Please explain further what you mean by "baptism for the remission of sins," which I know was preached by John the Baptist, the voice who cried in the wilderness and encouraged believers to be water baptized.
Are you stating that the baptism for the remission of sins is water baptism? If so, I differ with you. The remission of sins is the working of Christ's blood, for without the shedding of blood there is no remission sins.
This blood baptism is listed with the other two baptisms given to us in one of John's epistles: blood, water, and spirit, and these three agree as one.
Blood baptism is for the quickening of the spirit. Water baptism is for the immersion of the body in water as a sign to the world that the believer has chosen to live as a Christian. And, Spirit baptism is given for the empowering of the soul or mind.
Just as the godhead is threefold, we too have three parts. We are spirit, soul and body. And each of these parts is saved through three distinctly separate workings: justification by grace, sanctification by works and obedience, and glorification in the last day when our bodies put on incorruption.
Every time the word baptism is seen in Scripture, it is not always related to water, although many believers think it is. If that was the case, then the man to whom Jesus said, "This day will you be with me in Paradise," as he was hanging on the cross adjacent to him, would have had to be taken from the cross and been water baptised in order to be saved. Water does not justify. Only blood has that capability.
Blessings,
Dave
This is a good example of what I was talking about.
I must begin by saying that this issue involves a lot of doctrine behind the scenes and as such its easy for things to get misconstrued when "put simply".
For example, you are absolutely right that there is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood, and our sins are forgiven because of Jesus' shed blood.
However, the question at issue when speaking of baptism is, how do we appropriate that forgiveness.. or perhaps more accurately, how is it applied to us?
The first answer most would give is "by faith". That is correct as far as it goes, but the problem is that many people effectively define faith as only mental agreement to a set of facts. This is not a biblical definition of faith.
Your position here argues that when the bible speaks of baptism it doesn't always mean water baptism, it sometimes means baptism in a more figurative sense. That is possible, however in order to argue this validly you must be able to show from the text itself that it does not mean literal (water) baptism.
For example, the bible speaks of baptism in the Holy Spirit. However, when it does so it makes it clear. It is a bad method of interpetation to say that because in Verse A the bible speaks of Spirit baptism, verse B can therefor be interpeted to mean baptism other than water baptism, when verse A makes its intent clear that it is not addressing water baptism, while verse B does not.
Yet that is exactly what many people do.
The irony with this (speaking from my own family background) is that so many of the people who do this are rigid biblical literalists in other areas, but insist on taking most of the bible references to baptism figuratively.
Going back to the question of how forgiveness by the blood of Christ is applied to us.
There is an idea presented by the bible and believed by the historic Church that has been somewhat lost to modern protestants. In my opinion it was lost because of the influx of modernist philosophy into the Church.
The idea is basically that all of our salvation, all of our relationship with God, our reconcilliation, etc rests in our being united to Jesus Christ. That we become joined to him. We are adopted sons of God because we are joined to THE Son of God. We gain life because we are joined to the indestructible life of Christ, etc.
This idea is often seen by the modern mind as symbolic only, or too mystical. Yet it is biblical.
Further, the bible makes it clear that the primary method by which we are joined to Christ is baptism. I am not saying that God can not work without baptism, but it is the normal way in which He has chosen to join people to Jesus. We are saved by the blood of Christ, we are forgiven because of the blood of Christ, but we are put under the blood, and into the family through water baptism.
Now, you argue that when the bible says baptism, it doesn't mean water baptism (in at least certain instances). I would counter that there is no reason in the text itself to believe this. Basically I think you are taking a pre-existing belief and interpeting the text in light of that belief, rather than shaping your belief to what the text says.
You mentioned John's baptism and equated it with forgiveness. However, the bible makes a stark difference between John's baptism, and the baptism practiced by Jesus through his disciples.
First, the gospel of John makes it clear that Jesus did have those who became his followers baptized. It states that Jesus had his disciples baptize those who wanted to become his followers. This was not John's baptism, it was clearly water baptism, and it is equated with making people disciples of Jesus.
John's baptism was a continuation of an already existing Jewish practice of baptism for repentence. John's baptism didn't make people followers of Jesus, but the baptism that Jesus had his disciples doing did.
This is why when Paul finds a group of people who had received John's baptism but had not yet heard of Jesus or the Holy Spirit, Paul's first question was "into what where you baptized?" When they told him "into John's baptism" he immediately rebaptized them into Jesus.
Paul clearly recognizes and assumes that everyone else will as well, that being baptized with water made them members of Jesus Christ. The question is what were you baptized INTO. Being baptized with water brought them into Jesus.
John's baptism was a baptism of repentence. The baptism that Jesus taught and that his disciples performed from the very beginning of his ministry, was a baptism of joining, a baptism of unity with Jesus. It was clearly water baptism as well.
It is the tendency of the modern mind to think of this as a work, or even as some kind of magic. Neither is the case. Baptism doesn't force God's hand, however, it is how He has chosen to work.
Further, this highlights an important point. Modern Christianity has become infiltrated by greek gnostic thought which seperates the physical from the spiritual. Thus many of us have a hard time believing that a physical act can have true spiritual significance or power, particularly a ritual act. Yet this idea is constant through out the bible. The physical and the spiritual are not seperated. They impact each other. They are connected particularly in us because we are both physical and spiritual beings. We were specifically created to be such. We do not need to escape the physical to become spiritual. We need to baptize them both.
