I believe that
normatively baptism precedes the new birth of the spirit/salvation. It is indeed linked to repentance. Peter said ""
The word "FOR" is the Greek "EIS" which is always forward looking. It cannot mean "because of". The correct rendering therefore of this verse is..."
Repent and be baptized everyone of you ON the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in order that your sins may be forgiven."
Where I feel our movement errs is when we say 'baptism washes away sins" or even saying "baptism is for the remission of sins" without clarification. First of all,
Acts 2:38 links
both baptism
AND repentance for the remission of sins. But I also see a subtle difference is saying that repentance and baptism are for the remission of sins versus saying "
in order that your sins may be forgiven". The latter phrase makes repentance and baptism the doorway or step of faith towards the forgiveness of sins, but place the forgiveness itself slightly beyond the baptism. Oneness folks seem to think that God somehow uses baptism to wash away sin, and I think this is error. I believe that what Peter in essence is saying in
Acts 2 and all throughout Acts is....
Brother, forgive me for butting in, but I beg to differ on the highlighted statement. I will just post this verse. I will not get further into it here, we did that months ago. God Bless
Acts 22:16
And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.
I dont see another concept presented here to wash away sins, but to be baptized. If I was on the receiving end of that statement, I would have equated baptism with my sins being washed away. (you know..WATER(baptized)....WASH, (I kinda see it like that), just most folks use water to wash stuff, but what do I know?, maybe baptism is like a "waterless car wash"...LOL....respectfully
So, we repent and are baptized "
FOR" (
in order that) our sins might be forgiven. But who does the remitting/forgiving of the sins?
God does for Christ's sake!
God remits our sins by the authority of Christ The baptism or the spoken invocation of a minister does not remit the sins!.
Somehow in our zeal to make sure everyone has the right words spoken over them in baptism, we subconsciously lead them to believe that the baptism is washing away their sins or the spoken word of the baptizer, No way!! God
HIMSELF does the forgiving when we submit to the authority of his risen/glorified Son by repenting and being baptized.
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