Norman Easter
At what point does one receive the remission of sin? When is he saved? When is he added to the Lord’s church by the Lord? At what point can one say, “I am now a Christian.”
Answering this basic question of the point of pardon will do much in answering questions about essential steps in becoming a Christian. Determining the point of pardon will answer who is a Christian and who is not. I will determine questions of fellowship, the right to prayer, who is an accepted “worshiper” of God, and who has the hope of eternal life.
Sometimes one word is used in the Bible to represent a whole chain of events. However, it should be clearly understood that one word is not the only part of the chain. The first century church thought that when one learned about Christ, he was saved without further action on his or God’s part in his salvation. The Jews in Jerusalem rejoiced that God “granted to the Gentiles, repentance unto life” (Acts 11:18). This did not mean that the Gentiles (Cornelius’ household) just changed their minds and quit sinning without faith and obedience to Christ. Paul preached that God “commands all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30). Repentance is used here as a synechodoche (one part standing for the whole) in the matter of conversion. The same is repeated by Peter who said that the Lord was “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). God’s desire for all to repent would include all that God required of men to turn to Him.
We could make a long list of things that bring about man’s salvation. For instance, God saves us, Christ saves us, the Holy Spirit saves us, the Word saves us, etc. We even hear the Apostles telling people to “save yourselves” in Acts 2:40. We may say that we are saved by grace, mercy, love, and even by fear (Jude 23). It can be said that we are saved by hearing the Word of God, by the cross, by the blood of Christ, by the body of His flesh, by faith, repentance, confession, and baptism. The truth is that we are not saved by any one thing to the exclusion of another in the chain of our conversion.
However, there is a consummating point at which we receive the remission of past sins. God saves us, but He does not save us without Christ. We are saved by the love of God, yet we are not saved without faith and repentance on our part. “God so loved the world” (John 3:16), but much of the world does not so love God. Therefore, much of the world will be lost. Christ died for the sins of all men, but all men will not believe and obey Him. Although Christ died for all, all were not saved at the time or point of His death. Men may hear and believe the “saving Word” (Jas. 1:21) but fail to heed it and be lost. Man does not receive the remission of sins at the point or time that he makes up his mind to quit sinning and turn to God. The guilt of his past sins remain against him. One may well confess his faith in Christ as the Son of God, but his past sins are not yet forgiven. It is at the point when one is immersed into Christ that he is immersed into Christ’s death to contact His blood.
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:3-4).
Baptism is the point of the new birth. The penitent believer is still the old man of sin until he is buried by baptism into the death of Christ. At that point in baptism the sinner dies to sin and then is raised alive to Christ as the new Christian man.
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin (Rom. 6:5-7)
This is why Peter admonished the believers on the day of Pentecost: “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” (Acts 2:38). This is also why Ananias asked Saul (Paul), “And now why tarriest thou? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22:16). It is also why Peter declared,
Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 3:20-21).
It is therefore noted that baptism (immersion in water) is the consummating act in the chain of man’s salvation from his past sins. Baptism is the point of pardon for the penitent believer. The baptism of the penitent believer is the point of forgiveness for the sinner. Baptism is the point of salvation for the benitent believer. Baptism is the point when one ceases being the foreigner to Christ’s kingdom and becomes the new citizen in the kingdom or church of Christ. At the baptism of a penitent believer one becomes a Christian. One who has not been immersed into Christ as a penitent believer is therefore not a Christian.
One final point needs to be made here. Baptism alone does not save. Baptism is the final part of the chain in God’s plan of salvation. Baptism is not an act of merit. It is an act of submission to God’s love and grace that provides us with the blood of Christ and His plan for our salvation. Jesus said, “He that Believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:16).
