I have recently made fb comments about assurance of salvation and necessity for baptism. I can probably be more open about my beliefs here.
If one believes the Bible, which I do, then I feel we can indeed be assured of our salvation in our own minds. Not to say that anyone else can know for certain whether you are saved-it is an individual relationship between God and man-one on one. Your church cannot tell you if you are saved-it can only tell you what you must do to be saved. You must work out the relationship with God yourself. And ultimately, God is the one calling you into the relationship-you seek Him-but He is the author of the seeking.
But how can one know for certain if he is saved? How do you get that blessed assurance; the peace that passeth understanding? These are questions which are central to the issue of eternal security of the believer. The rock solid conviction that if I die tonight I know that I will be with God in heaven for eternity.
First things first. You need to have made a one-time commitment; one that you can REMEMBER--infant baptism will do you no good here-you will not remember that time when you were baptized. It is the conscious decision to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior-the renouncing of personal sin, confession of those sins-the acceptance of Christ's once for all sacrifice of his body on the cross to save you that turns the trick. Without that memory, there will be doubts--nay, without that memory--without that event occurring, there is no salvation. You must make that commitment at some point in your lifetime-otherwise, you are destined to an eternity(forever and forever and forever and forever) separated from God-roasting in the proverbial HELL, as it were.
Next, you should follow our Lord into the waters of baptism-again, infant baptism just gets the kid wet. He or she did not make a conscious decision-so his body just got a washing-but nothing SUPERNATURAL happens just by the act of baptizing a baby. Baptism is an action of surrender-of identification with the Lord Jesus. It is saying: I am getting wet because my Lord has commanded me to do this-I identify with all believers who have gone before me-I hereby accept Jesus as Savior and yield to His lordship in my life. These are decisions a baby cannot make for himself-only a person who has enough maturity to realize that he is a sinner can make these decisions.
However, baptism IS a work that we can do-so, an individual can be baptized-yet not saved. Does God need your help to save you? If HE does, HE is a pretty small god. No, God can do it all-Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross was adequate-and if it were not so, then no sacrifice could be adequate to save you from your sins.
The Old Testament saints were not baptized-yet who can deny their salvation? Abraham believed God, and it was counted(reckoned) to him as righteousness. This was before Abraham was circumcised-and no where is it mentioned that Abraham was baptized. Hence, it was the obedience of Abraham, not any work(circumcision or baptism) which he did that gave him salvation. The rest of the Jews who followed Abraham, up until the time of Jesus, were saved by the same belief. The visible display of said salvation was the circumcision of the males-the females were not circumcised(but who can deny their salvation as well), but the circumcision(precursor to New Testament baptism) did not save them. It was a visible display for all to see that this individual belonged to God-that He had become obedient to the Divinely ordained religious system.i.e. Judaism.
Many in our world today believe that you must be baptized to be saved-hence, infant baptism and the consideration by others that it must be performed for salvation. Wrong! It is a work that you can do to help God. And an Almighty God DOES NOT need your assistance. If He did, He would NOT BE almighty-and thus not worthy of our worship. And as He does not change; if baptism or circumcision were not required for salvation in the Old Testament-they are not required in these latter days.
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