior’s work rather than supplying salvation through the outward act. The study on communion considers that other observance Christ gave the church.
Before baptizing someone, a pastor should talk with him about the faith he is confessing. Does he trust Jesus, who died for sins and rose bodily? Does he understand that salvation is received by grace through faith, rather than through the baptism service? Those questions help the pastor hear a credible profession of faith and help the person understand what his baptism will confess. A photograph and a family celebration cannot establish that he has understood the gospel.
We should welcome sincere faith in a child while taking the same care. A family’s enthusiasm cannot stand in place of the child’s faith. We need a credible profession, whether the person is a child or an adult, without pressuring someone into a ceremony he barely understands. Otherwise, he may look back on the event for assurance while never having understood his need to trust Christ.
Difficult Texts and the Believer’s Response
Several passages are used to argue that baptism saves. I want to consider their wording directly, in their own context and alongside the teaching that God justifies the sinner through faith.
Acts 2:38 says, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” Peter commanded repentance and baptism, and I accept the obligation to obey both. I read that command alongside verse 41, which identifies the baptized as people who received the Word. Acts 10 also shows people receiving the Spirit before baptism. I therefore understand water baptism as the commanded response to the gospel rather than the cause of forgiveness. The word for cannot settle the question apart from that context and Paul’s explanation of justification.
Peter’s statement in 1 Peter 3:21 follows his description of Noah’s deliverance through the flood. He connects baptism with salvation, then explains what he means.
There is also an antitype which now saves us–baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
1 Peter 3:21, NKJV
An antitype is something corresponding to an earlier event. Peter relates baptism to Noah’s deliverance, but expressly excludes the removal of dirt from the body. He speaks of a good conscience toward God through Jesus Christ’s resurrection. I understand baptism as the appointed sign of faith’s response to the risen Savior. We come to God trusting what Jesus has done for us; washing our bodies cannot remove the guilt of our sins.
Mark 16:16 says, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” In the second half, Jesus identifies unbelief as the reason for condemnation. I read the first half as joining faith with the obedience that normally followed it, consistent with the other passages we have considered. Undergoing baptism cannot rescue a person who refuses to believe in the Savior.
If you have not trusted Jesus Christ, begin with Him rather than arranging a baptism to put your conscience at ease. He died for the sins of the whole world, so His offer of salvation is sincerely extended to you. You can resist that offer, but He calls you to turn to Him in repentance and faith. Trust the Savior who shed His blood and died for your sins, was buried and rose bodily. Church attendance and a Christian family cannot give you the new birth you need.
If you have trusted Christ but have not been baptized as a believer, talk with your church leaders and make a definite plan. Ask whatever questions will help you understand the confession you are making. Do not use the fact that water does not save as a reason to postpone baptism indefinitely.
If you were baptized before you understood the gospel, including as an infant, ask whether you have ever been baptized as a believer. There is no need to be ashamed of decisions others made for you, or of what you did before you understood. If you have since trusted Christ and have not confessed that faith in baptism, you can obey Him now.
Obedience continues after baptism. Everyone genuinely born again is indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit and is eternally secure in Christ. Romans 6 calls that believer to live in the newness of life God has given. Obedience shows that life; it does not earn salvation or keep us saved. Our assurance should encourage us to obey Christ instead of excusing a return to sin’s rule.
My Final Thoughts
I believe Christ commands water baptism as the public confession of someone He has already saved through faith. If you belong to Him and have not been baptized as a believer, take that step with your confidence in the Savior who gave you life. Those watching should understand that you are confessing His death, burial and resurrection, and your own dependence on Him. The life that follows should bear witness to the same Lord you have publicly confessed.
