The Saving Power of Baptism
Over the course of this series, I have argued in various ways that baptism does not merely have symbolic value but that it actually does something significant. One of the critical things that baptism accomplishes according to the New Testament is salvation (Mark 16:16, 1 Peter 3:21, Acts 2:37-41.) Those who accept the Protestant doctrine of salvation through faith alone and not by any works find this difficult to accept. But as I explained in a previous post, if we understand faith to mean relational fidelity and enacted allegiance, as contemporary New Testament research suggests, then baptism is actually repositioned as integral to faith.