by Dave Brown
Ye often hear it said ...
"If you are baptized, your faith is not in God’s Grace"
but when Peter was asked: "what must we do to be saved?" he responded (Acts 2:38) ...
"Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
Could it be that Peter was mistaken? No, in Acts 2:4 it states that Peter and the apostles were speaking "as the Spirit was giving them utterance." Thus, this is a direct command of God in response to the simple question: "what must we do to be saved?"
So how can this be? If baptism is a work, and we are not saved by works, how can Peter be right? The answer is not hard when we recognize what kind of "works" do not save. Consider Eph. 2:8-9: "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, {it is} the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast." We must conclude that the baptism commanded by God is not a work (of ourselves) that we can boast about. We did not invent it, and it takes no effort on our part. It is never even called a work in the bible, but it is called an act of faith in the working of God (Col. 2:12). Notice that Peter also commanded them (and us) to repent. This would surely take much more effort than would baptism, but few object to repentance as a condition of salvation. Why not just accept all that the bible clearly teaches, and do what God says?