Obedience to the Gospel - Part 2

Last time we looked at the idea that the gospel includes commands that must be obeyed (2 Thessalonians 1:6-9). We also saw that Jesus makes some strong statements about the necessity of certain things changing in our lives for us to be saved. Now we want to look at some of the promises Jesus has made regarding salvation.

What has Jesus promised about the forgiveness of sins?

When we talk about faith meaning that we must believe the promises of Christ, we need to look at the promises He has made regarding the forgiveness of sin. Luke 12:8 says:

Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God.

This is a wonderful promise. It is also not always easy to do. In those days, there were those who believed in Jesus, but not to the point of believing this promise. They refused to confess Him because of fear. John 12:42 says:

Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue;

Romans 10:9-13 also talks about this idea of confession going along with our faith. It reads:

that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

If this passage was all we had, it might seem like believing in your heart and confessing with your mouth is all that is required to be saved. However, we already looked at other passages that show other things are required by Christ. I want to look a little more closely at the last phrase in this passage. What does it mean to call on the name of the Lord? Acts 2:21 talks about this as well. Quoting from the book of Joel, Peter preached:

And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved.’

After continuing His sermon about Jesus and proving that God has made Him Lord and Christ, the people asked a question about what they should do. Hadn’t he already answered that? They needed to call on the name of the Lord. But here is how this was answered. Acts 2:37-38 says:

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”

Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So how did calling on the name of the Lord become repenting and being baptized? That is how Jesus has told us to call on His name for forgiveness and to become part of His kingdom. We see this idea again in Acts 22:16 where Ananias talked with Saul. He said there:

And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’

Calling on the name of the Lord happens in baptism when it accompanies faith and repentance (which Saul had already demonstrated). This is why Peter puts it this way in 1 Peter 3:21:

There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

Peter says that baptism is the answer of a good conscience toward God (or an appeal for a good conscience depending on your translation). It is not just an action but an action with a purpose. It is when we are calling on the name of the Lord because we want to leave our sins and be part of His people. We want to be born into His family and be the child of God we were made to be.

Acts 16:30-31 connects the obedience of the gospel in baptism to saving faith. The jailer in Philippi asked Paul and Silas a very important question and see how simple the answer was.

And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

So does that mean it was faith without obedience? No, because that would not be a complete faith. It would be dead. So we read just after that in Acts 16:32-34:

Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.

Do you see when he rejoiced at having believed in God? It was after his baptism. It was after he called on the name of the Lord to be saved. He did not wait to do it because he believed the promises of Christ. He believed the gospel and he obeyed the gospel.

Why does Christ require these things of us?

Faith and repentance are required because God is saving us from sin to have a relationship with Him. Without faith in Christ and what He has done, what relationship can we have with Him? Without repentance, what are we being saved from? Christ did not die to save us so we could continue in sin. He died to save us from our sins. This does not only mean forgiveness. To have a relationship with God, we cannot continue in sin. Remember 1 John 1:5-7 that we looked at when we talked about the holiness of God. It says:

This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

If we walk in darkness, we cannot have fellowship with God, whether we were baptized or not. To be with God we must give up sinning. Thankfully, we can. As Romans 7:24-25a says:

O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Jesus enables us to live life without sin by His teaching, His example, and most of all the forgiveness that enables us to push on in righteousness.

Faith and repentance make sense. They are necessary to have a relationship with God anyway. But what about baptism? Why does Jesus make that a requirement? The simplest answer is that it is up to Him. He has all authority and we need to submit to His commandments. But I believe we have some explanations to help us understand. Baptism is an action picture that helps tie us through action to what Christ did for us.

We already saw one of these pictures in Acts 22:16, where Ananias told Paul to “wash away your sins.” While Peter makes it clear in 1 Peter 3:21 that the water washing us is not what saves, it is still a great picture of washing to be clean. This is a picture God used quite often in the Old Testament. The priests had to wash before entering the holy place of the tabernacle. We have to wash before entering the kingdom of Christ that the holy place represented. Other passages describe this as a “washing of regeneration” (Titus 3:5) which is tied to the idea of the new birth in John 3 that comes by water and the Spirit.

Colossians 2:12 describes baptism as a burial and resurrection with Christ. This is the same picture found in Romans 6:1-11, which reads:

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This describes baptism as dying to sin, having our old man crucified with Jesus, being buried with Him, and rising up to a new life. Are we literally being buried with Christ? No, of course not. But we are actively taking part in His death and resurrection so that He will apply His sacrifice to us. Could Jesus have not required baptism for salvation? Yes. He did not require it in the Old Testament, even while still requiring faith and repentance. But He has made it a requirement. His promise of salvation is based on our obedience to the gospel. In Mark 16:16 He promises:

He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.

Do you believe His promise? Then why not do what the Philippian jailer did and be baptized the same hour he believed? He then could rejoice that he had believed. You could too if your faith leads you to obey the gospel of Christ. Here is a warning we should take care about–Hebrews 2:3:

how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him,

Do not neglect the great salvation Christ is offering! After all that He has done and has offered, if we refuse to place our faith in Him, repent of our sins, or submit to His authority and call on His name in baptism, we will not escape punishment. Obey the gospel!