“Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’” (Acts 2:38).
Federal Visionists love this verse because they think that repentance and/or baptism is somehow linked with the forgiveness of sins. However, there is no reason to take this verse with such wooden literalism.
As we have described earlier, the Reformed faith has always insisted that, in justification, we receive the forgiveness of sins through Christ’s passive obedience, and we receive the righteousness of Christ through Christ’s active obedience. This justification is received by faith alone.
Thus, neither repentance nor baptism have anything to do with justification or the forgiveness of sins. In no way is Peter establishing a cause and effect between repentance and forgiveness of sins (which is legalism) or between baptism and forgiveness of sins (which is baptismal regeneration).
Unfortunately, this verse has made its way into the Nicene Creed in the line, “we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins.” This poses a problem because no who is truly Reformed can confess this as it stands. Several options have been suggested:
1) Some churches do not use the Nicene Creed at all. This is certainly a viable option. After all, the Nicene Creed lacks any mention of justification by faith alone, which is the doctrine by which the church stands or falls. Thus, the Nicene Creed is rather unimportant historically.
2) Other churches drop this line, which is another option. Certainly, no non-Reformed Confession is inerrant.
3) Many churches insert an asterisk (*) with a disclaimer saying, “we don’t really believe this.”
4) One new trend is to slightly alter the wording to make the creed orthodox. Here are some examples:
· “We don’t acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins.”
· “We acknowledge one baptism, but for the remission of sins, faith alone is required.”
· “Heretics acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins.”
