What does this mean: “Baptism now saves us”?

[Nehemiah6]

God can use whatever He wants to wash away sins.

Not according to Scripture. Kindly do a study on the blood of Christ and what it accomplishes. Start with A Discourse of the Cleansing Virtue of Christ's Blood by Stephen Charnock (1628-1680). Here is an excerpt:

The cleansing is to be doubly considered. There is a cleansing from guilt, and a cleansing from filth, both are the fruits of this blood: the guilt is removed by remission, the filth by purification. Christ does both: he cleanses us from our guilt as he is our righteousness, from our spot as he is our sanctification; for he is both to us, 1 Cor. i. 80, the one upon the account of his merit, the other by his efficacy, which he exerts by his Spirit.

 

[FlSnookman7]

Mark 1:7-8King James Version (KJV)

7 And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.
8 I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.

 

[FlSnookman7]

How many other salvations happened that way? Where else in scripture is there a story of someone simply accepting Jesus and not being baptized?

This was a one-off kind of thing, and Jesus personally made that call.

If it was not a necessary thing, why would Jesus' last words to his followers be to go and make disciples of all nations...baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit?

If it is not necessary, why would Jesus tell them/us to do it?

Understanding this is easy. Trying to "prove" it's not necessary requires a lot of convoluted thinking, and the ignoring of many, many scriptures.

My salvation was also a "one-off thing" and Jesus made that call also.

 

[DJ2]

My salvation was also a "one-off thing" and Jesus made that call also.

Not me. I did it the old fashioned way, I just followed the Bible.

 

[jsr1221]

1st Peter states otherwise. Today is the day of salvation, to wait until you are in ICU is unwise and dangerous. Ecclesiastes 12:1-7

No one is promised extra time.

I can get hit by a car tomorrow simply by walking out of my house. These things called accidents are accidents for a reason. People can have eye openers as a result of these things. Scripture doesn't change That.

 

[jsr1221]

1st Peter states otherwise. Today is the day of salvation, to wait until you are in ICU is unwise and dangerous. Ecclesiastes 12:1-7

No one is promised extra time.

You must also think people serving life in prison aren't capable of repenting and accepting Christ into their hearts, huh? I doubt the guards are going to conduct a bapitsm ceremony just because someone said, "I found Jesus".

 

[jsr1221]

How many other salvations happened that way? Where else in scripture is there a story of someone simply accepting Jesus and not being baptized?

This was a one-off kind of thing, and Jesus personally made that call.

If it was not a necessary thing, why would Jesus' last words to his followers be to go and make disciples of all nations...baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit?

If it is not necessary, why would Jesus tell them/us to do it?

Understanding this is easy. Trying to "prove" it's not necessary requires a lot of convoluted thinking, and the ignoring of many, many scriptures.

Then why are there Bibles in prisons and people going to such places to minister to those behind bars? Some of these folks are never going to see the light of day again. Should they just kill themselves so they go to hell quicker? If baptism is such necessary for salvation, then those folks who are serving life behind bars don't stand a chance according to your statement. Your statement would then mean that there are certain things a nonbeliever can never recover from, which goes against Scripture. A murderer can become a new creation just as much as a noncriminal unbeliever.

 

[dcontroversal]

The comparison is to the flood....what separated those on the ark from those who perished....the water....immersion is an identifier and "sets us apart" from the generation we are apart of that perishes.....it has ZERO to do with the salvation of the soul, is the first act of obedience, identifies us with Christ and gives us a good conscience towards God!

 

[hornetguy]

You must also think people serving life in prison aren't capable of repenting and accepting Christ into their hearts, huh? I doubt the guards are going to conduct a bapitsm ceremony just because someone said, "I found Jesus".

Sorry, but you are completely wrong. Baptisms are allowed in prisons all the time. I have two friends that were involved in prison ministry for years, who stated that baptisms are commonplace.



....but, don't let that stop you from trying to come up with more reasons to disobey Jesus' command...

I'm sure he'll understand....

 

[OneFaith]

The comparison is to the flood....what separated those on the ark from those who perished....the water....immersion is an identifier and "sets us apart" from the generation we are apart of that perishes.....it has ZERO to do with the salvation of the soul, is the first act of obedience, identifies us with Christ and gives us a good conscience towards God!

I’m still baffled how you can read in the Bible “baptism saves” and say “No it does not.”

 

[eternally-gratefull]

Did it never occur to you that he was baptized before he was sentenced to death??

John the Baptist and his followers was baptizing for the remission of sins before the ministry of Jesus. Mark 1:4

Jesus's disciples were baptizing for years before His death as well. Is it not possible that the thief on the cross was at one time among this group before falling into crime? How could you not see this obvious possibility?

Its an assumption but so is stating that the thief on the cross was not baptized.

You argue what you call an assumption, with an assumption (you assume he was baptised)

You just lost this particular argument.

 

[eternally-gratefull]

Not me. I did it the old fashioned way, I just followed the Bible.

No, Your following your pastor.

And yes, salvation is a one off things. Unless we are saved by works (have to maintain our salvation) in which paul calls us fools thinking we begin in the spirit (faith) but must perfect in the flesh (works)

 

[eternally-gratefull]

I’m still baffled how you can read in the Bible “baptism saves” and say “No it does not.”

You keep leaving the words, IN LIKE FIGURE.

You can not take it out of context. Thats how we get false doctrines. By people taking things out of context.

 

[John146]

Not me. I did it the old fashioned way, I just followed the Bible.

1 Corinthians 1:17 "For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect."

If water baptism is essential for salvation in this age then why did Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles, who preached the gospel of the grace of God, say he was not sent to baptize. If water baptism was essential for salvation then Christ would have sent him to both preach the gospel and baptize.

And by the way, Noah didn't get wet. The only people who got wet were the ones outside the ark and were destroyed.

 

[OneFaith]

You keep leaving the words, IN LIKE FIGURE.

You can not take it out of context. Thats how we get false doctrines. By people taking things out of context.

Ok, let’s use like figure... Romans 6:3-5 says the way we get into Christ is to be baptized into His death- which is where He shed His blood- which is where we come in contact with His blood- through baptism. That if we join Him like this (baptism) in His death, that we will also join Him in His resurrection.

 

[hornetguy]

1 Corinthians 1:17 "For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect."

If water baptism is essential for salvation in this age then why did Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles, who preached the gospel of the grace of God, say he was not sent to baptize. If water baptism was essential for salvation then Christ would have sent him to both preach the gospel and baptize.

And by the way, Noah didn't get wet. The only people who got wet were the ones outside the ark and were destroyed.

Seriously? You don't understand what Paul was saying? He even clarified it for you, in the next sentence.... His "job" was to teach... to instruct... to convert. The actual baptisms were carried out by others... who did not have the "job" of teaching.

That would be the same as saying Jesus did not feed the thousands with the loaves and fish, because he did not personally distribute the bread and fish himself. He had others to do that task.

At some point, you have to use logic and reason, combined with understanding... stop trying to make scripture fit your pre-conceived notions.

 

[garee]

I’m still baffled how you can read in the Bible “baptism saves” and say “No it does not.”

Two kinds or types of baptisms. Again Satan the upside down god of this world would make what God calls one into two, or what God calls two, one, as his calling card


I think the temporal water is used to represent the Holy Spirit, the unseen anti-type. It not that seen is what always saves in any generation. If any man has not the unseen Spirit of Christ dwelling in the bodies of death than neither could they belong to Him .

Getting wet or staying dry does not change the law of faith.

We walk by faith, the unseen according to the prescription given us in 2 Corinthians . 4:18.

Note ....(purple in parenthesis) my personal comments

2Co 4:18 While we look not at the "things which are seen, (water) but at the things which are not seen: (Holy Spirit) for the things which are seen are temporal; (they evaporate) but the things which are not seen are eternal.(they remain unchangeable )

Salvation did not begin with the now in the verse . That now seems to be where many have a difference and make it about seeking after the sign seen the water, and not the Spirit not seen the authority of God’s word.

Water is the antitype... not the substance not needed to give us new spirit life.
.
You could say, what you see is not what you get. (walking by sight) Even if you do come from the show me State.(LOL)

Water can make a person wet nothing more and nothing less

21 also to which an antitype doth now save us -- baptism, (not a putting away of the filth of flesh, but the question of a good conscience in regard to God,) through the rising again of Jesus Christ,1 peter 3:21

Strongs lexicon...499 antitupos {an-teet'-oo-pon}
neuter of a compound of 473 and 5179; TDNT - 8:246,1193; adj
AV - figure 1, like figure whereinto 1, 2
a thing formed after some pattern 2) a thing resembling another, its counterpart 2a) something in the Messianic times which answers to the type, as baptism corresponds to the deluge (1 Pet 3:21)

One that does save, is the unseen and another used as the antitype (the temporal) used as a shadow to point towards the true eternal .

 

[mailmandan]

In 1 Peter 3:21, Peter tells us that baptism now saves you, yet when Peter uses this phrase he continues in the same sentence to explain exactly what he means by it.

He said that baptism now saves you-not the removal of dirt from the flesh (that is, not as an outward, physical act which washes dirt from the body--that is not what saves you), "but an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (that is, as an inward, spiritual transaction between God and the individual, a transaction that is symbolized by the outward ceremony of water baptism).

*Just as the eight people in the ark were "saved THROUGH water" as they were IN THE ARK. They were not literally saved "by" the water. Hebrews 11:7 is clear on this point (..built an ARK for the SAVING of his household). *NOTE: The context reveals that ONLY the righteous (Noah and his family) were DRY and therefore SAFE. In contrast, ONLY THE WICKED IN NOAH'S DAY CAME IN CONTACT WITH THE WATER AND THEY ALL PERISHED.

 

[John146]

Seriously? You don't understand what Paul was saying? He even clarified it for you, in the next sentence.... His "job" was to teach... to instruct... to convert. The actual baptisms were carried out by others... who did not have the "job" of teaching.

That would be the same as saying Jesus did not feed the thousands with the loaves and fish, because he did not personally distribute the bread and fish himself. He had others to do that task.

At some point, you have to use logic and reason, combined with understanding... stop trying to make scripture fit your pre-conceived notions.

How was Noah saved? He didn't get into the water, instead he got into the ark of his salvation by believing God at His word. How are we saved? By not getting wet, but by getting into the ark of our salvation, Jesus Christ, by believing on the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

[OneFaith]

The reason we know that the baptism that saves in 1Peter 3:21 is referring to water baptism is because it has to be clarified that it is not the same as taking a bath (not the removal of dirt from the flesh). It is also clear that comparing the water to Noah’s situation means H2O. It is also clear that it is water baptism because John came to prepare the way of the Lord by water baptism- because the kingdom (church) of God was near, and water baptism is the way in (repent and be baptized every one of you). The church is Christ’s body, and the way into Christ is to be baptized into Christ (Romans 6:3).

Jesus did not get water baptized to wash His sins away (He had no sins to wash away). But because we are to follow Him, and it’s what we must do. Ananias said to Paul “What are you waiting for? Arise, be baptized and wash away your sins- calling on the name of the Lord.”

The Ethiopian Eunich and Philip stopped where there was much water to be baptized, then he went on his way rejoicing, why? Because he got saved.

How did the Lord add to the early church daily those who were being saved? They were baptized.

Thousands of people were saved by water baptism in many examples of the Bible, that I am baffled that people don’t have eyes to see it, and ears to hear and understand what is presented clearly to them. Baptism saves by bringing us into contact with Christ blood (baptized into His death Romans 6:3-5).