SPECIAL STUDY ON BAPTISM

Taken from Baptism: A Biblical Study 
by Jack Cottrell
Material reprinted with permission from College Press Publishing Co.,
Joplin, MO  64802 

Dr. Jack Cottrell is Professor of Theology at Cincinnati Bible Seminary,
Cincinnati, OH

ACTS 2:38-39 (I)  

	Probably the clearest - and probably for that reason the most controversial - passage concerning the meaning of baptism is Acts 2:38,39, “And Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call to Himself.’ ”  This passage is important because it describes the function of Christian baptism at the point of its very inauguration on the day of Pentecost.  It is part of the apostolic instruction to sinners who are asking how they might be rid of their sin and guilt.  It states quite clearly that baptism is the focal point of God’s promise of forgiveness and the gift of the Spirit.

The Messianic Outpouring of the Spirit

	On the Jewish calendar the events of Acts 2 occurred on the day of Pentecost.  To the Christian community the day is significant because it was the birthday of the church.  On a deeper level still, it was the formal and historical point of transition from the Old Covenant age to the New Covenant age, the actual foundation for which had already been laid in the death and resurrection of Christ.

	The central event marking the inauguration of the new age was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  Of course the Holy Spirit was present and working among the saints of God in Old Testament times, but both the prophets and the Gospel promised a new and special presence of the spirit as part of the Messianic hope.  Isaiah 44:3 says, “ ‘For I will pour out water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring, and My blessing on your descendants.’ ”  Joel 2:28 says, “ ‘And it will come about after this that I will pour out my Spirit on all mankind.’ ”  Ezekiel 36:27 puts it thus:  “ ‘And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes.’ ”  John the Baptist promised that the Spirit would be given to believers as an indwelling presence (Luke 11:13; John 7:37-39).  At His ascension He renewed this promise, as recorded in Acts 1:4-8.  He told His apostles to “wait for what the Father had promised.”
	The activities recorded in Acts 2:1-4 are the initial fulfillment of these promises.  The outward, miraculous manifestations were not the main point of Pentecost, but only the signs or evidence that the invisible, inner presence of the Spirit was now available for the first time.  The miracles - especially the speaking with “other tongues” (Acts 2:4) succeeded in their purpose of gaining the attention of the crowd and disposing them toward the message Peter was to deliver.  The people asked in amazement, “What does this mean?” (Acts 2:12).  Peter proceeded to explain what it meant.  This is the outpouring of the Spirit promised by Joel, he said.  It is one of the primary blessings of the accomplished work of Jesus the Messiah.  You crucified Him, said Peter to the Jews assembled there, but God raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His own right hand.  “And having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear” (Acts 2:33).  For this Jesus whom you crucified has been exalted as your Lord and Christ (Acts 2:15-36).

	The audience that heard Peter’s sermon was a large group of devout Jews who worshipped God according to the Old Covenant relation.  No doubt many of them had encountered Jesus and rejected Him, thinking they were defending Yahweh’s honor.  What they heard from Peter, as confirmed by the miraculous manifestations of the Spirit, shook them to the very foundations of their faith.  Jesus, whom they had sent to His death, was their God- the exalted Messiah!  From His heavenly throne, as the inaugural expression of His Lordship, He had sent forth the long awaited Holy Spirit!  When this realization dawned upon them, they sensed themselves as sinners exposed to the wrath of God.  “They were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’ ” (Acts 2:37).

	“What shall we do” about what?  About the burden of their sin and guilt.  What could they do to be free of this burden?  Here is a primary example of the point made earlier while discussing Matthew 28, that even the most faithful Jews, when confronted with the new revelation of the Gospel of Christ, became lost sinners unless and until they accepted Jesus as their Savior and Messiah.  Peter’s audience now felt this state of lostness and cried out for help.  “What shall we do” to be saved?

	Peter’s statement concerning baptism in Acts 2:38,39 must be understood against this background.  Baptism is at the very heart of his answer to the question about what must be done to be free from sin and guilt.

The Gospel Offer

	Peter’s reply to the sinner’s question may be analyzed in two parts: first, the nature of the salvation offered; and second, the conditions for receiving it.

	The Gospel offer made here in Acts 2:38 is a classic representation of the “double cure” referred to in the song “Rock of Ages,” viz., “Be of sin the double cure; save me from its guilt and power.”  An alternative version says, “Save from wrath and make me pure.”  This double cure is God’s answer to the “double trouble” sinners bring upon themselves through their sin.
	The first and most immediately pressing problem caused by sin is guilt.  The sinner has broken God’s law and thus has incurred its penalty.  He stands under the constant condemnation of the wrath of God.  This is an objective problem, a problem of wrong relationships with God and with His law.  God’s solution to man’s guilt is the death of Christ, in which He took our sin with its guilt upon Himself, paying its penalty through His own suffering.  As a result God is able to offer the sinner full pardon for his sin, full remission, complete justification, complete liberation from the fear of condemnation and hell.
	This is “the forgiveness of your sins” that Peter offers in Acts 2:38, and it is no doubt what his Jewish audience was inquiring about.  Forgiveness itself is not a new blessing of the Messianic age, but was enjoyed by all believers in the pre-Christian era also.  The newness is that now it is offered only “in the name of Jesus Christ” since His death and resurrection are the events that make it possible in the first place.  In any case Peter’s offer included first of all what was most wanted and most needed by his audience.

	The second part of the double trouble is not as readily perceived and understood as the first.  It is the effect that sin has on the soul itself.  It can be described as sinfulness, depravity, spiritual weakness, spiritual sickness, even spiritual death.  The vitiating effects of sin permeate the soul just as the ravages of disease permeate the body; they make the soul weak in the face of temptation and inclined to sin more and more.  In other words, sin affects not just our relationship to God and His law; it also affects us personally.  Our very nature is corrupted.

	The Gospel offer to sinners in the Christian era includes a divine cure for this disease of the soul.  It is the new birth or regeneration, as discussed earlier in connection with John 3:3-5.  As noted there, this was not made available to sinners in the Old Testament era.  Though they were provided with some resources to combat the power of sin, still they were not given the gift of rebirth.  This is one of the principal new blessings of the Messianic age and one of the main aspects of the Gospel offer.  Thus the Jews who asked “Brethren, what shall we do?” probably were not even aware of this side of the sin problem and thus were not asking about any solution to it.  So when Peter’s offer included the words, “and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit,” this was an unexpected bonus!  For “the gift of the Holy Spirit” is the person and presence of the Spirit Himself, who will enter the receptive sinner’s heart in order to regenerate him and will remain there in order to give him strength to overcome sin day by day.  The offer of the Holy Spirit is the offer of regeneration.
	This was Peter’s ultimate explanation of the tongues and other phenomena recorded in Acts 2:1-4 and about which the audience originally asked, “What does this mean?” (Acts 2:12).  What this means, says Peter, is that God through Christ has now poured out the promised Spirit.  And what it means for you is that, if you will repent and be baptized in the name of Christ for the remission of your sins, you will receive this very Holy Spirit as a gift.  For the promised Spirit is for you (Acts 2:39; the word order makes the “you” emphatic).

The Conditions

	As is the case in Mark 16:16, the Gospel offer in Acts 2:38 is conditional.  A large segment of conservative Protestantism teaches that God’s gracious salvation is completely unconditional, but this view is based on a faulty view of divine sovereignty and some questionable exegesis.  Scripture clearly connects the sinner’s reception of salvation with his meeting of certain basic conditions.  In Mark 16:16 faith and baptism are specified; here in Acts 2:38 repentance and baptism are specifically mentioned.

	When his Jewish brethren asked “What shall we do?” Peter’s first instruction was that they should repent.  Repentance as a condition for salvation is not a controversial point, even among those who like to emphasize “faith alone.”  It is generally recognized that the faith which God requires for salvation cannot really exist without repentance.  The latter is basically an attitude toward sin.  It is a hatred of sin in general and especially a hatred of the sin in one’s own life; it is a determination and commitment to be rid of all sin as quickly as possible.  Since the holy God Himself hates sin, one cannot truly believe in Him without sharing this hatred.  Since Christ’s very purpose and work was to oppose and conquer sin in all its forces and forms, and since His very blood was shed to accomplish this, one cannot truly believe in Christ without hating the sin which caused His suffering.  Thus even in passages where it is not specified (as in Acts 16:31), it is understood that repentance is the Siamese twin or silent partner of faith.
	In Acts 2:38 repentance is the first condition mentioned because the thing foremost in the minds of those who heard Peter’s sermon was the conviction of their sin, especially their sin of rejecting Christ and causing His death.  Their question specifically meant, “What shall we do about these terrible sins?”  First, says Peter, you must have the right attitude toward them: you must repent.

	The only other condition given by Peter is baptism: “Let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.”  Since Mark lists baptism as a condition for salvation, and since John gives it as a condition for entrance into the kingdom of God, we should not be surprised that it is presented here as a condition for the forgiveness of sins, as well as for receiving the gift of the Spirit.

	Of course many do find it difficult to accept what Peter says about baptism and look for ways to avoid its implications.  One such way is to deny that Acts 2:38 refers to water baptism.  As one writer says, “I doubt very seriously whether Peter was referring to water baptism,” because there would not have been enough water in the temple area to immerse 3,000 people (Acts 2:41) and because neither here nor anywhere else is water baptism specifically connected with the forgiveness of sins.

	Such an idea is not very well thought out, however.  Peter must have meant water baptism for the following reasons.  First, he must have been speaking of the same baptism prescribed in the Great Commission, which had to be water baptism because it was something the apostles themselves were to administer.  Second, the baptism prescribed by Peter was something the sinners themselves were to do (“What shall we do?”); it was their decision and initiative.  A purely spiritual baptism would be at God’s initiative.  Third, Peter’s language would have immediately called to his audience’s mind the baptism of John (which was “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” Mark 1:4), which was known to all as water baptism.  Finally it should be noted that there was ample water in the Jerusalem area (it did not have to be in the temple area) for immersing 3,000 people.

	Thus there is no good reason for seeing this as a reference to anything besides water baptism.  It is set forth alongside repentance as a condition for receiving the blessings of salvation.  This should not be surprising in view of the prominence of baptism in the Great Commission as reported by both Matthew and Mark.  In fact, it would have been surprising if Peter had not mentioned baptism when asked “What shall we do?”

	This leads to a final consideration relative to the conditions specified in Acts 2:38, namely, why is faith not included here, especially since the commission in Mark 16:16 includes both faith and baptism?  We could not infer from both the question in Acts 2:37 and the reply in Acts 2:38 that it was not necessary to specify faith since those who heard the message and were “pierced to the heart” by it (verse 37) already believed.  This is why they asked for further instruction on what to do.  If Peter had perceived that they did not yet believe, he surely would have required this first of all.

	This may be compared with the situation in Acts 16:30,31, when the Philippian jailer asked basically the same question, “What must I do to be saved?”  This man, a pagan, had not as yet had the benefit of hearing a message about the true God or our Lord Jesus Christ.  Thus Paul’s reply focused  on the foundation requirement: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved.”  This instruction was not meant to be comprehensive and all-inclusive; it was an opening statement immediately followed by more teaching: “And they spoke the word of the Lord to him” (Acts 16:32).  Though neither repentance nor baptism is specifically mentioned, we can fairly infer that they were included in this “word of the Lord.”  This is surely the case with baptism, since the jailer was immediately baptized after hearing the teaching (Acts 16:33).
	In a similar way we can consider Peter’s instruction in Acts 2:38 to have been determined by the level of response already achieved by his hearers.  Since a measure of faith was already evidenced by their question, there was no need to mention it specifically.

	In this connection one other point may be noted.  Even though faith is not specifically mentioned here as a condition for salvation, the content of Peter’s reply was an implicit call for faith, and not just the faith of the Old Testament saints.  It was a call for these devout Jews to rise to a new level of faith, to focus their faith upon a God who is Three as well as One.  As we noted in the discussion of Matthew 28:19-20, from this time forward saving faith must include faith in Jesus as the divine Redeemer and faith in the Holy Spirit as the divine gift.  A conscientious response to Peter’s instruction would have to include these elements, since he told this group to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ in order to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Their Old Covenant faith was no longer adequate; whether they had been baptized with John’s baptism was now irrelevant.  They are now required to accept God’s word about Jesus Christ and the Spirit as part of their acceptance of baptism itself.

	In summary, then, the conditions for receiving the “double cure” according to Acts 2:38 are repentance and baptism, plus an implied faith.
   
ANDANTES