This week let’s think about how we are saved. Suppose someone asked you, “How are people saved?” What would you say? Would you say, “We are saved by God’s grace?” If so, you would be right. Ephesians 2: 8 says, “For by grace you have been saved.”

 

Of course, it would be correct to say, “We are saved by faith,” because the Bible also teaches that. Romans 5: 1 says, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Or you could correctly say, “We are saved by Jesus’ name,” because Acts 4: 12 says, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” And, of course, it would be correct to say “We are saved by the Gospel.” We know that is also true because Romans 1: 16 says, “The gospel of Christ…is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.”

 

So there are actually several things God teaches us in the Scriptures we are saved by. But suppose someone said, “I don’t want to be saved by grace, I just want to be saved by faith”? Or suppose someone said, “I don’t want to be saved by the gospel, I just want to be saved by God’s grace”? Well, of course, that would be all wrong. We are saved by everything God says we are saved by, and we cannot disregard anything God says we are saved by. 

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Now, with that in mind, listen to one other thing the Scriptures say we are saved by. It’s 1 Peter 3: 21, which says we are saved by baptism. That’s right—baptism. You see, even though many people say “People are saved without baptism,” the same Bible that tells us we are saved by grace, and faith, and Jesus’ name, and the gospel, also tells us: “There is also an antitype which now saves us, namely baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

 

Friend, the next time you hear someone say: “Baptism has nothing to do with salvation,” remember the Bible says in 1 Peter 3: 21, There is also an antitype which now saves us, namely baptism…” Think on these things.

 

Dennis Abernathy