Water Baptism - Is it still necessary?

In Mark 16.16, Yahshua made the following statement:

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

By a simple process of substitution then, we find that the question equates to this:

Salvation - is it still necessary?

However, given that the name Jesus is a transliteration of the Hebrew name Yahshua into Greek and the translation of Yahshua from Hebrew into English is 'Yah is salvation', the question in fact becomes:

Salvation - is He still necessary?

The answer might depend on which group of Christianity you're asking.

In general, yes, it is still necessary, and is a requirement to be raised to the kingdom of God:

John 3:5

Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

There are a few related points of doctrine accepted by different Christian faiths in various combinations:

1. The blood that Jesus spilt does not make baptism unnecessary.

2. By receiving water baptism, the cleansing power of Christ's Atonement begins to take full effect

3. By receiving water baptism, we become eligible for all the blessings of following Christ.

The question I think actually comes back to what saves you. Are you saved by Faith alone, or does God require you to perform some works. If it is by faith in Jesus' Death and resurection alone (the belief that you described in your question) then water baptism is not required of a believer.

There are plenty of verses that tell us that faith alone saves. For example:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16 ESV)

And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him recieves forgiveness of sins through his name." Acts 10:42-43

There are plenty of other examples which show that there is no mention of water baptism with people coming to believe.

In fact in that Acts passage the holy spirit is recieved before the people there are baptised.

While Peter was still saying these thigns, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles (Act 10:44-45 ESV)

God chooses to dwell in people who have not been baptised in water. We know from elsewhere that the spirit garuntees our salvation

...Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it (Ephesians 13-14 ESV)

Finally, after God has done his saving work AND garunteed their salvation by pouring out the Holy Spirit, then Peter says:

Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have recieved the Holy Spirit just as we have?" (Acts 10:47 ESV)

So water baptism is just a sign of salvation. It does not contribute to our salvation, however it does seem to be something helpful to do after being saved to publicly declare that we are saved.

What saves a person is abiding, continuing, in Jesus:

John 13:8 NET Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet!” Jesus replied, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”

One can find a number of abiding actions:

Believing in Him

Confessing (agreeing He is the Messiah)

Eating His flesh and drinking His blood

Baptism is not what you do, but what is done to you. Baptism is being received into Christ. It happens after confession, but before eating His flesh, drinking His blood, having your feet washed (all terms meaning agreeing with the deeper teachings of Christ):

Acts 8:36 NET Now as they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look, there is water! What is to stop me from being baptized?”

The problem is that one can believe that Jesus is proclaiming the Good News, and receive baptism, but as one continues to learn what the Good News is, one can stop ”abiding”:

Matthew 22:11 NET But when the king came in to see the wedding guests, he saw a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.

The thief on the cross was not baptised, but he was abiding in Christ. It's helpful to think of baptism as a stricture on the Church to teach the new believer the requirements of discipleship.

Believer's baptism is simply an act showing what the LORD has fulfilled in the Sinners life. That the Sinner died in Christ, was also buried and is now risen as a new creature in Christ. Romans 6 It is a picture, a symbol. Yet it still is very important, since it is the first command given to a new Christian to fulfil. Why?

Because it requires an act of obedience, because this road of being a Christian is a very hard and even lonely narrow road. You need to lear to say NO to the World and YES to Christ. So the Sinner, at this point after Salvation now a Saint, needs to take a public stand and proclaim that he has laid down the old man and will now serve the Lord Jesus as his King.

THAT IS WHY IT IS SO DIFFICULT for people, especially those who came from infant sprinkling backgrounds, to follow through with this first step of obedience, as it requires a public acknowledgement of yourself and your past being a failure. (By the way, when anyone calls himself a Christian, he is really stating that he himself is a miserable wretch who can only be saved by the almighty hand of God, nothing else. Which happens to be the truth for all of us.)

(It also shows the beautiful place something such as an "altar call" has as it teaches the Sinner to make a public acknowledgement of needing a Saviour from the very first.)

One needs to learn to be obey to the Scriptures, not learn how to wrest or corrupt them. See 2 Pet 3:16 and 2 Cor 2:17 in your KJV Bible.

From Acts 8:36,37 we learn the requirement for someone to be baptised is to first believe with all his heart. So if you can find a baby of a few days/months old who can declare that he believes in the Lord Jesus for salvation, then by all means go ahead and baptise him...

Concerning Baptism I went right to the source—Jesus. Acts 1:5: "For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." After Jesus died we no longer need water but only must believe and the we are baptized in the Holy Spirit. John himself also referred to this in Luke:

John answered them all, "I baptize you with water, but one more powerful than I am is coming—I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."

Also see these verses and and you will see that it was upon believing that the families were baptized: Acts 19:1-6.

As with any many of life's questions, the answer to "Is water baptism still necessary?" is, "It depends who you ask."

Both Protestants and Roman Catholics recognize baptism; I'm not sure about the Eastern Orthodox church.

Most Protestants recognize two sacraments: Baptism, and the Lord's Supper. See Westminster Larger Catechism, questions 161 - 177, esp. 164, 165. Note that, in the diversity of beliefs among the many Protestant denominations, not all denominations agree with the statements of the Westminster Standards, though a significant number do. Whether or not baptism is strictly necessary for salvation is, I believe, a question that would need to be asked of individual denominations.

The Roman Catholics, on the other hand, recognize seven sacraments, including baptism (see Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church #1210). Their beliefs about the necessity of baptism are outlined in statements #1257-1261 of their catechism. Essentially, their teaching (as outlined in those catechism statements) is as follows:

Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church:

• 1257: Baptism is strictly necessary for salvation for anyone who 1) has heard the gospel, and 2) has had an opportunity to be baptized;

• 1258: Anyone who dies "for the sake of the faith" is counted by Christ as having been baptized, whether or not they received the sacrament;

• 1259: A catechumen who dies before receiving the sacrament is saved, if they meet a few conditions;

• 1260: Anyone who never heard the gospel, but "seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it" can be saved without baptism;

• 1261: In the case of infants who die before being baptized, the Roman Catholic church will "entrust them to the mercy of God" with the expectation that God will save them.

See also this C.SE question: Biblical basis for baptism as a prerequisite for salvation

Some groups teach that baptism is not necessary because it is a work, and we are saved on Faith alone. Most of the time, these groups will instead use something called the "Sinner's Prayer", which is only shown in scripture at best a single time (Luke 18:10-14 ...and it's debatable whether this is even the same thing). Aside from this single mention, the Sinner's Prayer is not shown again, whether by command, example, or allusion. How is the Sinner's Prayer any less of a work than baptism? Baptism, by contrast, is mentioned more than 80 times in the New Testament. Here are just a few:

• Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Matt 28:19
• Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. Mark 16:16
• The eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?" ... And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. Acts 8:36,38
• And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins ... those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. Acts 2:38, 41
• We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:24
• one Lord, one faith, one baptism, Eph 4:5

One verse I think explains it well is I Peter 3:21:

Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (ESV)

The idea I want to share here is not that there is any power in baptism, just as there is no power in prayer. Rather, the power is in the one to whom you pray. Baptism does not wash away your sins; the blood of Christ washes away your sins.

Baptism is shown numerous times in scripture as the correct proscribed way to ask God to save you, rather than any Sinner's Prayer. If you are not saved and moved to say such a prayer, you should consider being baptised as well, at any age. Can God still save you if you choose not to be baptised? Of course; he is sovereign. But if you want to be certain, baptism is uniquely positioned in scripture as the way in which you ask him to do so.