Baptism

Mark 16:16 states:

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Let's ignore that little note stating that early manuscripts didn't contain this section of Mark--fine by me for the snake-handling and poison-swallowing parts, but this is one of my favorite verses in the Bible, because it does so much to explain something that can be considered complicated.

The core question we all have as Christians is "What do I need to do to be saved?" We have numerous other questions besides that, but most everything we're curious about boils down to that simple question. Leaving aside for the moment the pesky detail that we can't do ANYTHING to be saved, let's rephrase the question slightly and ask "How do I need to live in order to be saved?" The answer is right there in the verse--we need to believe and be baptized. But, what does believing and baptizing really mean?

Actually, forget that last question--we're pretty clear on what to believe (our salvation is through Christ's death and resurrection), and while different denominations quibble over the details of baptism (infant vs. adult, sprinkling vs. full immersion, etc.), we're all pretty clear on what it represents. The true question revolves around what we do with these gifts once bestowed upon us. In this verse, Christ didn't state that if we believeD or were baptizeD--he didn't use the past tense, because Christ was referring to present tense items. We need to believe each and every day, and renew our baptismal promise each and every day--we can't rest on our laurels and say "Well, I went to church a while back, I'm sure God remembers that" or "I was baptized as a kid--I'm good" because it simply doesn't work that way.

Christ is clear in his message--if we stop believing, we will be condemned. If we stop believing 5 seconds before he returns, we will be condemned, and our baptism will be useless, because we will have renounced it. Our belief and our baptism need to be constants in our lives, and we need to be reminding those around us who may have slipped away that they need to return as soon as possible. Baptism isn't an inoculation, given one time and conferring an eternity with the Lord, but instead a booster, one that needs to be refreshed each day.

Scott