Our salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Baptism is not necessary in order to receive the forgiveness of sins. We only need to look to the thief on the cross as an example. If baptism is required for salvation, the thief on the cross is in Hell. Of course, Jesus himself proclaimed the thief would be with him in paradise.

Years ago my former pastor was preaching through Acts. As he made his way through the text he arrived at Acts 2:38. It’s always interesting to see how preachers navigate this passage because it can be confusing and perhaps seems contradictory to other texts of Scripture.

But as my pastor carefully pointed out, it’s not.

Acts 2:38 reads, “And Peter said to them, ‘Repent 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.’”

The knee-jerk reaction is to say that one must repent of their sin and be baptized in order to receive forgiveness of sins; and if so, it would be a clear indication that baptism is required for salvation. However, the Bible is clear elsewhere that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone.

But I’m getting a little ahead of myself, so let’s explain the text. The Greek word eis translated “for” in this passage can mean several different things. It doesn’t always mean “in order to get.” This is where my pastor’s sermon comes back into play. He noted that when he would go preach in prisons it made him think about what prisoners are in for, and the way we think about that. They usually say, “I’m in prison for . . .” 

Of course, that’s not them saying what the result was. They’re saying what they did in order to be put in prison. It’s a clear distinction, and a very important one here.

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