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"Acts, the Mikveh & the Blood: How the Bible Defines Remission"
Understanding baptism through the lens of Jewish purification, apostolic preaching & the New Covenant High Priest.
Under the Mosaic Law, Israel practiced many ceremonial water‑purification immersions (Ex 30:19–21, 40:12, Lev 6:27, 13:54, 14:8–9, 15:16; 16:4, 22:6). Every Israelite understood these washings. Someone who was impure/unclean before immersion was considered pure/clean after immersion. These were ceremonial purifications, not forgiveness rituals
A mikveh full 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
(NOTE: Sources — Jewish Virtual Library; Topical Bible; Sefaria; Rabbi Samson R. Hirsch)
John, Jesus, & Peter all spoke Aramaic & Hebrew, where repent meant Israel, return to God: Strong's Hebrew: 7725. שׁוּב (shub) -- Return, turn back, restore, repent repent not "get in water to be saved."
This is exactly how the Jews interpreted baptism.
John 3:25 says a dispute arose between John's disciples & a Jew "about purification". The debate wasn't about forgiveness or salvation, it was about purification. That's the category mikveh immersion/baptism expressed.
(NOTE: John the Baptist, his disciples, & Jesus' disciples all performed the baptism of repentance (Acts 19:4). This was a Jewish purification immersion ritual, unrelated to remission. John 3:25 confirms the crowds understood these baptisms as purification washings, preparing Israel to return to God & believe in the coming Messiah.)
John the Baptist's mission was to prepare the way of the Lord (Lev 17:11, Mal 3:1, Matt 3:3, Mark 1:2–3). His "baptism of repentance" was preparatory, not remissive. In Hebrew & Aramaic, repent (שׁוּב / shub) means return, turn back, restore — Israel, return to God. When the people confessed their sins, they were acknowledging that they had turned away from the Lord & through immersion they became pure/ceremonially clean = Mosaic purification washings,
Acts 19:4 confirms this: "John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on Him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus."
(NOTE: John preached to Israel > return to God & believe in the One coming after me, the Messiah. Only Christ can remit & pardon sins; John's baptism never could/did.)
Acts and 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 water is the ceremonial purification act. The actual removal of sin happens by calling on the Lord. 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, then they purified themselves through baptism & then they called on the Messiah for remission. Faith precedes baptism & remission is tied to Christ, not water.)
Water baptism does/did not remit or pardon sin. "Nothing external removes sin."
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).
The Foreshadow and the Fulfillment
In Leviticus 16:21, Aaron laid both hands on the substitute, confessed the sins of the nation & transferred those sins onto the innocent victim. That was the foreshadow.
Jesus is the fulfillment.
Hebrews identifies Jesus as our great High Priest (Heb 4:14), called by God after the order of Melchizedek (Heb 5:10). Under the Old Covenant, the pattern was sin-imputation by the high priest.
Jesus is the mediator of the New Testament (Heb 9:15 & 12:24), our great High Priest (Heb 4:14) & the One who offered Himself as the sacrifice (Matt 26:53). The risen Christ is the New Covenant High Priest who 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 places His forever (Jn 14:16), salvation‑sealing (Eph 1:13–14; 4:30; 2 Cor 1:22; 5:5; 2 Tim 1:14) indwelling Holy Spirit in you.
Anyone can dunk 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 & Isa 61:10), the righteousness pictured as the white robe in Rev 19:7–8 that grants us entrance to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
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 through FAITH 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
Peter opened the door to Gentiles in Acts 10 (AD 37–40), but the church did not immediately begin a Gentile mission. Acts 11:19 shows that years after Cornelius, believers were still "preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only." The 1st intentional, Spirit‑commissioned Gentile mission begins in Acts 13 (AD 47–48), when Paul declares, "We turn to the Gentiles."
Acts records a deliberate 7–10 year gap between Gentile inclusion & Gentile evangelism, proving the early church was still operating inside Jewish categories long after Pentecost. This matters: salvation history unfolds in stages & neither John's baptism nor early Acts water rituals were ever the means of remission.
Water never remitted sins in the Law, in John's ministry, in Jesus' ministry, or in Acts. Water purified the ceremonially unclean > only blood removes sin (Lev 17:11). John's baptism was preparatory, not remissive. Peter's call in Acts 2:38 follows the same Jewish categories: repent (return to God), be baptized (purify yourselves) & call on Christ for remission (Acts 22:16 & Acts 10:43).
Even after Cornelius, the Jerusalem church continued preaching "to Jews only" (Acts 11:19) & the 1st Gentile mission did not begin until Paul in Acts 13 The timeline is unmistakable: God has always saved by FAITH in His Messiah, with the content of that FAITH expanding as He revealed more. Remission is found in Christ's blood alone!
Finally:
The only thing that removes sin from the soul is FAITH placed in the finished, sacrificial, sin‑atoning work of our great God & Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Understanding baptism through the lens of Jewish purification, apostolic preaching & the New Covenant High Priest.
Under the Mosaic Law, Israel practiced many ceremonial water‑purification immersions (Ex 30:19–21, 40:12, Lev 6:27, 13:54, 14:8–9, 15:16; 16:4, 22:6). Every Israelite understood these washings. Someone who was impure/unclean before immersion was considered pure/clean after immersion. These were ceremonial purifications, not forgiveness rituals
A mikveh full 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
(NOTE: Sources — Jewish Virtual Library; Topical Bible; Sefaria; Rabbi Samson R. Hirsch)
John, Jesus, & Peter all spoke Aramaic & Hebrew, where repent meant Israel, return to God: Strong's Hebrew: 7725. שׁוּב (shub) -- Return, turn back, restore, repent repent not "get in water to be saved."
This is exactly how the Jews interpreted baptism.
John 3:25 says a dispute arose between John's disciples & a Jew "about purification". The debate wasn't about forgiveness or salvation, it was about purification. That's the category mikveh immersion/baptism expressed.
(NOTE: John the Baptist, his disciples, & Jesus' disciples all performed the baptism of repentance (Acts 19:4). This was a Jewish purification immersion ritual, unrelated to remission. John 3:25 confirms the crowds understood these baptisms as purification washings, preparing Israel to return to God & believe in the coming Messiah.)
John the Baptist's mission was to prepare the way of the Lord (Lev 17:11, Mal 3:1, Matt 3:3, Mark 1:2–3). His "baptism of repentance" was preparatory, not remissive. In Hebrew & Aramaic, repent (שׁוּב / shub) means return, turn back, restore — Israel, return to God. When the people confessed their sins, they were acknowledging that they had turned away from the Lord & through immersion they became pure/ceremonially clean = Mosaic purification washings,
Acts 19:4 confirms this: "John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on Him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus."
(NOTE: John preached to Israel > return to God & believe in the One coming after me, the Messiah. Only Christ can remit & pardon sins; John's baptism never could/did.)
Acts and 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 water is the ceremonial purification act. The actual removal of sin happens by calling on the Lord. 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, then they purified themselves through baptism & then they called on the Messiah for remission. Faith precedes baptism & remission is tied to Christ, not water.)
Water baptism does/did not remit or pardon sin. "Nothing external removes sin."
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).
The Foreshadow and the Fulfillment
In Leviticus 16:21, Aaron laid both hands on the substitute, confessed the sins of the nation & transferred those sins onto the innocent victim. That was the foreshadow.
Jesus is the fulfillment.
Hebrews identifies Jesus as our great High Priest (Heb 4:14), called by God after the order of Melchizedek (Heb 5:10). Under the Old Covenant, the pattern was sin-imputation by the high priest.
Jesus is the mediator of the New Testament (Heb 9:15 & 12:24), our great High Priest (Heb 4:14) & the One who offered Himself as the sacrifice (Matt 26:53). The risen Christ is the New Covenant High Priest who 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 places His forever (Jn 14:16), salvation‑sealing (Eph 1:13–14; 4:30; 2 Cor 1:22; 5:5; 2 Tim 1:14) indwelling Holy Spirit in you.
Anyone can dunk 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 & Isa 61:10), the righteousness pictured as the white robe in Rev 19:7–8 that grants us entrance to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
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 through FAITH 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
Peter opened the door to Gentiles in Acts 10 (AD 37–40), but the church did not immediately begin a Gentile mission. Acts 11:19 shows that years after Cornelius, believers were still "preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only." The 1st intentional, Spirit‑commissioned Gentile mission begins in Acts 13 (AD 47–48), when Paul declares, "We turn to the Gentiles."
Acts records a deliberate 7–10 year gap between Gentile inclusion & Gentile evangelism, proving the early church was still operating inside Jewish categories long after Pentecost. This matters: salvation history unfolds in stages & neither John's baptism nor early Acts water rituals were ever the means of remission.
Water never remitted sins in the Law, in John's ministry, in Jesus' ministry, or in Acts. Water purified the ceremonially unclean > only blood removes sin (Lev 17:11). John's baptism was preparatory, not remissive. Peter's call in Acts 2:38 follows the same Jewish categories: repent (return to God), be baptized (purify yourselves) & call on Christ for remission (Acts 22:16 & Acts 10:43).
Even after Cornelius, the Jerusalem church continued preaching "to Jews only" (Acts 11:19) & the 1st Gentile mission did not begin until Paul in Acts 13 The timeline is unmistakable: God has always saved by FAITH in His Messiah, with the content of that FAITH expanding as He revealed more. Remission is found in Christ's blood alone!
Finally:
The only thing that removes sin from the soul is FAITH placed in the finished, sacrificial, sin‑atoning work of our great God & Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
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