How are you? I hope you are doing fine.

Again I have a question, because I am teaching Acts right now, but there are things which are difficult to grasp sometimes like this:

Nowhere in Acts can I find Peter talking about the blood of Christ. In 1 Peter 1:18 he does. In Acts 2:38 he talks about forgiveness of their sins (plural) by being baptized with water. I know that they had to repent in that one year extension for the crucifixion of their Messiah (Luke 13:6-9). But what about their personal sins? Peter speaks about their sins in plural. The crucifixion of their Messiah was one sin. So does he also talk in that verse about their personal sins?

But do they understand that it is by the blood of Jesus at that time?

Christ already said that to them about His blood with the last supper, and the letter of Hebrews also talks about the blood. But now, for many people it is difficult to understand about what they understood and when they understood about the blood of Christ. So, they have forgiveness by baptizing and by the blood. Of course, it is only by the blood and baptizing with water is a symbolic cleansing for the priesthood, but it remains confusing.

And Christ tells in Luke 12:50 and Matt.20:22 about the baptism in death, but do the apostles later understand this baptism like we understand it from Romans 6 the same as we do? That our sin nature is crucified with Christ we know from Paul, but do they know that too? Or do they only know about their sins in plural, then they need to ask for forgiveness after they sin or not?

I hope you can give an answer on this difficult subject. How it is for us, we do understand by Paul. But how they understand it in Acts and later on is difficult for us to grasp. I hope you can give a bit more light on this.

How are you? I hope you are doing fine.

Again I have a question, because I am teaching Acts right now, but there are things which are difficult to grasp sometimes like this:

Nowhere in Acts can I find Peter talking about the blood of Christ. In 1 Peter 1:18 he does. In Acts 2:38 he talks about forgiveness of their sins (plural) by being baptized with water. I know that they had to repent in that one year extension for the crucifixion of their Messiah (Luke 13:6-9). But what about their personal sins? Peter speaks about their sins in plural. The crucifixion of their Messiah was one sin. So does he also talk in that verse about their personal sins?

But do they understand that it is by the blood of Jesus at that time?

Christ already said that to them about His blood with the last supper, and the letter of Hebrews also talks about the blood. But now, for many people it is difficult to understand about what they understood and when they understood about the blood of Christ. So, they have forgiveness by baptizing and by the blood. Of course, it is only by the blood and baptizing with water is a symbolic cleansing for the priesthood, but it remains confusing.

And Christ tells in Luke 12:50 and Matt.20:22 about the baptism in death, but do the apostles later understand this baptism like we understand it from Romans 6 the same as we do? That our sin nature is crucified with Christ we know from Paul, but do they know that too? Or do they only know about their sins in plural, then they need to ask for forgiveness after they sin or not?

I hope you can give an answer on this difficult subject. How it is for us, we do understand by Paul. But how they understand it in Acts and later on is difficult for us to grasp. I hope you can give a bit more light on this.

It is great to hear from you. I love the intensity of your study of the Word of God. I am going to give you two short answers to your questions. Hopefully that will be enough for you to think it through. In Israel there has always been individual personal salvation as well as national salvation. The baptism of repentance separated out those who would be saved in Israel. The understanding of how God would bring about His promise of salvation from sin was not understood until Paul. Galatians 3:23 says “before faith came…”. Paul was the first to preach justification by faith through the cross. However in Acts 15 when he went to Jerusalem he explains “that gospel” and in Acts 15:11 Peter came to the conclusion: “But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.”

As for the understanding of the “crucified life” and the doctrine of Romans 6, read I Peter 4:1-4 and see if you see what I think I see Peter saying. It sounds like Romans 6 to me.

Thanks for staying in touch. I will be away all next week, but let me know if this was helpful.