**Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you...”**
So, the Lord wasn’t commanding water baptism in Matt. 28:19; Mark 16:16; and John 3:5?
So, Peter wasn’t commanding water baptism in Acts 2:38; 10:47,48? (”can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord...”. And..I believe that in harmony with those, He was INDEED referring to water baptism in his ‘like figure’ teaching in 1Peter 3:21
So, Paul, who rebuked the Corinthians for bragging about WHO baptized them, instead of whose name was actually called upon during baptism, shouldn’t have personally baptized the few that he did in Corinth? (Crispus, Gaius, and the household of Stephanas)
Now, we know that Paul preached to a lot of people in Corinth. But, he personally baptized a few himself, and was thankful he hadn’t done more since some of the Corinthians were getting preacher religion, because of who baptized them. Others with him, such as Silas and Timothy, probably performed many of the baptisms. Paul told the Corinthians that he was not sent to solely baptise, but to preach the gospel, and we know his wasn’t a John the baptist ministry.
**Peter says it saves us, but from what?
“Be saved from this perverse generation!”**
So, you are saying that the Holy Ghost is the new life, but doesn’t save us from ‘this perverse generation’; that water baptism does that?
**I’m sorry, but you are twisting scripture if you claim water baptism gives us life. Water baptism does not regenerate us, but it is a part of the sanctification - separation - process, as Peter clearly taught.**
Being born again gives new life. Water baptism is the death and burial, the Holy Ghost is life:
“Therefore we are buried with him in baptism INTO death”....
The Spirit is life, not death.....”that like as Christ was raised up from the dead BY the GLORY of the Father..”. Rm 6:4
“Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.” Col. 2:12
Burial is death. the ‘operation of God’ is the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit.
“For if we have been planted together” (you and Christ. that’s why you use his name in water baptism) “IN the LIKENESS of his DEATH, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection”. Rm.6:5
If you could literally be buried be buried in the tomb, wrapped in the same linen with Christ, then you would literally have his blood on you.
**The blood cleanses us from sin. The water cleans us from the world, and dedicates our life to God.**
True, and that takes place in one action...being buried with Him.
I never said we are not commanded to have a water baptism, nor have I claimed it was unimportant. However, it is the Spirit that gives life, not water.
Water baptism saves you out of the wicked world we live in and show we are a people set apart. It follows new life, but does not give it.
“If you could literally be buried be buried in the tomb, wrapped in the same linen with Christ, then you would literally have his blood on you.”
True, and irrelevant since none of us literally have the blood of Jesus splashed on our physical skin. But when JESUS baptizes us in the Holy Spirit, we receive a new life. That life is not based on water but on what Jesus does - filling us with the Holy Spirit.
Water baptism is important, but it is important for the reasons Peter explained - it is part of sanctification, and separating us from this wicked world. There is no doubt about the “one baptism” that unites us with Christ:
“For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”
Not water, but the Spirit is our baptism into Christ. There is a reason why the baptism in the Holy Spirit is so important:
“For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” - 1 Cor 12
You can argue with Peter and Paul all you want, but it is not water that gives us life:
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”