2:37-38 What does "repent and be baptized" involve?

(CP Mt 3:1-2; 4:17; 11:20; Mk 1:14-15; Lu 13:2-5; Ac 3:19; 17:30). Repent means to sorrow over unbelief and sin and turn away from them to God (CP Mt 5:3-6). Confessing one's spiritual helplessness; sorrow for sin; meekness, and a hunger and thirst for righteousness, as Jesus sets out in the first four beatitudes here, are all characteristics of the repentant sinner (CP Lu 18:10-14). We see here in the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican that no external acts can take the place of an internal sorrow for sin.

The Pharisee came into the temple a sinner, and left the same way. He was self-righteous and not conscious of his own sinful nature. He considered himself righteous because of his acts of piety and outward goodness. As a result he excluded himself from God's redeeming grace. In contrast, the publican went home justified before God because he acknowledged his need for God's mercy, and God acquitted him (CP Lu 15:11-24).

This is the parable of the lost son, or the prodigal son. It is the perfect picture of a truly repentant sinner. The father's compassion toward his repentant son in the parable portrays God's infinite love and forgiveness toward every sinner who repents. As the father joyfully celebrated his son's return and restored him to his position of sonship in the family, so too God rejoices over every sinner who repents, and restores them to sonship with Him (CP Jn 1:12).

See also comments on Mt 11:28-30, 13:10-11, 20:16; Jn 3:14-15, 3:36, 6:37, 12:37-40, Ac 13:48.

The second part of Peter's command to the Jews in Ac 2:38 ….and be baptized…for the remission of sins, refers to water baptism. This is not teaching that salvation depends on being baptized, as many in the contemporary church believe. Peter is simply commanding the Jews to be baptized in obedience to Christ's command to the church (CP Mt 28:19-20).

Christ's command here is directed to every believer in the New Testament church - not only to those in public ministry. It is incumbent upon each and every one of us to get sinners saved, to baptize them, and to teach them the way of God.

Obeying Christ's command to be baptized is the repentant sinners' first act of obedience toward God's word, and it should not be delayed wherever water is available and the repentant sinner is physically capable of being baptized. Being baptized is their pledge of a good conscience toward God - a conscience reconciled to God by the repentant sinner's new-found faith in the resurrected Christ and the salvation benefits He has purchased for them with His blood (CP 1Pe 3:18-21).

"For the remission of sins" in Ac 2:38, means because your sins have been forgiven. When sinners repent and turn to God their sins are immediately forgiven and their baptism then is also their testimony to the world that they have repented and turned to Christ as their Saviour (see also comments on Mt 28:19-20 (B) and 1Pe 3:18-21 and author's study Water Baptism in his book Foundational Truths of the Christian Faith).

2:39 See comments on Ac 2:1-4.

Acts: