Do you believe that’s your mom or do you know it is her? “My people perish from a lack of knowledge” Hosea 4:6

even the demons believe that Jesus is God and the entirety of the Gospel. Simple knowing its true does nothing if you dont place your trust in His promises this is what faith is, not a mere knowledge

Its true that water doesnt save, but baptism does. its the spiritual reality of being united with Christ that saves us and bapstim is the instrument that God uses to adminster this Gift of Grace. In the sacraments there are 2 components "the thing and the thing signified " the water is the thing and is symbolic of the thing its signified that being the uniting of yourself into Christ. Baptism is a work of God not a work of man.Therfore its true that all we have to do is belive but God still conferrs Grace to us through Baptsim witch is His work. Hope this Helps if you want to deep dive into the sacraments id reccomend the scots confession as well as westminsters. Also John calvin as alot of work on them

@zacharyross3488 Thank you but still don't understand what it means that baptism saves. I believe that baptism is an outward declaration of an inward change and that we're only saved by grace through faith. If a person genuinely accepts Jesus as their Lord and Savior on their death bed and dies before they can be baptized, I believe they are saved (Romans 10:9-13). How do I understand the verses I sent earlier when only grace and faith are needed?

batism is the instrument God uses to save, but this does not mean that He needs to use it. Just that he ordinarily does. God can operate apart from the means of Grace. You might then ask if its not strictly nessasary for salvation then why do it? I give two answers to this. firstly its commanded of God and that is sufficient, witch im sure you would agree with even if it did nothing. And secondly while God doesnt need to use it, He does give a promise of salvation for those who are baptized and believe. This means when wondering if we have truly been saved we need not look to our own works, but rather we can look to Gods promise given through baptism. While true that batism is a symbol this does not mean that it is a empty or bare symbol. Instead it truly ofers and confers the Grace as well as symbolizing the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration.

@@zacharyross3488 Amen! Thank you. So just for the recap: If we are a real believer we'll want to be baptized as an expression of our faith. It isn't strictly necessary for salvation but normally we have to do it because God said so and he also said that if we love him we'll keep his commandments.

yes. thats why when in 1 Peter it says batsim now saves you, but not the removal of dirt from the body. its us coming before God in faith that saves us and the normal way to do that is baptaim. also note in mark it says whoever believes and is baptsized will be saved. so if we want to be saved we need to belive and be baptized. But the next line says whoever doesnt believe will not be saved. It does not say whoever does not belivers and be baptized only whoever doesnt belive. So to summarize if one belives but is not baptized they can still be saved, assuming there faith is genuine. but there is a promise to those who beilve and are baptized that, (not only they might), they will be saved. Also note that in other places to preserve in the faith is also required, but remember faith is not of ourselves its a gift of God, Ephs. 1. also the ability to preserve is a gift of God. Lest we begin in the Spirit and finish in the flesh, as it says in Galatians

Of course. But does treating a person with a heart attack supercede telling them to move their car? Parking in a no parking zone is still a bad thing, and we shouldn't do it if we can help it, however if someone is having a heart attack, we shouldn't prioritize the fact that they parked in the wrong place, they need help. This is the kind of work Jesus did. He healed non-believers and treated them with kindness, even though they did not believe in the Holy Spirit. Understand the intentions of the rules and prioritize the intentions over following each rule to the letter. God wants us to be kind and loving to our neighbors and treat them with respect no matter who they are or what they did. Follow the rules, but do not let the rules stand in the way of the intentions God had with them. For Jesus would want us to act as he did.

@@nh8489 you're missing the point.

@@nh8489 so you're saying following God's commandments comes second? Got it

You are speaking of non-instrumental CoC's, we are not that church.