In what Sense does Baptism Save?
Musings on the Efficacy of the Sacrament, 15 minute read.
There are two ways in which we can discuss Baptism as “salvific.” First, being that it is a means of grace, secondly, by formally completing our conversion and union into Christ.
Table of Contents
1. Baptism as a Means of Grace
Question: What are the outward means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption?
Answer: The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption are his ordinances, especially the word, baptism, the Lord’s supper, and prayer; all which means are made effectual to the elect for salvation.
- The Baptist Catechism1
Within the Christian life, there are two kinds of righteousness. The first kind of righteousness is imputed righteousness; the righteousness that is imputed/credited/given to us. This is the righteousness that Christ wrought through His obedience to the Covenant of Redemption. Upon the sinner's conversion, when they come to Christ in faith, this righteousness is given as a gift, by Grace, to the sinner that they may be treated as if they are righteous, such that when the Father looks at us He sees not our wickedness, but rather He looks to His right and sees the righteousness of the Son. This is justification.
The second kind of righteousness is inherent/infused righteousness, “righteousness leading to sanctification,” (Romans 6:19) as the Apostle calls it. This is the actual standard of holiness and righteousness that we live and grow in during our Christian walk. Sanctification is a work of God’s grace that we cooperate in where we are renewed and transformed. It’s rooted in grace, it’s not something we can just do on our own, rather instead we are to "work out our own salvation with fear and trembling" as "God works in you" (Phil 2:12-13).
Sanctification is instrumental in salvation, salvation is not just justification as salvation is the process by which the creation is reconciled to its creator, which includes the true destruction of sin in our lives. This is the purpose of sanctification and, ultimately, glorification. The true end of a Christian believer is not merely the forgiving of our debts, which occurs at our justification, but rather the full transformation of the soul to create vessels prepared for eternity.
So, how are we to be sanctified? How does God apply this Grace to us so that we grow in righteousness? The Baptist Catechism, as quoted above, answers, through the outward and ordinary means of grace.
Baptism is a Sacrament, which is defined by Peter Lombard, from St. Augustine, as a “visible sign of an invisible grace.”2 Sacraments are, as the Baptist Catechism notes, part of the ordinary means by which God communicates the “benefits of redemption,” or, the benefits that Christ achieved by his Incarnation, Life, Death, Descent, Resurrection, Assumption, and Session for the elect, ultimately for their salvation. Throughout redemptive history, God has always used outward means to bestow blessings, or grace among His people, for instance, the Tree of Life in the Garden (which St. Calvin3 and others take to be an Old Testament Sacrament), the Bronze Serpent which healed the infirmities of the Israelites, or, as St. Thomas Monck—a General Baptist—notes, “And as [the Israelites] had the Manna to nourish them in the Wilderness to Canaan; so have we the Sacraments to nourish us in the Church, and in our Wilderness condition, till we come to Heaven.”4
Throughout Particular Baptist literature, the affirmation of the Sacraments as real means of grace—not just bare signs—can be found. For a greater investigation into the subject, I recommend Amidst Us Our Beloved Stands by Dr. Michael A.G. Haykin and More Than a Symbol by Dr. Stanley K. Fowler, but here are just a few examples.
The 1689 (14.1) notes:
The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls, is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts, and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word; by which also, and by the administration of baptism and the Lord's supper, prayer, and other means appointed of God, it is increased and strengthened.5
St. Hercules Collin’s An Orthodox Catechism notes:
Question 65: It is by faith alone that we share in Christ and all his blessings: where then does that faith come from?
Answer: The Holy Spirit produces it in our hearts (a) by the preaching of the holy gospel, (b) and confirms it through our use of the holy sacraments. (c)
(a) John 3:5; 1 Cor. 2:10-14; Eph. 2:8 (b) Rom. 10:17; 1 Pet. 1:23-25 (c) Matt. 28:19-20; 1 Cor. 10:16
Question 66: What are sacraments?
Answer: Sacraments are holy signs and seals for us to see. They were instituted by God so that by our use of them he might make us understand more clearly the promise of the gospel, and might put his seal on that promise. (a) And this is God's gospel promise: to forgive our sins and give us eternal life by grace alone because of Christ's one sacrifice finished on the cross. (b)
(a) Gen. 17:11; Deut. 30:6; Rom. 4:11 (b) Matt. 26:27-28; Acts 2:38; Heb. 10:106
St. William Mitchell’s Jachin and Boaz notes:
XXX of the Sacraments
Sacraments are Holy Signs of the Covenant of Grace immediately; instituted by Christ, to represent him and his Benefits, and to confirm our Interest in him, and solemnly to engage us to the Service of God in Christ, according to his Word: There is in every Sacrament a spiritual Relation, or a Sacramental Union between the Sign, and the thing signified: whence it comes to pass that the Names and Effects of the one is ascribed to the other: The Grace which is exhibited in or by the Sacraments rightly used, is not conferred by any power in them, neither doth the Efficacy of a Sacrament depend upon the Piety or Intention of him that doth: administer it, but upon the Work of the Spirit, and the Word of Institution, which contains, together with a Precept authorizing the use thereof, a Promise of benefit to the worthy Receivers. There be only two. Sacraments ordained by Christ our Lord in the Gospel, that is to say, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, neither of which ought to be administered but by a Minister of the Word lawfully called.7
With this in mind, we now see the first sense in which Baptism can be spoken of as salvific. It sanctifies by the Effectual Operation of the Holy Spirit through the Sacrament. It is an objective means of grace by which God nourishes, seals, and confirms our faith and the faith of the Congregation. God has promised to work, in His elect, through the Sacraments. Not only does the Blessed Sacrament serve as an objective outworking of God’s grace, but Baptism, being a pledge of obedience (1 Peter 3:21) serves as a subjective memorial that the Christian may reflect on and cherish for all their lives, as a reminder to the pledge that you made when you went down into the water, symbolizing your participation in the Death of Christ, and as you came up, symbolizing your participation in the Resurrection of Christ. The water symbolizes you going down as a dead man and being raised in the newness of life.
2. Baptism as the Completion of Conversion
Baptism is the first-fruits of faith and love for Christ, the entry into obedience to the Lord and into his community.
- St. Johann Gerhard Oncken in his Confession of Faith of the German Baptists8
The New Testament, when describing conversion, repeatedly speaks of two-pronged processes, one that is first inward and then the other which is outward.
“Whoever believes [inward] and is baptized [outward] will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:16)
“And Peter said to them, Repent [inward] and be baptized [outward] every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38)
“because, if you confess with your mouth [outward] that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart [inward] that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified [inward], and with the mouth one confesses and is saved [outward].” (Romans 10:9-10)
“In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands [inward], by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism [outward], in which you were also raised with him through faith [inward] in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.” (Colossians 2:11-12)
“Go therefore and make disciples [inward] of all nations, baptizing them [outward] in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)
Over and over again this motif can be found when conversion and salvation are discussed by the Apostles: one believes and is inwardly converted (through the Effectual Operation of the Spirit in Regeneration, faith is a Gift of the Covenant of Grace [1 John 5:1]), then one does something which leads them to be outwardly converted. This thing, this outward act, that is done is Baptism. Repeatedly, when this motif is discussed, the inward act that is discussed is fiducial faith (not to be separated from Regeneration, for Regeneration proceeds faith and is how we are gifted faith) and the outward act that is discussed is Water Baptism. The one example provided that doesn’t explicitly mention Baptism is Romans 10:9-10. However, what St. Paul discusses as an outward act is a confession, what else is Baptism, but a confession, or pledge (1 Peter 3:21), to God and the Congregation? A key element of ancient Baptismal Rites [and historical evidence for credobaptism, which I will not get into now, see Dr. Everett Ferguson’s Baptism in the Early Church], which has been preserved to this day in all traditions—as far as I know—is the confession of faith, by mouth. We both with the physical mouth confess that Christ is Lord and with the metaphorical mouth—by going into the water and coming out—we confess to God and the World that Christ is Lord and we are God’s sheep. More than that, Baptism is not just a subjective memorial of our Conversion into Christ, rather, as Oncken goes on to note,
[Baptism] is also God's solemn declaration and assurance to the believing person being baptized that he is immersed in Christ Jesus and therefore died, buried and resurrected with him; that his sins were washed away and that he was a dear child of God in whom the Father was well pleased.9
Baptism is a Confession of God and Man of the inward conversion of the Believer into Christ so that they may be outwardly converted and declared to be a Christian.
Finally, this one text does not take away from every other text that explicitly describes the outward means of conversion as Baptism.
With this in mind, we can see that the second sense that Baptism can be spoken of as salvific. It is the outward means of conversion into Christ, one is not properly converted without Baptism—by which their conversion is completed and sealed. As St. Charles-Marie De Veil notes in his commentary on Acts 2:38,
In remission of your sins. That is, to seal the Remission of your sins, either received, or to be received by the full assurance of the Conscience. Therefore the most learned Ames:
“The remission of sins consists in the sentence of the offended God, nor can be attributed to any outward Ceremony, unless it be as to a sign or a seal whereby that sentence of God is manifested to us.”
Says Bonaventure,
“As the Royal Letters sealed with the Kings Seal, are of high Dignity, power, and value, and are said to do great things, yet there is not in them any absolute force, but only an Ordainment through the efficacy of the Royal Power; the same thing is to be understood of the Sacraments. And thus speak the texts of the holy Fathers according to common acceptation.”10
Now, with this in mind, it is important to introduce some caveats.
I do not affirm that Baptism is absolutely necessary for salvation, as St. Mark notes, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Baptism is only for those who are already regenerated, for faith is always operative in Baptism, as every citation from Scripture above shows, and given that faith is a gift of the Covenant of Grace (1 John 5:1) which is entered through regeneration, to be Baptized, one must have already been made alive to God. However, Baptism is necessary for salvation in that whoever spurns it and neglects it cannot be considered part of Christ’s flock, as St. Spurgeon tells the objector who claims that Baptism is “non-essential,”
[Spurgeon:] “What do you mean by ‘nonessential’?
[Objector:] ‘I mean that I can be saved without being baptized.’
[Spurgeon:] Will you dare to say that wicked sentence over again? ‘I mean that I can be saved without being baptized.’ You mean creature! So you will do nothing that Christ commands, if you can be saved without doing it? You are hardly worth saving at all! A man who always wants to be paid for what he does, whose one idea of religion is that he will do what is essential to his own salvation, only cares to save his own skin, and Christ may go where he likes. Clearly, you are no servant of his; you need to be saved from such a disreputable, miserable state of mind; and may the Lord save you! Oftentimes, I do believe that this little matter of believers’ baptism is the test of the sincerity of our profession of love to him.”11So, for catechumens who are undertaking the process of being Baptized and those who are prevented from being Baptized by necessity, there is no reason to despair, for they are Christ’s.
I deny Baptismal Regeneration, as defined as the moment that one is made alive to God is in Water Baptism. I do not deny that in Baptism we are sprinkled clean, for it is a means of grace by which God sanctifies us, as discussed above, so in this sense, I affirm Baptismal Efficacy and a kind of Baptismal Regeneration, as Dr. Jordan Cooper discusses in his video Is Regeneration Always Tied to Baptism?12 I probably will do a longer post as to why I deny Baptismal Regeneration, but for a broad overview, given the nature of the unregenerate man described in Ephesians 2:1-3, it seems impossible for me for someone who is unregenerate to seek Baptism. No one can say “Jesus is Lord”—which happens in Baptism—except in the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3). For one to seek the laver, there must already be an Operation of the Holy Spirit within them, and there are two states men can walk in, Satan, or Christ (as St. Paul notes throughout in Ephesians). There is no halfway state, one is either dead in their sins or alive in Christ, for them to say Jesus is Lord, they must be alive in Christ, meaning they must be regenerated.
Despite this, there is a sense in which we can affirm Baptism as regenerative, that is, in a formal and sealing manner, but not a causal manner. This is because of Baptism’s role in the completion of Christian Conversion. For an analogy, modern Baptists often will have this notion of an “altar call” or a “sinner’s prayer,” an outward act that, upon completion, we may declare this person as a brother or sister in Christ. Now, of course, we know that logically, they must have been a Christian and regenerated before this, for the only means by which they can make the altar call/sinner’s prayer is if they have the Holy Spirit effectually operating in them. Yet, the altar call/sinner’s prayer serves as a formal and sealing confirmation of their regeneration and entrance into the Kingdom. This is, of course, not Biblical, not because of the basic idea of an outward act that formally seals yourself in the Church—for that is completely Biblical as shown above. Rather instead, the means of doing it is not the altar call/sinner’s prayer as done today by Baptists and other low-churchers, but rather, by Baptism. Baptism is the true altar call, Baptism is the true sinner’s prayer, and Baptism is how our brother, the Congregation, and God declare the person being Baptized as part of Christ’s Church.
Therefore, Baptism can be spoken of as regenerative, as imparting the Holy Spirit13, as the remission of sins, despite not being the absolute cause of these things, for Baptism both serves as the representation of these things synecdochically14 and formally as the outward means of conversion. Conversion and salvation ought not to be separated from Baptism, the Apostles didn’t do so, how could we?
Conclusion
Baptists do not have to shy away from Sacramental theology and a high view of Baptism. Rest in the Sacraments and their efficacy and rejoice in your Washing, for in it, God has saved you, both by serving as a means of grace and by serving as the outward means of conversion. All Glory be to God.
Definition taken from The Oxford Treatise and Disputation On the Eucharist, by St. Peter Martyr Vermigli.
The Orthodox Creed (1678), Article 19
St. Hercules Collins, An Orthodox Catechism, Questions 65-66
St. William Mitchell, Jachin and Boaz, Article 30
St. Johann Gerhard Oncken (the better Gerhard), Confession of Faith of the German Baptists (1847), as translated into English by ChatGPT and published by my friend Cultivating Christ
Ibid.
St. Charles-Marie De Veil, A Literal Explanation of the Acts of the Holy Apostles, commentary on Acts 2:38
St. Charles Spurgeon, Baptism Essential to Obedience
Dr. Jordan Cooper, Is Regeneration Always Tied to Baptism?
I am open to Baptism being the normative means of the Holy Spirit being indwelt. The key question to consider on this point is whether or not in the New Covenant age one can be regenerated without the Holy Spirit being indwelt in them. Right now, my answer is no, and I take the gift of the Holy Spirit passages in Acts as St. Gill, St. Calvin, and St. de Veil do, as referring to the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit. However, if I could be swayed into the view that regeneration and the Spirit’s indwelling can be divorced, as was the case with the Old Testament Saints, then I am willing to accept that the Holy Spirit is normatively conveyed in Baptism. I’ve been told that St. Keach, for instance, held that the Holy Spirit was given upon the laying on of hands, however, I have not checked this claim.