Acts 2:38 The proper understanding of Baptism up to the day of Pentecost.
Acts 2:38 is a passage that very few people understand. It simply isnt saying what people think it is. In order to understand it rightly, we have to understand what was going on in the first century.
We must understand that the Jewish nation of Israel by the first century actually had a very apostate and a very corrupt religion. It was led by legalistic Pharisees, theologically liberal Sadducees, a corrupt Priesthood, a worldly King and ultimately, the pagan government of Rome. Furthermore, the prophets predicted that God would send Israel a Messiah and Israel would reject Him. In light of all that, God decided to destroy the nation of Israel. He did that very thing in 70 A.D. About 35 years after Jesus ascended into heaven, Titus and the Roman army surrounded Jerusalem and slaughtered nearly everyone and destroyed the entire nation. In Luke 19: 41-44, Jesus warned them that this would happen. Since it was the time of the Passover, the Jews from all over Israel had gathered in Jerusalem and, thus, the Roman army was able to put almost the entire nation to death.
So God was planning to completely destroy the nation of Israel for rejecting their Messiah. Most everyone would die. The question was how to avoid that fate? John the Baptist was the first one to deal with that question. He showed up preaching that the Messiah was coming and that everyone needed to accept Him when He came. John said that the ax of God was already poised to strike the root of Israel and bring it down and that anyone associated with its corrupt religion would be brought down with it. But there was a way to avoid the day of Gods wrath when He sent the Roman army to kill everyone.
Instead of siding with the corrupt religion that was going to kill the Messiah, the people must change their minds and reject the corrupt religious system in Israel. However, they needed to do more than just quietly repent of their association with the Pharisees Judaism they needed to publicly announce that they were cleansing themselves of all of it by taking part in a ceremony where they were publicly washed with water. This was called baptism.
Baptism wasnt really a new thing. Sometimes a Gentile would become a convert to Judaism. In that case the Pharisees would wash or baptize the Gentile before He could become a Jew. But John was doing something shocking. He was saying that the Jewish religious system had become so corrupt that Jews needed to change their mind about it, that is, repent of it, and ceremonially wash themselves of it. By doing this, the people would be clean and prepared to welcome their Messiah when He appeared. If they would do this, then the national sins of rejecting and killing the Messiah would not be counted against them and when God sent the Romans to destroy the nation they would be saved. Later Jesus told his disciples that when they saw the Roman armies begin to encircle the city that they should immediately drop whatever they were doing and flee for the mountains. The Christians remembered this when it happened and were saved, but the rest of Israel were killed except for those that were captured or dispersed.
So the situation was that God was sending the Roman army to destroy the Israelites for rejecting their Messiah. Some of the Jews wanted to be saved from that awful fate. So John told them that instead of continuing to associate with the apostate religion of the Pharisees they should repent and be publicly washed, and if they did, any guilt by association would be removed and washed away. By changing their mind and rejecting apostate Judaism, and by baptism, the Jewish national sin for killing the Messiah would not be held against them and they would be physically saved and delivered from destruction.
Now in Acts chapter 2 we see from the context that Peter is dealing with this same issue. Peter spoke of the Day of the Lord in which the sun would be turned to darkness and the moon into blood and that those who called on the name of the Lord would be delivered. Then he said therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus WHOM YOU CRUCIFIED, both Lord and Christ. (Messiah) Then Peter said unto them, repent (change your minds about rejecting and killing Jesus) and let every one of you be baptized (publicly ceremonially washed to show outwardly that you renounce Judaism) for the remission of sins (since you now believe in Jesus your sins are forgiven and since you are ceremonially washed God remits the national sins of rejecting the Messiah which are upon you) and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Since this is not only a ceremonial washing to remove the national sins of rejecting the Messiah so that you have physical deliverance . but is also changing your mind about Jesus and believing He is Lord and Christ,
you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.)
You see, the reason Acts 2:38 is often misunderstood is that it wasnt just the question of individual salvation that was being dealt with. If that was all that was being dealt with then Peter would have just said Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. (Like He did in Acts 16:31 when dealing with a Gentile.) The historical issue of the national rejection of the Messiah and the public washing which John had instituted for the physical deliverance of individuals from the day of Gods wrath when Rome attacked Israel was also the issue.
The Jews could have simply believed in Christ and been forgiven of their individual sins but that in no way delivered them from the destruction of their nation which they were implicated in. God would still kill them if they did not publicly disassociate themselves from Israel. So not only did they need to change their minds and believe in Jesus (that would save their souls) but they also needed to publicly be washed and disassociate themselves from their Christ-killing religion so that their national sins would be removed and their lives would be saved when the Romans came to do Gods bidding.
Acts 2:38 is a passage that very few people understand. It simply isnt saying what people think it is. In order to understand it rightly, we have to understand what was going on in the first century.
We must understand that the Jewish nation of Israel by the first century actually had a very apostate and a very corrupt religion. It was led by legalistic Pharisees, theologically liberal Sadducees, a corrupt Priesthood, a worldly King and ultimately, the pagan government of Rome. Furthermore, the prophets predicted that God would send Israel a Messiah and Israel would reject Him. In light of all that, God decided to destroy the nation of Israel. He did that very thing in 70 A.D. About 35 years after Jesus ascended into heaven, Titus and the Roman army surrounded Jerusalem and slaughtered nearly everyone and destroyed the entire nation. In Luke 19: 41-44, Jesus warned them that this would happen. Since it was the time of the Passover, the Jews from all over Israel had gathered in Jerusalem and, thus, the Roman army was able to put almost the entire nation to death.
So God was planning to completely destroy the nation of Israel for rejecting their Messiah. Most everyone would die. The question was how to avoid that fate? John the Baptist was the first one to deal with that question. He showed up preaching that the Messiah was coming and that everyone needed to accept Him when He came. John said that the ax of God was already poised to strike the root of Israel and bring it down and that anyone associated with its corrupt religion would be brought down with it. But there was a way to avoid the day of Gods wrath when He sent the Roman army to kill everyone.
Instead of siding with the corrupt religion that was going to kill the Messiah, the people must change their minds and reject the corrupt religious system in Israel. However, they needed to do more than just quietly repent of their association with the Pharisees Judaism they needed to publicly announce that they were cleansing themselves of all of it by taking part in a ceremony where they were publicly washed with water. This was called baptism.
Baptism wasnt really a new thing. Sometimes a Gentile would become a convert to Judaism. In that case the Pharisees would wash or baptize the Gentile before He could become a Jew. But John was doing something shocking. He was saying that the Jewish religious system had become so corrupt that Jews needed to change their mind about it, that is, repent of it, and ceremonially wash themselves of it. By doing this, the people would be clean and prepared to welcome their Messiah when He appeared. If they would do this, then the national sins of rejecting and killing the Messiah would not be counted against them and when God sent the Romans to destroy the nation they would be saved. Later Jesus told his disciples that when they saw the Roman armies begin to encircle the city that they should immediately drop whatever they were doing and flee for the mountains. The Christians remembered this when it happened and were saved, but the rest of Israel were killed except for those that were captured or dispersed.
So the situation was that God was sending the Roman army to destroy the Israelites for rejecting their Messiah. Some of the Jews wanted to be saved from that awful fate. So John told them that instead of continuing to associate with the apostate religion of the Pharisees they should repent and be publicly washed, and if they did, any guilt by association would be removed and washed away. By changing their mind and rejecting apostate Judaism, and by baptism, the Jewish national sin for killing the Messiah would not be held against them and they would be physically saved and delivered from destruction.
Now in Acts chapter 2 we see from the context that Peter is dealing with this same issue. Peter spoke of the Day of the Lord in which the sun would be turned to darkness and the moon into blood and that those who called on the name of the Lord would be delivered. Then he said therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus WHOM YOU CRUCIFIED, both Lord and Christ. (Messiah) Then Peter said unto them, repent (change your minds about rejecting and killing Jesus) and let every one of you be baptized (publicly ceremonially washed to show outwardly that you renounce Judaism) for the remission of sins (since you now believe in Jesus your sins are forgiven and since you are ceremonially washed God remits the national sins of rejecting the Messiah which are upon you) and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Since this is not only a ceremonial washing to remove the national sins of rejecting the Messiah so that you have physical deliverance . but is also changing your mind about Jesus and believing He is Lord and Christ,
you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.)
You see, the reason Acts 2:38 is often misunderstood is that it wasnt just the question of individual salvation that was being dealt with. If that was all that was being dealt with then Peter would have just said Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. (Like He did in Acts 16:31 when dealing with a Gentile.) The historical issue of the national rejection of the Messiah and the public washing which John had instituted for the physical deliverance of individuals from the day of Gods wrath when Rome attacked Israel was also the issue.
The Jews could have simply believed in Christ and been forgiven of their individual sins but that in no way delivered them from the destruction of their nation which they were implicated in. God would still kill them if they did not publicly disassociate themselves from Israel. So not only did they need to change their minds and believe in Jesus (that would save their souls) but they also needed to publicly be washed and disassociate themselves from their Christ-killing religion so that their national sins would be removed and their lives would be saved when the Romans came to do Gods bidding.