When some New Testament passages say whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, and others say whoever believes will be saved, the algebra says that belief is required and baptism is optional.
I get where this logic is coming from, and at its best, it points toward the insight that all our obedience and all our disciplines and all our studies are meant to open us up to the work of God in the Messiah Jesus, and that this is all a gift from him, even our joining in the work.
But if we take it too far, we become like those who say "Master, Master" but don't do what Jesus says. We follow the six steps of salvation, we "get saved", and we believe we are saved, but we do nothing to continue in him. And if we don't continue in him, what expectation do we have of being saved at the last day?
This, I think, is why the Stone-Campbell movement warned us against "faith only" teachings. This is why the Book of Common Prayer says that baptism is "generally necessary" to salvation, as is participation in the eucharist in some gathering of believers called "church". Some people may do without it in dire circumstances, but if you persistently ignore it, who or what are you actually ordering your life around? (Online shopping? Social media? Sports? Your job? Your family? Your fears?) Are you expecting those things to save you?
When Jesus said unless you give up everything you have, you can't be his disciple, where is that in our statement of faith or our gospel tract or our wordless book?
Whoever endures to the end will be saved. And yet this endurance is a result of the warnings, comforts, and instructions found in Scripture, interpreted to us by the Spirit, reminded to us by our friends, both by their words and their presence.
My Nigerian student's wife's elder sister's son took his own life recently, and so, as is the custom in Igbo culture, he and his wife have been coming over to the sister's house every evening and staying until around midnight, for the past two or three weeks, and they plan to continue doing this until she feels stable again. This is the kind of care that Jesus expects of us sometimes. And this is the kind of comfort that the Spirit brings through fellow humans, to help us endure.
Let's leave aside the algebra of our faith and move on to the relational side.
