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.” – Acts 2:38 (ESV)
Peter followed up
this call for repentance and subsequent baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit
by saying “For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are
far off, everyone whom the Lord or God calls to Himself” (2:39). His
insistence on repentance and baptism followed his statement, about Jesus, “that
God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus Whom you crucified”
(2:36b). This caused his hearers to be “cut to the heart” (2:37b).
What does all of this mean? What is being implied?
The call for
repentance and baptism, hearkens back to the initial words that we hear from
both John the Baptist and Jesus. In Matthew, John says, “Repent, for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand” (3:2). He adds, “I baptize you with water
for repentance” (3:11a), adding that Jesus will also baptize, but “with the
Holy Spirit and with fire” (3:11c). In Mark, the first words that we hear
from Jesus are “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand;
repent and believe in the Gospel” (1:15). The use of “gospel” was closely
connected with “kingdom” in that day, because “gospel” had to do with
proclamations concerning the Caesar. Seeing these things about John and
Jesus, it should not be surprising to us to hear Peter speaking in this way in
what is sometimes referred to as the first “Christian sermon.” Repentance
and baptism and forgiveness would be familiar themes. However, we must be
careful to not project our own, modern ideas on to Peter’s words, but to
carefully understand what they meant in context, so as to be able to accurately
comprehend and apply them to our lives and work in this day.
Peter’s purposeful
statement about Jesus being made both Lord and Christ would have provided the
foundation for his hearers to understand the point that he was making. By
this, he was making it clear that Jesus was, in fact, the anointed One that had
been sent by Israel’s God to usher in and inaugurate the promised
kingdom. He was both Lord and Christ, that is, He was Lord of all, having
faithfully fulfilled the role of Israel’s Messiah (the Christ), and now ruler
of all things, as was the understood intention and ultimate destiny of that
Messiah. This then leads to the statement about repentance, and its
connection to John and Jesus. The call to repentance was not a call to
repent from poor or immoral behavior. Such a call was not going to get
either John or Jesus killed. The call to repentance was for Israel to
repent from the way it had been acting, specifically in abrogation of its role
to be a light to the nations, and instead, replacing that role with an almost
constantly acted upon revolutionary fervor to drive the oppressive Gentiles
from their land. Israel had kept itself in strict isolation from the
Gentiles, refusing to meet God’s intention for them, especially as we see that
intention in the life and ministry of Jesus, as we constantly find Him in
fellowship with Gentiles and with those that were looked down upon by
Israel.
In accordance with
this, we must bear in mind that forgiveness of sins, in that day, was
connected, not with personal piety and holiness, but to the much larger context
of exile from the promises of God. Forgiveness of sins, for a member of
the nation of Israel in the first century, meant the forgiveness of God that
would bring about a return to the land of promise and an end to the exile that
was begun by the Babylonian conquest of Judah, and as they saw it, still
continuing to that day with the Roman domination of the land of their
forefathers. Forgiveness of sins referred to the establishment of the
kingdom of Israel, which was the kingdom of God, being brought into that land
of covenant, with exile being brought to an end. This is how we ought to
understand forgiveness of sins as well. Connected to Messianic
expectations of the day, this establishment of the kingdom of God meant that
Israel, or God’s covenant people, were now going to be established as a kingdom
that ruled over all nations, with Israel’s Messiah as its King, with this going
forth as the message of the Gospel.
Peter seizes upon all
of this understanding, ties it together with the words and actions of Jesus,
and tells the people that this has indeed taken place. They simply needed
to recognize that this kingdom extended beyond Israel, and that they needed to
repent from their long-held and fervent belief and desire that this be
restricted to ethnic Israel alone. Baptism would be the mark of their
attestation to this, as the passing through the water would symbolize a new
Exodus, as God then brought them into the land of the new covenant that He had
prepared for them, bringing His people into the life that He desired for them.
Now we can rightly understand why he goes on to say that “the promise is for
you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the
Lord our God calls to Himself” (2:39). Here, Peter is presenting the fact
of a new covenant people of God, a people for His kingdom, that would include
members from all nations---near and far, Jew and Gentile---those whom God had
chosen for Himself. Because this involved the elimination of enmity,
distrust, and even hatred that had been stoked during years of Gentile
oppression, whether perceived or real, (much like the enmity man holds toward
God) the repentance and the subsequent love and acceptance that would be needed
in order for this kingdom to be effectively established and extended, would
come only through the operation of the Holy Spirit, gifting faith and
repentance to all that were being called to this kingdom.
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