The Necessity of Baptism

Many people reject the need for baptism (immersion) in water as part of the process of salvation. Ephesians 2:8-9 is often cited to support this idea.

Does this understanding of baptism - the idea that "faith alone (sola fide) is required" - match with the rest of Scripture, with what we read in the New Testament?

Jesus addressed this in John 3:5.
He also spoke of it in Mark 16:16.
Peter preached this in Acts 2:38.
He also addressed this in Acts 10:47-48.
Peter later wrote about it in 1 Peter 3:21.
Ananias instructed Saul (Paul) about it, as related in Acts 22:16.
Paul (Saul) later wrote of it in Romans 6:3.
He addressed the subject again in 1 Corinthians 12:13, and in Ephesians 4:5 and
Ephesians 5:25-26.

It is Jesus' blood that washes away our sins - that blood and its action is God's free gift to us. We can't earn it. But it is God's gift; He as Author of our salvation, also creates the conditions for receiving the gift He gives us by His grace. The gift of salvation, including forgiveness of our sins, comes free from Him, but to think that submitting to baptism is any more a "work" to "earn" salvation, is as wrong as to think that filling out and putting the entry card in the box is "work" and "earns" us the grand prize in the drawing down at the supermarket.

Indeed, if there is any "work" done in baptism, it is done by the person doing the baptizing, and the "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" into whom we are baptized. Submission to baptism is the antithesis of "earning our salvation" - and expresses as nothing else can our faith and trust in the grace of the Lord.

There are those (and I am one) who argue that remission (forgiveness) of sins flows from (pun intended) the waters of baptism - as contrasted to those who claim that forgiveness precedes the immersion of the believer. I think I am taking Peter's words in Acts 2:38 and 1 Peter 3:21 at face value, but I am no Greek scholar. So I try not to argue - but simply point out what the Scriptures say. It appears to me that salvation comes from God to us by means of a process: all of these things are intended to restore us to God's fellowship after WE, by sinning, have cut ourselves off from Him. I'm trying NOT to be like Naaman (2 Kings 5:1-19) who wanted to quibble over the terms of God's gift to him of healthy life. His servant could ask us the same question he did ask his master: "If the prophet had told you to do some mighty deed, would you have objected?" God wants us to be baptized, and the command is made to those who believe on Him. We need to do it, in the same way and with the same attitude that those in the First Century did.

Enough!