For the Remission of Sins:
The Blood, Not the Water

Expository Study • Acts 2:38 and the Remission of Sins (KJV)

Remission of sins is salvation, the blood of Jesus Christ is its only ground, and Peter’s own words agree

Many believers have been told that they are not forgiven until they are baptized in water. Some have been told that their sins stay on them until the moment they come up out of the water. Acts 2:38 is almost always the verse used to say so. If you have heard that teaching and wondered whether it is true, I have written this for you. I have also written it, with respect, for those who teach it.

Many preach that Acts 2:38 makes water baptism the cause of the remission of sins. I want to test that claim against the whole Word of God (Acts 17:11). Scripture never separates remission from salvation, so a teaching that ties remission to water also ties salvation to water. That teaching leaves the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ unable to secure a sinner’s pardon on their own. The consequence is direct, serious, and unavoidable, and I will show it from the Word of God.

What Remission Means

I begin with the meaning of the word itself. In the original Greek of the New Testament, the word translated remission means release. The Lord Jesus Christ used this same word twice when He read from Isaiah in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4:16-21; Isaiah 61:1-2; 58:6). There the King James Bible translates it “deliverance” and “liberty.”

Descriptive

Remission is the cancelling of the guilt of sin. God forgave our trespasses and nailed the record against us to the cross of Jesus Christ.

Prescriptive

Remission is also freedom from the bondage of sin. The sinner is a servant of sin until the Son of God sets him free (John 8:34; Romans 6:16-18).

Descriptive

Remission Is Salvation

Two more words need plain definitions before I go on. By salvation I mean God’s rescue of a sinner from sin and its penalty through Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:21; Romans 5:9). By justification I mean God’s act of declaring a sinner righteous because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, not the sinner’s own (Romans 3:24-26; Philippians 3:9).

In the New Testament, remission of sins and salvation cannot be pulled apart. Zacharias said that God gives the knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins.

Descriptive

Paul preached the same truth in the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia (Acts 13:14). He joined the forgiveness of sins to the justification of everyone who believes in Jesus Christ. In the original Greek, the word translated “forgiveness” in that passage is the same word translated remission.

Descriptive

No one is saved without remission, and no one has remission without being saved (Acts 26:18; Ephesians 1:7). Both are received by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone.

Prescriptive

This is why the question matters so much. Whatever a man makes the cause of remission, he has made the cause of salvation.

Peter’s Answer at Pentecost

With that meaning settled, I turn to the verse itself. Peter spoke at Pentecost to Jews gathered in Jerusalem (Acts 2:5, 14). He had just charged them with crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 2:36). They were pricked in their heart and asked Peter and the other apostles what they should do (Acts 2:37). The King James Bible gives Peter’s answer from the Received Text, the Greek text its translators used.

Prescriptive

Before I look at the grammar, I want to be clear about what repent means. To repent is to change the mind toward God and toward sin, and to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21; 1 Thessalonians 1:9). For Peter’s hearers, it meant changing their minds about the Jesus they had crucified, whom God had made both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36). Repentance is not a work that earns pardon, because God Himself grants it (Acts 11:18).

Here is the point I want every reader to see. English uses one word, “you,” for one person or for a whole crowd. Greek shows the difference in the verb itself, much like the difference between “all of you” and “each one of you.” Peter gave two commands in this verse, and he did not speak them the same way. He spoke “Repent” to the whole crowd together, as if to say, “All of you, repent.” He worded “be baptized” as a command for each person one at a time, and he joined it to the words “every one of you.”

Now look closely at the promise. Peter spoke “ye shall receive” to the whole crowd together, just as he spoke “Repent.” The promise matches the command to repent, and it does not match the command to be baptized. Peter kept speaking to the whole crowd together in the next verse.

Descriptive

The word “you” in that verse is spoken to the whole crowd together as well. So one line runs straight from the command to repent, through the gift of the Holy Ghost, to the promise. Baptism stands inside the verse as a command to each believer one by one. It is a real command from the Lord Jesus Christ, and every believer should obey it (Matthew 28:19). The way Peter worded the verse, however, ties the gift and the promise to repentance. It does not tie them to the water.

I am careful not to build on more than the text gives. Some argue over the small word “for” in this verse, and I do not rest this teaching on it. The way Peter worded his two commands is strong evidence. Even so, the rest of Scripture is what settles the matter. Peter preached again at Solomon’s porch (Acts 3:11-12), and again he told the whole crowd together to repent. This time he named the blotting out of sins and did not mention baptism at all.

Descriptive

Peter’s Own Words Before and After Acts 2:38

The man who spoke Acts 2:38 is the best witness to what he meant. Anyone who says Acts 2:38 makes water baptism necessary for remission must reconcile that claim with the rest of what Peter preached and wrote. Three of his own statements stand directly in the way.

The first came in the same sermon, before Peter ever mentioned baptism. The Holy Ghost had just been poured out on the disciples (Acts 2:1-4). The crowd was amazed and asked what it meant (Acts 2:12). Peter stood up and explained it from the prophet Joel (Acts 2:14-16). He then announced God’s promise of salvation in the plainest words he could use.

Prescriptive

Peter quoted Joel 2:32 and promised salvation to whosoever calls on the name of the Lord. He named no water. Peter made that promise seventeen verses before he spoke of baptism. If water were the point of remission, Peter would have contradicted himself within a single sermon. Paul quoted the same promise and tied that calling to believing in the heart (Romans 10:9-13). Paul also showed that a man calls on the One in whom he has already believed (Romans 10:14). Some point to Acts 22:16 to make calling on the Lord mean baptism. Paul’s own teaching in Romans 10 settles what calling means, and it is the cry of a believing heart to Jesus Christ.

The second statement came after Pentecost. Peter healed a lame man in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth while John stood with him (Acts 3:1-8). The priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees arrested them, and the next day the rulers asked by what power or by what name they had done this (Acts 4:1-7). Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, preached Jesus Christ crucified and raised from the dead (Acts 4:8-10). Then he declared the only way of salvation.

Prescriptive

Peter said there is salvation in no other and that men must be saved by the name of Jesus Christ. He placed the word “must” on the name of Jesus Christ, and he said nothing of water. The same chapter records that many who heard the word believed, and the men numbered about five thousand (Acts 4:4). Luke mentions no baptism there. I do not build on that silence alone, but it agrees with everything Peter said that day.

The third statement came years later, in Peter’s own letter to believers scattered abroad (1 Peter 1:1). He told them exactly what price redeemed them.

Prescriptive

Peter wrote that his readers were not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold. The precious blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb without blemish, paid that price. In the same chapter Peter said believers are born again by the word of God (1 Peter 1:23). In the same letter Peter wrote that baptism “doth also now save us,” but he called it a figure. He denied that it works by putting away the filth of the flesh, and he tied it to the answer of a good conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 3:21).

Peter’s last recorded words on salvation in Acts point the same way. He told the council at Jerusalem that Jews and Gentiles alike are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 15:11). Peter preached one way of salvation from Pentecost to his letters. Each of these texts places salvation in the name, the blood, or the grace of Jesus Christ. Those are the very things the water-for-remission reading sets aside. That reading puts Peter in conflict with his own preaching, and it sets Acts 2:38 against Acts 2:21, Acts 4:12, and 1 Peter 1:18-19. The scripture cannot be broken (John 10:35), so the water-for-remission reading must give way.

The Same Phrase Is Used of the Blood

The phrase in Acts 2:38 is also used of the blood of Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ tied the remission of sins to the shedding of His own blood. Hebrews confirms that remission comes by blood.

Descriptive

Prescriptive

Hebrews also shows that once Jesus Christ offered Himself, God requires no other offering for sin. Jesus Christ offered one sacrifice for sins for ever and sat down at the right hand of God (Hebrews 10:12). Where remission is, there is no more offering for sin (Hebrews 10:18).

The Same Phrase Is Used of John’s Baptism

The same phrase is used of the baptism of John, which took place before the cross (Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3).

Descriptive

If this phrase means that water causes remission, then the water of the Jordan caused remission before Jesus Christ shed His blood. For every person John baptized, the water would be the cause of pardon, and the blood would not. Hebrews 9:22 forbids that reading, because without shedding of blood is no remission. Scripture teaches that sins forgiven before the cross were forgiven on the ground of the death of Jesus Christ (Romans 3:25; Hebrews 9:15). The phrase points to the remission God grants to the repentant, and it never makes water baptism the cause.

The Order at Pentecost and at Caesarea

Luke records the order of events at Pentecost with care. The people received the word first, and baptism followed.

Descriptive

God settled the order again at the house of Cornelius (Acts 10:24). Peter preached that remission comes through believing in the name of Jesus Christ.

Descriptive

While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Ghost fell on all who heard the word (Acts 10:44). Peter then asked for water for people who already had the gift he promised in Acts 2:38.

Descriptive

Peter later told the council at Jerusalem what God did in that house.

Descriptive

A man who has the Spirit of Christ belongs to Christ (Romans 8:9). Those who believe in Jesus Christ are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:13). There is no condemnation for anyone who is in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). Cornelius received remission through faith in Jesus Christ, and his baptism followed (Acts 10:48).

The Unavoidable Consequence: The Work of Jesus Christ Made Void

Now I come to the heart of the matter. Scripture never separates remission from salvation (Luke 1:77; Acts 26:18). A teaching that makes water baptism the cause of remission therefore makes water baptism the cause of salvation. I want every reader to see what that does to the work of Jesus Christ. Many who hold this view love the cross and would never say what follows. The consequence still flows from the teaching itself, and no one can escape it.

Before I go further, I want to state the other view as its teachers state it. Many who teach baptism for the remission of sins do not say that water has power in itself. They say the blood of Jesus Christ is the only price of pardon, and that baptism is the moment God applies that blood to the believer. They point to Ananias telling Paul to “arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins” (Acts 22:16). They point to believers being “baptized into his death” (Romans 6:3), and to the words “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16). They also point to Peter’s words that baptism “doth also now save us” (1 Peter 3:21). I take that position seriously, and I believe many of its teachers sincerely honor the blood of Jesus Christ. Each of those passages deserves its own study, and the Water Baptism series takes them up one at a time.

The problem remains, and it is the heart of this article. In that view, the blood is the price of pardon, and the water is the moment that decides who receives it. A believer who trusts Jesus Christ but has not yet been baptized is still counted unforgiven, so the pardon waits on the water. Scripture never makes the blood wait on anything but faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:25; Acts 10:43). Cornelius and his household received the Holy Ghost before any water touched them (Acts 10:44-47), so God did not wait for the water. Whatever the water is said to do, if pardon waits on it, the water has become the deciding cause. Five consequences follow.

First, it voids the sinless life of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ did no sin, and God made Him to be sin for us (1 Peter 2:22; 2 Corinthians 5:21). By the obedience of Jesus Christ many are made righteous (Romans 5:19). God counts that righteousness to the one who believes in Jesus Christ, apart from works (Romans 4:5-6; Philippians 3:9). When pardon waits on an act the sinner performs, the sinner’s own obedience becomes the deciding righteousness. Paul said plainly what that does to Jesus Christ.

Prescriptive

Second, it voids the death of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ said, “It is finished,” and then He gave up the ghost (John 19:30). By one offering Jesus Christ has perfected for ever them that are sanctified (Hebrews 10:14). If remission still waits on the water, then the cross only made pardon possible. In that teaching the blood supplies an offer, and the water decides who is actually pardoned. Scripture says that the blood itself justifies.

Prescriptive

Third, it voids the burial of Jesus Christ. Paul declared the gospel by which we are saved (1 Corinthians 15:1-2), and he named the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He did not name water.

Prescriptive

Baptism pictures that burial (Romans 6:4). Paul called it being planted together in the likeness of the death of Jesus Christ (Romans 6:5). Peter called baptism a figure (1 Peter 3:21). A likeness portrays the real thing and never replaces it. When the likeness is made the cause of pardon, the picture takes the place of the very work it was given to portray.

Fourth, it voids the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification (Romans 4:25). Paul tied the sinner’s release from sin to the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

Prescriptive

Paul placed the dividing line between guilt and pardon at the empty tomb of Jesus Christ. The water-for-pardon reading of Acts 2:38 moves that line to the baptistery.

Fifth, it voids grace itself. Paul wrote that what rests on the grace of God cannot also rest on works.

Prescriptive

Paul warned the Galatians that if they made circumcision a condition of justification, Jesus Christ would profit them nothing (Galatians 5:2-4).

Prescriptive

Circumcision was a sign God Himself gave (Genesis 17:10-11), just as baptism is an ordinance the Lord Jesus Christ commanded. Abraham was counted righteous before he was circumcised, and circumcision sealed the righteousness he already had by believing God (Romans 4:9-11). When a God-given sign is made a condition of justification, Jesus Christ becomes of no effect to the one who trusts that sign.

Paul also kept baptism separate from the gospel. He thanked God that he baptized only a few people at Corinth, so that no one could say he baptized in his own name (1 Corinthians 1:14-16). Paul then set baptism apart from his commission to preach the gospel, which he could not have done if baptism brought remission of sins.

Prescriptive

Paul warned that the cross can be made of none effect. Making water the cause of remission does exactly that. The life of Jesus Christ, His death, His burial, and His resurrection are the whole ground of pardon (Romans 4:25; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4). A teaching that places pardon in the water leaves that finished work waiting on a sinner’s act before it can save anyone. That is the serious, direct, and unavoidable consequence of making Acts 2:38 teach water for the remission of sins.

One Lamb and One Sacrifice

All of Scripture points to one Lamb and one sacrifice (Hebrews 10:10). John the Baptist pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ as the One who takes away sin (John 1:29). John the apostle wrote that Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:1-2).

Descriptive

Prescriptive

Prescriptive

The Lord Jesus Christ commanded His followers to preach repentance and remission of sins in His name, beginning at Jerusalem (Luke 24:47). Acts 2 is that beginning, and it agrees with the rest of the record. Jesus Christ is the Lamb who takes away sin (John 1:29). The precious blood of Jesus Christ is the price of our release (1 Peter 1:18-19). Faith in Jesus Christ is the hand that receives that release (Romans 3:25; Romans 5:1). A believer who has already been made free from sin confesses that freedom publicly in water baptism (Romans 6:4, 17-18).

A Call to Every Reader

I call every reader to rest the entire weight of the soul on Jesus Christ, crucified and risen (Acts 2:21; Acts 4:12; 1 Corinthians 2:2; Romans 10:9). Be baptized, because the Lord Jesus Christ commanded it (Matthew 28:19). Be baptized as a believer who already has remission through the blood of Jesus Christ (Acts 10:43, 47). To those who teach that water remits sin, I say this in love (Ephesians 4:15). That teaching places the cause of pardon in the water and takes it from the blood of Jesus Christ. It leaves the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ unable to save without a work that man adds.

At Calvary, Jesus Christ shed His own blood for the remission of sins (Matthew 26:28; Ephesians 1:7). People receive that remission by placing their faith solely in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 10:43). Water baptism honors that work and never adds to it. I preach the blood of Jesus Christ as the only ground of pardon, and I urge every believer to obey the Lord Jesus Christ in baptism.

Descriptive (verses 18, 19, and 21) and Prescriptive (verse 20)

This study belongs with the full Water Baptism series. For shorter studies on the same question, read Acts 2:38 in Peter’s Full Witness, Peter: Remission Through Believing, Christ’s Blood, Not Baptismal Water, Washes Away Sin, and The White Robes in Heaven: Made White in the Blood of the Lamb. If you have questions about anything you have read here, we would be glad to hear from you.