One may believe in the existence and historical facts about Christ before he repents, but THAT IS NOT SAVING BELIEF. Since you believe that all belief is the same and is no different than the belief of demons "except for the lack of works" and cannot grasp this DEEPER faith that TRUSTS EXCLUSIVELY IN CHRIST FOR SALVATION you remain confused on this issue.
I have already explained this to you numerous times. How long will you twist the scriptures? You continue to ignore
"servants of obedience unto righteousness" (Romans 6:16) and simply stresses "obedience unto righteousness" as if works of obedience that follow faith are unto righteousness, as if we are saved by works. Unbelievers are not slaves of obedience unto righteousness no matter how much so called obedience that they attempt to conjure up through the flesh in a vain effort to save themselves by works.
There is a contrast here between servants/slaves. There are only two kinds of servants/slaves in this world, in the spiritual sense; servants/slaves of sin unto death, or servants/slaves of obedience unto righteousness. When we place our faith exclusively in Christ for salvation/believe the gospel by trusting in His finished work of redemption as the all sufficient means of our salvation, we then become "servants of obedience unto righteousness."
Before they obeyed that form of doctrine by choosing to believe the gospel (Romans 1:16), they had been slaves to sin. Romans 10:16 - But they have not all
obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has
believed our report?"1 Peter 1:22 notice -
"Purified your souls in obeying the truth" and notice in Acts 15:9 -
"Purified their hearts by FAITH." "Obeying the gospel" and "obeying that form of doctrine" in these passages is really a synonym for BELIEVING the gospel. Being slaves of sin is put in the past tense. Paul goes on in Romans 6:18 -
"You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness."
Notice in Romans 10:10 - For with the heart one
believes unto righteousness..
Notice in Romans 4:5 - But to him who does not work but
believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his
faith (not works) is accounted for righteousness.
Repentance actually precedes saving belief. You reverse the order. To the contrary we find in scripture:
Matthew 21:32 - For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you
did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not
repent and believe him.
Mark 1:15 -
Repent and believe the gospel. Not believe the gospel then afterwards repent to become saved.
Acts 20:21 - testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of
repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
In Romans 10:9-10, confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead are not two separate steps to salvation but are chronologically together. Romans 10:8 - But what does it say? "The word is near you,
in your mouth and in your heart" (together) that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, (notice the reverse order from verse 9 to verse 10) - that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart one
believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation .Confess/believe; believe/confess. 1 Corinthians 12:3 - Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and
no one can say that Jesus is Lord except BY the Holy Spirit. There is divine influence or direct operation of the Holy Spirit in the heart of a person when confessing that Jesus is Lord. This confession is not just a simple acknowledgment that Jesus is the Lord (even the demons believe that), but is a deep personal conviction, without reservation, that Jesus is that person's Lord and Savior. So simply believing in our head (and not in our heart) that God raised Him from the dead is not unto righteousness and simply reciting the words "Jesus is Lord" not by the Holy Spirit from a check list of steps as if they are simply magical words in a formula of salvation by works is not unto salvation.
Water baptism pictures a person being buried with Christ (submersion under water) and being raised to new life with Christ (emergence from water). This symbolizes the person's union with, and incorporation into Christ by the action of the Holy Spirit which previously took place when we believed the Gospel (Ephesians 1:13). Water baptism is an outward, physical symbol of the inward, spiritual conversion of Christians. In regards to verses 3-5, the allusion is to the SYMBOLISM of baptism which was the OUTWARD SIGN of the separation. Baptized into water is not the same as being baptized into the body of Christ. Christ is not the water. Water baptism as a picture of death and resurrection symbolizes our likeness to Christ in his death and resurrection. One is the picture or likeness of the other. Water baptism is not the reality but only a picture of the reality.
Before mentioning baptism in chapter 6, Paul had repeatedly emphasized that FAITH, not baptism is the instrumental cause of salvation/justification (Romans 1:16; 3:22-30; 4:4-6, 13; 5:1). That is when the old man was put to death and united in the likeness of His death, which
water baptism symbolizes and pictures. Righteousness is “imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised up because of our justification” (Romans 4:24,25). Since they received the benefits of Christ’s death and resurrection (justification), and that through faith, believers must be spiritually united to Him (delivered and raised up with Him). If baptism is taken as the instrumental cause, then Paul contradicts what he had established before, namely that salvation/justification is by FAITH, not by water baptism.
False. Believe the gospel and getting baptized afterwards are two distinct things. In Acts 11:17, when Peter was referring to the events that took place in Acts 10:43-47, when did he say they received the Holy Spirit? When they were baptized or WHEN THEY BELIEVED ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. They believed, received the Holy Spirit and were saved BEFORE water baptism (Acts 10:43-47; 11:17,18) and was referred to as "repentance unto life." You desperately try to "shoe horn" baptism into "believes" in order to make your theology fit, but the shoe does not fit.
No, believe does not include baptism. One believes BEFORE they are baptized. Repentance precedes believing the gospel and the word of faith is in our heart and in our mouth, together. Believes unto righteousness/confession made unto salvation BEFORE water baptism.
So now you are saying that baptism is used as a synecdoche for repentance, confession and baptism, so what happened to belief? You are so mixed up.
1 Peter 3:21 tells us that baptism now saves you, yet when Peter uses this phrase he continues in the same sentence to explain exactly what he means by it. He says that baptism now saves you-
not the removal of dirt from the flesh (that is, not as an outward, physical act which washes dirt from the body--that is not the part which saves you), "but an appeal to God for a good conscience"
(that is, as an inward, spiritual transaction between God and the individual, a transaction that is symbolized by the outward ceremony of water baptism). We could paraphrase Peter's statement by saying, "Baptism now saves you--
not the outward physical ceremony of baptism but the inward spiritual reality which baptism represents." By saying, "not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience -through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Peter guards against saving power to the physical ceremony itself. Just as the eight people in the ark were "saved THROUGH water" as they were IN THE ARK. They were not literally saved "by" the water. Hebrews 11:7 is clear on this point (..built an
ARK for the
SAVING of his household). NOTE: The context reveals that ONLY the righteous (Noah and his family) were DRY and therefore SAFE. In contrast, ONLY THE WICKED IN NOAH'S DAY CAME IN CONTACT WITH THE WATER AND THEY ALL PERISHED.