IS WATER BAPTISM ESSENTIAL TO “SALVATION”?

UNDERSTANDING THE FULLER MEANING OF THE SALVATION OF OUR SOULS. 

The question is whether it matters if we are not water baptized. The answer is that the Lord Himself commanded it. [Matthew 28:19]  And it was an act He Himself was determined to perform. [Matthew 3:13–15] Peter describes baptism as a testimony, of a good conscience towards God. “…..when once the long–suffering 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 doth 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…” The answer of a good conscience means: A testimony; a declaration.  So through this act you declare you are baptized into Jesus Christ…into his death. “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” [Romans 6:4] 

Passing through the water you take a public stand where God has placed you in Christ. You reckon to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.  You proclaim to the whole universe that you are no longer a subject of the World, bound as a prisoner by its inescapable restraints. And that being mainly that as I am now a subject of a heavenly order, I am free from the condemnation of this World’s system and sin. “THERE is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, For the law of the Spirit of life in Chris Jesus hath made me free from the law (condemning the World) of sin and death.”  [Romans 8:1-2] 

See also Ephesians 2:1-3. “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.“ 

Mark 16:16 says, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not (disbelieveth) shall be damned (condemned).” Although it is often quoted as, “He that believeth and is saved shall be baptized”. That is not what Christ said. Nor did He say, ‘…believe, be baptized and you will be born again.’ What did Christ mean to be saved? Christians generally have a very wrong idea of salvation. All that most Christians think about salvation is that we shall be saved from hell and let into heaven. 

BEING SAVED IS ESSENTIALLY a present deliverance from a doomed system which is satan’s. And a promise of exemption from the eternal life condemnation. But the fullness of the word Salvation, in the greatest intent of God for man is to have ruling sons in His system and that after the order of the first-born. Comprehended in that after the judgment and His Return, the kingdoms of this world will ‘become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ’. [Daniel 2:44–45; Revelation 11:15] 

The word “saved” and “salvation” must be understood in the context of the Scripture it is found. An example of the need of a clearer understanding necessary being 1 Peter 1:5,9 or James 1:21, or Hebrews 10:39. (Read) 

This salvation/saving is deliverance (not only the gift from the spiritual consequences of sin…Romans 5:15,16; Ephesians 2:8,9) but from the pollution of sin itself. It’s set before us as born-again believers as a prize to be won individually. [1 Corinthians 9:24; Philippians 3:11-14] Baptism has in view more than justification in the death of Jesus Christ, more than that initial “saving” gift of eternal life. It has in view more; that being of walking in resurrection newness of life, unto the willing purging of the pollution of sin itself in our soul. It has in view life beyond merely eternal life, unto eternal glory as the qualified/worthy Bride of Jesus Christ. The rite of Baptism has in view this greater degree of being saved/salvation; Power in living faith overcoming the flesh, satan and his World. 

It is a question of two Worlds and God’s original intent to create MAN and give him authority in the earth“…and subdue it: and have dominion…” As Christians, we are now made aware and confronted with these two violently opposing Worlds. We are granted by faith in Jesus God “…hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.” Baptism is a declaration of Whose you are, what kingdom you are now a citizen of, and now in rite of declaration, to whom you shall give allegiance. Thus this salvation into which I pledge to enter is not so much a personal question of sins forgiven or of hell avoided, as that it is to be seen rather in terms of a further declaration of a system from which I have come out. That being the whole organized realm which Satan has constructed in defiance of the purpose of God. Now in the newness of resurrection life, I yield my members as a citizen of a heavenly Kingdom, no longer as servant of unrighteousness but a servant of righteousness. [Romans 6:16-19] 

BEFORE THE FALL, THERE WAS A KINGDOM in the earth granted unto Adam. AFTER THE FALL, there was the entrance of the WORLD system into the earth (in the sense of organization, a different order). The author of the system in the “World” is satan (called the Babylonian in Scripture; that is from Babel. Genesis 3,10:8-10,11:1-9; Revelation 16:19, and chapters17&18). The prince of the power of the air, the god of this World kingdom that includes the earth, he is its author/ designer. The which we may see its core by the Words aimed at and descriptive of satan found in Ezekiel 28. “…Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filed the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned….Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick:… H7404. רְכֻלָּה reḵullāh: A feminine noun referring to merchandise, trading. It refers to the material wares traded or to the process of merchandising and trading itself (Ezekiel 26:12; 28:5, 18).  

The clear expose’ of this being the spirit and system of this World is the result of the sin and defiled nature of its god. And it is perpetuated by the fallen nature of man which is laid before us in the first part of  Ezekiel 28. Wherein the “prince” of Tyrus, is a MAN, whose heart is a reflection of that of the “king” of Tyrus, a fallen “spirit” satan. God’s indictment was directed at one then the other, to show the correspondence between the two corrupted hearts, which were given up to trafficking/commerce/money, the bane of this World. (Of which Scripture has much to say.) All answering to Jesus Christ’s Words: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (the god of materialism).” 

Peter 3 says, “..the long–suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water’.  The water, he says, is a figure or likeness, or (as the R.V. margin reads) an antitype, of something else.  ‘The like figure (in the antitype) whereunto even now baptism doth 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: Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God: angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.”  Understand clearly that what is being written about is the yielded walk of righteousness in resurrected power in (entered into the Ark) Christ Jesus that overcomes satan, the flesh and the World leading to the salvation of the soul. Not that baptism of water is a prerequisite to being born again.  

When you go down in the water, you and your world allegiance go down together. When you rise, the allegiance to the World stays beneath the waters. For you, that world is submerged, drowned like Noah’s, put to death in the death of Christ and never to be revived. It is by baptism that you declare this: ‘Lord, I leave my world behind. My history in Adam is dealt with…’ Having become united with Him by the likeness of His death, you are united with Him also by the likeness of His resurrection [Romans 6:5] Death puts an end to your relationship with the old world, and resurrection brings you into living touch with this new one.  

You go out of the world that is under judgment, into a world that is marked by newness of divine life. Your history as a child of Adam goes down in the water with you and stays there. Your future in Jesus Christ comes up with you, you have passed into something new, something God is creating, the Kingdom of heavens. Satan and his World system are symbolically removed and the newness of life in Jesus Christ is embraced. You are now on Mount Ararat, (means holy ground) the heavenly Mount, and the World is dead beneath your feet. Typifying a new Creation, a new heavens and a new earth wherein there is none of the old chaos of satan or his system ever again. That is Salvation.