# 224 "Is there salvation for people, not baptized, who have faith and have received the Holy Spirit? Or are they lost because they haven't gone through the water baptism ceremony?"
Response: This is one question that is pretty well answered in the Scriptures, Cornelius and his household were in that situation; Cornelius and his people were baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 11: 15, 16) and Peter responded, "Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he? And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Christ." This was a command not a suggestion; baptism in water in the name of Christ is not a "I may or I may not do kind of thing."
As for the second part of your question, those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel await eternal destruction. (2 Thess. 1: 8, 9) Yes, we are saved by grace (Eph. 2:8) through faith which is our introduction to grace (Rom. 5: 2); but if our concept of saving faith is one dimensional. merely believing, then we need to rethink our idea of faith because saving faith includes both love and obedience. (1 Cor. 13: 2; Heb. 5: 9)
It is incredible that some on this forum would refer to baptism as a work of man when it is commanded by God. "Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness. But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you have become obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. (Rom. 6: 16- 18) Baptism in the name of Christ is a work of God, a work of faith.
May God bless us in our study.