One Way To Tell If You Were Baptized “For The Remission Of Sins” As Acts 2:38 Requires

I’ve studied with many people through the years who have been immersed as believers in connection with a church that doesn’t believe a person has to be baptized to be saved, i.e., to get into Christ (Rom 6:3, Gal 3:26-27). When they learn better, they hopefully question whether or not they were actually baptized “for the remission of sins” (for that reason) as Acts 2:38 requires. Especially if it has been years ago, the memory of what they were thinking when they were baptized can be easily colored by what they have learned more recently about the purpose of baptism.

Many times, I point them to the baptism of the Philippian jailor in Acts 16:33. I ask them if they were baptized “immediately” (NKJV) as the jailor was, or was their baptism scheduled for like two weeks later? (as mine was in a Baptist church at age 10) If their baptism was scheduled for later, that’s a pretty good indicator they weren’t baptized to be saved from their sins (I Pet 3:21), because why would anybody take a chance on dying in their sins while they were waiting those two weeks to be baptized?

If their baptism was scheduled for later, that shows it was wrongly understood (by those involved) that they were saved from their sins when they “accepted Christ” (“walked down the aisle”), and so there was no emergency about performing their baptism. Compare that with the jailor; it was after midnight for him (16:25), and there were almost certainly no heated pools to baptize in back then. Why not wait at least until the light and heat of the next day? Paul and Silas and the jailor must have really believed Mark 16:16 is all I can say.

Wasn’t everybody in the New Testament baptized immediately (Acts 2:38-41, 8:35-38, 9:17-18, 10:47-48, 16:11-15, 19:1-5)? Zero baptisms were scheduled for later – as most churches routinely do today. Now we know why (Acts 22:16).

Question:  If someone was immersed but not for the right reason, would their baptism be approved of by God any more than God would approve of a divorce if done for the wrong reason? (per texts like Matt 19:9)

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