Part 3 "If Baptism Is So Important."

Good day to all who read and may God bless His Word as you study! We continue with our third and final lesson on "If Baptism Is So Important."

5.) From Acts 16:30-31 we read;
"He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved--you and your household."

This verse is often quoted but then those who question stop short, right in the middle of the story. People like to quote verses 30 and 31 but they don't quote verses 32 and 33. 

Those very next two verses state that the Word of the Lord was preached to them and then they were 'immediately baptized'.

We know from James 2:19-20 that the jailer did not stop once he had a belief in Jesus. Without a doubt there was more as verses 32-33 illustrate so clearly. 

Read for yourself Acts 16:16-33 for more detail. It does no good to tell someone about baptism unless they are first told the message of Jesus Christ. The first step is to believe, then baptism will be effectual.

Faith in Christ and what He taught is what gives baptism its significance. Obviously, it does no good to tell someone to get baptized unless they have first heard the message of the cross and the story of Jesus.

6.) Finally from Romans 10:9-10 we read;
"That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."

Remember first, Paul just finished explaining in chapter 6, and in great detail, the role of baptism.

This verse does not nullify that chapter. But I find it is of significance to notice the commentary on this verse in the NIV study Bible that states, --

"'Jesus is Lord', the earliest confession of Christian faith, probably used at baptism."  Unquote

The verbal confession of faith that Jesus is the Christ is made at baptism, and is what is seen in the case of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8.

Remember the eunuch asks to be baptized and Philip tells him "if you believe with all your heart, you may."

And then the Ethiopian eunuch confesses faith in Christ with his mouth, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."
He is then baptized. This model is also referred to in the first letter of Paul to Timothy:

1 Timothy 6:12-14

"Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,"

The reference to "eternal life" and the "good confession" makes perfect sense in the light of the correct understanding of baptism.

It makes even more sense when a person understands also, since the first century, it has always been the practice to make a verbal confession of faith in Christ at baptism.

This passage is a reference to that very practice. The confession Jesus made before Pilate was, of course, that He was truly 'The Christ'.

There are several verses that speak of belief and what is tied with that belief and being saved:

Confess with mouth and believe, will be saved (Romans 10:9-10).

Believe and is baptized will be saved (Mark 16:16).

Believe on The Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved….and are then baptized (Acts 16:16-33).

Notice belief never stands alone, by itself. There is always some other action associated with it.

Jesus started preaching by telling us to "repent and believe the Good News."

Jesus also said in Luke 13:3 that unless we repent we will all perish. So we can add one more to the above list:

Repent and believe (Mark 1:15)
Remembering we cannot isolate one verse from another, but putting all these scriptures together, let's see what kind of a picture we get:

Confess with mouth and believe will be saved

Believe and is baptized will be saved...

Believe will be saved by a future act….and are then baptized...

Repent and believe...

What is tied to believing?
Repentance
Confession
Baptism

Looking at it from another angle, notice also that baptism always has something else tied to it:
Believing (Acts 8:37; Mark 16:16)
Repentance (Acts 2:38) { Luke 13:3,5}
Confession of faith in Jesus Christ (Acts 8:36-37).

Which all leads to:
Being baptized (in water) for the forgiveness of sins.

This is where we get:
1.) Hear the Word
2.) Believe
3.) Repent of our sins
4.) Confess faith in Christ
5.) Be baptized for the forgiveness of sins
It's that simple. Now go do THE RIGHT THING; Obey God at His Word! May God bless...