In a previous post, I wrote the following about water baptism:
[B]aptism is not a human “work” that
forces God into giving us salvation nor is it a legal work that somehow
“merits” or even “guarantees” one’s ultimate salvation. Admittedly, there are
proponents of this view within the traditions that hold to the “salvific” view
of baptism, but it is often out of ignorance of what their denomination
teaches. In the case of Latter-day Saint soteriology, baptism (when coupled
with confirmation) is the beginning of one’s justification and being
“born-again”; however, we do know that genuine believers who have been
justified have lost their salvation, and had to be restored (e.g. Heb 6:4-6;
10:26). If any Latter-day Saint looks at his baptism as a “guarantee” that, no
matter how his lifestyle, he will be saved and go to the Celestial Kingdom, he
is in opposition to the Church’s teachings. (Baptism,
Salvation, and the New Testament, Part 1: Romans 6:1-4)
Additionally, in response to the JW use of 1 John 1:7, I wrote:
[N]o one denies that the meritorious cause
of salvation is the sacrificial death of Jesus. The author(s) of this piece
ignore the distinction between instrumental means of (initial) justification and
the meritorious cause thereof, a common error one finds amongst those who deny
baptismal regeneration (not just Jehovah’s Witnesses). Indeed, in water
baptism, it is not the water per se, but the
God working through the water and applying the merits of the atonement to the
individual that brings about the remission of one’s sins. Such is explicated in
passages such as Acts 2:38. (Does
1 John 1:7 refute baptismal regeneration?)
While reading the Book of Mormon today, I read the following verse and
it struck me how perfectly it captures this concept:
And after they had been received unto
baptism, and were wrought upon and cleansed by the power of the Holy Ghost,
they were numbered among the people of the church of Christ; and their names
were taken, that they might be remembered and nourished by the good word of
God, to keep them in the right way, to keep them continually watchful unto
prayer, relying alone upon the merits of Christ, who was the author and the
finisher of their faith. (Moroni 6:4)