Thursday, October 20, 2022

John Stott speaking out of both sides of his mouth concerning the salvific efficacy of water baptism

 Attempts to reconcile Sola Fide with baptismal regeneration

 

are unsuccessful because we have no right to give to either regeneration or faith any meaning less than their full-biblical meaning. Therefore if a sinner is justified by God through faith alone, he is not regenerate through baptism without faith. John Stott, “The Evangelical Doctrine of Baptism,” (in The Anglican Evangelical Doctrine of Infant Baptism, ed. John Stott and J. Alec Motyer [London: The Latimer Trust, 2008], 14)

 

And yet . . .

 

The Bare Token view.

 

I think I can dismiss this view in a sentence or two. If baptism were a mere sign, which in no sense or circumstance whatever conveyed anything to its recipients, the apostles could never have used expressions which ascribe some effect to baptism, like ‘repent and be baptized for the remission of sins’ (Acts 2:38), or ‘as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ’ (Galatians 3:27), or ‘baptism now saves you’ (1 Peter 3:21). (Ibid., 15)