The Good Confession: Biblical Evidence that Baptism is the Apostolic Mode of Savingly Confessing Christ as Lord
As we will see, it looks in the New Testament as if water Baptism was itself the prescribed method of “calling” upon the Lord’s Name for salvation. In other words, baptism itself is the confession of faith. In short, there weren’t “altar calls.” Nor was there a disjointed relation between confession and baptism. We already see in John the Baptist’s practice that baptism is intimately connected with confession (Matthew 3:6; Mark 1:5). The Sinner’s Prayer, as it were, then, was the Baptismal calling upon the Name of the Lord. Of course, here comes the knee jerk reaction: Does this mean one wasn’t technically saved if they failed to make it to the waters of Baptism? No. In fact, the very question is anachronistic. Baptism was simply the given manner for “signing and sealing,” which is to say confessing, one’s heart faith. Notice in the following verses the synonymy between confession (ὁμολογέω) and calling (ἐπικαλέω) . For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth