Is Baptism required for salvation?

After prayerfully studying everything that the New Testament says about baptism and salvation, my personal conclusion is that water baptism is not a requirement for receiving salvation and eternal life.

Baptism is an outward act in which we make a public identification with Jesus. First there needs to be an inward identification with Jesus through faith, it's the inward identification (not the outward act) which results in salvation so that we will go to heaven.

I also see how important it is for Christians to be baptized after they believe in Jesus.

Why Were People Baptized in Water Right after They Believed in Jesus?

 

Interesting! I never thought of that....

 

Is there a scripture that shows that it places someone in the local or body of Christ?

 

After the cross I see a consistent pattern in which people were baptized in water right after they believed in Jesus.

Those who hold the "faith-alone" view of salvation, and those who hold the "faith-plus-baptism" view of salvation, all believe that proper faith is necessary for salvation. In other words, we won't go to heaven by believing just anything, but instead there are certain specific things that an unsaved person must believe.

But what is "proper faith"?

 

A number of passages say that we must "believe" in Jesus to have eternal life, as in this example:

John 3:14: "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,"
John 3:15: "that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."
John 3:16: ""For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
John 3:17: "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."
John 3:18: "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son."

In the above passage, three times we are told that those who believe in Jesus have eternal life instead of being condemned, and twice we are told that those who don't believe in Jesus are condemned. All five occurrences of the word "believe" in the above passage come from the Greek word pisteuo, which means:
"To believe, have faith in, trust" (The Complete Word Study Dictionary of the New Testament, Spiros Zodhiates, p.1160)

This Greek word is usually translated as "believe," but it is also translated as "trust" in John 14:1, Acts 14:23, Romans 9:33, 10:11, 15:13, and 1 Peter 2:6.

 

Other passages say that we must have "faith" in Jesus to have eternal life (e.g. Romans 3:25-26), which comes from the Greek word pistis, meaning:

"firm persuasion, conviction, belief in the truth" (The Complete Word Study Dictionary of the New Testament, Spiros Zodhiates, p.1162)
Notice that the Greek words for "believe" and "faith" are used with essentially the same meaning in the following passages:

Romans 3:22: "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,"

2 Corinthians 4:13: "It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken." With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak,"

Galatians 3:22: "But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe."

Hebrews 11:6: "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

So "believing in" Jesus means the same thing as "having faith in" Jesus.

But what do we need to believe about Jesus in order to go to heaven?

 

Consider that the Pharisees believed that a man named Jesus lived in the first century (Matthew 12:14, 21:45-46), and they believed that Jesus shed His blood and died on the cross (Matthew 27:62-64), yet the Pharisees were condemned ( Matthew 23:13-35). Therefore, believing that a man named Jesus lived in the first century, and believing that Jesus shed His blood and died on the cross, does not have an impact on our salvation. Even atheists are often willing to believe these things, yet atheists are not saved. So "proper faith" involves something else.

 

Well, I believe the Bible teaches full immersion too!

 

In several passages I see that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross made atonement for our sins (Hebrews 2:17, 1 John 2:2, 4:10), and this is what we need to have faith in:

Romans 3:25: "God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished--"

The above passage says that we need to have faith in Jesus' blood, and two chapters later Paul explained this more clearly:

Romans 5:8: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Romans 5:9: "Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!"
Romans 5:10: "For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!"

I noticed that Paul referred to Jesus' blood in the context of His death. In the book of Colossians, Paul was even more specific:

Colossians 1:19: "For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,"
Colossians 1:20: "and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross."
Colossians 1:21: "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior."
Colossians 1:22: "But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation--"

In the above passage, Paul said that God has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus' blood which He shed on the cross, and then Paul added that we were reconciled by Jesus' physical body through His death.

So putting all of this together, when the Bible talks about Jesus' "blood" it's referring to His sacrificial death on the cross which made atonement for our sins and reconciled us to God.

In addition, another important point is that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. This demonstrated that Jesus is the Son of God, and His resurrection is so important that our faith would be futile and useless if He had not been resurrected.