Do I Have to Be Baptized to Be Saved?

Do you have to be baptized to be saved? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us with your question at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts. You can watch us on YouTube and message us that way. And of course, you can always email us your question.

Here's our email address. It's questions at corechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Kim in Marshall, Texas. Kim, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hi, Adriel and Bill, God bless you for your ministry. Recently, a loved one told me they were a Christian witch, and I wanted to find out if that's even possible or if they're opening a gateway for demonic activity in their life, and what would you suggest I do besides pray for discernment?

Hey Kim, thank you for that question. One, I would say no, it is not possible for a Christian to be a witch. I do think that when people begin to dabble in things like the occult that yes, it's a huge open door for the evil one for Satan.

We're inviting things into our lives that aren't good. And in the New Testament, the world of the apostles was really the world of the occult. There was all sorts of strange practices, divination, all of those things happening. And yet when people turned to Jesus through the preaching of the apostles, they left behind those practices. And there is a scene in the book of Acts, Kim, in Acts chapter 19 where Paul has been preaching in Ephesus and there's really this great revival through the proclamation of the gospel. And we read in Acts 19 verse 18 also, many of those who were now believers came confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all.

And they counted the value of them and found it came to 50,000 pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and to prevail mightily. I would say you continue to pray for this individual and I think have a frank conversation and say, look, when we follow Jesus, we don't just add Jesus to our already crafted spirituality. We embrace him as the Lord and we follow him and we turn away from, we repent of those practices that are out of accord with God's word and certainly witchcraft, the occult, all of those things are condemned by God. And as you said, gateways to evil things, things that we don't want to invite into our lives. And so it's only by the work of the Holy Spirit, Kim, and I pray for this friend of yours that their heart might be opened and really that they would come to a deep sense of the glory of Christ and the worthiness of Christ for us to leave behind whatever it is that we're clinging to so that we might follow him. And may the Lord grant grace to that end and may the Lord give you wisdom as you continue to have conversations with your friend. Adriel, you know, there seems to be this movement in our culture, I guess you would call it synchronism where people want to take different beliefs, some from Christianity, some from other faith traditions or even the occult and sort of mix them together in a blender and then say, this is my religion.

Yeah, that's not a milkshake I want to have, Bill. Yes, it's called syncretism. And the thing is, right, with something like this where we're talking about the occult and witchcraft, I think it's really easy for a lot of Christians to say, yeah, no way those two things can't mix, you know, witchcraft and the Christian faith. But there are a lot of other ways, I think, in which believers, well-meaning believers, do sort of mix their own religious ideas with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We want to add Jesus to our spirituality, whatever that is, the spirituality that we've crafted. We want a Jesus that's very much like us, who hates the things that we hate and loves the things that we love, even the sins that we love or the sins that we struggle with.

And we have to rid ourselves of that. We have to let the word of God speak for itself, call us to repentance where we need to be called to repentance and lead us, guide us into the truth more and more. And so this is something that all believers, I think, can struggle with, is just wanting to mix Jesus with their own spiritual ideas and spirituality. No, Jesus is not something you add to your life.

Jesus is the Lord who redeemed us by His blood and calls us to follow Him. Don't drink the synchronistic milkshake. Yeah, that's right. That's right.

No, I like, you know, Oreo cookies and cream. Give me that one. There you go. Okay. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Carly in Tyler, Texas. Carly, what's your question for Adriel? Hi.

Yes. Thank you guys for taking my call. I had a question that was not necessarily one that's made me question my faith or anything else, but I was at a dinner with a couple of very dear friends of mine. They grew up in church, very involved in ministry and have since then walked away from their faith and kind of, I guess, deconstructed their faith. And so my question is more in terms of what they had to say about salvation and what their big dilemma was with the Bible and the Gospels is that they feel like in terms of love, and as God is supposed to be our ultimate picture of love, they believe that they could basically construct a higher level of love than what the Bible has illustrated. They feel like because you have to accept Jesus into your heart to be saved, that that's conditional. That if God really loved people the way that He says He does, then everybody would end up in heaven regardless. And that sin happens because of bad things that happen in our life that make our hearts turn harm. I guess it was just a bunch of excuses, I guess, why sin happens. But that really, Jesus died on the cross to pay for sins so that salvation was available for everyone.

Wow, Karli. Thank you for that question. I'm glad you're thinking about this and having these conversations with friends. We were hearing about a lot of people deconstructing their faith, leaving behind the Christian faith, questioning everything that they were taught maybe as children or even as ministers, pastors in the church. And it sounds to me like the idea here is they think we can do it better than God. Our religion of love is actually more loving than the Christian religion because in Christianity, there's this exclusivity. It's Christ, the gospel. I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except by me. And so it sounds like they don't like that. And a lot of people in our society today don't like that.

But does that mean it's not loving? I mean, imagine for a moment a judge who just on the basis of nothing, there's a criminal before him who's done this heinous thing and just says, you know what? I know you've done this horrible thing. You've hurt this family in a terrible way. And the family, the victim, their family is all there in the courtroom. But the justice, I just have so much love. And so I'm just going to let you off the hook because of my great love. And you're free to go and go and be at peace, that kind of thing.

That wouldn't be love. There would be outrage. And there is oftentimes outrage when we see injustices that take place and people getting off the hook.

You think of how that other family would feel. God is a loving God, but He's also a just God. And a lot of times I think we want to emphasize maybe the love of God to the exclusion of justice, which at the end of the day corrupts the love of God. Or maybe people in the church can focus a ton on the justice of God and they don't have a good understanding of God's love. But when you look at the Gospels, it's very clear, I think, that there is no greater love than the love that God has demonstrated towards sinners.

One, we didn't deserve it. God would be totally just to just leave mankind's humanity in this state of perdition where we've rebelled against God. We've sinned against Him every day. You think about what Romans 5 says. Paul says God demonstrates His love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. It's God's love for people who don't deserve it, who were His enemies, who were shaking our fists at Him, and yet still He sent His Son into the world to suffer and die for sinners. And that's why the Gospel is this exclusive message because there's no other hope for sinners. There's no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. And so it sounds to me like there's just confusion on that point and I would encourage you to continue to talk to these friends, to pray for them, and to magnify the love of God as it's revealed to us in Scripture saying, look, there is no greater love, no greater love than the love of Christ as demonstrated in the Gospels, as preached by the apostles, as received by the faithful believers.

That's our hope. It's the love of Jesus. It's not in our own righteousness. It's in the fact that He's gracious towards sinners. And I hope that your friends would come around to that, that reality, that hope again. It really is, I think, a great pride to say, oh, I could do it better, right?

I mean, the reality is we couldn't do it better than the Lord. And so may God bless you, Carly. Thank you for your question. I loved your courtroom analogy there, Adriel.

That would be so helpful when you're talking to somebody who has that position. Would it be loving for that judge to let that murderer criminal off the hook right there with the victims in the courtroom? Of course not. God is both just and He's loving, right? He balances those two very—and He's God.

He does it really well, much better than we do. And in the Gospel, God bore our punishment. So it's not just like, yeah, it's all good.

Everything's fine. No, sin demands payment, if you will. And this is the love of God, that God has sent His Son into the world, that Jesus would assume humanity to pay for our debts.

That's love. Amen. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We have a group of people that we call our inner core who support this program on a monthly basis. We want to say thank you to those folks and encourage you to get involved in the inner core.

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Mike emailed us this. He said, I happened to catch a prior broadcast where a question about baptism came up. This was a great opportunity to take the focus off the baptism as there are many Catholics and non-Catholics that think you need to be baptized in order to be saved or that some sort of grace is attained through the act of baptism.

Unfortunately, I think Pastor Sanchez muddied the waters at best. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. No acts are required, including baptism. There is no storehouse of grace we gain access to through the sacraments, nor does baptism draw us closer to the Lord. I pray that you will get an opportunity to clarify this on the air.

Yeah, thank you for that email. I don't want to muddy the waters of baptism. Look, first, I do believe that baptism is a means of grace. What I mean by that is it's one of the ways that the Spirit of God can and does work in the world today. Jesus himself, the eternal son of God, is the one who instituted baptism for the church.

Any theology that minimizes baptism or that says, oh, we just don't really need it, we're just saved by grace through faith, which, by the way, I agree with, we're saved by grace through faith, therefore we don't need rituals like baptism and holy communion. Well, look, at the end of the day, the problem that you have there is first and foremost with Jesus because Jesus is the one who gave us these signs of the gospel for his people, for his church, to communicate his saving power through these signs, his grace. Oftentimes, in the New Testament, you have this close association between the sign itself and the saving work of God, the saving work of the Holy Spirit. I think about what we read in Titus chapter three, verse five, he saved us. God saved us, that is, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

You have this sort of, we might call it sacramental language, this language of washing associated with salvation. Now, what I'm not saying here is that every person who's baptized is saved at that moment, that kind of a thing. No, salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit. It's only by the Spirit and through faith that we're saved, but these signs of salvation, if you will, are given to us, given to the church.

We need to value them as gifts given to us by God himself. Insofar as we encourage people to be baptized, we call people to be baptized, which is precisely what the apostles themselves did, insofar as we remind people of their baptisms, saying, look, this is a part of your new identity in Jesus Christ. You were buried with Christ in baptism.

It's what Paul says in places like Galatians chapter three, in Romans chapter six. The reality is we just need to have a more biblical understanding of baptism. In the church today, there is, I think, a lot of sub-biblical views of baptism. We just sort of hear these mantras about baptism. Well, it's just an outward sign of your inward faith. If you believe, get baptized if you want.

It's not that big of a deal. No, that's not the teaching of the New Testament. Baptism is a gift given to us by God.

God himself is the baptizer. It's the sign of his saving work. It's God's objective promises being extended to his people, and we are called to lay hold of those promises by faith, to say amen to God speaking to us through his word and through these signs that Jesus gives. Again, we value them because the gift giver, the one who gives them, is Jesus himself. We have to be careful that we don't set aside, that we don't devalue good gifts that the Lord is giving to us, to his people, especially when they remind us of his love, of his forgiveness, of the gospel.

We need those reminders, and we need those tangible, visible, physical reminders every day, frankly. Amen. Thank you for that, Adriel. You're listening to Core Christianity. Let's go to John in St. Louis, Missouri. John, what's your question for Pastor Adrian? Yeah, how are you guys doing?

This is my first-time caller. I'd like to ask Pastor Sanchez, what does he think when it says that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, but he's equal in God, and yet it says, like, when he hands the kingdom over to God, the Father, that he will be subject to the Father. So I'm just trying to figure out—I know they're co-equal, but how does—and then when the devil tempts the, you know, the Lord Jesus to, you know, that, you know, that just rely on your own, you know, abilities, like turn his bread into water, or what is it, turn this bread into stone into bread?

Yeah, yeah. So is that just—I know Jesus is the Creator of this world, but how does that, I don't understand the difference between how the Father, you know, empowers the Son, but the Son is still individual, right, as far as the relationship, but he has his own will, but he follows the will of the Father, so I'm just kind of confused, how does that work in conjunction with, you know, with the Trinity and— Yeah, great, great questions. We're getting into Trinitarian theology here, we're getting into Christology, a right understanding of Christ, and so a few things. One, in the Trinity there's one will, and so that's really important.

Christ, the Word, the second person of the Holy Trinity, when he assumed humanity, he assumed everything that it is to be human, including the human will, and so in the Trinity there's one will, but in terms of having a proper Christology, a proper understanding of Christ, the God-man, one divine person, two natures, we say that he has two wills, the divine will and the human will, and so far as the human will is a part of human nature, and Christ assumed everything that it is to be human so that he might redeem it, heal it, restore it, and it's really, really important. Now with regard to this idea of Jesus submitting to the Father or being subordinate to the Father, here's how we parse this out. One, in the life of the Trinity, you know, the three persons of the Holy Trinity, while distinct, are equal in power and glory. There isn't one who's, you know, beneath or subordinate to in terms of God's essence. There was an ancient heretic named Arius, and that's what he was arguing, essentially, that the Son was less than. He was divine, but he was less divine than the Father. He was not consubstantial with the Father, is the technical theological word that we sometimes use, co-equal of the same substance, of the same essence, and the Church, the early believers, the Orthodox, those faithful to the scriptures, rejected the teaching of Arius and condemned it as heresy. So we would say, first and foremost, within the Trinity, you don't have this subordination with regard to essence.

That would be sort of falling into the heresy of Arianism or leading down that road. But when Jesus assumed humanity in the history of salvation and the economy of salvation, sometimes we say, there he came as a servant, submitting to the Father's will. You think of what Paul says in Philippians chapter two.

In particular, I'm thinking of verse, we'll start in verse four, let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. He's equal with the Father, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. And being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. And so that submission, if you will, happened in the context of Jesus is coming to earth, accomplishing redemption for us, redeeming us. So the persons of the Holy Trinity, Jesus is not less than the Father, equal in power and glory. It's why Jesus in John chapter five says, all should honor me just as they honor the Father. The three persons of the Holy Trinity are the objects of our worship, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, same in substance, undivided. And so those are the best ways to sort of parse this out in terms of the Trinitarian relationship that there's equality, same essence, substance, but then in terms of the economy of salvation, God the Father sending his Son into the world, Jesus, the eternal word of the Father submits and comes as a servant so that he might redeem us. Thank you for that question, getting into some deep theology, Christology, Trinitarian theology, but it's good stuff. It is good stuff. Thanks, John, for that question.

You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Dorian in St. James, Missouri. Dorian, welcome to the program. Hello.

Hey, Dorian. Can you hear me? Yeah.

Yeah. Hey, I actually don't have a question. I have a couple of comments to support some of the things that you said. I apologize for coming in late. I just came out of the store, turned the radio on and heard you talking.

I got two. One is what you were talking about, churches that focus on miracles and whatnot. I work, my ministry is to do multimedia video and audio for my church and for other churches that I've done. I always tell my people, we may have the technology to do razzle dazzle, fancy transitions and whatnot, but our ministry is to be an enabler for the message. When people focus on razzle dazzle and fancy transitions, we detract from that message. They start focusing on what we're doing and the cool transitions with the sparkly, the fairy dust, and they miss out on what the message is.

Hey, yeah, Dorian, I don't want to cut you off there, but we only have a few more seconds in the program left, but let me just say, I agree with you. The razzle dazzle and the pixie dust or whatever it was that you called it there, the gospel doesn't need that. The resurrection of Jesus Christ doesn't need that.

I think of the women who went to Jesus' tomb thinking that he was still dead after he had risen from the dead. They bring perfume and spices and they want to anoint his body, but he's alive from the dead. Jesus doesn't need our razzle dazzle perfume. He's the Lord of heaven and earth. We can just let him speak through his word. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833, the CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.