Repentance
and Salvation. Acts 2:24-38
The
men of Israel ask the interpretive
question: Acts 2:12 NASB “And they all continued
in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’”
That is what Peter is answering. We can’t get lost in the details so that we
forget that that is the question he is answering. The hidden question that is
there is, what does it mean for us? What is the significance of all of this? And
the first thing to remember is that Peter quotes from Joel 2:30, 31, and that is the bulk of the quote in
Acts 2:17-21. He is quoting the context so that he can comment on just one
thing at the very beginning and he is making an analogy. When he cites from
Joel he is really saying, this is like what the prophet Joel said. It is a comparison.
Just as Joel predicted that the Holy Spirit would come and these phenomenon
would accompany that event at the time of the kingdom, this is similar to that
but it is not the same thing.
Then he begins
to explain it in verse 22. He begins by focusing on Jesus, on His humanity
because that is an important aspect. The humanity of Jesus is the fulfillment of
those Old Testament promises that as a man He would die and be raised from the
dead. If we focused on deity we couldn’t focus on the resurrection. “Men of
Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God
with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your
midst, just as you yourselves know—this {Man,} delivered over by the
predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands
of godless men and put {Him} to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an
end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its
power.” The focal point here is the resurrection as the ultimate acceptance of
God of Jesus and the validation of the resurrection. Peter is saying that it is
impossible that the Messiah could have been kept in the grave. He is going to
support that by going to a quote in the Old Testament.
Here is
Peter’s explanation. Acts 2:25 NASB “For David says of Him, ‘I SAW
THE LORD ALWAYS IN MY PRESENCE; FOR HE IS AT MY RIGHT HAND, SO THAT I WILL NOT
BE SHAKEN. [26] THEREFORE
MY HEART WAS GLAD AND MY TONGUE EXULTED; MOREOVER MY FLESH ALSO WILL LIVE IN
HOPE; [27] BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT ABANDON MY SOUL TO
HADES, NOR ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY. [28] YOU
HAVE MADE KNOWN TO ME THE WAYS OF LIFE; YOU WILL MAKE ME FULL OF GLADNESS WITH
YOUR PRESENCE.’”
Remember what
Peter did with the Joel passage? He quotes all of those verses but he only
talks about a couple of things within the verses. The writer of Hebrews does
the same thing when he quotes the whole section in Jeremiah 30:31-33 regarding
the new covenant, and all he emphasizes is that
because it says it is a new covenant that indicates that the old covenant would
be temporary. He doesn’t deal with anything else in the passage. So this was a
typical way at the time of citing Scripture in support of what you were doing. The
real focus here is on Psalm 16 verses 9 and 10, the joy. The real question that
comes up is, is David who writes the Psalm talking
about something in his experience that foreshadows or is a type of something
that the Messiah would experience? Or is David consciously aware of the fact
that he is writing predictive prophecy?
Some say
David is talking about himself. That has sadly become a majority position by
too many evangelicals today on Old Testament prophecy. In fact, one of the
trends that has been going on for the last fifty years
is that more and more scholars are saying that there is no actual predictive
messianic prophecy in the Old Testament. But David clearly understood (2 Samuel
23:1-3) that he was writing about the Messiah. Then when we add Peter’s divinely
inspired comment here he makes it very clear that David understood this: “For
David says of Him…” So David, according to Peter, did not think that he was
writing about his own experience. But the focus is on Psalm 16:9, 10,
specifically verse 10: “For You will not abandon my
soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to
undergo decay.” That phrase, “abandon my soul to Sheol,”
is never applied to David or to an Old Testament saint, it is a unique term. The
Greek word, as well as the Hebrew word, for corruption/decay relates to
physical decomposition of the body. Sheol is the
place where the dead went in the Old Testament. This is made clear in Luke
16:19-25, which is still under the age of Israel.
Jesus, after
the crucifixion, goes to Sheol and makes proclamation
to the spirits that are there (2 Peter 2:4). He proclaims the fact that because
of His death on the cross their condemnation, their eternal penalty, is
secured. And the salvation for the Old Testament saints is also secured. He
proclaims the truth to them and then takes captivity captive. He takes the Old
Testament saints that are in Paradise to heaven. According to 2 Corinthians 12:4 Paul goes to Paradise; it is in heaven and no longer in Sheol. Jesus empties out the compartment of Abraham’s bosom
and moves Paradise to heaven so that all that is left is
torments. So Hades or Sheol since the cross refers to
where the unbelievers go. It is not the same a Hell, that
is a different word which usually refers to Gehenna.
Traditionally we have understood Gehenna to refer to
the Valley of Hinnom which is to the south and a little to the
south-west of Jerusalem. It was said to be the place of burning because this was where
the trash was burned. But people were living right along those slopes and just
wouldn’t want all that smoke. If we study carefully what was going on in Kings
it was in that area that they set up idols to Moloch where they sacrificed
their infants; and that is really the source of the fiery Gehenna.
There is no evidence archaeologically that there was ever a trash dump there.
Acts 2:29 NASB
“Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he
both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.” That means that
David couldn’t have been talking about himself, because the Psalm clearly
states that God would not allow His holy one to go through decomposition. But
David clearly decomposed and because of that he could not have been writing
about himself.
David was a
prophet, though he didn’t serve in the office of prophet. Acts 2:30 NASB “And so, because he was a
prophet and knew that GOD HAD SWORN TO HIM WITH AN OATH TO SEAT {one} OF HIS DESCENDANTS ON
HIS THRONE.” When did
this oath occur? Psalm 132:1 NASB “Remember, O
LORD, on David’s behalf…”
that his heir would sit on his throne. Psalm 132:1 is a summary of the Davidic
covenant, specifically 2 Samuel 7:12 NASB “When your days are
complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise
up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will
establish his kingdom.” It is interesting that the rabbis who translated the
word “raise up” from the Hebrew into the Greek of the Septuagint used the Greek
verb anasteso [a)nasthsw]
which is the classical Greek form of the verb anistemi
[a)nisthmi],
related to anastasis [a)nastasij], the
noun for resurrection in the New Testament. This is not to say this proves the
resurrection but it clearly implies the resurrection. Clearly God is making
this covenant, a legal and binding covenant, with David and in that covenant He
is establishing the oath that He will fulfill it and his descendant would sit
on the throne forever.
Acts 2:31 NASB “he looked ahead and
spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED
TO HADES, NOR DID His flesh SUFFER DECAY.” The words “looked ahead” is translated
from proorizo [proorizw] which means here to see ahead of time, so again it is talking
about foresight. It is not talking about Calvinistic predestination or some
sort of fatalism. So Psalm 16:8-11 is clearly predicting the resurrection of
the Messiah. Conclusion: [32] “This Jesus God raised
up again, to which we are all witnesses.” This word “witnesses” is an extremely
important word in the book of Acts. Cf. Acts 1:8. Then when Peter and the other
apostles decide to select a replacement for Judas one of the requirements was
that he had been with Jesus from the beginning and was a witness of His
resurrection. So there is clear understanding that their role is to function as
legal eyewitnesses of the resurrection. And during this time in Jerusalem, and later on in Judea and Samaria, they keep talking about the resurrection
but they are talking to people who were there. If there had been some
subterfuge, if Jesus hadn’t died, if He had been somehow spirited away and they
were just making this up, this would have easily been discovered. They were
talking to people who were eyewitnesses of everything there and clearly understood
that what they were talking about was what had actually happened. In Acts 3:15 in his next sermon Peter says NASB
“…the Prince of life, {the one} whom God raised from the dead, {a fact} to
which we are witnesses.” Acts 5:32 NASB “And we are witnesses of
these things; and {so is} the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey
Him.” Acts 10:39 NASB
“We are witnesses of all the things He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put Him to death by hanging
Him on a cross… [41] not to all the people, but to
witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, {that is,} to us who ate and drank
with Him after He arose from the dead.” Acts 13:31 NASB “and for many days He
appeared to those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now His witnesses
to the people.” So again and again and again there is this idea that there is
an objective legal witness to the resurrection. Acts 22:15 NASB “For you will be a
witness for Him to all men of what you have seen and heard.” Acts 26:16 NASB
“…for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a
witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in
which I will appear to you.”
Acts 2:33 NASB
“Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received
from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which
you both see and hear.” Now Peter is shifting. He has been talking about the
resurrection, but the resurrection didn’t just stop everything. God’s plan goes
forward and so the Messiah was to be elevated to a position at the right hand
of God the Father. That, again, is established by an Old Testament principle. He
is making a transition from Psalm 16 to Psalm 110:1 NASB “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at My right hand Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.’” Jesus
is now exalted to the right hand of the Father and Peter goes to Psalm 110 to
demonstrate this, that this was what was predicted for the Messiah. The word in
Acts 2:33 that
is translated “poured forth” is the Greek word ekcheo
[e)kxew] and it is just a generic word for
something being given. That is what this describes, it is not a word that talks
about the indwelling specifically or the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the
filling of the Holy Spirit; it is just a general word that now the Holy Spirit
is being given to believers in a way that never had happened previously in
history. Jesus had to be exalted to the right hand of God before this could
happen.
But David
did not ascend into heaven. Acts 2:34 NASB “For it was not David who
ascended into heaven, but he himself says: ‘THE LORD SAID TO MY
LORD, ‘SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND.’”
In the Hebrew text the first “LORD” uses the sacred tetragrammaton,
the four letters that are used to present the formal, personal name of God. The
second “LORD” is Adonai. So who is in authority over David? Within the
Mosaic structure there is no one higher than David the king, so this would also
refer to deity and therefore we have two divine personages here and one says to
the other, “Sit at My right hand.” This is a position of privilege and
responsibility—Acts 2:35 NASB “UNTIL
I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET.” Within the plan of God the Lord Jesus Christ is seated at the
right hand of the Father as the Son of Man until He is given the kingdom. That
is not given, according to Daniel chapter seven, until just before Jesus
descends to the earth to establish His kingdom upon the earth. All David is
asserting here is that He is taking Psalm 16 and saying that this shows the
Messiah was supposed to be resurrected from the dead. Psalm 110 shows that He
is going to go to heaven where He will be seated at the right hand of the
Father. When we put this together we learn that He has to be glorified and
exalted at the right hand of the Father before He can distribute the Holy
Spirit.
Peter’s
conclusion then comes in the next verse. Acts 2:36 NASB “Therefore let all the
house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him
both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.” Who is he talking to here?
It is a Jewish audience, there are no Gentiles here. He is still offering the
kingdom to Israel. By “both Lord and Christ” is not meant
what Lordship salvation people mean, or the people who say at that point Jesus
is given deity; it is a phrase that indicates the exaltation of Jesus to His
position of glory—actually His return to glory—at the right hand of God the
Father. So he nails his conclusion, which is that Jesus is the Messiah. It is
very clear that he nails his conclusion because his audience suddenly responds.
Acts 2:37 NASB “Now when they heard
{this,} they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the
apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’” They realized in their conscience that
they had made a horrible mistake and had crucified the Messiah. This was their
second question. The first one was what does this mean? Peter has just told
them that what all of this means is that they crucified Jesus. He went into the
grave, was buried, but He rose from the dead, and He is the Messiah who is now
exalted to the right hand of the Father; and as part of His exaltation He has
been given authority over the church and has sent the Holy Spirit. Now the
second question: If this is true, what do we do? They know it is true. Peter’s
answer is what confuses a lot of people.
Acts 2:38 NASB “Peter {said} to them, ‘Repent,
and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of
your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” We will find
some Christians, notably Church of Christ and some others, who will say this verse
teaches that you can’t be saved unless you are baptized. But that is not what
Peter is saying here. First of all we have to understand that he is talking to
a Jewish audience in a particular context. Secondly, we have to understand the
grammar because the grammar really changes what we understand here.
First of all
he says “Repent.” This is the Greek verb metanoeo
[metanoew] which means to change your mind or to turn. It is an aorist
active imperative, which means this is the highest priority, and it is a second
person plural—you all. So he is saying, “Y’all repent.” Then he says, “…and
every one of you be baptized.” That is an aorist
passive imperative, third person singular. So first of all he is talking to “you
all,” and then in the next line he is talking to the individual. That is very
important. The second phrase is really a parenthetical statement. He says, “You
all repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus for the
forgiveness of sins, and you all [plural] shall receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit.”
What was
John the Baptist’s message when he came? “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand.” And that was a present active imperative, which doesn’t put the
priority as high as an aorist imperative does. It is still an imperative but it
emphasizes that this should be a standard operating procedure in the life of
people. Where did John get his message? From Deuteronomy
30:2. But this is his command. What went along with that? In Matthew 3:11 we see that the sign that someone had
repented was that John baptized them with water. NASB “As for me, I
baptize you with water for repentance…” So the message of John the Baptist and
of Jesus’ disciples at the beginning is the same message that Peter is giving
here in Acts 2:38. He is still saying, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at
hand, and you need to get baptized.” And now it is in the name of Jesus; you
need to be identified with Jesus. The reason he is emphasizing repent isn’t
because repent is something you need to be justified, because John never uses
that word in the whole Gospel of John, it is because for Jews they are told
that after their period of rebellion and the cursing and judgments upon them
that God described in Deuteronomy 29 God then gives them hope in Deuteronomy 30:1-3
and says, NASB “So it shall be when all of these things have come
upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call
{them} to mind in all nations where the LORD your God has banished you, and you return [shub] to the LORD your God and obey Him with all your heart
and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, then the
LORD your God will restore you from captivity,
and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples
where the LORD your God
has scattered you.” So all that Peter is saying when he says “Repent” in Acts
2:38 is the same thing Jesus’ disciples meant and that Jesus meant and Moses
told them about back in Deuteronomy 30. It is that if you want to get out from
under divine discipline as a nation so that everybody is brought back to the
land then you have to turn back to God. And the sign that you have done that
and recognized that is that you will be baptized.
Then we have
this phrase “forgiveness of sins.” For those who think that Peter is saying you
have to repent to get justified and go to heaven, Peter would be a really
confused hypocrite if that were true because just a few chapters later when he
is talking to Cornelius and the Gentiles he says, Acts 10:43 NASB “Of
Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes
in Him receives forgiveness of sins.” Believe and repent are not the same
thing; they are not synonyms. Peter is clearly saying here in 10:43 that the issue is to believe in Him for
the forgiveness of sins.
In Acts 2:38
Peter is saying: “You all repent and let every one of you [singular] be
baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, and you all [plural]
shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Peter is addressing the men of
Israel and saying that as a nation you all need to repent for the remission of y’alls sins, and y’all shall receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit (He is tying that to the new covenant) and let every one of you who do
this be baptized in the name of Jesus. When we get into this and we look at it
in terms of what the Greek says in the phrase translated “be baptized in the
name of Jesus for the remission of sins,” the “for” translates the Greek preposition
eis [e)ij]. It
can mean, but usually doesn’t, on account of or because of. Some people try to
solve this by saying that they are being baptized because they have already
received the remission of sins. But if we take this within the context of what
John said and what Jesus’ disciples said in terms of repent for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand, it doesn’t have the idea so much of repent because you’ve
already been forgiven of sins, but it is unto—direction, like what John the
Baptist was saying: You are being baptized unto forgiveness. That is a new
state, a state of forgiveness of sin. The plurals here are still talking about
corporate Israel and receiving the outpouring of the Holy
Spirit in relation to the new covenant.
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