We
do not merit or earn our salvation. But
when we come to believe and trust in the Lord to the extent that we obey the
requirements He has laid down in the Bible, only then are we saved.
Jesus is only “the author of eternal salvation to all who obey
Him” (Hebrews 5:9). Jesus
said, “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he who does
not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16).
One needs help to misunderstand what Jesus said.
Jesus did not say, “He that believes and is not baptized shall be saved”.
This is what Satan says. Satan
says that all you need to do to be saved is just believe.
Satan tells people that you do not need to be baptized to be saved.
Satan says that it is alright to be baptized after you “think you
are saved” in order to only join a denomination.
Satan knows if one’s baptism is not for the purpose of being saved,
that person is still lost. Satan
tries every way he can to cause people to be eternally lost in Hell.
But someone may say, “In the later part of the verse, Jesus
doesn’t say, ‘He that is not baptized will be condemned’ ”.
He does not have to. The
reason Jesus did not say, “He that is baptized not shall be condemned”
is the fact that there can be no baptism without faith.
To be saved Jesus says one has to both believe and be baptized.
To be lost all one has to do is disbelieve.
One who disbelieves what Jesus says in the first part of the verse is
certainly not going to be baptized to be saved.
Jesus says in John 3:18, “he who does not believe is condemned
already.” One who does not
believe and obey Jesus when He said “He that believes and is baptized
shall be saved” is a disbeliever and will be condemned eternally in Hell.
One has no real trust or belief in Jesus until one is ready to do all
of what Jesus says and for the reason He says.
In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus says, “Not
everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of
heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders
in Your name?’ And then I will
declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice
lawlessness!’“ Jesus says
that a faith even though it confesses Jesus as Lord and is active in many
areas, yet if it does not lead the individual to obey all of God’s will,
it makes one only a worker of iniquity.
Such a person will be rejected by the Lord on Judgment Day and he
will be told to depart into the everlasting torment of Hell.
Jesus says, “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has
that which judges him, the word I have spoken will judge him in the last
day” (John 12:48). One who
rejects Jesus’ words which include, “He that believes and is baptized
shall be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mark
16:16), is a disbeliever and will be judged and condemned by these same
words on the Day of Judgment.