Baptism for the Remission of Sins
As taught in the Restorationist / Churches of Christ tradition
Why the Stone-Campbell tradition reads believer's immersion as the divinely appointed point of pardon.
Few teachings mark out the Restorationist (Stone-Campbell) tradition as sharply as its understanding of baptism. Within the heirs of the early-nineteenth-century American Restoration Movement — the Churches of Christ, the Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, and, with important qualifications, the Disciples of Christ — believer's immersion is not regarded as an optional ceremony performed after salvation, nor as a bare symbol of a grace already complete. It is understood as the divinely appointed occasion at which a penitent believer receives the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. The phrase that captures this is taken straight from Peter's Pentecost sermon: baptism "for the remission of sins" (Acts 2:38).
By the end of this lesson
- Explain why the Restorationist tradition reads believer's immersion as the appointed point at which remission of sins and the gift of the Spirit are received.
- Trace the exegetical case for the purposive reading of 'for the remission of sins' in Acts 2:38 and how Acts 22:16, Romans 6:3-4, and 1 Peter 3:21 reinforce it.
- Distinguish the tradition's claim that baptism is the instrumental occasion of pardon from any claim that it is a meritorious work, following Alexander Campbell's distinction.
- Identify how the founding documents and the rule 'where the Scriptures speak, we speak' led the movement toward believer's immersion against inherited practice.
- State fairly where the Restorationist position differs from faith-alone and infant-baptism traditions without resolving the disagreement.
Scripture
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