“15 And then he told them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. 16 Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned” – Mark 16:15-16 (New Living Translation).

I continually meet people who believe in Jesus, but have never been baptized. Many of them have attended church for years. The reason for this is because our Bible teachers and pastors totally ignore verses like these above. They don’t teach them or preach them or take note of them or point them out. They simply ignore them, because they don’t fit with their theology.

But Christians should never ignore scriptures like this. We must study and obey the WHOLE word of God, not just the verses we like or that agree with what we’ve always believed or been taught – especially when it comes to salvation. So let’s look at these neglected verses of scripture in Mark.

Jesus says, “Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved.” When’s the last time you heard a pastor tell his audience to believe and be baptized to be saved on a Sunday morning? When’s the last time you heard such a message on Christian radio or tv? With few exceptions, chances are you’ve never heard anything like this. Instead, you hear, “Believe and ask Jesus into your heart” or “Believe and invite Jesus into your life” or “Just say this sinner’s prayer...”

But Jesus’ words are crystal clear. He says, “Anyone who believes and is BAPTIZED will be saved.” Consequently, what we need to tell people is to believe and be baptized to be saved.

Now, someone might say, but Jesus says those who refuse to believe will be condemned, not those who refuse to believe and be baptized will be condemned. Well, first of all, the 2^nd half of the verse doesn’t negate the first half. If Jesus said, “Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved” we need to believe that’s true. So why didn’t he say, “Anyone who refuses to believe and be baptized will be condemned.” Well, the answer seems obvious. If a person never believes in Jesus, he certainly won’t be baptized. Why would he submit to being immersed in water to unite with Jesus if he doesn’t even believe in him? The answer is he wouldn’t. So, Jesus had no need to mention baptism in the 2^nd half of the verse in connection with condemnation.

The bottom line is that we need to teach and preach the WHOLE counsel of God. That is, we must study and digest and share EVERY verse of scripture that talks about salvation and responding to the Good News of Jesus, not just a few chosen scriptures that agree with popular evangelists, or trends or traditions or friends or how we were raised. And that means we need to add verses like Mark 16:16 and Acts 2:38 to our repertoire.

Will you do this? Have you believed AND been baptized? I hope so.