Acts 2:37-41 - Need for Salvation, not Correction

Peter's Spirit-inspired sermon was so stirring that the crowds wanted to know what to do. It must be said, that what had happened was not to emphasize Peter's skill in delivering the message, but to reveal what a Spirit-empowered message could do.

What the people wanted to know essentially was how to eradicate the guilt for participating in what was wrong.  And there's nothing one can personally do to remove the guilt of one's wrong. The answer lies in what God had done through Christ.

So Peter did not give them a step-by-step instruction to eradicate their guilt. He offered them the plan to be reconciled with God.  It's the plan of salvation.  This is God's way to a forgiven and liberated life in the Spirit.

This salvation plan requires a U-turn from one's past and a participation in the life-giving Spirit offered in Christ. For this is what "to repent and be baptised in the name of Jesus" mean.

The wonderful truth of this whole episode is the fact that this promise was not just for the early eye-witnesses, but also to us subsequent hearers of this truth. How do we know? Verse 39 tells us so. "For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”

Verses 40-41 tell us that Peter kept on with many other encouraging words. With seriousness he kept  on testifying and urging the people to "Be saved from this perverse generation." The result of Peter's Spirit-empowered sermon, 3,000 souls were saved and baptised in one day!

The crux of what Peter had said is this: the way to a liberated life is not in a plan that will bring correction, but in the plan that had brought salvation. This is offered in Christ Jesus.

What Peter said still points us to what God had done. A forgiven life is not found in what we can do but in what God had done. Self-will cannot get us there. It is celebrating and participating in what Christ had accomplished.

So Paul in Ephesians 5:17 urged us, "...do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is."