Q: 1). Why do you assume that Paul's baptism here is water? Q: 2). Does water baptism wash away sin? Q: 3). If water can wash away sin why did Jesus shed His blood on the cross of Calvary?
Q: 4). Why call on the name of the Lord in water baptism?
For the cause of Christ
Roger
[Please pardon my insertion of numbers before the questions in the quote. It makes it easier to be clear in response.]
A: 1). Because Jesus' commission to his disciples regarding baptism was that of water baptism, not the Holy Ghost. Jesus commanded his disciples (the men he sent) to baptize people with water...He (Jesus) alone does the baptism with the Holy Ghost...even though it sometimes happens at the time of laying on of hands.
A: 2). Remission (washing away) of sins is the purpose of baptism. That is repeated several times throughout the bible, including the re-quote from Paul. Baptism is how we partake in the likeness of Jesus' death. Just as Jesus needed to submit to death by the cross, we need to submit to the likeness of his death in baptism. Just as Jesus went down into death with sins on him, and came up without those sins... that's what baptism does for us...we go down into baptism with sins, and come up without them.
Rom 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Rom 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
Have you ever considered what happens if a person is NOT planted together in the likeness of his death?
A: 3). It's not the water that does the work, it's the submission to the righteous that Jesus laid out for us.
1Pe_3:21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
What Jesus did through the cross activated baptism...I don't really understand how, but I also don't understand how bones form in a chicken's egg.
At the end of each of the four gospels you can find both necessary elements of salvation in what Jesus says (1. Removal of sins, and 2. Receiving the Holy Ghost)...but the wording regarding water baptism varies... Matthew and Mark use the word "baptizing" or "he that is baptised" where Luke and John use the words "remission of sins" and Joh 20:23 "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." In other words, whomever you baptize, their sins will be gone, but whomever you don't baptize, their sins will remain. Remission of sins is the power given them. Baptism is the tool by which it is applied.
A: 4). Because that's who's name we get baptized in, and who it is that does the work. And, as repentance (turning from old ways) and baptism go hand in hand, we want to actually ask God for the strength to continue in the new life we are coming to embrace as we let him cleanse us from the old.
Love in Jesus,
Kelby
