Is the necessity of baptism for salvation negated by Romans 3:27 & 4:2-5?

“27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.” (Romans 3:27-28)

“2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. 4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. 5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ingodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.” (Romans 4:2-5)

The two passages, Romans 3:27-28 and Romans 4:2-5, explains further what is taught in Ephesians 2:8-10, which says, “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” The three passages have a common topic - there is no work sinners can do which they can boast (Romans 3:27; 4:2; Ephesians 2:9) as having brought about their justification (Romans 3:28; 4:2, 5) or salvation (Ephesians 2:8).

“Good works” by themselves can never be “boasted about” as being able to “earn” a sinner’s justification of his sins and salvation from the eternally-dire consequences of his sins. Sinners are justified by their faith (i.e. belief) in Christ Jesus as God’s only-begotten Son (Acts 16:30-31) and God’s grace. At the outset, it must be noted that we are never justified or saved “by faith ALONE” nor “by grace ALONE.” Our justification and salvation depends on two parties: God who justifies and saves sinners by His grace AND the sinner who accepts by his faith the gift of justification and salvation which God extends to sinners by His grace.

Also, just as God’s grace (His personal disposition and free will) was necessarily expressed and evidenced by His planning for,- and activating,- the gospel plan of salvation by the giving-up of His Son to die on the cross, the sinner’s faith (his personal belief and free will) must necessarily be expressed and evidenced by his obedience to God’s commandments on what is to be done to avail himself to God’s gracious gift of justification and salvation. The scriptural teaching concerning the necessity of sinners’ obedient works as the expression and evidence of personal faith or belief is contained in the explanation of James 2 and the examples of Hebrews 11.

The epistle of James is as Divinely-inspired as Paul’s epistles to the Romans and the Ephesians. In it, James declares that “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? ….. Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (James 2:14, 17 see also 20, 26). The expressive and evidential role of works in pointing to the doer’s faith is declared when James says, “I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:18). For a scriptural example of this principle, James points to the patriarch Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac, his son, in obedience to God’s command (Genesis 22:1-2). This is an example of what Paul himself,- who revealed Romans 3:27-28 and 4:2-5 refered to as “obedience to the faith” at the beginning of the epistle (Romans 1:5) and at its ending (Romans 16:26), which the latter verse calls “the commandments of the everlasting God” to all nations.

Emphasizing the essentiality of works to the very concept of faith, James concludes, “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only (James 2:24). Some denominations teach that sinners are justified or saved by “faith alone (or ‘faith only’) which contradicts scripture’s insistence that we cannot be saved by faith ONLY. After using Abraham’s and Rahab’s works as expression amd evidence of their individual faith or belief, James concludes, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” (James 2:26).

And specifically regarding Abraham’s near-sacfrifice of his son, James declares, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?” (James 2:21-22). This is the Divinely-inspired interpretation of what led to the fulfillment of the scripture which said, “Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” (James 2:23). Indeed faith alone, apart from works expressing and evidencing such faith is imperfect and “dead”.

James 2:23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”