It is the
belief of many Protestants that a person is only saved by the blood of Jesus
Christ, i.e., by the work that He has done on the cross, apart from any works
that the person can do. This is indeed the
biblical model (Romans 3:28; 4:4-6; 11:6; Ephesians 2:8-10; Titus 3:5, etc.)
But some
groups, while maintaining that man is saved apart from his works, will
nevertheless still hold to the idea that water baptism saves. But this causes a problem. You can’t say that we are not saved by works,
and then turn around and say that we are saved
by baptism, since baptism is a work. The
logic just doesn’t follow. If we are not
saved by works, then baptism cannot save us.
It is very simple.
However,
they will try to get around this by saying that baptism is NOT A WORK, thus
trying to escape an obvious dilemma that they have created for themselves. But any physical act or ritual is a work. And water baptism certainly falls into this
category. But some will argue that
baptism is not a work because it is “passive,” i.e., it is something that you
let someone else do to you, so you are not working.
Well, if
being passive disqualifies water baptism from being a work, then it would also
disqualify circumcision from being a work, since this also is something that
you let someone else do to you, as well.
And no one can argue that circumcision is not a work of the law. (Romans
2:25; 3:28-30; 4:1-10)
Furthermore,
would anyone dare say that Jesus’ suffering on the cross was NOT a work? (John 4:34) But wasn’t His suffering also passive? Wasn’t it something that He specifically allowed them to do to Him? (Isaiah
50:6; 53:7; Matthew 26:51-53; John 10:17-18) Absolutely!
So, even things that are considered to be passive can be a work. And such is baptism. So, the “passive” argument fails.
It is our
experience in discussions with those claiming that baptism is not a work, that they
always seem to eventually drift toward James chapter 2 (all about Christian
works), because they KNOW that baptism is a work!
All right,
so some may be saying at this point, “Ok, ok, so maybe baptism is a work… but
it’s a ‘work of God,’ not a work of man, therefore, it saves.”
Our response
would be that it is true that God ordained baptism, but 1) it is still a ritual
(work) that man performs, and 2) We must understand that God has many different
kinds of works. For example, Creation is
a work of God (Psalm 19:1), but Creation does not save the soul. Balaam’s donkey speaking was an act / work of
God (Numbers
22:28-30), but it saved no one.
Many works of God are acts of violence, destruction, or punishment (e.g.,
Revelation
16), but they do not save. All
these things can be used by God to cause obedience, give direction, to spare
lives, etc., but none of these events directly saved the soul of anyone. So, just because something is a work of God
does not necessarily mean that it saves.
The conduit that God has specifically
assigned for salvation of souls is FAITH.
Faith (not baptism) is the access
point of salvation (Romans 5:2).
Usually the
last desperate attempt to prove this “baptism is not a work, therefore it
saves” argument is an appeal to John 6:28-29:
28) They said therefore
to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”
29) Jesus answered and
said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has
sent.” (NASV)
And they’ll
say, “You see! Jesus said that even believing is a work, therefore,
works can save!”
Strangely
enough, these people start off by saying that works do not save, although, they believe that baptism does. Then they go from trying to prove baptism is
not a work, to saying, “Well, it really is
a work, but Jesus tells us that another
work (believing) can save… therefore, works do save, after all.”
Obviously,
these people have some confusion issues.
Anyway, in John 6, Jesus is not officially classifying belief or faith
as an actual work, or He’d be contradicting His own Word (Romans 11:6). He was saying this for effect. Basically, He
was telling this works-minded group, “You want to be saved by your works? Ok, here is your so-called ‘work’ that you
need for eternal life. It’s BELIEVING in
Me! There’s your ‘work’!”
And this
same Jesus, through the writings of the apostle Paul, emphasizes over and over
that salvation is not earned, but is a gift.
It is by grace, obtained THROUGH FAITH.
Paul makes a clear distinction between the gift and the work:
But if it is by grace,
it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. (Romans 11:6 - NASV)
So, those
who claim that works don’t save us, yet, baptism does, are simply playing word
games.
To clarify
one last time, the biblical pattern is:
1) Baptism is a work
2) Works don’t save us
3) Therefore, baptism does not save
It can’t get
any simpler than this.
See also:
http://answeringcatholicclaims.blogspot.com/2015/05/on-baptism-part-1-few-basics.html
