Difficult Questions About Baptism
So far we have examined what Jesus taught, what the apostles preached, the conversions recorded in Acts, and what the New Testament letters say baptism means.
The picture has been remarkably consistent.
But a sound conclusion should also be able to face the passages that seem to challenge it.
What about the thief on the cross?
What about Cornelius receiving the Holy Spirit before he was baptized?
If salvation is by grace through faith, how can baptism be involved without becoming a work?
Was Saul already saved when he met Jesus on the Damascus road?
Does Romans 10 teach that believing and confessing Christ are all that is required?
And what about people who were sincerely baptized but did not understand what the New Testament says baptism means?
These are legitimate questions.
We should neither avoid them nor allow one difficult passage to erase everything else Scripture says.
We should examine each one in its context.
GOING DEEPER
The Thief on the Cross
Jesus told the thief: “Today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43)
The thief was not baptized afterward. That is true.
But we must ask where this event occurs in the biblical story.
Jesus was still alive. He had not yet died or risen. The Great Commission had not yet been given. Christian baptism into Christ's death and resurrection had not yet been proclaimed.
The thief was genuinely saved by Jesus.
The question we must examine is whether his experience tells us how people were instructed to respond to the gospel after Christ's death and resurrection.
That deserves its own study.
Cornelius Received the Holy Spirit Before Baptism
Cornelius presents a different question.
While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit came upon Cornelius and his household. Then Peter asked: “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” (Acts 10:47)
Peter then commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
So the order is unusual:
Holy Spirit first. Baptism afterward.
Why?
Acts 10 and 11 show that a major issue was God's acceptance of Gentiles. Was this extraordinary outpouring of the Spirit God's sign that Gentiles could receive the gospel without first becoming Jews?
We need to examine the whole story before drawing our conclusion.
What About Salvation by Faith?
The New Testament repeatedly says we are saved through faith.
We should never weaken that teaching.
Paul writes: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith...” (Ephesians 2:8)
So does baptism somehow compete with salvation by faith?
Our earlier studies have already given us an important clue. Paul describes believers as buried and raised with Christ in baptism “through faith in the working of God.” (Colossians 2:12)
Perhaps the real question is not faith or baptism, but:
What did saving faith look like when people responded to the gospel?
That question deserves careful study.
Was Saul Already Saved on the Damascus Road?
Saul saw the risen Jesus and came to believe that Jesus was Lord. He obeyed Jesus' instruction to enter Damascus. For three days he fasted and prayed.
Then Ananias came and told him: “And now why are you waiting? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.” (Acts 22:16)
If Saul's sins had already been forgiven on the road three days earlier, why did Ananias speak this way?
We should not answer that question from a theological system.
We should let Luke tell Saul's whole story.
What About Romans 10?
Paul writes: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
Does that mean nothing else is involved?
Before answering, remember something important: the same Paul has already told these same Roman Christians that they had been “baptized into Christ Jesus” and “baptized into his death.” (Romans 6:3)
Romans 10 cannot reasonably be used to erase Romans 6.
The question is what Paul is discussing in Romans 10 and why he emphasizes belief and confession there.
Does It Matter Why Someone Was Baptized?
Acts 19 raises another difficult question.
Paul met about twelve men in Ephesus who had already been baptized. Their baptism was not fraudulent. They had received John's baptism, which had originally come from God.
Yet after Paul explained Christ more fully, they were baptized again in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Why?
Apparently the physical act alone was not everything.
That raises a personal but legitimate question:
Is it enough simply to say, “I have been baptized,” or does what we understood and responded to matter?
We will examine that carefully without trying to judge anyone's heart.
Difficult Passages Should Fit the Whole Picture
None of these passages should frighten us.
If our understanding is correct, the difficult passages should eventually fit with the clearer ones.
But neither should we force them to fit.
Our method remains the same:
Read each passage in context.
Ask what the author intended.
Compare Scripture with Scripture.
Then draw the conclusion.
That is what we will do with each of these questions.
Not Every Baptism in the Bible Is the Same
When Paul arrived at Ephesus, he found about twelve disciples and asked:
“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
(Acts 19:2)
Their answer showed Paul that something was missing. So he asked:
“Into what then were you baptized?”
(Acts 19:3)
They answered:
“Into John's baptism.”
That was the problem.
John's baptism had come from God. It was a baptism of repentance that prepared people for the coming Messiah.
But John's baptism belonged to an earlier point in God's plan.
Paul explained:
“John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.”
(Acts 19:4)
Then Luke tells us:
“On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
(Acts 19:5)
That teaches us something important:
Not every baptism mentioned in the Bible is the same baptism.
John's baptism looked forward to the coming Christ.
Christian baptism looks back upon the completed death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and responds to the gospel of the risen Lord.
These men had been baptized sincerely. Their earlier baptism had even originated with a command from God.
But God's plan had moved forward.
Sincerity did not make an earlier baptism the baptism Christ now commanded.
Once they understood the completed gospel, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
The coming of Christ changed everything.
What Kind of Faith Saves?
Paul could hardly be clearer:
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith...not by works, so that no one can boast.”
(Ephesians 2:8–9)
Salvation begins with God's grace.
It is received through faith.
It is not earned by human effort.
But Paul does not stop at verse 9.
The next verse says:
“For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works...”
(Ephesians 2:10)
We are not saved by good works.
But we are saved for a life that produces good works.
James approaches the same question from another direction. He asks:
“Can such faith save them?”
(James 2:14)
What kind of faith is James talking about?
A faith that merely claims to believe but never responds.
His conclusion is:
“Faith without works is dead.”
(James 2:26)
Paul and James are not contradicting one another.
Paul rejects works that attempt to earn salvation.
James rejects a faith that never acts.
Hebrews 11 gives us the same picture.
By faith Noah built the ark.
By faith Abraham obeyed and went.
Their actions did not replace faith.
Their actions showed us what their faith did.
That gives us an important question when we come to baptism:
When Jesus commanded baptism, was He asking people to earn salvation—or was He asking faith to respond to God's grace?
The New Testament repeatedly describes genuine faith as faith that listens, trusts, and responds to God's word.
Saving faith is not merely believing facts about Jesus.
It is trusting Jesus enough to respond to what He says.
“We are not saved BY good works, but we are saved FOR good works.”
What Kind of Works Does Paul Reject?
When Paul says:
“By grace you have been saved, through faith...not by works, so that no one can boast”
(Ephesians 2:8–9),
we should ask what kind of works Paul is excluding.
Paul gives us a useful explanation in Romans 4:
“Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation.”
(Romans 4:4)
Paul is describing work that earns wages.
If I work for someone and earn my paycheck, the employer is not giving me a gift. He owes me what I earned.
Salvation can never work that way.
We cannot put God in our debt.
We cannot perform enough good deeds to make God owe us forgiveness.
But that does not mean faith never responds to God's instructions.
Noah built the ark.
Abraham left his homeland.
Israel crossed the Red Sea.
Naaman washed in the Jordan.
None of those actions put God in their debt.
They were responses of faith to what God had said.
That gives us a better way to ask the baptism question.
The question is not simply:
“Is baptism something a person does?”
The question is:
“Is baptism an attempt to earn salvation, or is it a response of faith to something God has asked us to do?”
Those are very different things.
Ephesians 2:8–9 and verse 10.
Paul says we are not saved by works, and then immediately says:
“For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works...”
(Ephesians 2:10)
So Paul plainly does not mean Christians never do anything.
He distinguishes between:
works offered to earn salvation
and
works that flow from a life already dependent upon God's grace.
Paul warns against trusting works to earn God's favor. James warns against claiming to have faith while refusing to live by it.
They are describing the same living faith from two different directions.
The real question is whether baptism is an attempt to earn God's favor or a response of faith to God's instruction.
Why Do Sincere Christians Disagree?
Sincere Christians sometimes study the same passages and reach different conclusions.
That does not necessarily mean someone is dishonest or does not respect Scripture.
All of us have been influenced by parents, teachers, preachers, churches, and traditions. Sometimes we begin studying a passage with conclusions we have already accepted.
We may also build too much upon one familiar verse while overlooking other passages dealing with the same subject. Or we may stop reading too soon and miss what comes before or after the verse we are quoting.
Even familiar words can cause problems.
The New Testament uses words such as faith, works, grace, saved, and baptism. We should not assume those words always mean exactly what modern religious discussions have made them mean.
Instead, ask:
How is the biblical writer using this word here?
That is why throughout this study we have tried to ask:
What did Jesus say?
What did Peter preach?
What did Paul mean?
What was Luke describing?
Different biblical writers sometimes emphasize different parts of the same truth without contradicting one another.
Our responsibility is to let all of them speak.
And if a passage challenges something we have believed for years, we should be willing to examine it carefully.
Truth has nothing to fear from honest investigation.
Our goal is not to win an argument.
Our goal is to understand God's Word.
Do I Need to Be Baptized Again?
Acts 19 does not answer every modern question about rebaptism, but it does establish an important principle.
Paul met people who had already been baptized.
He did not merely ask:
“Have you been baptized?”
He asked:
“Into what then were you baptized?”
(Acts 19:3)
That question suggests that the meaning and purpose of their baptism mattered.
Their first baptism had not been insincere. John's baptism had come from God and had been appropriate when John preached it.
But God's plan had moved forward.
When these disciples understood the gospel of Christ more fully:
“they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
(Acts 19:5)
That raises some honest questions for us today.
If someone was baptized as an infant, before personally believing in Christ, does that resemble the baptism we have been reading about in the New Testament?
If someone was sprinkled rather than immersed, how does that compare with the New Testament picture of baptism as burial and resurrection?
If someone was immersed without understanding the gospel or why he was being baptized, what can Acts 19 teach us about that situation?
“Into what were you baptized?”
Then compare your own experience honestly with what the New Testament describes.
Was I responding personally to Christ in faith?
Did I understand that I was being baptized into Christ?
Does my baptism resemble the baptism Jesus and His apostles taught?
Each person must answer those questions before God according to Scripture.
The purpose is not to create doubt where none is warranted.
It is simply to allow God's Word to examine what we have done.
The disciples at Ephesus were sincere people. When they learned something they had not understood before, they willingly followed what they now understood Christ required.
That is the attitude all of us should have.
If Scripture shows us something we did not understand before, our desire should be to follow Christ wherever His Word leads.
CONTINUE YOUR STUDY
Next Bible Study
What About the Thief on the Cross?
Jesus promised the thief Paradise without requiring baptism.
Does that prove baptism is unnecessary?
Or does the thief belong to a different point in the biblical story—before Christ's death, resurrection, and Great Commission?
We will examine the account carefully and let the context answer.
Related Bible Studies
What Did Jesus Teach About Baptism?
What Does Baptism Mean?
Is Baptism Just an Outward Sign?
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