Re: Since Acts 2:38 teaches that the baptism commanded is "for the remission of sins,
Plain talk said...
These sins listed in verses 9-10 that are descriptive of the lifestyle of the "unrighteous" which Paul says in Galatians 5:21 that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God are not practiced by those who are born of God - 1 John 3:9 NAS. Such WERE some of you...
If someone has genuine saving faith in Christ and have received the Holy Spirit, it would be impossible for them to have NO love at all. Paul uses hyperbole (obvious and intentional exaggeration) about understanding ALL mysteries and ALL knowledge and having faith that can move mountains yet having NO love. Paul is not exaggerating about the importance of love though. Faith works through love (Galatians 5:6), but we are saved through faith, not faith plus love. Love is the greater quality of the three because God is love and it outlasts them all. Long after faith and hope are no longer necessary, love will still be the governing principle that controls all that God and his redeemed people are and do. We won't need faith and hope in heaven. In 1 Corinthians 13:13, Paul is not teaching that even if our faith is genuine that our faith cannot save us without producing "enough" love. Paul is stressing the importance of love, not teaching that faith is insufficient to save us without our best efforts to love. All genuine BELIEVERS love Christ. Why? Because we have received the love of God in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us (Romans 5:5) when we believed the gospel (Ephesians 1:13). We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
Genuine sorrow, according to the will of God produces repentance without regret, leading to salvation through faith.
Galatians 3:26 - For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. This verse ends with a period. It's not by faith and baptism, but simply by FAITH. Notice in Galatians 3:27, that those who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Now for the word "enduo" (put on). This word also appears in Romans 13:14 where we read, "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill it’s lusts." This exhortation is not to a sinner, telling him to be baptized to "put on" Christ, but it is written to Christians. Evidently then, baptism is not the only way to "put on" Christ. To "put on" Christ is to conform to Him, imitate Him. So it is in baptism; we "put on" Christ, conforming to Him in the ordinance that declares Him to be our Savior. So if we must "put on" Christ to be saved through water baptism, apparently we are not saved yet. We must also “put on” Christ by making no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts (Romans 13:14). Right? Let’s be consistent.
As Greek scholar A.T. Robertson explains - "This verb is common in the sense of putting on garments (literally and metaphorically as here). In I Thessalonians 5:8 - Paul speaks of "putting on the breastplate of righteousness." He does not here mean that one enters into Christ and so is saved by means of baptism after the teaching of the mystery religions, but just the opposite. We are justified by faith in Christ, not by circumcision or by baptism. But baptism was the public profession and pledge, the soldier’s sacramentum, oath of fealty to Christ, taking one’s stand with Christ, the symbolic picture of the change wrought by faith already. One does not put on a uniform in order to become a soldier. Simply putting on a soldier’s uniform does not make one a soldier. Once he is made a soldier he is then able to wear the uniform that distinguishes or marks him as a soldier. Putting on a judge’s robe does not, in itself, make anyone a "judge." But, one who has been made a judge is qualified to put on "judicial robes" and thus declare his qualifications. So too with being baptized the Christian puts on robes for which he has previously been qualified to wear. The putting on of Christian attire is not what makes one a Christian, but one which becomes a token of it. If one puts on the clothes of a Christian, in water baptism, without first becoming a Christian, then he becomes an imposter, and is declaring, in baptism, to be what he is not.
Why does faith work through love? See Romans 5:5 and 1 John 4:19.
Every time you see the word "water" in scripture, you jump to the conclusion that it's water baptism. Water is used in the Bible as an emblem of the Word of God, and in such uses it is associated with cleansing or washing. Baptism does not avail to cleanse the heart from defilement, but our Lord did say, "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you" (John 15:3). The Apostle Peter wrote, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever" (I Peter 1:23). Here Peter speaks of the use made of the word of God in regeneration. The Word of God is the means through which the Holy Spirit accomplishes the new birth. You continue to confuse water/living water/washing of water by the word/washing of regeneration with plain ordinary H20/water baptism. These verses on water/living water/word/Spirit relate to spiritual washing/purification of the soul accomplished by the Holy Spirit through the word of God at the moment of salvation. (John 3:5; 4:10,14; 7:37-39; Titus 3:5; Ephesians 5:26; 1 Peter 1:23).
Notice that Paul said, work "out" your salvation, NOT work "for" your salvation. This does not refer to salvation by works, but it does refer to the believer's responsibility for active pursuit of obedience in the process of ongoing sanctification. Sanctification has no bearing on justification. That is, even if we don't live a sinless perfect life (which we won't), we are still justified by faith in Christ (Romans 5:1). Verse 13 continues, after a comma, "for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose."
In the symbol of baptism the resurrection to new life in Christ is pictured with an allusion to Christ's own resurrection and to our final resurrection. Paul does not mean to say that the new life in Christ is caused or created by the act of baptism. That is grossly to misunderstand him. Paul clearly teaches that what is signified in baptism (buried and raised with Christ) actually occurs "through faith." Christians are "buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead" (Colossians 2:12). God has power to raise Christ from the dead and he has power to give us new life in Christ through faith. Justification on account of union in Christ's death, burial and resurrection is brought about "through faith" - and is properly symbolized by dipping the new believer in and out of the water.
Notice the words "work of" faith, "labor of" love and "patience of" hope in 1 Thessalonians 1:3. These are the practical outworking of the Thessalonians' conversion. The "work" the Thessalonians do is a result or consequence of their faith. So too their "labor" flows from love and their "endurance" comes from hope. Work "of" faith does not mean that faith in essence is the work accomplished. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Their work is a result or consequence "of" their faith. The work done is "of" faith or done "out of" faith. Faith was already established at conversion and then the work followed as a result or consequence "of" faith. You are trying to turn work "of" faith into this work "is" faith. You make no distinction between faith and works that follow as a result of our faith and the result is salvation by works.
We read in Romans 10:16 - But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?" We obey the gospel by choosing to believe the gospel. Refusing to obey the gospel is refusing to believe the gospel.
Because we are saved, not to become saved.
*He saved us not according to our works/not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness just blew your arguments right out of the water.* Washing of regeneration/renewing by the Holy Spirit = spiritual washing/purification of the soul accomplished by the Holy Spirit at the moment we are saved through faith.
So who obeys Him? The saved or the lost? I've heard many works salvationists (such as Roman Catholics and Mormons, along with yourself) use this verse to try and support salvation by works. Only believers have obeyed Him by choosing to believe the gospel (Romans 1:16) in order to become saved, and only believers obey Him after they have been saved through faith by practicing righteousness and not sin (1 John 3:9,10). In either sense, only believers obey Him. Unbelievers have not obeyed Him by refusing to believe the gospel (Romans 10:16) and without faith its impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6), so unbelievers practice sin and not righteousness (1 John 3:8,10) and unbelievers do not obey Him no matter how much "so-called" obedience that they attempt to conjure up through the flesh in a vain effort to receive salvation based on their works. So in either sense, unbelievers do not obey Him. You simply write a blank check with the word "obey" then fill in whatever amount of works that you wish in order to accommodate your "works based" false gospel.
Plain ordinary H20 is not pure water. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, an evident allusion to the sprinkling of blood in the old tabernacle (Hebrews 9:18-22) and the shedding of Christ's blood for the cleansing of our consciences (Hebrews 10:1-4). 1 Peter 1:2 says for "the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." Our bodies washed with pure water, old verb to bathe, to wash. See Ephesians 5:26; Titus 3:5 for the use of loutron. Strong's Greek Concordance with Vine's Number 3067 - (Loutron) "a bath, a laver" is used *metaphorically of the word of God, as the instrument of spiritual cleansing,* Ephesians 5:26; and Titus 3:5, of the "washing of regeneration" which water baptism symbolizes and pictures.
Plain talk said...
And such were some of you but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of out God. (1 Cor. 6: 11)
And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. (1 Cor. 13: 2) But now abides faith, hope and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor. 13: 13)
For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. (2 Cor. 7: 10)
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. (Gal. 3: 26, 27)
As Greek scholar A.T. Robertson explains - "This verb is common in the sense of putting on garments (literally and metaphorically as here). In I Thessalonians 5:8 - Paul speaks of "putting on the breastplate of righteousness." He does not here mean that one enters into Christ and so is saved by means of baptism after the teaching of the mystery religions, but just the opposite. We are justified by faith in Christ, not by circumcision or by baptism. But baptism was the public profession and pledge, the soldier’s sacramentum, oath of fealty to Christ, taking one’s stand with Christ, the symbolic picture of the change wrought by faith already. One does not put on a uniform in order to become a soldier. Simply putting on a soldier’s uniform does not make one a soldier. Once he is made a soldier he is then able to wear the uniform that distinguishes or marks him as a soldier. Putting on a judge’s robe does not, in itself, make anyone a "judge." But, one who has been made a judge is qualified to put on "judicial robes" and thus declare his qualifications. So too with being baptized the Christian puts on robes for which he has previously been qualified to wear. The putting on of Christian attire is not what makes one a Christian, but one which becomes a token of it. If one puts on the clothes of a Christian, in water baptism, without first becoming a Christian, then he becomes an imposter, and is declaring, in baptism, to be what he is not.
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through Love. (Gal. 5: 6)
That He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing with water with the word. (Eph. 5: 26)
So then my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philp. 2: 12, 13)
Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were raised up with Him through faith in the working of God , who raised Him from the dead. (Col. 2: 12)
Constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father. (1 Thess. 1: 3)
Dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. (2 Thess. 1: 8)
For the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (1 Tim. 1: 5)
Who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity. (2 Tim. 1: 9) And He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. (Titus 3: 5)
And having been made perfect, He became to all that obey Him the source of eternal salvation. (Heb. 5: 9)
Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (Heb. 10: 22)