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Edward Fudge

IS BAPTISM REALLY NECESSARY?
The question is asked, "Is baptism really necessary for salvation?"

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"Necessary for whom?" we might ask. Certainly not necessary for God, who saves millions without it. And who, one might ask, are they? Well, how about all infants who die, unbaptized? They are sinners "in Adam," to be sure, but, having never rejected God for themselves, they are covered by Christ's representative atonement as the Second Adam. We must also list among the unbaptized saved all pre-Christian Jews who were "of faith," as well as each righteous Gentile who lived before Jesus. And why not, on the same biblical principles, those people who are A.D. chronologically but who are B.C. in knowledge, yet who respond to God in Abrahamic faith with respect to whatever revelation of God they do possess? Must one know of Jesus to be saved by Jesus?

"Ah," one says, "but is baptism 'necessary' for one who hears the gospel and who understands that Jesus commands it? Of course it is, if "necessary" means it is commanded and is to be done. It is "necessary" because Jesus is Lord and he says to do it. It is "necessary" to the person who trusts Jesus alone for salvation, who owes him everything and wants above all else to please him as soon as she or he learns the Savior's wishes.

It is a curious reality, but I venture that one best comes to understand baptism when focusing on something else. That "something else" is our helpless condition apart from God's undeserved favor, the perfect "doing" and "dying" of Jesus which set us right with God, and the truth that, because that saving work is finished, our only options are to entrust ourselves to God's mercy in reliance on it, or to refuse to acknowledge its sufficiency and to turn ourselves instead to religious fervor or to godless indifference. Unless we do the first, all the baptisms in the world will not make one whit of difference when we stand before God in judgment.

For more on obedience and works, click here.
For more on water baptism and salvation, click here.