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Strictly speaking, baptism is not part of the gospel. The good news, as the Bible defines it, is about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Baptism isn’t included in the gospel itself. However, it is inextricably linked to the gospel. In every case of conversion in the book of Acts, once a person came to faith they were immediately baptized.  

Since baptism isn’t part of the gospel, if we teach that immersion is necessary to become a Christian, aren’t we guilty of the Galatian heresy? In Galatia, false teachers said the gospel wasn’t enough to save people. They taught that in addition to the gospel, those who wanted to be Christians had to also undergo circumcision and keep the law of Moses (Gal 5:2, Act 15:1, 5). Paul said this teaching perverts the gospel and is in fact no gospel at all (Gal 1:7 NIV).

Is baptism a work which results in salvation? The answer is an emphatic “YES!” Some of you are no doubt about to die of apoplexy after reading the last sentence. Please read on to see why I’d say this. 

Most Protestants denounce the idea of a works based salvation and they are right to take this position. In fact, there are no works or tasks that we can perform that will put God in debt to us. Simply put, there is nothing we can do on our own (including baptism) which will fix our sin problem. God had to fix this problem for us and it is the reason Jesus had to die (1 Tim 1:15, Heb 9:28). 

Baptism matters because we humans need something visible and tangible to cement in our minds that God’s promises are true. Consider Abram in Genesis 15. God had promised him a child and in Abram’s extreme old age God speaks to Abram to reconfirm His intentions. He also reiterated the land promise, but Abram asked, “LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?” (Gen. 15:8 NIV) In response, God made a blood covenant with Abram (vv. 15-18) to reassure him.