So Let’s remind ourselves of the “basics” or everyone’s current condition:

1) Sin Separates us (Permanently) from God, right?

When we Sin, a “Wall” goes up between us and God permanently. Simply stopping sinning or doing good works will NOT get us to back to God.

Think of stopping sinning as stopping adding sin “bricks” to the wall of sin. The other bricks of sin previously still need to be “torn down”.

The only thing that tears them down is “Forgiveness” through Jesus’ Blood. So, the point in time that forgiveness occurs is the point in time that a person is saved.

2) So, what saves us?===> Our faith in the Blood of Jesus- that he died for “My/Your Personal” sins.

(Matthew 26:²⁸ This is my blood of the^[b] covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. )

(I do not know of, nor is there anything “alone” that will save a sinner, not even faith (James 2:24))

3) So, when does one contact this blood of Christ by faith?

-through intellectual belief?

-through a prayer?

-by feeling bad about your sin?

NO……read on….

Doesn’t Romans 10:9-10 say that we only need to believe in Jesus and confess Jesus as Lord in order to be saved?

Context of Romans 9:30-10:1-5- Writing to people who are being falsely taught that unless they obey the Jewish law they will not be right with God. They have already repented and have been baptized.

• • Romans 10 is not dealing with people in need of salvation. If you read Romans 9:30 to Romans 10:1-5, you will see that Paul is writing to people who are being falsely taught that unless they obey the Jewish law they will not be right with God. They have already repented and have been baptized.
    • Romans 10:1-“Brothers” or “Brethren”- Already saved individuals who have been baptized into Christ (Romans 6:1-4)
    • Romans 1:13-“Brothers” or “Brethren”- same as above
    • Romans 8:29- “Brothers” or “Brethren”
  • Paul is convincing people who have already repented and have been baptized and saved (Romans 6:1-7) that they are still saved because they continue to believe and confess Jesus as Lord. He is not teaching them how to go from a state of being lost to a state of being saved.
  • If the only condition for salvation were heartfelt belief, then Paul would have been saved when he was knocked off his horse.
    
    

    Beginning of Conversion of Paul-knocked off his horse-blinded by the light of Christ, on his way to kill Christians

  • Romans 10:9-10
    1. Notice that nothing in this passage mentions praying for salvation or a Sinner’s Prayer.
    2. What it does say is one must confess Jesus as the Lord and believe from one’s heart that God raised up Jesus from the dead.
    3. If one argues that this passage states the only things necessary for one to be saved, he would have a problem.
    4. There is no mention of recognizing one is a sinner.
    5. There is no mention of repentance or turning from sin. Jesus said, “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” (Lk. 13:3).
    6. And there is no mention of baptism for removing sin. Jesus also said, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” (Mk. 16:16)
    7. Belief and confession are unto salvation or lead to salvation, but salvation is not complete until one truly repents of his sins and is baptized into Christ for the remission of his sins.

    Romans 10:13
    1. This text is not instructing prayer for salvation.
    2. Paul is quoting a promise of the Old Testament about the availability of salvation with the coming of Christ.
    3. The action of “calling on the name of the Lord” does not refer to prayer but belief and obedience to the commands of the Lord.
    4. Calling on the name of the Lord includes AND is coupled WITH:
    a. Belief (Rom. 10:9)
    b. Confession (Rom. 10:9)
    c. Repentance (Acts 2:21, 37-38)
    d. And baptism (Acts 22:16).

  • Additionally… the Jews in Acts 2 would have been saved when they were cut to the heart by Peter’s speech( acts 2:37). However, when we read those passages we see that in both cases their faith had to be coupled with repentance and baptism in order for them to be forgiven.

  • Was Saul/Paul saved on the road to Damascus? If He Was…
    • The Lord didnt’ know it (Acts 9:6)
    • Saul didn’t know it (Acts 9:9)
    • Ananias didn’t know it (Acts 22:16)
  • What was Paul’s Record regarding baptism?
    • Lydia heard Paul and was baptized (Acts 16:14,15)
    • Paul taught the philippian jailor, then he was baptized (Acts 16:33)
    • The Corinthians were baptized (Acts 18:8)
    • Paul baptized Crispus and Gaius (1 Corinthians 1:14)
    • Paul baptized the household of Stephanas (1 Corinthians 1:16)
    • Paul taught that all are baptized into one body, the church (1 Corinthians 12:13)
    • Paul taught that we are all buried in baptism and raised through our faith (Romans 6:1-4)

• How does God’s grace play a role in our salvation? (Ephesians 2:4-5)

  This guy says it perfectly, I could not have said it any better than this (No, this is not me 🙂 )
  

  • Grace is unmerited favor. When we are saved by repenting and being baptized, we have not earned our salvation; it is a gift of God. All we have done is fulfilled the conditions of God’s forgiveness. God’s grace is conditional. If grace was unconditional, then everyone who was ever born would automatically be saved and there would be no need for faith, repentance or baptism. God’s love for us is unconditional, but His saving grace is conditional on our faith, repentance and baptism. If one dies outside of Christ, there is no grace.
  • According to John 3:3-5, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. A condition of God’s grace is to be baptized into Christ.
  • We are not earning our salvation by being baptized. We are simply following God’s instructions.

Romans 10:13- says “for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” But “When?” & “How?”

• when and how ( at what transactional point)does one call on the Lord to be saved, go from Lost to being saved?
• The answer is in Paul’s conversion and more, At what point did God wash away Paul’s sins?
• Acts 22:16- “And now What are you waiting for? Get up, AND BE BAPTIZED, AND WASH AWAY Your SINS, calling on the name of the Lord.”
• you don’t call for Jesus in a prayer, you repent, turn to him in faith and wash your sins away during/ at baptism.
• If all that was needed was to accept the Lord into his heart or pray Jesus into his heart, Paul would have been saved when he fell of his horse when Christ blinded him
• Acts 2:21 “and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”– this is the day church began
• This is consistent with Acts 2:38, Mark 16:15-16, 1 Peter 3:18-21, Acts 8:26-39, Galatians 3:26-27, Colossians 2:11-12 and John 3:3-5, and many many more!

NO ONE EVER WAS CONVERTED BY ACCEPTING THE LORD/PRAYING JESUS INTO THEIR HEART- dont believe me? Find 1 conversion after Jesus died ( ie the “new covenant”)- just 1… Cant find 1? Why is that? Because there is none!

• they were under the old covenant, not the new covenant when Jesus died
• also on earth, he had the power to forgive sins. (Matthew 9:2-6). So, Jesus says youre forgiven, youre forgiven.
• – Jesus is not here to say to you youre forgiven, thats why he gave us a new covenant to follow, why he died

Here Is Every Conversion in Book of Acts( the history and beginning of his church):

Baptism Is Not An Outward Sign Of An Inward Grace…

Romans 6:3 “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death?”

Romans 6:4- “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

Baptism is the ACTUAL participation in the death, burial & resurrection of Jesus Christ

Baptism is Not…

In fact, Prayer is a work, that one does!

• we cant save ourselves with our own “good works prayer(s)!
• If that were true, in Acts 2:37, the 3000 would be converted when they felt sorrowful ( before they asked ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’)

So..Baptism is actually participating in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ!( Romans 6:1-4).

Additionally,: Rom 6:1-4 says: “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

 

Here it says that ‘we are buried’— meaning we are actually dying to our old life, being buried, and being raised to a new life= participating in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ as we contact the blood of Christ through faith, which saves us (Rom 3:25),we get the (indwelling gift) Spirit and we are resurrected with Christ= ‘raised to a new life’.

Faith in the blood of Christ saves us at the point of baptism!( Rom 3:25),

faith in the blood of Jesus at the point of baptism

we contact that blood through faith in Christ, repentance of your sins, making Jesus Lord of your life, and then finally baptism.

 

Also, Colossians 2:11-12 says “In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ,

12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.”

• so, when we go down under water through faith, we contact the blood of forgiveness of our sins by faith, we are given the spirit ( indwelling gift), our name is written in heaven and in the book of life and we are clothed with Christ and also added to God’s universal kingdom!

  

• The raising to a new life happens in, through or by means of (Greek dia) our faith in God’s operation or working. We, in effect, are trusting in God to save us through Jesus Blood in that act of baptism. Note that in baptism it is faith in God’s working. Baptism is God’s work, not ours. When we are baptized, we believe (trust) that God is working. It is through our faith in His working that He works! For our baptism to be effective we must believe that God is working to raise us to a new life (save us). 9 Again, that’s what baptism is: crying out to God to save us and trusting that He will, based on the cleansing power of Christ’s blood.
  
  

  we are trusting in the working of God through faith at baptism

 

Other Key Points About Baptism

 

Galatians 3:26- 27–So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

-through our faith in Christ, we get baptized and are then clothed with Christ

 

Luke 3:3 – He ( John the baptist) went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

• even John the baptist prepared the way for Jesus
• He preached a baptism of repentance FOR the forgiveness of sins

 

Mark 16:16– “He that believeth AND IS BAPTIZED shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.“

 

Acts 2:38– “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, AND BE BAPTIZED every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

By the way, how does one get God’s Holy Spirit? There’s only 1 way ( more about this below)

 

1 Peter 3:20-21– “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were SAVED BY WATER. The like figure whereunto even BAPTISM DOES ALSO NOW SAVE US (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ”

 

John 3:1-7 Jesus says you “must be born again”. And vs 5-be born “ of the water and spirit”.

• so Jesus did it, and said it, but were going to believe someone else? Dont we follow Christ first?

 

This also ties nicely with 1 john 5:6-7 “6 This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the[a] Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.”

-where do the 3 agree? In a prayer?

No……. in baptism, by faith in Christ, we contact the blood of Christ and get forgiveness, and we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (John 3:1-7 Born again, of the water & the Spirit), our old nature is put off (Romans 6:1-4, Colossians 2:12-13) and we are added to God’s church! ( 1 Corinthians 12:13- Baptized into the Body of Christ, the church)

 

1 Corinthians 15:29

“Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead do not rise at all? Why then are they baptized for the dead?”

• why would Paul, after talking about baptism immediately talk about ‘rising from the dead’?
• Answer: because thats when you rise from hell and go to heaven!

 

1 Corinthians 12:12-27

Vs 13- we enter the body of Christ in baptism

 

Extra-canonical evidence regarding Salvation, Conversion & Baptism:

 

The Epistle of Barnabas, c. 70-100 A.D.

“Blessed are they who, placing their trust in the cross, have gone down into the water…We indeed descend into the water full of sins and defilement. However, we come up, bearing fruit in our heart, having the fear [of God] and the trust in Jesus in our spirit.” Barnabas (c. 70-130, E), 1.144.

Barnabas and Paul evangelized together. They preached the same Gospel.

Hermas, c. 70-130 A. D.

“I hear, sir, some teachers maintain that there is no other repentance than that which takes place, when we descended into the water and received remission of our former sins.” Hermas (c. 150, W), 2.22.

“Before a man bears the name of the Son of God, he is dead. But when he receives the seal, he lays aside his deadness and obtains life. The seal, then, is the water. They descend into the water dead, and they arise alive.” Hermas (c. 150, W), 2.49.

“The apostles themselves also gave them the seal of the preaching [i.e., baptism]. Accordingly, they descended with them into the water and ascended again.”  Hermas (c. 150, W), 2.49.

Justin Martyr, c. 100–165 A.D.

“As many as are persuaded and believe that what we teach and say is true, and undertake to be able to live accordingly, are instructed to pray and to entreat God with fasting, for the remission of their past sins. The rest of us pray and fast with them. They are brought by us where there is water, there is water, and are regenerated in the same manner in which we were regenerated ourselves. They there receive the washing with water in the I will also relate the manner in which we dedicated ourselves to God when we had been made new through Christ…. As many as are persuaded and believe that what we teach and say is true, and undertake to be able to live accordingly, are instructed to pray and to entreat God with fasting, for the remission of their past sins. The rest of us pray and fast with them. They are brought by us name of God (the Father and Lord of the universe), of our Savior Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. For Christ also said, “Unless you are born again, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Justin Martyr (c. 160, E), 1.183.

“This washing of repentance and knowledge of God has been ordained on account of the transgression of God’s people, as Isaiah cries. Accordingly, we have believed and testify that the very baptism which he announced is alone able to purify those who have repented. And this is the water of life.… For what is the use of that baptism which cleanses only the flesh and body?

Baptize the soul from wrath and from covetousness, from envy and from hatred.” Justin Martyr (c. 160, E), 1.201.

“But there is no other [way] than this: to become acquainted with this Christ; to be washed in the fountain spoken of by Isaiah for the remission of sins; and for the rest, to live sinless lives.” Justin Martyr (c. 160, E), 1.217.

“At our birth, we were born without our own knowledge or choice, but by our parents coming together…In order that we may not remain the children of necessity and of ignorance, but may become the children of choice and knowledge, and may obtain in the water the remission of sins formerly committed, there is pronounced over him who chooses to be born again, and has repented of his sins, the name of God the Father and Lord of the universe…And in the name of Jesus Christ…and in the name of the Holy Spirit.” Justin Martyr (c. 160).

 

Theophilus (c. 180).

“The things proceeding from the waters were blessed by God, that this also could be a sign of men being destined to receive repentance and remission of sins, through the water and bath of regeneration–as many as come to the truth and are born again.” Theophilus (c. 180).

 

Irenaeus of Lyons, c. 130–200 A.D.

“When we come to refute them [the Gnostics], we will show in its proper place that this class of men have been instigated by Satan to a denial of that baptism which is regeneration to God. Thus, they have renounced the whole faith…. For the baptism institute by the visible Jesus was for the remission of sins.” Irenaeus (c. 180, E/W),1.346.

“But there are some of them [Gnostics] who assert that it is unnecessary to bring persons to the water. Rather, they mix oil and water together, and they play this mixture on the heads of those who are to be initiated…. This they maintain to be the redemption…. Other [heretics], however, reject all these practices and maintain that the mystery of the unspeakable and invisible power should not to be performed by visible and corruptible creatures…. These claim that the knowledge of the unspeakable Greatness is itself perfect redemption.” Irenaeus (c.180, E/W), 1.346.

 

Clement of Alexandria, c. 150-215 A.D.

“Being baptized, we are illuminated. Illuminated, we become sons…. This work is variously called grace, illumination, perfection, and washing. Washing, by which we cleanse away our sins. Grace, by which the penalties accruing to transgressions are remitted. Illumination, by which that holy light of salvation is beheld, that is, by which we see God clearly.” Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.215.

“In the same way, therefore, we also repent of our sins, renounce our iniquities, and are purified by baptism. Thereby, we speed back to the eternal light as children of the Father.” Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E), 2.217.

 

Tertullian of Carthage, c. 160–230 A.D.

“Now, the teaching is laid down that “without baptism, salvation is attainable by no one.” This is based primarily on the ground of that declaration of the Lord, who says, “Unless one is born of water he has not life.” However, when this is laid down, there immediately arise scrupulous (or rather, audacious) doubts on the part of some.” Tertullian (c. 198, W), 3.674, 675.

“Unless a man has been born again of water and Spirit, he will not enter into the kingdom of the heavens.” These words have tied faith to the necessity of baptism. Accordingly, all thereafter who became believers were baptized. So it was, too, that Paul, when he believed, was baptized.” Tertullian (c. 198, W), 3.676.

“We, then, enter the font once. Our sins are washed away once, for they should never be repeated.” Tertullian (c. 198, W), 3.676.

Origen, c. 185–255 A.D.

“Matthew alone adds the words, “to repentance,” teaching us that the benefit of baptism is connected with the intention of the baptized person. To him who repents, it is saving. However, to him who comes to it without repentance, it will produce greater condemnation.” Origen (c. 228, E), 9.367.

 

There is no question what was taught about water baptism.