Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” When His disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:23-26).

Several years ago I was walking through the exhibits at the Appalachian Fair in Gray when I noticed a booth with several Scriptures posted on its walls. In the middle of the booth there was an older man sitting behind a counter, who, when he saw that his display had peaked my interest, invited me over to where he was sitting. When I came closer he presented a board that had a question written on it. Below the question there were three doors which concealed three different answers. The question was this: “What three things are impossible for God?” I answered that it is impossible for God to lie. The older gentleman agreed and opened one of the doors which revealed Titus 1:2. I answered again that it is impossible for God to be tempted with evil. Again the man concurred and opened another door revealing James 1:13. After giving it some thought, I admitted that I couldn’t think of anything else. The man then opened the third door, and the statement read something like this: “It is impossible for God to save you in any way except by faith only—including water baptism!” I told the man that I disagreed with this conclusion since it violated the Bible’s teaching that baptism does save us (1 Peter 3:21). When this man realized that he could not answer the Scriptures that I was trying to share with him, he told me to have a nice day and invited me to leave.

John said, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:10). God said that all have sinned (Romans 3:23), and so it is futile for anyone to say that he hasn’t sinned. In like manner, when God says that we must be baptized to be saved, it is futile for us to say that it isn’t necessary. What this man at the fair failed to realize is that, in order for his proposition regarding baptism to be true, the first statement upon which we had agreed (that God cannot lie) had to be false. In order for God to save a man without baptism for the remission of his sins, it would mean that God lied when He said that baptism was necessary. The Scriptures are filled with examples of people who didn’t believe that God would keep His Word, but He always has, and He always will. It is impossible for Him to do otherwise.