First of all, it's not my "denomination." It is the Christians of the first five centuries who really laid the foundation of orthodox and proper belief, so you cannot lay that at the feet of my "denomination." All you have to do is read what the first Christians themselves say in plain language without any "definition."
Here is a selection from the eleventh chapter of the Epistle of Barnabas (A.D. 130) describing baptism:
“This means that we go down into the water full of sins and foulness, and we come up bearing fruit in our hearts, fear and hope in Jesus and in the Spirit.”
So here we see that before the Bible was canonized, before even two generations of Christians had passed, the understanding of baptism is that it cleanses from sins. This is in accordance with Acts 2:38, which also says that baptism washes away sin.
Here is a selection from chapter 16 of the ninth Similitude of the Shepherd of Hermas (early second century):
They were obliged,” he answered, “to ascend through water in order that they might be made alive; for, unless they laid aside the deadness of their life, they could not in any other way enter into the kingdom of God. … For,” he continued, “before a man bears the name of the Son of God he is dead; but when he receives the seal he lays aside his deadness, and obtains life. The seal, then, is the water: they descend into the water dead, and they arise alive. And to them, accordingly, was this seal preached, and they made use of it that they might enter into the kingdom of God.” (Shepherd of Hermas)
BTW - When Arias, the God-denying heretic, stood before the Council of Nicea and tried to defend his idea that Jesus is only a created being, he did so from Scripture alone. He did the same thing that the Jehovah's Witnesses do - pulled lines of Scripture out of context and then said, "See? The Scriptures state that Jesus is not God and is subordinate to the Father."
It was Holy Tradition that rebuked his madness. Holy Tradition simply means "that which has been taught from the beginning." From the beginning, it was taught that the Scriptures and the words of the Apostles taught that Jesus is God.
Your interpretation of the Scriptures is not correct, and the history of Christianity shows that.