God's Chosen Method Of Enrollment

# 768- Today's Du-votional comes from: Mr 16:"He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” There was a time when I was a proponent of “believer's baptism.” This was one of my “proof” verses. It plainly says, “believe and be baptized.” Believe first, and then be baptized. Seemed pretty cut and dried to me. But upon further review, I'd better be careful with using the order of appearance of words in Scripture to determine doctrine. As an example, what would you make of this statement. “In order to graduate you must be 18 years old and pass the test.” Must the student be 18 before he takes the test? No! That's not what is being said. It is simply stating two requirements for graduation. Likewise two requirements are listed for salvation in Mr 16:16. Belief and baptism. It doesn't say which one must come first. Look at Mt 28:19,20, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; “ The Greek grammar here indicates that disciples are made by first baptizing, then teaching! The essence of the great commission is to go into the world preaching the full gospel message of the necessity of baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and the necessity of persevering in faith in the name of Jesus for salvation. Whether God's saving grace comes to us through hearing the word as an adult or whether it comes to us in baptism as an infant, we should have a strong desire to enroll ourselves and others in the kingdom through baptism. This is God's chosen method of enrollment. It is what He has ordained for His children to put on Christ. Ga 3:27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Proper interpretation of the Mr 16:16 passage leaves us with this conclusion: In the first part we see that baptism and faith are necessary elements of salvation, and in the second part we see that this faith must endure, because he who doesn't endure in faith (believe) will be condemned, baptized or not!