Baptism - John the Baptist - Peter - Jesus & Remission

Scripture Study Principles

Myles Coverdale; a Bible theologian & translator from the 1500’s. He wrote the Coverdale Bible. Say's don't judge Scripture by what is spoken, or written only.

When dissecting any verse of scripture. Ask yourself, of whom, to whom, with what words, what time, where, to what intent, with what circumstances, considering what is written before and what follows any single verse context.

Romans 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
(NOTE: ALL scripture is written for our LEARNING. ALL scripture isn't written for our DOCTRINE.)
Example: Are NT believers required to bring an animal sacrifice to the Temple?

All Scripture is written for us, but not all Scripture is written to us.

Acts: A Transition Book
Acts maps the shift from the dispensation of Law to the dispensation of Grace. John the Baptist never baptized a Gentile in the Judean wilderness & no Gentile receives the Holy Spirit at Pentecost on the Temple Mount (Acts 2). The categories are 100% Jewish from start to finish.

Understanding Baptism Through Jewish Eyes
(NOTE: Source: Jewish Virtual Library, Topical Bible, Sefaria & Hirsch)

Under the Mosaic Law, Israel practiced many ceremonial water‑purification immersions (Ex 30; Lev 6, 13–16, 22).

Every Israelite understood the pattern:
Unclean > immerse > clean.

Impure > immerse > pure.

Out of fellowship > immerse > restored.

These immersions never removed sin. They restored ritual purity, not forgiveness.

A full Mikveh (precursor to NT baptism) immersion purification ritual expressed: I acknowledge I've been in an unclean state, I'm turning away from that state, I'm returning to covenant faithfulness, I'm restoring my ritual status before God & community

John, Jesus, & Peter all spoke Aramaic & Hebrew, where repent meant > return to God. See Strong's Hebrew repent: h7725. שׁוּב (shub) -- Return, turn back, restore

Category Is Purification:
Jn 3:25 records a dispute between John's disciples about purification. Not forgiveness. Not salvation. PURIFICATION! This is exactly how Jews interpreted immersion.
(NOTE: John the Baptist, his disciples, & Jesus' disciples all performed the baptism of repentance.)

Acts 19:4 confirms John's baptism was a baptism of repentance, preparing Israel to believe in the coming Messiah. It was not a remission ritual.

John the Baptist's mission was to prepare the way of the Lord (Mal 3:1 & Matt 3:3). His "baptism of repentance" was preparatory, not remissive.
Confession of sins = acknowledging they had turned away > Immersion = becoming ceremonially clean > This is Mosaic purification, not atonement.

Acts & the Purification Pattern

Acts 2:38
Repent, and be baptized every one of you "in the name of Jesus Christ" "for" "the remission of sins", and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
(NOTE: Repent = return to God. Be baptized = purify yourself (unclean > clean). Remission comes by calling on the Messiah, not by water. Peter is speaking to Israel, using the same purification categories they ALL knew)

Acts 22:16 “Be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.”
(NOTE: The washing is symbolic > the calling is effective.)

Acts 8:12 “But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.”
(NOTE: They believed Philip's preaching, then were baptized. Faith precedes water. Remission is tied to Christ, not immersion.)

"Nothing external removes sin."

Faith in the NAME saves, Faith in the BLOOD removes sin & the Jesus HOLY SPIRIT Baptism Forever seals the believers salvation. Water is a obedience response.

Scripture is clear:
"Without shedding of blood there is no remission" (Heb 9:22).

Jesus said, “This is My blood > shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matt 26:28).

He washed us from our sins in His own blood (Rev 1:5).

High Priest Foreshadow

Lev 16:21, Aaron laid both hands on the substitute, confessed the sins of the nation & imputes/transfers the sins onto the innocent victim. That was the foreshadow.

Jesus is the fulfillment.

Heb identifies Jesus as our great High Priest (Heb 4:14), called by God after the order of Melchizedek (Heb 5:10) & Mediator of the New Covenant (Heb 9:15; 12:24)

Under the Old Covenant, the priest transferred sin. Under the New Covenant, Christ performs the real sin‑transfer.

When we call on the name of the Lord (Acts 2:21 & Rom 10:13) & place our faith in Jesus' sin-atoning death & resurrection, He forgives all our sins (Heb 10:10–18) & imputes our sins onto Himself (Heb 10:10; 2 Cor 5:19; Rom 4:8, 11, 22–24). At that same moment, He baptizes the believer with His forever (Jn 14:16), salvation‑sealing (Eph 1:13, 2 Cor 1:22, 2 Cor 5:5) indwelling Holy Spirit you.

Anyone can immerse someone into water. Only Jesus, who knows the true heart, can baptize with/in/by the Holy Spirit. Jesus then imputes His righteousness to us (2 Cor 5:21 & Ja 2:23) & the believer becomes the righteousness of God, thru faith placed in Christ.)

Salvation Across the Ages

Before the incarnation, God required FAITH in the promised Messiah who would come (Gen 15:6 & Isa 53). During Jesus' earthly ministry, people were called to BELIEVE that He was the Messiah (Jn 20:31). After His death & resurrection, salvation is accessed through FAITH (Rom 5:1-2) in His finished, sin‑atoning work (Rom 3:25–26 & 1 Cor 15:1–4). In every era, salvation has always been by FAITH in God's Messiah & never by ritual, never by water, never by external acts.

The Gentile Timeline
The categories remained Jewish long after Pentecost. Acts shows a deliberate 7–10 year gap between:
Gentile inclusion (Cornelius, Acts 10), Gentile evangelism (Paul, Acts 13). Years after Cornelius, the Jerusalem church was still preaching "to Jews only" (Acts 11:19).

Why This Matters:
Neither John's water baptism nor early Acts water baptisms were ever the mechanism of remission. Water purified the ceremonially unclean. Only Faith in Jesus saves, His perpetually cleansing blood removes sin (Lev 17:11) & His Spirit baptism gives eternal life.

Two Sacraments every Believer should Partake in:

Water Baptism, a public identification with Jesus death & resurrection. An act of obedience/a gateway to discipleship. This undertaking is an outward physical expression, of the inner spiritual transformation activated, when Christ baptized you with His eternal life giving Holy Spirit.

Communion, both these actions are commanded acts are commanded by the Lord Himself. Neither action is the doorway leading to eternal salvation. These events follow the salvation sealing Holy Spirit baptism, performed by Christ alone. See Matt 3:11, Lk 3:16, Mk 1:8, Jn 1:33, Acts 1:4-5, 2:38, 10:45, 11:16)

Conclusion
Faith in Jesus sacrificial sin atoning work SAVES, His BLOOD washes away sin & Jesus baptism in/of/with His FOREVER (Jn 14:16) indwelling Holy Spirit SEALS (Eph 1:13-14, 4:30, 2 Cor 1:22, 5:5, 2 Tim 1:14) the believers eternal life. AMEN & Amen

concretecamper said:

John 3:5 Jesus answered: Amen, amen, I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

John 6:54 Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say unto you: except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you.
6:55 He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day.

For close to 2,000 years the Church has taught that John 3:5 refers to the Sacrament of Baptism and that John 6 refers to the Holy Eucharist, His actual flesh and blood.

But thank you for your innovative and new fangled opinion.

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You've proof-texted sacramental theology into passages that have nothing to do with Christian rituals.

In doing so you're ignoring the Jewish categories Jesus & His audience were actually operating within.

Jn 3:5 is spoken before the cross, before Pentecost, before the Church, before Christian baptism even existed.

Jesus immediately defines His own terms: That which is ""born of the flesh is flesh"" & that which is ""born of the Spirit is spirit"" (Jn 3:6).

The contrast is natural birth vs. Spirit birth, not water baptism vs. Spirit baptism. Nicodemus wasn't confused about sacraments. He was confused about re‑entering the womb (Jn 3:4).

Jesus clarifies by distinguishing physical birth (a fetus is surrounded by water/amniotic fluid) from spiritual birth (regeneration by the Holy Spirit). Jesus is not introducing water baptism. Jesus is distinguishing TWO BIRTHS!

Your use of Jn 6 is even further off. Jesus explicitly says His words there are ""spirit & life & that"" & ""the flesh profits nothing"" (Jn 6:63).

If you want to claim Jn 6 is literal, then answer the obvious question the text itself raises: when Jesus broke the bread & said, ""This is My body - eat,"" did they literally eat His body? When He took the cup & said, ""This is My blood - drink,"".

Question: Does scripture record the disciples literally eating His flesh & literally drinking His blood?

Ultimately, the question before us is not one of isolated proof‑texts but of maintaining the interpretive categories Scripture itself establishes.

The Johannine passages under discussion arise within a Jewish covenantal framework that predates the cross, the Church & any notion of Christian sacramental practice.

The narrative arc of Acts preserves a Jewish‑only stewardship extending to Acts 10, where God decisively inaugurates Gentile inclusion through the direct bestowal of the Holy Spirit apart from ritual.

When later theological systems are read back into these texts, the original categories are displaced & the biblical sequence of covenant, purification, faith & the Holy Spirit' sealing is obscured.

My aim has simply been to keep the discussion anchored in textual & covenantal structures the Scriptures themselves present, so that readers may discern the difference between the biblical framework & later sacramental interpretations imposed upon it. Best wishes, JJ

concretecamper said:

I've done nothing of the sort. All I've done is present Scripture, backed by close to 2,000 years of consistent interpretation.


Mat 26:26 And whilst they were at supper, Jesus took bread and blessed and broke and gave to his disciples and said: Take ye and eat. This is my body. 26:27 And taking the chalice, he gave thanks and gave to them, saying: Drink ye all of this. 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins.



My aim is to present truth.

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The question was simple: Does Scripture record the disciples literally Jesus flesh or literally drinking His blood?

You quoted Matt 26, but Matthew 26 records Jesus handing them bread & wine, not His literal body or His literal blood.

Jesus was physically present, unbroken, unpierced & uncrucified. His blood was still in His veins. The elements were bread & wine. That's the God‑breathed record.

If you insist that ""This is My body"" must be literal, then you must also insist that the disciples committed cannibalism before the cross & drank blood in violation of Leviticus 17:10–14. Clearly that didn't happen!

Your interpretation folds under its own weight because it requires a literalism the text itself does not support.

Jesus tells us how to read Jn 6: "The flesh profits nothing"" & the words I speak to you are "spirit and life" (Jn 6:63).

Jn 3:1 (KJV): Nicodemus “a ruler of the Jews” (Greek break down: ἄρχων τῶν Ἰουδαίων (archōn tōn Ioudaiōn) Ruler, magistrate, judge, legal authority. (NOTE: Todays equivalent of a Supreme Court justice who is also a theologian.)

Jn 3:5 cannot be about Christian baptism because it is spoken before the cross, before Pentecost, before the Church & before Christian baptism even existed.

Your sacramental interpretation isn't coming from Scripture; it's being read into Scripture

Jesus immediately defines His own terms: That which is ""born of the flesh is flesh"" & that which is ""born of the Spirit is spirit"" (Jn 3:6).

The contrast is natural birth vs. Spirit birth, not water baptism vs. Spirit baptism.

Nicodemus wasn't confused about Jewish water purification rituals. He was confused about re‑entering the womb (Jn 3:4).

Jesus clarifies by distinguishing physical birth Vs6 (a fetus is surrounded by water/amniotic fluid) from spiritual birth (regeneration by the Holy Spirit). Jesus is not introducing water baptism. Jesus is distinguishing TWO BIRTHS!

The apostles preached remission through faith in His name (Acts 10:43 & Rom 10:13), justification by His blood (Rom 3:25) & sealing by the Holy Spirit at the moment of belief (Eph 1:13).

Water is the obedience that flows from faith (Rom 1:5 & 16:26), not the mechanism of salvation.

Acts 10 destroys what you've presented. Gentiles received the Holy Spirit, were purified by faith (Acts 15:9) & Holy Spirit‑baptized (Acts 11:15–16) before they ever touched water.

Peter commands baptism precisely because God had already accepted them. That is the scriptural sequence.

Every believer is commanded to partake in water baptism:

Water baptism isn't the 1st breath of one's new spiritual life/birth.

Water baptism is an outward , public identification with Jesus death & resurrection. A public statement of belonging to the Lord, a proclamation of self denial, when immersed (buried) & rise up (resurrection). Water baptism isn't about getting saved, it's a response to salvation.

You're publicly partaking in a commanded act of obedience/a gateway to discipleship. This undertaking is an outward physical expression, of the inner spiritual transformation you received, when Christ baptized you with His eternal life giving Holy Spirit. (1 Cor 12, Col 2:11, Eph 1:13-14, 4:30, 2 Cor 1:22, 5:5, 2 Tim 1:14)

Jesus also commanded partaking in communion. Although both these actions are commanded. Neither action is the doorway leading to eternal salvation.

Communion Looks back to the Sin atoning work & forward to His transformational resurrection life giving return.

These events follow the salvation sealing Holy Spirit baptism, performed by Christ alone. See Matt 3:11, Lk 3:16, Mk 1:8, Jn 1:33, Acts 1:4-5, 2:38, 10:45, 11:16)

concretecamper said:

See post #4

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See post #5