Is baptism essential unto salvation?

[Hoovie]

Originally Posted by Adino

Falla39,

Thank you for your thoughts.

Our sins were imputed to Christ and they were, of necessity, removed BEFORE the resurrection (else Christ would not have been raised because our sins were held against him). Thus, as far as the sin imputed to Christ is concerned, it is a matter of history, proven by the resurrection, that the blood has already been applied and effected the removal of our sins in the eyes of God.

Christ would not have been resurrected if those sins imputed to him had not been removed forever from before the eyes of God.

Do you believe in the historic sin remission of the Cross or are you saying the blood applied to our sin imputed to Christ on the Cross was ineffective in removing those sins?

If our sins are remitted in baptism, they were not remitted on the Cross. If the blood of Christ does not deal with our sins until baptism, it did not deal with them on the Cross and this is a huge problem for one holding baptismal remission because Christ rose from the dead proving that all sin imputed to him had been removed.

I wholeheartedly agree with one of your points..... Jesus did finish the work.

Do you believe the work of sin remission was finished on Calvary or was the work of Calvary insufficient requiring a further work of sin remission in baptism?

Adino, this sounds right... but as CJ would say If Christ paid the whole debt for all of mankind, is the unbelief of man greater and more effectual than the cross?

I know I am changing the course of discussion a bit, but your talk of historic sin remission seems to naturally progress into universalism, no?