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NASB | Acts 2:38 Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, "Repent [change your old way of thinking, turn from your sinful ways, accept and follow Jesus as the Messiah] and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ because of the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. |
Subject: Can God save us the way HE WANTS TOO? |
Bible Note: You wrote: "Jesus said it, I believe it, and that settles it!" Actually, your believing what Jesus said has nothing to do with whether it is settled or not. :) And if we want to look at the whole of Galatians, we can skip back a few verses an take a look: 'Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us--for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE"-- in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations: even though it is only a man's covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it.' --Galatians 3:13-15 We see from the entire chapter that the covenant we enjoy in Christ is the same covenant that God made with Abraham, not the covenant God made with the nation of Israel (vv. 16-17). How was Abraham justified before God? By faith plus baptism? No, Abraham was never baptized at all. By works? No, as we have seen, his believing God was credited to him as righteousness before he put Isaac on the altar. As Abraham was justified by faith alone, so in Christ we are also declared righteous by God on the basis of faith alone. In the New Testament, was baptism added as a condition to the covenant made to Abraham and his Seed? What did the passage above say? "when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it." The Mosaic Law did not add conditions to the covenant promises God made to Abraham and his spiritual progeny (that's Galatians 3;17 as we already saw); the covenant that Jesus Christ made with the visible church, instituting outward signs of baptism and the Lord's Supper, also cannot be new conditions added to the already-ratified covenant between God and Abraham. The way that anyone has ever been saved is by faith in God's redemption alone. That was demonstrated outwardly in different ways in different times among God's covenant people, but the covenant we share with Abraham through faith in Christ has NO conditions attached to it. --Joe! |