🌊WEB · Acts 2:38
What does Acts 2:38 mean?
"Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
— Acts 2:38 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’
“Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.”
With many other words he testified, and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”
Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. There were added that day about three thousand souls.
Explanation
Acts 2:38 captures Peter's response to a crowd that had just been cut to the heart by his sermon on the day of Pentecost. In plain language, Peter tells them to do two things: repent, meaning to turn away from sin and change the direction of their lives, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. He promises two results that follow from this response: the forgiveness of their sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is a call-and-response moment—the crowd asked "what shall we do?" and this verse is Peter's direct answer.
The context is essential to understanding the verse. Peter is addressing a large gathering of Jews in Jerusalem shortly after Jesus' resurrection and ascension, on the Jewish feast of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit has just been poured out on the apostles, enabling them to speak in other languages, and this miraculous event drew a crowd. Peter preached that Jesus, whom this audience had rejected and had a hand in crucifying, was indeed the Messiah, raised from the dead and exalted by God. The crowd's reaction was conviction and distress ("what shall we do?"), and Acts 2:38 is Peter's pastoral and apostolic instruction for how to respond rightly to that conviction. This is the founding sermon of the early church, and this verse represents one of the first articulations of how a person enters into new life in Christ.
Theologically, the verse ties together several significant threads of New Testament teaching. Repentance signals an inward change—a turning from rebellion against God to tr
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