| The Problem | | Acts 2:38--The "Causal eis" Debate | | Acts 2:32--The Burden for the Causal eis | | Acts 2:38--The analysis of the Causal Eis | | Acts 2:38 - Blood Guilt: Forgiveness or Justification? | | Acts 2:38 -- Blood Guilt: Corporate and Personal | | Acts 2:38 -- Blood Guilt: Resolution and Closure | | Acts 2:38 --A Covenant People and The Covenant | | Acts 2:38 --A Covenant People and The Church Age | | Acts 2:38 --A Covenant People: The Structure of Acts | | Acts 2:38 --A Covenant People: Escaping National Judgment | | Acts 2:38 -- Conclusion |
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Salvation and Water Baptism
by
Ronald R. Shea, Th.M., J.D.
Acts 2:38
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Unresolved Guilt
Around the time of my 30th high school graduation, I determined that If I saw Linda, I would make an apology, now matter how uncomfortable. Browsing on my high school website, I navigated to the page that memorialized my classmates who have passed away. I was saddened when I saw that Linda's name had been added to the list of my deceased classmates. Yes, every sin I have ever committed, and every sin I ever will commit, has been washed in the blood of the Lamb. I will stand faultless before the throne, dressed in his righteousness alone. But a legal standing is not the only matter in life. Life is made up of relationships, and to whatever capacity we have, any decent person as a desire to make things right when he is done wrong. At the very least, to confess the wrong, and to ask forgiveness from the party one has wronged. Jesus spoke of this in Matthew 5:23-24. and, as I noted above, "coming clean" is as much for the benefit of a party who has committed a wrong as it is for the benefit of the party has been wronged.
Jews from every nation stood there listening to Peter, cut to the heart. The death and resurrection of Jesus had already taken place. It was too late to take a stand for the life of an innocent man. As with my relationship with Linda, there is ultimately nothing that these men could make right the crucifixion of their Messiah. But they weren't asking Peter about their eternal justification. When they cried out "what shall we do?" it was not a quest for eternal life. It was not quest for a legal standing before God which had already been guaranteed them by the death of the Christ. They simply spoke as men, with the same sense of guilt I have about my offensive remarks that hurt a friend. In the Old Testament, one of the sacrificial offerings was a "peace offering." In many places in the New Testament, such as Matthew 5:23-24, Jesus instructed us to make things right with someone whom we have offended. |
A Wise Pastor
There is, even within the heart of fallen man, not only a thirst for eternal life, but a nobility, not to glibly dismiss or trivialize our sins, but to look squarely in the eyes of the one whom we have offended, and acknowledge what we have done, and ask forgiveness face to face. It was no different for these first century Jews. They bore a special guilt that no other people in history have borne. After centuries of prophecy, the Messiah had visited them, and they killed. These Jews from every nation now sought, as men, to clear their conscience. Peter could hardly tell them to go to the Priest and offer a peace offering. The high priest had been the one who condemned the Christ. And, as the book of Hebrews would later explain, the entire priesthood had been done away with. Yet there they stood, openhanded, with the blood of an innocent man on their head. "What shall we do?" Is their question any different from ours when we have committed or wrong. Is not baptism a wonderful symbol for the washing away of blood guilt? Is it so hard to believe that such a ritual would help to reify in their hearts the reality of Christ's forgiveness? It has often been said that First John 1:9 is not for God, but for men. Or said from the pulpit "it God seems far away, guess who moved?" Regardless of one's view of the papacy, whether someone Catholic or Protestant, regardless of what one believes what the "keys" represented, the fact remains that the keys had been given to Peter ("soi", dative singular). As the new shepherd of the Jerusalem church, the responsibility fell on him not only to guide his flock and doctrinal soundness, but to address their deep-rooted emotional needs as human beings with blood guilt on their heads. Is there one among us who can think of a better answer than the one uttered by Peter? "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
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Acts 2:38 -- Blood Guilt: Resolution and Closure |
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