DOES BAPTISM SAVE?
Curtis H. Lydic
Recently we have received a number of comments from
readers about the allusions to baptism made in Restoration
Review articles. These comments have all been
of a somewhat critical nature, made by people who feel that we should
be careful about making it sound as though baptism has something to
do with salvation. One sister writes, “All who have been born
again, not of the flesh but of the Spirit, are Christians. The Bible
tells us that there is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. We are
not able to receive the good things of God until we have been born of
the Spirit. Baptism is an earthly witness. If water baptism saved a
person there would be two baptisms.”
Our experience has taught us that we are often wrong,
and we have found it necessary to adjust our views a number of times
when we were shown the more perfect way. We are willing to listen to
and consider the arguments of our Christian friends who feel that
water baptism receives undue emphasis in our teaching, but we feel
that it is not enough to be told that we are wrong; we will have to
see “the more perfect way.” The sister quoted above
speaks of the “birth of the Spirit,” but not of the birth
of “the water and the Spirit,” of John 3. She speaks of
both the birth of the Spirit and of water baptism, but says that if
we were saved by water baptism there would be two baptisms. If she
has in mind the “baptism of the Spirit” when she speaks
of the new birth, and distinguishes that from water baptism, then it
would seem that there are two baptisms anyway, whether water baptism
saves or not. What I want to know, if water baptism has nothing to do
with salvation, is what to do with all those passages which place
emphasis upon it. I don’t believe that members of the Church of
Christ are wholly responsible for the fuss about baptism; the
apostles made some fuss about it themselves. An example is in Acts
19: 1-7. Why did Paul bother these people about baptism if it has no
part in salvation? And, again, what does Paul mean by saying that “we
are baptized into Christ” (Rom. 6: 3) ? And why would Peter
say, “Baptism . . . now saves you. . . “ (1 Peter 3:21)
We of Restoration Review strongly
recommend that members of the Church of Christ give Baptists and
others who hold views different from ours the benefit of every doubt,
and not suspect them of being deliberately or carelessly stubborn.
Surely we are not out of order to ask the same consideration from our
Baptist friends and others who disagree with us about baptism. We are
not just trying to be difficult when we maintain that baptism is
necessary; but we can see no alternative conclusion in view of the
statements made about baptism in the New Testament. We do not wish to
rob the concept of Grace of any of its power, and we do not pretend
that salvation is made possible by anything but Grace; but we believe
that it is possible to conceive of baptism’s being necessary
without salvation’s being based upon it. There is a fundamental
difference between cause and condition. Grace is the cause, but
baptism seems to be one of the conditions, as are love, and faith.
What else are we to make of the numerous and elaborate references to
it which are to be found in the Word of God?