The Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches believe that regeneration is effected through the instrumentality of baptism. Certain loose-knit groups that differ so greatly among themselves that we may for convenience' sake speak of them as followers of Alexander Campbell, make regeneration incomplete without baptism.
In and by the act of immersion, as soon as our bodies are put under water, at that very instant our former or old sins are washed away.. . . Immersion and regeneration are Bible names for the same act. ... It is not our faith in God's promise of remission but our going down into the water, that obtains the remission Of SiHS.—ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, Christianity Restored, p. 138.
To such lengths is this view taken that in discussions many ministers of Campbellite churches will solemnly affirm that the penitent thief on the cross must have been baptized at some time in his life, otherwise Christ's assurance could not have meant salvation for him.
Texts quoted in support of this belief include Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:4; 16:16; John 3:5; Acts 2:38; 22:16; Ephesians 5:26; Titus 3:5; and Hebrews 10:22. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" is taken to mean that the absence of baptism is the absence of salvation, to the believing and repentant thief on the cross as to anybody else. "Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." "Repent, and be baptized. . . for the remission of sins." "Be baptized, and wash away thy sins."
This doctrine is a form of sacramentalism. You are saved by the grace of God, but not exclusively by that. You are saved by the grace of God plus your own righteous works in performing the ritual of a sacrament.
However, no outward act that man is capable of performing can save or help to save him (Eph. 2:8, 9). Regeneration, through which the governing disposition of the mind is made holy, is inward; baptism is outward. The outward sign of regeneration, the inward change, is baptism. Regeneration is a condition of being not only inwardly, but actually, in the kingdom of grace. Baptism is a condition of being outwardly in the kingdom. Without baptism, regenerating faith is like the works of a clock that is keeping the time accurately but has no hands by which one can tell the time. Discipleship is incomplete and therefore in a measure ineffective.
The kingdom of God comes not with outward show. It is established by the implanting of Christ's nature in humanity through the work of the Holy Spirit.—The Desire of Ages, p. 509.
The soul who has genuinely experienced the regeneration of the Spirit through the instrumentality of God's truth will not need to be unduly urged to be baptized. Having entered the kingdom of God inwardly, he will be fit and eager to enter it also outwardly. He will yearn for a rich life of Christian witness, and in this the first act will be submission to baptism.
In texts such as John 3:5, Acts 2:38, and Colossians 2:12 the Bible regards inward regeneration and outward baptism as only different sides or aspects of the same fact. Either aspect might therefore be described in terms derived from the other. This is the figure of speech called metonymy, which signifies among other things the sign and the thing signified. "As often as ye . . . drink this cup," says Paul, meaning the contents of the cup. "The heavens do rule," says Daniel, meaning the special manifestations of the Spirit. "What you need is to be baptized," I may say to a gambler and drinker, meaning that he needs to repent, confess his sins, submit his will in faith to God, and be baptized. So in scriptural language a single part of a complex action or transaction is often mentioned for the whole transaction and so becomes the outward symbol of the whole.
What is very obvious is that regeneration is the experience indispensable to salvation. "Ye must be born again" (John 3:7). "In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature [margin, "creation"]" (Gal. 6:15). This involves a change of heart, or governing disposition—"for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness" (Rom. 10: 10; see Matt. 15:19). The means used by God to accomplish this is His truth, for "of his own will begat he us with the word of truth" (James 1:18; see also 1 Peter 1:23 and 2 Peter 1:4).
This inward regenerative change is known only by its results. "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24). This is confirmed by John 3:8. The divine agency that applies truth to the conscience and so brings about regeneration is the Holy Spirit (John 16:13, 8; 3:6-8). "If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you" Rom. 8:9), then you are God's—regenerated, saved, "passed from death unto life." "He that believeth on me hath everlasting life" (John 6:47), and he need not fear that if he should die that night in his sleep without being baptized that he is forever lost. "The just shall live by faith" (Rom. 1:17), and that faith will lead him to be baptized at the first moment when this can be done decently and in order. The inward reality will be followed by the outward sign of the kingdom.
"Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? (Acts 10:47).
For further reading:
Regeneration is the only path to the city of God (Testimonies, vol. 9, p. 23).
Baptism is worthless without Christ (Desire of Ages, p. 181).
Baptism is necessary however faultless the life (Testimonies, vol. 4, p. 40).
True preparation for baptism (Steps to Christ, pp. 53-60).