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I don’t want to start an argument... especially when we’re both already dealing with the super-Catholic propagandists. But this is something that is very important to me, so I’ll just try to give you some verses to think about and then leave it here, okay?

And if you post in reply, I’ll read what you say and think about it, but I’m not going to respond with very much, at least not in this particular thread, unless I think that you misunderstand what I said. (If you do understand but don’t agree, I’ll just leave it at that for now.)

So anyways:

“After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.” (1 Peter 3: 19-22)

“Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.” (Col 2: 12)

“Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16: 16)

“For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” (1 Cor 12:13)

“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6: 1-4)

That’s not to say that faith is not sufficient. But rather that the Lord loves us enough that he has given us more and more kindness than we deserve so that our proverbial cups overflow. Baptism is a gift that the Lord gives to us, pouring out the forgiveness that Christ won for us onto us and laying his claim upon us. It’s the gift that God has given to us that allows us to share in the death and resurrection of Christ—so, yes, there is the blood of Jesus present there.

Anyways, I’ll leave it at that for now.