Question Card Session 1/18/26
Notes
Transcript
Turn to Mark 16:16
This morning we are going to consider a question that often arises from a specific verse of Scripture. So before I reveal the question, let’s look at the verse.
Read Mark 16:16
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Question: In Mark 16:16, it states, “he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” What does this mean? Does baptism save us?
This is an ancient question - one that has been debated not just the past several hundred years, but for more than the last 1,500 years. Mark 16:16 is used as a proof text for a doctrine called “baptismal regeneration”. In layman’s terms, it’s the belief that baptism is part of salvation. For those of you who came out of the Roman Catholic church, you’re familiar with this teaching because it is a fundamental doctrine of their religion. That’s because the doctrine of baptismal regeneration was formalized by Augustine, the early theologian of the Catholic church.
This doctrine remains alive and well today. There are contemporaries of mine who once believed as we do that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone who have become zealots of this doctrine.
I say all that to say this: I won’t pretend that I can put this question forever to rest in the next 30 minutes. However, I do intend to answer this question regarding Mark 16:16 and why our church rejects the doctrine of baptismal regeneration.
We believe that salvation is by grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
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John 1:12; John 3:16; Acts 16:31; Romans 3:21-30; Romans 4:5; Romans 10:9-10; Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:8-10; Philippians 3:9
These are just a portion of the verses that we look to as evidence of this. None of them mention baptism as part of salvation. We have all of these verses and more that clearly teach salvation by faith in Christ’s work on the cross of Calvary. I think its fair to say that if baptism is part of salvation, either these verses need to be edited to offer a complete picture of salvation, or we have to rethink whether baptism is part of salvation at all.
So what about the verses that seem to add baptism to this?
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Mark 16:16; John 3:5; Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16; Galatians 3:27; 1 Peter 3:21
There’s probably others that could be added to this list, but these are the primary ones. Mark 16:16, along with these others, seems to indicate that belief and baptism are together necessary for salvation.
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Rule of Bible interpretation: Don’t use difficult passages of Scripture to interpret clear passages of Scripture.
My point is this: we have a whole list of verses that clearly teach salvation by faith in Christ alone. Why would we turn that whole list of verses upside down and say that we need to insert baptism into those verses? Logically, that makes no sense. Maybe we just need to take a deeper look at the verses that mention baptism and study them in their context.
In Mark 16:16, people get caught up in the first half of the verse where it says, “he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” The problem is that they stop there and miss what the rest of the verse says. “…He that believeth not shall be damned”, in other words, condemned to hell.
Forget the first half of of the verse for now. We’ll come back to it. I have a question about the second half of the verse, and its not a trick question:
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According to Mark 16:16, what is the one critical thing a person must do to avoid condemnation in hell? He must believe
Yes! A person must believe! Jesus says that’s the critical thing to avoid the future judgment of God. If a person doesn’t believe, they are condemned. Now if baptism were also part of it, then why didn’t Jesus say so?
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Mark 16:16 “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not [and is baptized not] shall be damned.”
Jesus didn’t say that. Furthermore, look at verse 17.
Mark 16:17 “And these signs shall follow them that believe [and are baptized]; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;”
Jesus didn’t say that either. Why? Because baptism isn’t part of salvation. To use another man’s words, in Mark 16:16, “Jesus makes it clear that the eternally essential part is believing.” - Dr. Charles Surrett
Apart from belief in Jesus Christ, there is no salvation, and you’re still lost in your sins.
Jesus mentions belief three times in verses 16-17. He mentions baptism once. Someone might argue that baptism is mentioned once and its understood or implied the rest of the times in the verse. If a person wants to make that argument , that’s fine, but I’m not going to base a major doctrine like salvation on an understanding or an implication.
Now I want to be intellectually honest and raise this question: why did Jesus mention baptism here anyway? If baptism is not part of salvation, then why did He bring it up at all?
In my opinion, this would be less of a question if we lived in a country where Christians are persecuted for their faith.
It’s hard for us to do, but imagine that we all lived in a country that is anti-Christian. The government discourages Christian evangelism and your family is vehemently opposed to it for religious reasons.
In that kind of environment, the only Christians you take seriously are the ones who are willing to be baptized and “come out” to their family that they are a Christian. If someone isn’t willing to be baptized, if someone isn’t willing to profess Christ before their family and close associates, then you don’t know for sure if they are saved. But if they take that step of obedience and go public with their faith, you know that they are the real deal. You know that they’re saved.
Guess what: that was exactly the context that Jesus was speaking in. Earlier in his ministry, when people followed Jesus, they got thrown out of the local synagogue. They were excommunicated by the Jewish religious leaders. Then Jesus was crucified!
When it began to cost something to be a disciple of Jesus, either you were truly saved and you proved it by being baptized or you weren’t taken seriously.
One person wrote,
Baptism was the means of making a decision public. [Think of John the Baptist’s ministry.] Those who refused to be baptized were saying they did not truly believe…When a person claimed to believe in Christ, yet was ashamed to proclaim his faith in public, it indicated that he did not have true faith. - https://www.gotquestions.org/baptism-salvation.html
I believe that is why Jesus mentioned baptism along with belief in this verse. The baptism indicated that their belief was genuine because it came with a price tag. You could count on it, that person, the one who was baptized, was truly saved because they evidenced their belief. But the person who did not believe was already condemned to hell.
This conclusion is fully in line with what Jesus told Nicodemus in the final words of their nighttime conversation.
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He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
According to Mark 16:16, belief is the crux of the matter. Baptism gives evidence of one’s faith, but it does not save.
