What Must We Do?

Acts 2:37-40

“Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37)

Peter had just demonstrated that the Jesus they had crucified was in fact the Messiah they had been looking for. Suddenly they were convicted of their sin in rejecting Christ. As a result of that conviction, they asked what they needed to do to be forgiven. We see the same question asked repeatedly in the book of Acts. I suspect that the every person who is truly convicted by the Spirit will ask the same question.

“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” (Acts 2:38-39)

Peter’s answer is very simple, but the doctrinal implications are huge. I would like to address several of these in depth, because there is a great deal of controversy over them.

The first thing Peter said was “Repent.” The word repent means to be sorry for an action and to stop doing it. Many believe that repentance is not necessary. Luke 13:3&5 and Revelation 2:5 & 22 stress that forgiveness and salvation depends on repentance. I John 1 8-10 states, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” Without repentance, there can be no salvation. True confession requires acknowledging that what was done should not be done, or repentance.

The greatest controversy is over Peters next statement. “… and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” Many insist that this means baptism is necessary for salvation. If that is true, then Romans 10:9-10 is false, because it says you will be saved simply by believing and confessing, with no mention of baptism. “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

I John 1:9 must also be false because it says that just confessing them will result in forgiveness and cleansing, or remission of all our sins. John 3:16 and John 3:36 say that salvation can be obtained by just believing, as do many other passages. We are forced to accept that much of the Bible is either unclear or wrong, if baptism is essential for salvation.

Paying for your meal at MacDonald’s will get a meal. Telling the server to keep the change will not cause them to take the meal back. If we accept Paul’s statement in Romans 10:9-10, however, we find that the contradiction with the other verses disappears. If repentance is sufficient for salvation, then repentance and baptism definitely is sufficient, and you will still be saved. You won‘t lose your salvation because you got baptized.

If we examine the controversy, we realize it depends on the meaning of the word for, which can be used various ways. We might say, I left the car at the shop for repairs,” meaning so it can be repaired. It is equally correct to say, “The man was sent to prison for murder.” We would not mean he was sent to prison to be murdered, or to commit murder, but because he already did. Using the second meaning, Peter would in effect say “Repent, and be baptized because you have been remitted.” Those who believe that baptism is required for salvation insist that the only way for can be used is in the sense of causing salvation, and that the alternative is a distortion of the word. Using their definition doesn’t make sense in the next verse, “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” Only the ‘because’ definition makes sense in Acts 2:39.

Many teach that receiving the Holy Spirit is separate from salvation. Peter said, “…Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” In other words, you will receive the Holy spirit when you receive salvation. Romans 8:9 supports the statement, saying, “…Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”

Some believe that only certain people can be saved. Peter’s statement in Acts 2:39 makes it clear that salvation is available to every person. “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” It is the same thing he said in Acts 2:21, “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

The recorded message is clearly only a short summation of what Peter preached on the day of Pentecost. Acts 2:40 tells us, “And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.”