Baptism and Salvation - the Difference?

 

Question: 

What is the difference between baptism and salvation? Is salvation the sealing of the Holy Spirit and baptism the anointing of the Holy Spirit?

 

Answer:

The word baptism, is from a Greek language word, in which the New Testament section of God’s Word the Bible was originally written, “baptizo” which literally means to dip repeatedly, to immerse, to submerge, to overwhelm or make fully wet.

 The word salvation is from the Greek word soteria, and it means deliverance, preservation, safety, i.e. to be saved from some harm or something harmful.

 In context of the Christian faith, salvation means to be saved from the consequences of sin, because of the Lord Jesus Christ having taken them upon Himself and borne them for us - the entire mankind. Since now the sins have been paid for, their consequence borne, therefore no one needs to do anything of their own to be delivered from suffering the consequences of their sins. Now, all that anyone needs to do is believe on what the Lord Jesus has done, admit being a sinner to the Lord and pray for His forgiveness for them, submit their life to Him, and accept Him as their Lord and Savior. On doing this, through the grace of God, because of the faith placed in the Lord Jesus Christ, person is delivered, or preserved, or made safe from the eternal death or irreversible harm he was destined to; i.e. he is 'saved', or has attained salvation from harm. This is not by virtue of any works of any kind done by the person (Ephesians 2:5, 8), but by a single prayer made voluntarily from a sincere heart in simple faith, without the mediation or intervention of any other person. This saved person now irrevocably becomes a child of God forever (John 1:12-13).

 Those who are saved, i.e., have attained salvation, only they have been asked by the Lord Jesus, in Matthew 28:19, to witness about their being saved through taking baptism. Salvation is not by baptism; rather, those who have been saved have been asked to get baptized. Notice the sequence of the Lord’s instructions in this verse: first a person has to become the Lord's disciple or follower, and then the disciple should be baptized.

Hence it is quite apparent that baptism and salvation are two different things. Baptism does not qualify anyone for salvation, but those who have received salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus, are expected to witness about it through taking baptism.

The moment a person is saved, he becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit, who comes to reside in him (Ephesians 1:13; 1 Corinthians 3: 16; 6:19) in His fullness – Holy Spirit is a Divine Person – He is cannot be given out in parts, and is not given out in parts (John 3:34). Nobody needs to do anything extra or special to receive the Holy Spirit, other than to believe in the Lord Jesus, accept Him as his personal Savior, and submit their lives to Him (see: http://englishsampark.blogspot.com/2020/04/receiving-holy-spirit-1-introduction.html ). Coming to faith in the Lord Jesus also brings the Holy Spirit into their lives, and this is expressed through different words, like being sealed (Ephesians 1:14) or being baptized by the Holy Spirit (Acts 11:15-17). To be 'sealed' means being given a mark of ownership - the presence of the Holy Spirit within a Christian Believer is a mark of the Believer being the possession of the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20). Similarly, being 'baptized' by the Holy Spirit means being 'fully wet' or being 'overwhelmed' or being 'dipped' - under the cover of the Holy Spirit. These are all various ways of stating the same thing, i.e., being possessed by the Holy Spirit.