And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Does “for” in this verse mean:
“in order to receive”, or
“because you have received”
The Greek word εις is usually pronounced “ice” or “ees”. It is usually translated “into”, “unto”, or “for”.
Just as our English word “for” has many meanings, so too does the Greek word eis. You often hear an argument made from this diversity of meaning.
In Acts 2:38 the word “for” means “because of”. So the passage is made to say,
"Repent and be baptized because of the forgiveness of sins".
In other words a person should be baptized not in order to receive forgiveness, but because forgiveness has already taken place, and therefore baptism is not necessary to forgiveness.
Is this argument correct, or is it a misrepresentation of the passage and the little Greek word eis ?
Repentance and Baptism
Acts 2:38 ESV
And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Peter has put repentance before forgiveness, that's where he has also put baptism, because he gave both repentance and baptism the same relationship to forgiveness .
Faith and Confession
Romans 10:10 NASB95
for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
Translators don't render the verse to say that faith and confession are because of salvation, and come after salvation.
Salvation is the outcome of a confessed faith.
Baptism and Death
Matthew 26:28 ESV
for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus did not shed his blood because forgiveness had been granted, but so that it could be.
Where in Scripture is it logical, reasonable to translate eis (for) as “because of”
Romans 6:3–4 ESV
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
