Does Baptism Save Us?
Minister: | Rev. Ronald Van Overloop |
Date: | 9/2/2012 AM |
Text: | I Peter 3:21; Lord's Day 26 |
Psalters: | 175, 363, 352, 396 |
- The answer.
- We must be careful not to answer quickly, “No” to reject Rome’s contention that baptism saves all who are baptized.
- Reformed believer say baptism saves us, but not like Rome says it.
- The sacraments are a means of grace – spiritual (not physical) which confirms our faith (HC, q. 65).
- Baptism saves us, for by it God gives us, and He uses it to strengthen our faith.
- Baptism is a means the Holy Spirit uses to give us grace and to further our salvation; it can save us instrumentally.
- Negatively, baptism does not have an inherent power of itself.
- There is more to salvation than its beginning; there is also its maintenance, its enrichment, its experience.
- Baptism confirms faith, enriches and deepens it, and it gives the experience of faith.
- Baptism also gives great power to motivates us to antithetically.
- And knowledge of our baptism strengthens us to bear life’s burdens and to fulfill our calling.
- In summary, we are to remind ourselves that we were baptized, i.e., we have been washed by and with Christ.
- Baptism saves believers, not all who have been baptized.
- The Spirit does not so tie Himself to the ceremony as if the ceremony regenerates.
- Baptism saves, not everyone baptized, but only “us,” i.e., those who believe.
- Only those with faith and exercising it can see the reality portrayed in the sign and seal.
- Faith sees the water and realizes the spiritual meaning by holding for truth God’s promise of salvation in Christ.
- When we fall into sin, we must not despair of God’s unchanging mercy and covenant and forgiveness.
- Remember: our salvation is because of God and His covenant, not because of our struggles with sin or our repentance.
- Remind ourselves that we were baptized and what it signifies: we have been washed by and with Christ.