Admittedly one would wonder about the genuineness of someone claiming to believe in Christ yet refusing baptism. Still, the fact remains that baptism is a fruit, not the root. Interestingly, every group that believes in baptismal regeneration also holds to either a Pelagian or Arminian view of human nature and God s grace. Those who teach baptismal regeneration believe that there is no forgiveness apart from water baptism. The crushing bulk of scriptural evidence points to justification by faith alone as the only means of salvation.
Grace is the opposite of that which is deserved or earned.
Indeed, faith itself is the result of having first experienced grace. When Nicodemus asked Jesus how to be born again, Jesus said, The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. In other words, we have as much control over being born of the Spirit as we do over the wind. Just prior to this Jesus had said, all that the Father gives to me will come to me . . .