How Does Baptism Save Us?

Ask Pastor John
Episode: 1864

[wendywalker-drakes]

I do not share this point of view, i respectfully add Pastor John. Let us not leave out Jesus' words in John 3 and Acts 2: 38. I'll stick with Jesus' words.
It is not symbolic. It is an act of faith knowing that at that point I come in contact with the blood of Christ that washes the sin away.

[oklartse]

I am getting water baptized on Sunday. 🙏🏻

[adriannaumenko]

Don't forget that in Acts 22:16 it says that baptism also washes our sins away too.

[bobthrasher]

I am not Roman Catholic or CoC (raised Evangelical non-denom) but I believe in baptismal regeneration (of sin-conscious people) because the verses which teach on baptism (Acts 22:16, Acts 2:38, Rom 6, Col 2:11, 12, Titus 3:5) seem to indicate it when you read the literally. I find that more of Scripture "coheres" when you realize that baptism is how you "get into Christ." So much of what I have heard to dissuade from this view often reads-into the text ideas that are not necessarily there. Nor do I believe that scripture teaches baptism is an automatic "ticket to glory." It simply accomplishes what we call justification and one must still choose to live an obedient life.

[williamcopeland]

From a conscience testifying to the soul and witnessing to the principalities and powers you have entered the war

[John.]

I'll have to listen to this again and again ... but I'm hoping that my questions about those baptism verses (that are so often ignored or butchered) have finally been answered in a convincing way by a fellow Baptist.

[johnnilan]

Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. John 3:5 Why did Jesus, the Savior and King, say this?

[TheCreepypro]

thank you Lord for your glorious salvation

[lawrencepaolino]

Colossians 2:11-12, not Colossians 1:11-12. How about Acts 2:38?

[BeLikeChrist]

I have a lot of respect for John Piper, but I think he gets this one wrong.

This has nothing to do with Catholicism vs Protestantism, it has to do with the pattern of the New Testament and the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles. You can't just keep saying "faith alone" and ignore the New Testament's clear teaching on baptism.

First, baptism is not a work of the law or a work of merit whereby we "earn" salvation. The Bible never presents it as such. Baptism is something we receive, and in it we received, freely, the grace of God.

Peter told the crowd in Acts 2:38 they needed to repent AND be baptized for the forgiveness of sins (i.e. to receive the grace of God).

Ananias clearly told Paul "And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name." Paul understood and did not object to the fact that his sins were washed away when baptized. Paul had faith before he was baptized, but his sins weren't "washed away" by the grace of Jesus blood until he received baptism... according to the text. Paul later wrote that those who have been baptized have "put on Christ" (Galatians 3:27).

Jesus told Nicodemus that we are born again and made a new creation by water and the Spirit. The simplest understanding of this text is the water of baptism and the Holy Spirit. Again, we are not being made new by our own righteous law keeping or "work of merit"... it is all the Holy Spirit, but God has decided He wants the process to take place in the symbol of baptism, which represents Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection to new life (Romans 6).... Why did God decide to do it this way? I don't know, but who am I to argue.

This view is completely compatible with Colossians 2:11-12 which John mentioned. Verse 12 says, "having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead."

We are raised out of baptism to new life how??? THROUGH FAITH in the powerful WORKING OF GOD... Baptism isn't some kind of work of the law, it is the point where we are made new by faith in God's power.  You see, baptism is never presented in the Bible as a work of merit by which we earn salvation. Baptism is always presented as the place we receive, by faith, the grace of God... It is all God's power and none of ours! Baptism doesn't "cause" new birth, the Holy Spirit does, but the place the Spirit works is in the water (according to Peter, Ananias, and Paul).

1 Peter 3:21 is also compatible with this view. As Piper said, baptism is an "appeal" to God. We go to the water as an appeal to God. We go in faith that the Holy Spirit will make us new by His "powerful working"... NOT OUR WORKING!... God's powerful working (Col 3:12).

This view is also compatible with the writings of Paul in Romans and Ephesians. This view of baptism is not an attempt to add "works" to a system of grace, it is an understanding of baptism as something we received, and in it we receive the new birth and the free gift of God's grace.

I suspect those who immediately define baptism as a "work" or a "work of the law" or as an "act of earning salvation" have allowed religious traditions (especially those of the reformation) to define baptism for them, rather than getting their definition from the Bible itself.

Piper's view requires mental gymnastics to get around verses like Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16, Galatians 3:27, Colossians 2:11-12, 1 Peter 3:21, John 3:5, Mark 16:16, Matthew 28:19-20 and others. It largely ignores the pattern we see in the book of Acts where people who believed were baptized immediately: the people on the day of Pentecost, the Samaritans when Philip preached to them, Simon the magician, the Ethiopian nobleman, Paul's conversion, Cornelius, Lydia, the Philippian jailer, not to mention John and Jesus' pattern of baptizing disciples.

It is not honorable or humble to proudly proclaim we are saved by "faith alone" if we have to ignore/twist half of the Bible to reach that conclusion. The whole Bible needs to be harmonized, and deemphasizing baptism isn't the way to do it.

I have no doubt Piper is honest in his attempt to explain these verses. I've known few men as committed to the Biblical text as he. So when I see what I believe to be a significant mistake in hermeneutics, I feel compelled to say something. I certainly don't think I have everything figured out, but I do think we need to do a better job at harmonizing the Bible's clear teaching on baptism with the Bible's clear teaching about salvation through grace.

btw... i'm not catholic lol.

[bobthrasher]

9:10 Col 2:12 The "faith" Paul is describing here is the faith that believes God will regenerate the baptizee just as God gave Jesus new life. We should remember there is more than one "act" of faith in the Christian life. We walk by faith and so we repent and come to baptism because we first have faith in the message and then in baptism we receive new life from God because we believe God can do for us what he did for Jesus. This is why Paul says "YOU have been raised through YOUR faith in God." This faith is operating in baptism to ask God to circumcise (v. 11) and regenerate. Paul is saying the reason you have faith in God concerning your rebirth through baptism is because you first believed the message about God's resurrection of Jesus. BTW, Col 2:12 says being "in baptism you were raised with Christ..." This is baptismal regeneration in one short phrase.

[bobthrasher]

1 Peter 3:21 "....baptism, which now saves you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" - Rom 6 and Col 2:12 say that baptism "immerses" you into Jesus' resurrection which is what Peter is referring to in 1 Peter 3:21. And to be "raised with Christ" is another way of saying "regenerated." A regenerated person is going to live a righteous life which is attended by a good conscience as Peter mentions here and which will "testify" to God in the final judgement (Rom 2). Further, baptism washes away past sins (Acts 2:38, 22:16) which also provides for a clean conscience. So we have complete provision for our conscience - both past sins committed as well as for the future through living an obedient life going forward. Paul places a greater emphasis on how baptism saves a person from the power of sin while Peter here is focused on how baptism "births" a righteous person (as Noah was) which God will deliver into His eternal kingdom just as Jesus was admitted to God's presence after his resurrection because he was righteous.

[itstoasty]

The Holy Spirit brought to mind of the perfect example that solves this question.

Remember the men who were with Jesus on a cross? One on Jesus’ right and left. One of the men believed and told Jesus to remember him in His kingdom. Saying this out loud at death’s door for many to hear was surely a death sentence during that time, but it was a risk that man took for all eternity. Perhaps after he said this, the soldiers mocked and pierced him as well with a spear.

Through faith, he was saved because he knew about the gospel of Jesus. He knew about the kingdom to come and what Jesus was doing.

Jesus answers with this:

“And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭23‬:‭43‬ ‭

Not an inch of water in this amazing rescue ‘story’, or should I say,
rescue history.

[bluegorillacookies]

I respect John Piper a lot, but don't separate faith and baptism. Galatians 3:26-27..."you are all sons o f God through faith, FOR as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ."

[biblealone]

"Peter said to them;...'be Baptized everyone of you in the Name of Jesus Christ...and you shall receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost...For the promise is to you, AND TO YOUR CHILDREN and to all'..." The Acts 2:38-39


Jn 20:21, "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you."
Jn 17:18, "Even as thou hast sent Me into the world, so I have sent them into the world."
Jn 17:22-23, "And the glory that thou hast given Me, I have given to
Matt. 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. Amen.



Is necessary for salvation.
John 3:5 - "No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit"
Mark 16:16 - "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved"
Acts 16:30, 33 - "what must I do to be saved? ... he and all his family were baptized"
1 Peter 3:21 - "baptism which saves you now."
See also: - Matthew 28:19, Acts 2:38, Acts 16:15


Mark 16:16 - Jesus says to the crowd, "He who believes and is baptized will be saved." But in reference to the same people, Jesus immediately follows with "He who does not believe will be condemned."

[Godfrey]

I will translate John Piper speak for everyone here: in short he said "whatever the verse says, it can't mean what it clearly says, because it doesn't agree with my theology"

[ConnorLundeen]

Baptism is not said to be a picture or a representation of something that has already happened. In Romans 6, Paul does not mince words: 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Baptism IS being buried in Christ. Not a picture of having already been buried.

The main difference is this: Protestant Evangelicals view baptism as a work of man. I would posit that that is an unsubstantiated view, and we see Biblical language of baptism as something that happens to us. Who does this work? God.

[merinsara]

my doubt: then why does Jesus say:, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.? why is the baptism by water, a need to enter into heaven ?

[bobthrasher]

8:50 After John reads Col 2:12 he says "baptism is described as an act signifying new birth" - sorry, but Paul did not "describe" baptism as "signifying" anything. There is no "signifying" language here.

[davidking]

DAVID BAPTISM DOES MEAN U SAVED!
JESUS IS THE ONE WHO SAVES U! BAPTISM IS SHOWING PEOPLE THAT
U HAVE ASPTED JESUS AS UR PERSONAL SAVOR! THAT'S ALL IT
STANDS FOR! NOW BEING BATISTED
IN THE HOLY GHOST! IS A WONDERFUL
EXPERIENCE! THAT REALLY SHOWS U
ARE SAVED&PEOPLE!🙂