By Jim Mettenbrink
Last week, we saw that Saul (later to be the apostle Paul) was commanded to “Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22:16). So did the water wash away his sins? Many have that misunderstanding among others.
Some folks believe that the mere ritual of baptism saves them. So what would be the difference in that and diving into a pool? One might argue that it is the words stated by the one baptizing them that makes the difference between being saved and lost. Some, like the Corinthians Christians, might think the difference is who baptizes them (1 Cor 1:12-17). All of those notions are wrong.
Conversion has two dimensions: Visible (baptism) and invisible (a person’s heart) Regarding a valid baptism in God’s sight is (1) He knows who has truth faith in Jesus (1 Chronicles 30:6; John 8:24); (2) Jesus adds to His church only those who are saved (with true faith) because He alone knows whether one is motivated by true faith (Acts 2:47; Romans 6:17); (3) That a person’s submission to Jesus is evident in baptism (immersion, emulating the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus (Acts 2:38; Rom 6:3-4); (4) Knowing that in baptism, that one’s sins are pardoned, and thereby granted eternal life and to receive the gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38; 22:16); (5); Via baptism one is added to the church (Acts 2:47), Jesus’ body (Colossians1:18, 24) which is also His kingdom (Col 1:13). It is in the water that this occurs but not by the water. So what saves?
The apostle Paul continued, “in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Col 1:14). Christians are ultimately saved by Jesus’ shed blood on the cross. When a person submits to Christ in the grave of water, he is symbolically sprinkled with the blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:1-2; Hebrews 12:23-24).
Blood was God’s signature on the covenant offered to ancient Israel (Exodus 24:5-8) and ratified with Jesus’ shed blood initiating the New Covenant with each person who submits by becoming a Christian. At His last Passover, while instituting the memorial of His death, he declared, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28).
Saved in the water by Jesus’ blood – the radical entrance into Jesus’ Kingdom!