If baptism is a requirement for salvation then Paul and Silas were lying, along with the numerous other verses that state that salvation is by belief in Christ alone. eg...
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life
John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
John 6:40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
1 Corinthians 1:21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
They weren't lying. We are saved through faith alone.
This is like saying that since we are saved through faith alone, then that means we can't be saved by Christ's atoning work alone. These are not mutually exclusive statements, they are mutually inclusive statements.
We are saved through faith alone BECAUSE of Christ alone.
In order for us to receive Christ's perfect and finished work through faith, we need faith--and faith does not originate from within ourselves as an operation of our sinful, human, fallen will; but as a gift from God alone, apart from ourselves and all our efforts (Ephesians 2:8-9), and God works and creates faith in us by the power of the Gospel, the power of Christ's word (Romans 10:17).
So wherever Christ's word is, wherever there is Gospel, we should be confident that the Spirit Himself is at work converting, giving faith.
That means Baptism is efficacious, not efficacious apart from faith, but efficacious
because of faith. Because Christ's holy and precious word is connected with the water, as the Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 5:26, Christ cleansed the Church "by the
washing of water with the word".
We also have the clear words of Scripture that baptism is salvific, while Scripture says this many times and in many ways, the most clear statement is found in 1 Peter 3:21, which in explicitly plain words tells us that baptism is salvific, not as a mere washing away of dirt from the body like the Jewish mikveh or an ordinary bath, but as "the pledge of a new conscience toward God through Christ's resurrection".
So, yes, we have salvation in our baptism, and we can remember our baptism, have confidence before God on account of our baptism. Because there in our baptism we were born again (John 3:3-5, Titus 3:5), we were washed with God's word connected with the water (Ephesians 5:26), which gives and works faith in us (Romans 10:17).
Is Baptism the only place where God's word is found? Of course not. The preaching of the Gospel is also plainly efficacious, after all that is the context of what the Apostle is saying in Romans ch. 10, that without someone sent to preach the Gospel no one can hear, and thus believe the Gospel. Because it is through the preaching of the Gospel that is efficacious to create faith. Wherever, and whenever, God's word is found, there God works to create faith, and we know His word is perfect and unfailing (Isaiah 55:11). This is why we speak of the Means of Grace as "Word and Sacrament", not as two things, but as one thing.
Through the preaching of the Gospel.
Through the waters of Holy Baptism.
Through the bread and wine of the Holy Eucharist.
There is God's grace, because here is God's living, active, word. His word is not dead, but alive, and it actually does things, it is efficacious.
Wherever Christ and His Gospel are found, there the Spirit is active creating and working faith in sinners, in us. To justify us before God on Christ's account, by His grace alone. This is the meaning behind the three great Solas of the Reformation: Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solus Christus. Grace Alone, Faith Alone, and Christ Alone.
-CryptoLutheran
