Transcript

ANNOUNCER: There is a tough biblical text in Mark 16:16, and it might seem to be saying that baptism, water baptism is required for salvation. Some people say this text is spurious, it shouldn’t be included in the book of Mark, but how should we teach this passage and how should we understand it? That’s where we’re going today. We’re glad you are along with us here on Grace In Focus. This is the radio broadcast and podcast ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. We live in North Texas, and we have a website, faithalone.org. We’d love you to go there, find out more about us, including books, videos, and our magazine. And we would also invite you to go to our YouTube channel, that’s YouTube, Grace Evangelical Society. We have short videos we release near weekly, so we’d love you to subscribe and like our videos, and more than that—benefit from them. YouTube, Grace Evangelical Society, and the website again, faithalone.org. 

Now with today’s discussion, here’s Bob Wilkin along with Ken Yates. 

KEN: We’re talking about tough texts, and we’re defining tough texts as mostly texts that people use to deny the gospel of grace. The gospel of eternal life is a free gift that can never be lost, that you’ve got to add works to it, or you can lose it, or something like that. 

BOB: Right. Now we’ve been in the Sermon on the Mount up until now, Matthew—

KEN: And the Olivet Discourse. 

BOB: And the Olivet. So Matthew 5:67, Matthew 24 and 25. But now we’re moving to Mark. It’s interesting because the ending of Mark’s Gospel, Mark 16:9-20, is a disputed passage, because the NIV, the New American Standard, the Holman Christian Standard, any of the versions that follow the Critical Text will have a note, they’ll print it, but they’ll have double lines before and after it and they’ll have a note saying this is not really part of Scripture. 

KEN: Yeah, that’s their view. They have it in their Bibles and their translations, but they don’t believe it’s part of the original. 

BOB; And even in the Bible Knowledge Commentary by Dallas Seminary on Mark by John Grassmick, he suggests this is not Scripture as well. But the majority of manuscripts, over 900, I think it is, manuscripts contain this passage. It’s clearly part of Mark’s Gospel. And so we do need to deal with it. And I don’t think we should just wave it away and go, you know what, this isn’t in some early manuscripts, so we’re not going to comment on it. 

KEN: You know, it’s funny, I remember being in class with Robert Lightner and he was talking about this passage and how he goes, you know, the Church of Christ say they use this to say you got to be baptized, to go to heaven. And he said, you can argue about them. And of course, one thing you could say is, it might not be a part of the original and we’re wasting our time discussing it, he goes, but we can still answer the question. So he took kind of a middle road view. He was like, yeah, it might not be the original, but there’s still an answer. 

BOB: Right. A lot of people go that way. And the point is, if it’s not Scripture, we don’t need to discuss it. 

KEN: Right. But Bob and I both believe it’s Scripture. And so we’re going to discuss it. The issue here is probably verse 16. 

BOB: So let’s read 15 and 16. 

KEN: Jesus is talking to the disciples and He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned.” Okay. And the issue is does a person have to be baptized in order to be saved from hell? That is the way it is taken by most people. Most people say saved here refers to salvation from the lake of fire. And most people take baptized here to be water baptism. 

BOB: So now there are several options. One option is the baptism here is Holy Spirit baptism. Which occurs at the moment a person believes and that we don’t have to do. However, the one of the problems with that view is Holy Spirit baptism did not start until the birth of the church in Acts chapter 2 with Pentecost. And so up to this point, nobody had yet undergone Spirit baptism. 

Now, of course, you could say because he’s talking prophetically, going into all the world and preach the gospel, you could say he is talking about that future time when Spirit baptism is going to take place. So that’s a possibility, but notice the negative part, but he who does not believe will be condemned. Do you notice what’s missing in the second half? 

KEN: It doesn’t say anything about being baptized. 

BOB: Yeah, it doesn’t say but he who does not believe and is not baptized will be condemned. The basis of condemnation, assuming this is talking about being condemned to eternal condemnation to the lake of fire, which I believe that’s what it’s talking about. Then what it’s saying is the only condition for that is lack of belief. 

KEN: So the lack of belief is the basis for condemnation. 

BOB: Right. But it’s belief and baptism is the basis of salvation. So Hodges actually has argued that the salvation here is broader than simply gaining eternal life. He’s saying this is the full-orbed what he would call Pauline salvation. I remember it with the word RIBS, regeneration, indwelling, baptizing, sealing, those are four ministries of the spirit that occur at the moment we believe in Christ. He regenerates us. He permanently indwells us. He baptizes us into the body of Christ and he seals us forever. Well, prior to the birth of the church, only the “R” and the “S” occurred, regeneration and sealing, permanent indwelling didn’t occur until the day of Pentecost and the baptism of the Holy Spirit didn’t occur until the day of Pentecost. 

ANNOUNCER: We will return to today’s content in just a moment, but first we want to let you know about our regional conferences we have throughout the year. Get more information at faithalone.org/events. Don’t miss the Grace Evangelical Society’s regional conference, October 5th and 6th in Trego, Wisconsin at the Trego Community Church. The topic is eternal rewards in the Gospel of Mark. More details at faithalone.org/events. That’s October 5th and 6th, Trego Community Church in Trego, Wisconsin. If you’re close by, we hope to see you there. 

BOB: So what Hodges was saying is if you look at Acts 2:38, you have people who have already believed that Jesus is the Messiah. In verse 36, he says “You crucified the Messiah” and in verse 37, “They were cut to the heart ” and they say, “brethren, what shall we do?” They don’t say what shall we do to be saved. They say what shall we do in light of the fact that we now believe we did crucify the Messiah. 

They’ve now believed in Jesus as the Messiah. They’ve believed that by faith in him, they have everlasting life, John 11:25-27, but they realize that they’re guilty. And so what he says is that they are to be baptized. And what does he say in Acts 2:38? 

KEN: Repent. 

BOB: And if they do, two things happen. 

KEN: They will receive the forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit. 

BOB: So the repentance is tied with forgiveness of sins. The baptism is linked with receiving the Spirit. And so Hodges argues, that’s what this is talking about. But on the day of Pentecost, they were not yet fully saved. They were regenerated and sealed, but they were not yet indwelt and  baptized. They had to repent, turn from their sinful ways, which included repenting of having crucified the Messiah. And they had to be baptized. They did repent and they were baptized and that day 5,000 were added to the church. But you remember in Acts 22:16, another problem passage, Ananias to Paul, “Arise and be baptized, washing away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” Well, in order for Paul to experience the cleansing that normally comes at the moment of faith, Titus 3:5, he had to be baptized. 

KEN: Just like the people in Acts. 

BOB: Just like the people in Acts 8 or 2. And by the way, we have articles on our website on both Acts 2:38 and Acts 22:16 by Lanny Thomas Tanton, wrote his thesis on those passages at Dallas Seminary. And he does mention that Mark 16:16 is not talking about just regeneration and sealing, but it’s talking about the full-orb salvation of having permanent indwelling of the Spirit and being baptized into the body of Christ. 

And by the way, you get that in Acts chapter 10. In Acts chapter 10, when Cornelius comes to faith, now not only are they regenerated and sealed, but they’re indwelt and baptized. That’s why the Jewish believers there were shocked. 

And it happened to everyone in the house because they all believed. But the point is, Peter says, “Who can forbid water for these to be baptized who have received the Spirit just as we have.” Now in Acts chapter 8, Peter himself, along with John, has to go down to Samaria and lay hands on people so they can receive the Spirit. Because they didn’t receive the Spirit when they believed. And by receiving the Spirit, that means being baptized into the body of Christ. They were already born again, but they were not yet born again into the family of the church. They became part of the body of Christ when they laid hands on them. But no longer was that the case in Acts chapter 10. And it’s not the case today. Today, the moment we believe, RIBS occurs—regeneration, indwelling, baptized and sealing. So I think that’s what 22:16 is talking about. 

Now some other people have the view that this salvation is salvation from judgment in this life, right? And so they would take the view that you have to be baptized and believe in order to escape the consequences that occurred in 70 AD. But I would take it, no, I think this is probably a full-orb salvation of RIBS. 

KEN: And let me just say on that, one thing we know is he is not saying you have to be baptized in water to receive eternal life. My view in my commentary is that the baptism here is the baptism of suffering. The last time baptism is introduced in Mark, Jesus says, “Can you be baptized with the baptism that I’m to be baptized with,” and He’s talking to the disciples. They do not believe that he rose from the dead. 

Here in Mark chapter 16, starting in verse 11, he mentions, believe three times before he gets to this passage in verse 11, in verse 13, and in verse 14, He says to the disciples, “Why don’t you believe?” “Why don’t you believe?” “Why don’t you believe?” Believe what? They’re already believers. They don’t believe that he rose from the dead. Now he says, the one who believes and is baptized because he’s proclaiming this message will suffer. He’s going to be saved, not saved from hell. Obviously, they already had that. So, saved from the loss of Mark 8:34-38. And these signs will follow those who believe—the disciples. If you believe this and proclaim it, here’s a thing—

BOB: So you’re saying this salvation here is ruling and reigning in the life to come. 

KEN: Yeah, that’s the view of both the article and the GES journal and in my commentary, although I discuss the view you discussed as well, they’re both in the commentary. So we also have an article on Mark 16:16 in the GES journal. And then I also discuss another view in my commentary on Mark, but what all these views have in common is, we’re all saying you don’t have to be baptized to go to heaven. And that’s what all they do, even though there’s a couple of the ways to look at it. So if anyone is interested in this topic, look up the journal article, get the commentary on Mark, read Tough Texts that Bob and Zane put together and you’ll have a good answer. 

But in the meantime, remember, keep grace in focus. 

ANNOUNCER: Read many from our library of thousands of free magazine and journal articles online at faithalone.org/resources. That’s faithalone.org. Did you miss an episode of Grace in Focus that you really wanted to hear? Just come to faithalone.org. That’s faithalone.org. We have all our past episodes right there on the site. Our team is really great about answering questions, comments, and feedback. If you’ve got some, we hope to hear from you. Let me give you our email address so you can do just that. It’s radio@faithalone.org. That’s radio@faithalone.org. 

Now we thank you for joining us today, and all this week. We wish you a very pleasant weekend—fellowship with other believers in a Bible-believing church. Come back and join us again on Monday and keep grace in focus.