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Mizpeh, here are a few more thoughts which might help you out in your study.
John said of Christ, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."
All our sins were reckoned to Christ on Calvary.
Since the sins reckoned to Christ did not keep him in the grave, then they must have been removed.
Take notice and understand: The resurrection was a declaration that all sin reckoned to Christ had been forgiven, else he would not have been raised because the wage of sin is death. Our sin, reckoned to Christ, had to be forgiven in order for him to be raised. If the sins of the world were not taken away (removed/remitted/forgiven) at the Cross, then Christ would not have been raised.
The Good News is that our sin has been forgiven. The Gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ's resurrection declares our freedom from sin and that we too will be resurrected unto eternal life.
The heart is purified by faith. The heart of a person becomes purified when he recognizes he has been made free from sin and reconciled to God by Christ's death nearly 2000 years ago at Calvary. The heart is purified upon acceptance of this historical fact; when it receives the reality of the forgiveness which took place on the Cross.
The conscience is made good toward God upon acceptance of the Good News that our sin, which was reckoned to Christ, has been remitted through Christ's death on the Cross. The person who has come to this realization and thus rests in the finished work of the Cross can draw near unto God "with a true heart in full assurance of faith" having his heart "sprinkled (cleansed) from an evil conscience."
Water baptism is the response of the man who possesses this "good conscience toward God." It is the response of the man whose heart has been purified by faith in the reality of a sin remission which took place on the Cross. Sin remission does not take place in the waters of baptism. Sin remission took place on the Cross.
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