Baptism is one of the two Sacraments, which, according to the Reformed tradition, are effective means of salvation. Each Sacrament (Baptism and the Lord’s Supper) is made up of two components – the outward sign, and the inward reality being signified. These two things are linked by a sacramental union, so when we speak of Baptism, we are referring both to the outward sign, which is Baptism with water, and the inward reality being signified, which is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, also known as regeneration or being “born again”. Baptism with water does not save, but Baptism of the Holy Spirit does save, and since the Sacrament of Baptism is a union of the two, it is right to say that Baptism saves. 

However, it is important to clarify a few things. First, not everyone who receives the outward sign necessarily receives the inward reality signified. Contrary to the beliefs of Lutherans and Catholics, we do not believe that regeneration, or Baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs for everyone who receives the outward sign of Baptism, but only the elect – which is those who have faith in Christ, and thus for whom the Sacraments are effective. Second, the outward sign and the inward reality do not necessarily occur at the same time. Therefore, it is possible, and perhaps quite common, for a person to be inwardly regenerated by the Holy Spirit long before or long after they are Baptized with water. Still, it is right to say in either case, to attribute their salvation to Baptism, as the two are connected by the mystical Sacramental Union, and therefore saying that Baptism saves does not contradict the Protestant doctrine of salvation through faith alone, as the Baptism of the Holy Spirit only occurs through faith.

Baptism is a sign and a seal of God’s Covenant. However, many Presbyterians stop there and do not go on to explain Baptism’s connection to salvation. Being outwardly Baptized (with water) makes one part of the “visible Church”, or the covenant community. Being inwardly Baptized (with the Holy Spirit) makes one part of the invisible Church, or the true elect covenant people. We believe Baptism is for the New Covenant what circumcision was for the Old Covenant. Circumcision was a sign of God’s Covenant that truly made one part of God’s people Israel. However, being outwardly circumcised only made one outwardly, or ethnically part of God’s people, while one had to be inwardly circumcised (through faith in God) to be part of the “true Israel” which is whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord. Yet in both cases, we can’t separate the outward sign from the inward reality. Since Circumcision was given to believers and their children, so should Baptism.

Infant Baptism fits beautifully with our Calvinist doctrine of unconditional election. That being chosen by God is not dependent on anything we do or even any choice we make. Babies who are being Baptized are completely passive in the process, which symbolizes how we are passive agents in our regeneration, which is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit onto us. To symbolize the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we think pouring or sprinkling are the ideal modes of Baptism, though Baptism by immersion certainly is valid as well. 

To understand how we can say Baptism saves and that salvation is by faith alone, let us consider the following analogy: Let’s say you fell off a cliff, and someone throws you a rope that you grab just in time. Did the person save you or did the rope save you? The answer is yes to both. It is true that the person could have saved you with their hand, but they chose to throw a rope, perhaps because seeing something firm and material would give you more assurance than a bare hand. It is also true that if you did not grab the rope, you would not have been saved. So the person represents the Holy Spirit, the rope represents Baptism, and you grabbing the rope represents faith. There is no contradiction in saying you were saved by “the person”, “the rope” and “grabbing the rope”. Likewise, there is no contradiction in saying you were saved by “God”, “your baptism” and “your faith”. 

What, then, does the Sacramental Union consist in? Are we playing a mere linguistic trick? I do not think so, although I confess there is some mystery involved. That is why it is sometimes called a “mystical union”. But to understand the Sacramental Union, especially from a Reformed perspective, we need to do what the Reformed do in all areas of theology, and zoom out to look at the whole picture. We know that God operates outside of time, which is why we are content saying the sign and the thing signified can occur at different times. We also know God is the author of the story that is history. So if God declares that one thing causes another, even if the thing caused occurs temporally before the thing causing it, that is reality. Because it is a spiritual reality we are referring to, it need not obey the common logic of events within time and space. We cannot see the spiritual and metaphysical process of our salvation, so God ties that process to a visible sign we can see. 

The importance of this is not make our religion purely subjective. One of the illnesses of modernity is grounding everything in subjective experience, and that’s what happens to our religion if we remove sacramental efficacy. Then, one’s faith journey becomes entirely composed of their subjective feelings of faith. But feelings are unreliable, and change like the weather, which is why it’s important to have Baptism as an objective external sign to look to, knowing it actually does something in our life of faith.

“And thus we utterly damn the vanity of those that affirm sacraments to be nothing else but naked and bare signs. No, we assuredly believe that by Baptism we are ingrafted in Christ Jesus to be made partakers of his justice, by the which our sins are covered and remitted”

– John Knox, Scots Confession