What are the critical actions, moments, and causes of our getting to Heaven? Eternal life is the major goal, so certainly Christians should be clear and unified on the topic. We are not. Why not is easy to answer. First, we are very damaged goods when it comes to understanding the things of God. Then, to make it worse, Satan is a very real force that is trying to act as a spoiler to God’s plan to save us. Confusion is expected in that environment. So what are the issues?
Here are some passages I would like you to think about how they go together:
8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:8-9 (ESV)
This verse, by itself and out of the context of all Scripture, does speak about Jesus but focuses on your verbal confession that “Jesus is Lord” and “believe in your heart”, which would seem to be a cognitive confidence that Jesus rose from the dead. Let’s add another.
21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
1 Peter 3:21 (ESV)
This passage also references the resurrection of Jesus but speaks of baptism, rather than confession, as the moment or connecting action that saves you. What about this?
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV)
The broader context around this passage would certainly connect both grace and faith to Jesus. Without Jesus’ successful completion of God’s Law and His suffering the punishment for sin on the cross, God’s grace wouldn’t be offered. There would be no forgiveness of our sins. The faith, again, is in God’s promise and what Jesus did to pay for the promise. But this passage emphasizes the point that this is not your doing. You don’t create this “faith”.
In the 1 Peter passage above “baptisma” is a noun. When you look at a passage in which it is a verb, like Acts 2:38, it is the word “baptistheto”, which is a passive verb. We don’t have passive verbs in English, but it describes something that is done to you, not by you. “Confess” back in Romans is “homologeo” which is an active verb, you are doing it. The same with “believe”. Confused? I don’t think Scripture is contradicting itself. Here is my explanation.
When you want to know that “cause” of anyone’s salvation the answer is “Jesus”. He did the necessary things according to the will of God and His resurrection was proof of that. Jesus in cooperation with the Holy Spirit also has to create the connection that allows Jesus’ work to apply to you. The “connection” isn’t something cognitive (not a decision, or a statement, or a doctrinal belief, or an action on your part) The connection is beyond our experience. It is spiritual. Or since our society has trashed that word, it is mystical. It’s on another plain. Does understanding and agreeing need to happen before the connection is made? Children, the mentally disabled, some seniors would be out of luck in that case. That also would be “your doing”. Since “confess” in Romans 10 an active thing, it makes sense that a confession of “Jesus as Lord” is one of the first effects or proofs that you are connected to Christ. It is not the cause. Baptism, being passive, is the time when Jesus connects you to Himself. You are “in Christ” after that point.
There is a little of which comes first, chicken/egg, here. For an adult of normal intellect you look for a cognitive faith before baptism. When are you saved? The moment you believe or the moment you are baptized? I think the later, but I realize God is not constrained to use the moment of baptism.
There are some important points to make from this discussion:
- Baptism isn’t a strange form of confession. You are passive.
- Baptism doesn’t work because you do it a certain way. It isn’t a hoop to hop through.
- When you are saved, you have God to thank.
- “Saved” means forgiven of all sins, a part of the Kingdom of God, inhabited by the Holy Spirit, a disciple of Jesus, and headed toward Heaven but not there yet.
That brings up another debate and apparent contradiction: Can a person lose real salvation? Read more here:https://givingchrist.com/2019/11/05/can-a-person-lose-salvation/
Giving Christ 