It is by grace you are saved through faith. Jesus said go into all nations and preach the gospel he who believes and is baptized shall be saved.
"And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;" Heb 5:9
It is by grace you are saved
through faith. (Ephesians 2:8,9) Not faith and water baptism. Faith is not water baptism and faith precedes water baptism.
Acts 15:7 - And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: “Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should
hear the word of the gospel and believe. (what happened to baptism?) 8 So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by
giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, 9 and made
no distinction between us and them,
purifying their hearts by faith. Not faith and water baptism.
Mark 16:16 - He who believes and is baptized will be saved
(general cases without making a qualification for the unusual case of someone who believes but is not baptized) but he who
does not believe will be condemned.
The omission of baptized with "does not believe" shows that Jesus does not make baptism absolutely necessary for salvation. Condemnation rests on unbelief and not on a lack of baptism. *NOWHERE does the Bible say, "baptized or condemned."
If water baptism is absolutely required for salvation, then we would expect Jesus to mention it in the following verses. (3:15,16,18; 5:24; 6:29,40,47; 11:25,26) Yet what is the 1 requirement that Jesus mentions 9 different times in each of these complete statements *
BELIEVES. *What happened to baptism? *Hermeneutics.
John 3:18 - He who
believes in Him is not condemned; but he who (is not water baptized? - NO)
does not believe is condemned already, because he has not (been water baptized? - NO)
because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
The gospel is the "good news" of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) and is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that
BELIEVES.. (Romans 1:16) To "believe" the gospel is to
trust in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ as the ALL-SUFFICIENT means of our salvation. For those who are trusting in works for salvation, it's time for them to repent and believe the gospel.
The gospel is the "good news" of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) and is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that
BELIEVES.. (Romans 1:16) To "believe" the gospel is to
trust in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ as the ALL-sufficient means of our salvation. The gospel is a message of grace to be received through faith. The gospel is not a set of rituals to perform, a code of laws to be obeyed or a check list of good works (including water baptism) to accomplish as a prerequisite for salvation. 1 Corinthians 1:21 - For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God,
it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who BELIEVE.
In regard to Hebrews 5:9, who obeys Him? The saved or the lost? I often hear works-salvationists cite this verse to try and support salvation by works, including Roman Catholics and Mormons. Such folks will write a blank check made out to OBEY then fill in whatever amount of obedience/works they feel is necessary for salvation.
Only believers have obeyed Him by choosing to believe the gospel (Romans 1:16) in order to become saved, and only believers obey Him after they have been saved through faith by practicing righteousness and not sin. (1 John 3:9,10)
In either sense, only believers obey Him.
Unbelievers have not obeyed Him by refusing to believe the gospel (Romans 10:16) and without faith it's impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6), so unbelievers do not obey Him no matter how much "so called" obedience that they attempt to conjure up through the flesh in a vain effort to receive salvation based on works. (Matthew 7:22-23)
So, in either sense, unbelievers do not obey Him.