Form VS Function

Recently, a dear sister in Christ (young believer) asked me a question. A question that I did not put effort to explore all these while... "Can I still be saved if I was not baptised?" As her mother strongly opposed her being baptised, this question kept troubling her.

As I grew up in church and with all the denominational rituals and teachings, I never really looked into this issue... Baptism is naturally married to Gospel, and is a MUST with no question! The only arguement we heard are about sprinkling versus full immerse, or the baby baptism issue.

So, is baptism a " Gospel" obligation?

"No, it is not!" one of my spiritual mentor argued confidently, then he shared with me the concept of " Form VS Function". We must understand the meaning (function) behind every practice (form), baptism is a form of expression which the sinner is willing to turn back to God, confess his sins and show repentance. "If a man show sincere repentance, and live out his faith to God, does it matter if he was not baptised?" "The criminal who hung beside Jesus was not baptised either, but Jesus promised  him that he will be with Him in the paradise." He claimed.

I agreed on what he said, it is the spirit (meaning or function) that behind the practice that matter. The form or ritual without spirit have no life. In 1 Corinthian 3:6 Paul said :

"He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death; but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life."

Like the priests and Pharisees, the pitfall that we may face today are to hold all the practices as law, and failed to grasp the spirit behind.

Despite this, it does not mean that we should throw away the practice of baptism, as Jesus himself was baptised by John the baptist and said in Matthew 3:15,"... it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness". Just that we should not hold it as the absolute step to salvation.

However, when i read about the process of doing theology in Christian Theology, by Millard Erickson, I found that forming an authoritative theological statement take lots of effort, from collecting, unifying to  analysing the meaning of biblical materials, examine the historical treatment, consulting other cultural perpective.... until the development of  your own doctrinal statement. There is no shortcut, and i learned that i need to go through all these difficult steps to find out the truth.

Is baptism a " Gospel" obligation? With the initial preassumption I hold on now, i started my journey to find the truth :)