Re: Since Acts 2:38 teaches that the baptism commanded is "for the remission of sins,
Would you mind if we saved this text to the last because there are other issues in this text that are going to pull us away from the immediate focus. Please do not think I am trying to avoid the text. I hope you know me better than that. I do look forward to looking at this text but there are a number of other passages I would like to look at before we get to Acts 10 if you would not mind.
That's fine. You can begin wherever you like then.
But what was the SIGN GIVEN FOR in Acts 10? Wasn't it a SIGN for Peter to see that the Gentiles were being grafted into the body of believers?
It was to show that God has accepted the Gentiles into the body of Christ and this happened BEFORE water baptism. In Acts 10:47, Peter said
"Surely no one can refuse the water for
these to be baptized who
HAVE received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?" The question was asked because certain Jews may have had trouble accepting the fact that God had accepted the Gentiles along with the Jews and proved it by demonstrating that they were already saved and have been accepted into the body of Christ by giving them the Holy Spirit.
The Israelites ALREADY knew what the washings were for. (Under the Mosaic law people were cleansed by BOTH BLOOD AND WATER) They were NOT CLEANSED by BLOOD alone or by WATER alone but by BOTH.
Ritual purification ceremonies in the OT were designed to lead to ceremonial cleanness only, not to moral and spiritual purity and thus to salvation. Right after we read about water baptism in verses 22-24, in John 3:25, we read - An argument developed between some of John's disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of
ceremonial washing. Baptism is the emblem of the washing away of sins by the death of Christ. So baptism does not wash away sins literally, but
ceremonially, (plain ordinary H20 has no power to literally wash away sins) pointing to the death of Christ by which sins are actually washed away.
The cleansing by BLOOD and WATER was a TYPE AND SHADOW of WHAT? Jesus death. John clearly says that when the soldier pierced His side with the spear out flowed BLOOD AND WATER. John also again ties in blood,water and the Spirit as the three that testify.
1 John 5
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.
3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,
4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
6 This is the one who came by water and blood--Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
7 For there are three that testify:
8 the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.
9 We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son.
10 Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son.
11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
Water symbolizes Jesus' baptism and blood symbolizes His death. These are mentioned because Jesus' ministry began at His baptism and ended at His death. Water and blood constitute external, objective witness to who Jesus Christ is. John writes to show that God has given testimony to the deity of Jesus through both His baptism and His sacrificial death.
Did God tell the Israelites that in order for their sins to be COVERED that a lamb had to be sacrificed and the blood had to be sprinkled on the mercy seat? Did they not in FAITH have to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat, and were their covered BEFORE or AFTER they did so?
Did ALL of the Israelites sacrifice the lamb? Who sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat? Who is our High priest now? Hebrews 10:1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, 4 because
it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Water baptism is not the same as a blood sacrifice and we are saved through faith BEFORE water baptism and not after (Acts 10:43-47; 11:17; 26:18; Ephesians 2:8,9).
Can God now tell us to do the same and do so in like manner? Step out in FAITH and THEN He does when we obey out of faith? Why is baptism now REMOVED as an an act of faith?
Water baptism is an act of faith, done "out of" faith, just as all good works are, but these acts are produced "out of" faith that is already established in Christ, but is not faith itself. Did God say that we are saved through faith (Ephesians 2:8) or by an act of faith (a work) that we accomplish after faith is established? Noah stepped out in faith when he built the ark, but we see that Noah
had already "found grace" (Genesis 6:8), was "a preacher of righteousness" (2 Peter 2:5), and "walked with God" BEFORE he built the ark. His obedience was a DEMONSTRATION of his faith, not the origin of it. Using your logic, we would have to say that Noah did not find grace until "after" he built the ark. In Genesis 15:6/Romans 4:2-3, we read that Abraham
believed God and
it (faith, not works) was accounted to him for righteousness. Many years later, in Genesis 22, we see that Abraham stepped out in faith when he set out to sacrifice his only Son Isaac, yet his faith was already established and accounted to him for righteousness
BEFORE he did this work. Using your logic, we would have to say that Abraham's faith was not accounted to him for righteousness until "after" he set out to sacrifice Isaac. The Bible says that we are saved through faith in Christ and not by works which follow faith. Notice that Paul did not say that we are saved by grace through faith
and baptism in Ephesians 2:8 or that we are justified by faith
and baptism in Romans 5:2. Faith is not baptism and faith precedes baptism and we are saved through faith. It's just that simple.