Good Works And Faith

In Joshua 6 I read today about the fall of Jericho.  It was a well fortified city close to the Jordan river and a first-strike city so it's walls has been built big and strong.  How would Israel be able to take this city which had withstood many an attack in the past?  God had a plan in which He got the glory.

God  told Joshua to have all the people march around the city once every day for six days and then seven times on the seventh day and the wall would fall down from the inside out.  Amazing I know.  But it worked.  Despite the concern of the Israelites who were doing the marching God showed up and accomplished just exactly what He said He would.  

Here's where my thoughts are going today...

Did the Isrealites earn the capture of Jericho or did God?  Did the work they put forth, in walking around the city eveyr day, equal the result of that work?  

Walking around the city is work.  It's wasn't done in a few minutes.  It took effort and it was a command of God that they do it.  So, it was a work they performed, but did their effort earn their victory?  

When you and I go to work we give mental or physical effort for a pay check.  We earn our pay.  It's work.  The return (sometimes, not always) is equal to the effort but it usually is an agreed upon amount.

Some believe that baptism (primarily) is a work and therefore it is excluded as a part of the process of salvation based on Ephesians 2:8-9 which says, For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. 

Here's my argument.  Baptism isn't any more a work than marching around a city.  They were both commanded.  God commanded Joshua to have the people march and Jesus commanded the church to baptize in Matthew 28.  Baptism by itself no more earns us salvation than marching around a city earns the band a victory.  They don't match. 

Baptism can't be a work because it doesn't earn us anything.  It is our response and an act of obedience just like marching around the city.  It is God's chocie to forgive us and give us His Holy Spirit  based on our obedience in the act of baptism, (see Acts 2).  No one can stand before the Throne of God and claim God "must" let them in based on their baptism.  Therefore baptism can not be a work that earns us salvation.  Saying baptism has nothing to do with salvation is like saying God would have feld the walls of Jericho even if the people had not walked around them.  

God acted in response to their obedience not because of it.  Just like He does in baptism, His reponse based on our obedience is to save us, cleanse us and give us His Spirit - not becuase we've earned it but because we've been obedient.  Lest it become a work and we can not be saved based on what we do but based on our faith, expressed in obedience.