NEW COMMENTARY
ACTS OF APOSTLES
J. W. McGARVEY, A.M.

Ver. Acts 2:38. The question, ” What shall we do?” had reference to the escape of these guilty men from the consequences of their crime; and although the idea of salvation from their sins in general could scarcely yet have had a place in their minds, the real force of their question would be well expressed by the full inquiry. What shall we do to be saved? This is the first time under the reign of Christ that this momentous question was propounded, and the first time of course that it received an answer. Whatever may have been the proper answer under any previous dispensation, or on any previous day in the world’s history, the answer given by Peter on this day of Pentecost, the day in which the reign of Christ on earth began, is the true and infallible answer for all such inquirers in all subsequent time. (38) And Peter said to them, Repent¹ ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for² the remission of sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

¹ That these persons were commanded to repent after they had been “pricked in the heart” by the power of the Spirit through the truth preached, and were so penetrated with a sense of guilt as to cry out, “Brethren, what shall we do?” shows plainly that repentance is not mere sorrow for sin, but a change which follows after it. For a further definition of it, see the note under chap. iii. 19.
² For a justification of this departure from the R. V., and for a full statement of the connection between baptism and the remission of sins.

It should be observed that in this answer to the question, what shall we do? they are told to do two things; first, to repent; and second, to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. If Peter had stopped here, the people would have learned their immediate duty, and we also would have learned that the immediate duty of men pricked in the heart by a sense of guilt is to repent and be baptized; we would also know that this is what we are to do to be delivered from our guilt. But Peter did not stop with the two commands; he saw fit to state specifically the blessings which would follow compliance with them. The people were told to repent and be baptized “for the remission of sins.” This is only stating more specifically what would have been understood from connecting the question with its answer, as we have just stated. It makes it doubly certain that remission of sins follows baptism, and is therefore to be expected by the baptized. This is equally true if the correct rendering be, as in R. V., “unto remission of sins” for if we are baptized “unto” remission, remission follows baptism, and baptism brings us to it. Remission of sins, forgiveness of sins, and pardon, are synonymous terms, and they express the chief want of the human soul in its most favorable earthly circumstances. The rebel against God’s government, though he lay down his arms and become a loyal subject, can have no hope without pardon for the past; and after being pardoned, while he is humbly struggling in the service of God, he knows himself still guilty of shortcomings by which he must fail of the final reward unless he is pardoned again and again. The question as to the conditions of pardon, therefore, divides itself into two; one having reference to the hitherto unpardoned sinner, and the other to the saint who may have fallen into sin. It was the former class who propounded the question to Peter, and it is to them alone that his answer applies.

The second blessing promised on condition of repentance and baptism, is the “gift of the Holy Spirit.” By this is not meant that miraculous gift which had just been bestowed upon the apostles; for we know from the subsequent history that this gift was not bestowed on all who repented and were baptized, but on only a few brethren of prominence in the several congregations. The expression means the Holy Spirit as a gift; and the reference is to that indwelling of the Holy Spirit by which we bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, and without which we are not of Christ. Of this promise Peter speaks more fully in the next sentence of his sermon.