Acts 2:38-39 Peter replied, “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. 39The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
Repent and be baptized. It seems almost as if that is the gospel message in this passage. It is. You’ll find in the book of Acts that the gospel message is not always presented as merely belief. Does that mean it is not belief that saves us? No, it means that the disciples had various equivalent ways of expressing the message. Belief is at the core of the message, but repentance is certainly part of true belief. And someone who truly believes will get baptized. The disciples used several different terms to express just what true belief looks like, and this may be one of the greatest lessons we can learn as we study Acts.
We all know that baptism is something that occurred immediately after salvation in the book of Acts. Unfortunately, in 21st century Christianity we’ve relegated it to the back shelf. It is something that a believer may not even be presented with for years after his salvation! Perhaps we think that we will let the new believer settle in to their Christianity a little before introducing them to a topic of faith that might seem a little odd or overly religious. Not only is this foreign to New Testament thinking, but in this passage Peter brings up the topic of baptism to people who are hearing the message for the very first time, and he outright commands them to be baptized!
Verse 39 speaks of a promise for all people and generations. This promise is two-fold. If we repent and are baptized we 1) get our sins forgiven and 2) receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is part of Peter’s monolog on the day of Pentecost when the baptism of the Holy Spirit first occurred. So in context, they just saw the disciples filled with the Spirit and speaking in tongues, and then Peter said that any of them will (not may) also receive the gift of the Spirit if they repent and get baptized. So, if you are wondering if you have received the Spirit in the same way that others have received the Spirit, you do not need to go on a spiritual quest, you do not need to seek out someone to lay hands on you, and you do not need to go to a revival meeting. All you need to do is make sure that you have repented and been baptized. God will take care of filling you with the Spirit. That is His promise.
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