Thank you, my dear friend, for this excellent question. Well, let’s begin with some examples of individuals in the Bible who were baptized, and let’s look at the order of events in these cases. First, in Acts 8: 36-37 we have the account of the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch where we read: “Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized? Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”” Then and only then was the eunuch baptized by Philip. In this portion of Scripture, we can plainly see that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the only pre-requisite for baptism. Faith and thus salvation come first, then baptism, and never in Scripture do we see it the other way around. We also have the account of Cornelius, the centurion in Acts 10: 43-48 where we again see the order of things…Peter preached the Gospel, then the Holy Spirit came onto those who believed, and then Peter baptized them, but  only after they were already saved. In Acts 16:31-33 we see the same pattern in the salvation of the jailor at Philippi. I do not believe there are any examples in the Scripture of Christian water baptism being administered before the person is saved, nor as a necessary step in salvation.

Now, there are two verses in the New Testament which I am aware of that may seem confusing at first, and I will talk about these now. In Mark 16:16 we have, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned,” (NKJV). At first blush, one might think the Scripture is telling us that we must both believe and be baptized in order to be saved; but then, the second half of the verse clarifies by letting us know that condemnation only results from unbelief of the Gospel, and we know from other verses that salvation is based upon faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone (John 3:16; John 5:24; Romans 6:23; Romans 5:1, and 10:9; Ephesians 2:8,9; and many other verses).

The other verse is found in 1 Peter 3:21 where we read (in the NKJV version), “There is also an antitype which now saves us–baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ….” This verse might at first seem to be telling us that it is the actual water baptism which is needed in order to save us, but I do not believe that this verse is actually saying this at all. The Christian water baptism is a figure in this verse, really speaking of the Lord Jesus saving us, like the ark of Noah. Noah’s ark saved him and his family from drowning in the flood, which was the judgment of that day. In this type of Christ, the Lord Jesus, in His work on Calvary’s cross, is our ark in which we too are saved from God’s judgment for our sins. Now, Christ Jesus did go down into death for us, but He rose again for our justification as we read in Romans 4:25, “Who (Christ) was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.”  Thus, in a like manner, when the believer is baptized, we go down into the water, and this is a figure of the death of the old man, then when we come up, this figures our new life in Christ. J. N. Darby probably says it best in his Synopsis of the Bible: “To this the apostle adds, the comparison of baptism to the ark of Noah in the deluge. Noah was saved through the water; we also; for the water of baptism typifies death, as the deluge, so to speak, was the death of the world. Now Christ has passed through death and is risen. We enter into death in baptism; but it is like the ark, because Christ suffered in death for us, and has come out of it in resurrection, as Noah came out of the deluge, to begin, as it were, a new life in a resurrection world….”  (SF)  (698.3)