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Was Paul saved by baptism? What did he preach? Thee first thing Paul did was not baptism, but believe in Jesus and then he prayed. In Acts 9:6, Paul, after falling to the ground and hearing the Lord’s voice, says to Jesus, “Lord, what will you have me do?” (He repented of his unbelief calling Jesus his Lord and he is ready to serve him.) Paul also recollects this encounter in 1 Cor. 15:18, saying he was born out of due time, pointing to this event as the time of his regeneration. In Gal. 1:12, Paul taught us that the Gospel he heard did not come from man but directly through the revelation of Jesus Christ. When was that revealed? When Paul first saw the glory and heard Jesus as he was travelling on the Damascus road. We also know that Paul received his baptism by man afterwards, by Ananias (Acts 9:18). This shows that baptism is NOT part of the Gospel message because the Gospel was received directly from God and not from man. Acts 9:11 So the Lord said to him, "Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying. the Lord has Ananias go to Paul where we find the Lord telling him that Paul is praying, indicating that Paul's prayer, which was to Jesus, was pleasing to God. In Acts 9:13-14, Ananias was against going to see Paul because he considered him an enemy of Christ. Verse 15, the Lord tells Ananias he is a chosen vessel (separated from birth Gal 1:15, God foreknew what would take place). In verses 15-18, we see Paul is called a witness called to preach and is being sent to the Gentiles all before he is baptized. This would not make sense if the new birth is from baptism. In Acts 9:17, Paul is called a brother by Ananias, something he would never say unless Paul was already converted. Ananias tells Paul he will receive his sight and be immediately filled with the Holy Spirit (Prior to his baptism) In Acts 9:18, Ananias lays hands on Paul and the scales fall off from his eyes. He is later baptized, which occurs only after he has shown the evidence of repentance, faith, obedience, and prayer, as proof of his conversion. All of these are present in Paul before he was baptized. How could he have these qualities that only a saved individual can exhibit if the new birth is by baptism? Acts 22:16 “Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins calling on the name of the Lord.” The Greek does not always translate well in English vernacular. Let's look at this verse in Greek grammar; “arise” - participle; “be baptized” - imperative; “wash away your sins” - imperative. There are two separate commands in this verse: 1) “be baptized, and 2) wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” To be put plainly, it reads to call on the name of the Lord washes away your sins, arising for baptism. Its by calling on the Lord to be saved just as Paul says in Rom.10:9 Not the act of baptism itself.Paul then makes it clear how he received cleansing… Acts26:18 “that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.” (Jesus). Paul's theology did not allow for water (creation) to save a soul. He made a distinction of baptism ( a work) from preaching the Gospel in I Cor.1:14-17. The Gospel is the “power of God to salvation” (Romans 1:16), not the act of baptizing, Paul was not a sacramentalist but preached salvation by grace through faith. We are saved by exercising faith and we continue to receive everything the Lord has for us in life by grace through faith.Notice in Acts 26:18, when Paul is giving his testimony to King Agrippa, he states that, “they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are set apart by faith in me.” Paul clearly points out that trusting the Lord for the removal of sins was done, not by baptism, but through faith. Which is what he continually taught the church. Romans 6:3-5 “As many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.” This is a picture of the meaning of baptism and the believer's identification with Him in the resurrection. One gets baptized into Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit, who alone has the ability to regenerate us and put a person into the body of Christ. The baptismal ceremony only physically illustrated this spiritual truth. 1 Cor. 12:13 While someone can baptize another in water we don't have the ability to put someone in the body of Christ. This is the work that only the Holy Spirit can do. A person baptized in water is either already put in Christ or he isn't. It is always a believer’s baptism. If salvation comes by the ceremony of baptism then we have a third human party involved in salvation. It no longer is the Holy Spirit and the person's decision, but another man who mediates between God and man. The only scriptural conclusion you can come to is that the baptism ceremony is an outward show of a person's identification with Christ's death, burial and resurrection, testifying of the work of God that has already taken place in their heart. This is why the word likeness is used in Rom.6. We also find baptism is referred to as a death but it is never said to be a birth. Going down in baptism means our sin nature was judged by Christ when we put out faith in his work by the crucifixion and we are resurrected into a new life. Hebrews 9:15, “Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant by means of death” (Not by water). Almost every covenant had a sign or token along with it. For Noah, it was the rainbow, for Abraham, it was circumcision and for the new covenant of grace, it is baptism by water. None of these were the covenant itself but a seal of one’s entry into a covenant with God. 1 Cor. 15:1-4, Paul tells us the Gospel message he delivered is in its entirety - Christ’s death, burial and resurrection; there is no baptism mentioned. He would not have overlooked this important fact if it were indeed part of the gospel. There is only one Gospel; this has the content of the Gospel that Paul preached. This is what we are told to stand in, and not be removed lest we believed in vain. So if one believes on anything less or more than this passage they have added to the gospel. 1 Cor. 1:17 “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel” 1 Cor. 2:1-2 “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” He preached the gospel, as he states, His crucifixion. 1 Cor. 4:15, Paul states he was the Corinthian Church’s father and he had begotten them through the Gospel. This could not be true if baptism was part of the Gospel since, according to his account in 1 Cor. 1:14-17, he only baptized three people. Paul clearly did not have baptism as part of the message he preached. Paul said in 1 Cor. 1:18, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God.” It is by the cross of Christ (the crucifixion) that one is saved, through his atoning death, his shed blood. Vs. 21, then it pleased God, by the preaching of the cross, to save those who believe; vs. 23, we preach Christ crucified. If you are not preaching Christ’s crucifixion for salvation then you are not proclaiming the gospel that saves. The Bible clearly shows that baptism is not part of the Gospel (compare 1 Cor. 1:17 with 1 Cor. 15:1-4). What we find Scripture demonstrating is that baptism is a conditional response to the Gospel. This does not mean that we dispense with it. It is still a command of the Lord and is usually the first act of obedience by a believer after their salvation, clearly taught as a believer’s baptism.
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