How Many Baptisms Are Enough?

If someone told you they were going to heaven because they had been baptized twice, how would you respond?  That's what a gentleman told me.  Baptism is an important step every follower of Jesus should take (Acts 8:34-39).  But, if baptism were essential for salvation, Jesus would have said so.  Baptism does not save.  It is merely an outward expression of an inward spiritual reality--the death and burial of the old, sinful, unregenerate person and the spiritual resurrection of the new regenerated, justified person that occurs when one is born again by hearing and responding in faith to the word of God, the gospel (Eph. 1-2; Rom. 6).  If this man truly believed his baptisms saved him, then he probably wasn't saved at all and was trusting in his religious works, not the finished work of Jesus Christ in paying for his sins.  Just like a skydiver is dead if he is clinging to a mere backpack, falsely thinking it's a life-saving parachute when it's not.

To gain more insight in to what this gentleman believed in order to diagnose the situation and offer the proper truths that could lead him to salvation, I asked how many times a person has to be baptized to know they will go to heaven.  He didn't know.  I asked if he knew what Jesus said to do to have assurance of his eternal destiny.  He didn't know.  I explained that Jesus said we must repent and believe (Mk. 1:15).  I explained to him what it means to repent and believe and how those two vital steps result in one experiencing the new birth that is essential for salvation (John 3:3).  I confirmed that he did believe in Jesus Christ and that he had repented.  He just didn't know those were the only steps necessary for salvation.  Now he knew.  Now he had a proper understanding of salvation.

Is the process of confirming a person's beliefs and salvation important?  Absolutely!  God wrote the bible so we could know The Way to salvation (2 Tim. 3:15-16).  Jesus came to tell us the precise Way to salvation (John 14:1-6).  The authors of the books of the New Testament wrote them (mostly to believers), so they (the believers) could be sure they knew and were following The Way (1 John 5:11-13).  We must ensure people know The Way, especially since that's what Jesus asked his followers to do (Mk. 16:15).