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Acts 2:38<\/a>: \u201cRepent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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So, it looks like this: repent (condition number one), be baptized (condition number two), and forgiveness will be given to you. And I\u2019ve been arguing (because I think so many texts teach it) that, no, repentance and faith as one piece are what obtains forgiveness, not the baptism.<\/p>\n
So, what, you disagree with this text, Piper? Who do you think you are? And I think that text should be read something like this (and I remember seeing this years ago and then finding it other places). Suppose, Tony, you want to go from Phoenix to LA on the train, and it\u2019s about to leave, and I say, \u201cGrab your hat and run or you\u2019ll miss the train.\u201d Now, I just gave you two commands like Peter gave two commands: \u201cRepent and be baptized.\u201d But only one of them is a cause of getting to the train on time \u2014 namely, running. But I said, \u201cGrab your hat.\u201d Grabbing your hat is an accompanying act, not a causative one. It may be very important. There may be all kinds of reasons why you should have a hat. Why did you tell him to grab a hat? Well, I\u2019ve got my reasons. But grabbing the hat does not help you in the least to get on the train on time.<\/p>\n
Now, that\u2019s the way I think we should hear Peter when he says, \u201cRepent and be baptized every one of you, and make the train of forgiveness.\u201d You get on the train of forgiveness if you repent and are baptized. And the repentance, the change of mind that includes faith, gets you to the train. And baptism is important \u2014 important for all kinds of reasons \u2014 but it\u2019s not causative in the same way that repentance is.<\/p>\n
So, here\u2019s my bottom-line answer to the question: Faith precedes baptism (that\u2019s why I\u2019m a Baptist) and is operative in baptism. So, we are justified at the very first act of genuine saving faith in Christ, and then baptism follows (and preferably would follow soon) as an outward expression of that inward reality.\u00a0 (J. Piper)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Acts 2:38: \u201cRepent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.\u201d So, it looks like this: repent (condition number one), be baptized (condition number two), and forgiveness will be given to … Continue reading “60.y. Acts 2:38”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195388"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195391,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195388\/revisions\/195391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}