As I said before, if I'm told by God that in order to have my past sins forgiven or washed away and I believe Him, I will by all means do just that.
Yes, of course. But trusting in Christ to save you, to be your Saviour, is no more a work than trusting in a surgeon to fix your heart-valve malfunction is a work. You trust, but the surgeon does all the work. Likewise, we trust in Christ but
he does all the saving work.
I would be no more "earning" my forgiveness than I would be "earning" your next paycheck if you gave it to me.
Yes, right.
As a matter of fact, in baptism I'm not doing anything I'm merely submitting myself to be baptised.
Nope. You are doing more than expressing faith, trust, in Christ when you are baptized, believing it contributes to your salvation. Now Christ alone is not your Saviour but Christ
plus you getting baptized. Christ plus anything in order to be saved is not the Gospel.
....and I am told to be baptized for the remission of sins. Arise, be baptised and wash away thy sins.
I already addressed this verse and explained with Scripture that it in no way requires that one understand Ananias to be speaking of physical water baptism.
I'm earning my salvation for doing what God instructs me to do? No!!
Yes!! This is exactly what you are doing - whatever denials you might offer.
That's like saying I deserve a trophy for obeying the speed limit or paying my taxes.
Yes, it is. Which is why works play no part in one's salvation. Christ doesn't need your works to save you. Nothing you can do will ever make his atoning work at Calvary any more perfect, any more complete, than it already is. What Christ did on the cross needs no contribution of good works from us.
The good works that's causing the issue is the works like mowing the elderly widow's yard. Or, fixing the elderly's air conditioner that's broken and it's 100 deg outside and they can't afford to have it fixed. I should as a Christian do those because those are fruits of a Christian. Show me your faith without your works and I'll show you my faith by my works.
Yes, you should do such things for your neighbor but they are the natural
result of being indwelt by God's Spirit and of loving those God loves, not the
means of maintaining one's salvation.
Baptism washes away ones sins.
No, the shed blood of Christ does that.
Matthew 26:28
28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
1 John 1:7
7 ...the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Revelation 1:5
5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
Baptism doth also now save us.
No, it doesn't. Your excerpt from
1 Peter 3:21 is out context and does not make the case for you that you think it does.
I twist nothing that is precisely what the verses say.
As I've explained, you're not considering them carefully in coming to your conclusions.
Jesus says if I believe and am baptized i can be saved.
And in many places in Scripture that describe how to be saved, baptism is not mentioned at all. An odd thing, if it is
essential to salvation. We always read of faith, or belief in Christ in those passages that speak of how to be saved, but baptism in only a few. And then there's Paul remark:
1 Corinthians 1:17
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel...
How is it possible to preach the Gospel which is, of course, for the purpose of saving souls, and yet neglect baptism if, as you say, it is vital to salvation? Paul seems to be making a distinction between the Gospel and baptism, separating them rather than uniting them, as you seem to think is necessary.
I'm told that with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Jesus says if I will confess Him before men He will then confess me before the Father.
What exactly am I twisting or ignoring.
The whole counsel of Scripture. In particular those verses that rule out works as part of salvation.
Ephesians 2:7-8
that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
Salvation is offered to everyone, everyone in the world that has lived since Christ. It is free by grace, to all who wii accept it.
You left out the part that excludes works as part of how one is saved. Convenient. Here's how the verse finishes:
"...not of works, lest any man should boast."
2 Timothy 1:9
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 given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, -
Once again, works and doing what God says are two different things. If this were the only verse adressing salvation and had God not said that through baptism our sins are forgiven, we would be on the same page. But He did and I'm not in the position to question the Almighty.
Doing what God says results in works; you can't obey God and not end up doing good works. So separating obeying God and works as though they aren't inter-related is specious at best. You are essentially setting Scripture against itself and deflecting doing so by a facile "I'm not in a position to question the Almighty." No, you aren't in a position to question the Almighty. But you
are in a position to better understand and handle His word than you are doing.
not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, -
Titus 3:5
Baptism is not a work of righteousness, it is simply something we are told to do. When we submit to God's will to be baptized our sins are washed away.
Yes, baptism
is a work. You have to enact baptism, to do it - unlike simply receiving salvation by faith as Scripture says saves a person.
Physical in the sense that we submit ourselves to be baptized, spiritual sense sins are not filth or dirt that may be washed off in baptism.
Ananias doesn't say which baptism he means. But other Scripture that I offered to you help us to understand that water baptism is just a symbol, a figure, of the spiritual baptism by the Spirit by which a person is actually saved.
Holy Spirit baptism was a means of confirmation, in addition to having ones sins forgiven through baptism the one being baptised did miraculous acts.
Absolutely wrong. Spiritual regeneration happens as a consequence of the indwelling Holy Spirit, not by water baptism. I already gave you some verses that make this clear. Here are some more:
Romans 8:9-11
9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Paul says not a single word in the entire eighth chapter about baptism having anything at all to do with spiritual regeneration. But he goes on at length about how the Spirit quickens, or makes alive spiritually, all those who are saved. Along with the verses I already gave you about the Spirit "baptizing" people into Christ, what Paul writes above makes it very clear that water baptism is merely a symbolic ritual, illustrating what the Holy Spirit has done in giving a second spiritual birth to a person. For more on this see also
Romans 6.
No, I understand that being told to be baptized for the remission of my sins is different from "good works". Who has the right to say what God can and can not do?
I am not questioning God, I am questioning
your understanding of His word which I've shown is faulty.