QUESTION: WHAT ROLE DOES BAPTISM PLAY IN YOUR SALVATION?

ANSWER: Baptism identifies a person with Christ, but it does not save a person.  Like a wedding ring; it only identifies that person as being married. When a person believes in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and put their full faith in Him alone to be saved from sin and Hell, they are saved. Their baptism is a public profession that they have believed, and it is a recognition that they have died with Jesus and commit to live for Him. 1 Corinthians 15:4 talks about Jesus Christ: “And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”  

According to Romans 6:5 Baptism is called the Likeness of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. “If we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.” 1 Peter 3:21 “That, by the way, is what baptism pictures for us: In baptism we show that we have been saved from death, and doom by the resurrection of Christ, not because our bodies are washed clean by the water but because in being baptized, we are turning to God and asking him to cleanse our hearts from sin.”