The order of their occurrence in the New Testament begins in Mark 16:16. You all know it: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned (or condemned).” Someone always likes to raise the question on this passage, “But Jesus didn’t say, ‘He that is not baptized will be damned.’ He just said, ‘He that doesn’t believe.’” Do you think any unbelievers are going to want to be baptized? Why did Jesus need to mention baptism in speaking of unbelievers? It would have been superfluous, totally beside the point, to mention baptism in the last part of that statement. When He says, “He that disbelieves,” He takes care of NOT believing, NOT repenting, NOT confessing and NOT being baptized all in one swoop! Our Lord did not waste words anytime, and He didn’t here.

The next occurrence is John 3, and verse 5. To Nicodemus, the Lord said, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Now, whether this refers to the kingdom of God on earth, or the kingdom of God in heaven, the point is still taken—“Except a man”…unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into it. He cannot be saved, is the force of the statement. There is absolutely nothing in all the New Testament that can satisfy the meaning of the words being “born of water” here except being “baptized IN water.”

In Acts 2:38, Peter said, “Repent ye and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ FOR (or UNTO) the remission of your sins”—repentance and baptism over here; salvation and remission of sins over here—AFTER. [Brother McClish is using his hands to indicate the action of repentance and baptism on one side, and the results of those actions on the other side, salvation and remission of sins coming AFTER repentance and baptism.]

In Acts 22:16, Ananias said to Saul of Tarsus, “And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the Name of the Lord.” Saul still had his sins on him before he was baptized. Otherwise, he would have had no sins to wash away when he was baptized.

Romans 6 and verse 3 also speaks: “Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” The death of Christ is where the atoning blood was shed, by which our sins can be washed away—forgiven. How do we enter into the atoning effects of that death? We’re baptized into them. The New Testament no where else tells us any other way to get into the benefits of that death in that blood.

And then, the next passage is the next verse, verse 4: “Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” When does the newness of life begin? Is it back there at the point of belief? When we repent? When we confess? No. It’s when…we…come up…out of the waters of baptism, because then and only then are we that new creation in Christ—we left the old man behind in the waters of baptism.

In Galatians 3:27, Paul said, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did…put…on…Christ.” If I had a marker board up here tonight, I’d put two column headings. Over one column I would put, “Those baptized.” On the other column heading I’d put, “Those IN Christ.” Now, listen to Paul again, “For as many of you as were (Column Number 1—“baptized”) into Christ did (Column Number 2—“put on Christ”). There is not…one…single…difference…in the two! Those baptized—those into Christ. There’s not one person IN Christ who hasn’t been baptized. There’s no other way to get into Him.

And then, there’s Peter’s simple statement, 1 Peter 3, verse 21: “..baptism doth also now save us….”

Men have invented many plans of salvation. Most of them have just one thing that you have to do to be saved. Some say, “Just pray the sinner’s prayer,” and they can’t even find the sinner’s prayer in the Bible, because it’s not in there. But most of the believing world says all you have to do is believe, and you’re saved at the point of faith.

If I were going to concoct a one-act plan of salvation, it wouldn’t be “faith only.” It wouldn’t be “prayer only.” It wouldn’t be “confession only.” It wouldn’t be repentance only.” There are many cases of conversion in the book of Acts that do not mention faith, that do not mention confession, that do not mention repentance, though all of them are implied, of course. But there’s not a single case of conversion recorded in Acts that doesn’t…mention…baptism! It is the consummating act in EVERY case. Was that just an accident and a slip up by the Holy Spirit? Absolutely not! It is the crowning act of one’s conversion, of one’s coming out of the world and into Christ, of one’s entering into the death of Christ for the forgiveness of his sins through His shed blood.

Another question is this: What is the ACTION of baptism? Well, we’ve already noticed Romans 6:4: “Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death.” Colossians 2 and verse 12 is corollary to it: “Having been buried with Him in baptism wherein also you were raised with Him through faith in the operation of God Who raised Him from the dead.” It’s called a “burial” in both places.