Bulletin Articles: Full Article for Record Number 1007
Christ, Not Faith, Is Our Savior
by Larry Ray Hafley
For years, Protestants, especially Baptists, have reminded us that Christ, not baptism, is our Savior. When we show them passages which teach that baptism is essential to salvation, they say, "Water may be your Savior, but Jesus is my Savior." We then show them that the same thing is true with respect to repentance and faith as to baptism. One must repent before he can be forgiven (Acts 2:38). Does that fact make repentance our Savior? On one occasion, Jesus said to a woman, "Thy faith hath saved thee" (Lk. 7:50). Should the lady have rebuked him and said, "No, Lord, you are my Savior, not faith"? The truth is that God saved her, but he did not do so until her faith was manifest in what she did. So, today, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." Neither faith nor baptism is our Savior, but he who is the Savior will not save one who has not believed and been baptized (Mk. 16:16; Acts 22:16; 1 Pet. 3:21).
In 1 Peter 3:21, Peter said, "baptism doth also now save us." I have been asked, "Jesus saved me. Did baptism save you?" I explain that Jesus is my Savior, but that he did not save me until I obeyed him and was baptized into him "for the remission of sins" (Mk. 16:16; Acts 2:38; Gal. 3:26, 27). I then ask them how they would explain their position if I asked them, "Jesus saved me. Did faith save you?" In the same manner I answer them, they would have to say, "Jesus saved me, but he did not save me until I believed on him." If they can see the truth with respect to faith, why can they not see it with respect to baptism?
In The Baptist Watchman, April 2004, there appeared an article by the most famous Baptist preacher who ever lived, C.H. Spurgeon, who preached to thousands in London, England, near the close of the nineteenth century. In the article entitled, "By Grace Through Faith," Spurgeon warned his Baptist brethren:
"Grace is the first and last moving cause of salvation; and faith, essential as it is, is only an important part of the machinery which grace employs. We are saved ’through faith,’ but salvation is ’by grace’....Faith occupies the position of a channel or conduit pipe....I again remind you that faith is only the channel or aqueduct, and not the fountainhead, and we must not look so much to it as to exalt it above the divine source of all blessing which lies in the grace of God. Never make a Christ out of your faith, nor think of it as it were the independent source of your salvation. Our life is found in ’looking unto Jesus,’ not in looking to our own faith. By faith all things become possible to us; yet the power is not in the faith, but in the God upon whom faith relies."
If one understands Spurgeon’s reasoning, can he not understand the same with respect to repentance and baptism? Suppose I were to say:
Faith, repentance, and baptism, as essential as they are, are only important parts of the machinery which grace employs (Acts 2:38; 19:5; Eph. 2:8, 9). Faith, repentance, and baptism are "unto life," and salvation is "by grace" (Acts 11:18; 15:11; Rom. 3:24; 5:1; 6:3, 4). Faith, repentance, and baptism occupy the position of a channel or conduit pipe. They are the channel or aqueduct, not the fountainhead, and we must not look so much to them as to exalt them above the divine sources of all blessing which lies in the grace of God. Never make a Christ out of your faith, repentance, and baptism, nor think of them as if they were independent sources of your salvation. Our life is found in "looking unto Jesus," not in looking to our own faith, repentance, and baptism. By a penitent, obedient faith all things are possible to us; yet the power is not in any particular act, but in the God upon whom those acts of obedience relies (Eph. 1:13; Col. 2:12; Heb. 5:8, 9; 12:2; 1 Jn. 5:11).
Again we ask, if one can see the truth with respect to faith and repentance being essential to salvation without ascribing to them the place of being our Savior, why cannot he not see the same thing with respect to the place of baptism "in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins" (Mk. 16:16; Acts 2:38)?
