Does Baptism Save Us?

Minister:
Date: AM
Text: I Peter 3:21; Lord's Day 26
Psalters: 175, 363, 352, 396
  1. The answer.
    1. We must be careful not to answer quickly, “No” to reject Rome’s contention that baptism saves all who are baptized.
    2. Reformed believer say baptism saves us, but not like Rome says it.
      1. The sacraments are a means of grace – spiritual (not physical) which confirms our faith (HC, q. 65).
      2. Baptism saves us, for by it God gives us, and He uses it to strengthen our faith.
  2. Baptism is a means the Holy Spirit uses to give us grace and to further our salvation; it can save us instrumentally.
    1. Negatively, baptism does not have an inherent power of itself.
    2. There is more to salvation than its beginning; there is also its maintenance, its enrichment, its experience.
      1. Baptism confirms faith, enriches and deepens it, and it gives the experience of faith.
      2. Baptism also gives great power to motivates us to antithetically.
      3. And knowledge of our baptism strengthens us to bear life’s burdens and to fulfill our calling.
    3. In summary, we are to remind ourselves that we were baptized, i.e., we have been washed by and with Christ.
  3. Baptism saves believers, not all who have been baptized.
    1. The Spirit does not so tie Himself to the ceremony as if the ceremony regenerates.
    2. Baptism saves, not everyone baptized, but only “us,” i.e., those who believe.
      1. Only those with faith and exercising it can see the reality portrayed in the sign and seal.
      2. Faith sees the water and realizes the spiritual meaning by holding for truth God’s promise of salvation in Christ.
    3. When we fall into sin, we must not despair of God’s unchanging mercy and covenant and forgiveness.
      1. Remember: our salvation is because of God and His covenant, not because of our struggles with sin or our repentance.
      2. Remind ourselves that we were baptized and what it signifies: we have been washed by and with Christ.