Question

I got a question from Acts 2:38, Peter says, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins."  It seems like Peter is indicating that you have got to be baptized to be saved, yet the Bible teaches that we are saved by grace through faith.  So I am wondering, what did Peter mean by "being baptized" and why did he say it?

Answer

Well, first of all you want to take Acts 2:38 in the context of the whole of Scripture and it is very obvious and very clear that the whole of Scripture teaches that we are saved by grace through faith.  If you read Ephesians 2:8-9 it says just that, "For by grace are you saved, through faith--that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God--not of works, lest any man should boast."  You also have in Acts, chapter 8, the illustration of Simon, you remember, who wanted the Holy Spirit.  He was baptized, and then Peter said to him, in effect, you are an unbeliever, you are in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity--obviously baptism didn't save him.  Obviously, the lack of baptism didn't damn the thief on the cross, because Jesus said to him, "This day you will be with me in paradise," even though that was of course a pre-church situation. 

So, the whole of Scripture teaches salvation by grace through faith, but at the same time, the first and initial act of obedience in the early church, the first and initial act of obedience was the public confession of that faith.  I believe that public confession of that faith came forth in baptism so that baptism is linked with repentance.  "Repent and be baptized" is to say, "Repent of your sin and make public confession."  It may be very much like Romans 10:9-10, "If you believe in heart God raised Him from the dead, and confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' you will be saved." 

So, I believe that baptism was God ordained as a first step of public confession of a repentant, believing heart.  It was so inseparably linked to salvation as to be spoken of, if you will, in the same breath.  I believe, for example, in Ephesians 4, when it says, "One Lord, one faith, one baptism," it's talking about water baptism, because that water baptism was such an immediate, visible expression of a heart of faith that they were tied together.  So, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sin," simply takes the confession and the faith and puts it together--one is the heart and the other is the outward acknowledging and I think it puts them together.

Some would take the word "for," the preposition "for" and translate it "because."  I have gone through that myself and that is a possibility, in other words it would read, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, because of the remission of sins"--adding that "baptism" is there because you sins have been remitted, but I don't really think that you need to force it to say that.  It is simply that baptism was so inextricably linked to the inward attitude of the heart as the way that the confession was made that they are tied together, and you see it in verse 41, "They that gladly received his word were . . ."  What? "baptized." 

Now, you don't want to come up with a "Baptismal Salvation" because that would strike a blow at the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith which is pervasive in Scripture.  So you want to see baptism for what it is--the outward confession of the inward belief.