Can one be saved without baptism?

Writer: 
Jari Rankinen
Translator: 
Milla Rämö

The Bible says that for you to be saved, you need baptism and faith. We must not overlook what God has said about it. Otherwise we will be in danger of being left out of His work for salvation. Therefore, we must baptize our children and receive baptism ourselves if we are not already baptized.

The Bible tells that some people have been saved without baptism. On Good Friday, Jesus said to the criminal next to him that he would be in paradise with Jesus. The man had not been baptized. God can work also outside the instruments that He tells we should use. He can save without baptism. But this divine exception does not allow us to ignore the baptism command that we have received. As Christians, we are tied to the teachings of the New Testament: in baptism one becomes a Christian and one of God’s children. When it comes to an unbaptized child who dies, we can only say that he is in the hands of our merciful God.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
(Mark 16:16, ESV)