The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Is water baptism to be practiced today?

I suppose I can find ONE sense in which water baptism is "essential:"

Salvation may be said to be

PAST: I WAS saved from the PENALTY of sin (upon regeneration and conversion to Christ;

PRESENT: I AM BEING saved, day to day, from the POWER of sin (sanctification), and

FUTURE: I WILL BE saved, when He returns, from the PRESENCE of sin.

Since sanctification results in obedience and depends on faithful submission to His word, it is therefore "necessary" to obey the Lord's command to be baptized if one is to be saved from the power of sin in sanctification. An unsurrendered rebel, even if a believer, is "NOT SAVED" from the power of sin in his own heart and mind until he yields in obedience to the Lord.

Most of us see this part of salvation as a process rather than an event, in which we are gradually transformed in the inner man, from glory to glory, as we learn His will and are transformed by the renewing of our minds in His word.

This is not to say, however, that one who is never baptized in water is somehow disqualified from justification (which is by faith ALONE), not from his or her inheritance of eternal life in the next world.

-Robin