Repent and Be Baptized

The proper response to the gospel is given to us in Acts 2:
“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?’ And Peter said to them,
‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”
The first thing Peter says is to “repent.” Repentance means to change one’s
mind which naturally leads to changing one’s life. It’s a turning away from evil,
a turning towards God and towards righteousness.

I think maybe the best illustration of repentance is the story Jesus told about
the two sons. The father ordered one son to go into the field and work. The
son said he would but he didn’t go. When the father ordered the other son, he
refused but then changed his mind and went. Jesus asked, “Which of the two
sons did his father’s will?”

That’s what repentance is, an admission of wrongdoing and then doing what
you should have done in the first place. It’s turning away from evil and
seeking God and his righteousness.

The second thing Peter tells them to do is to be baptized.

Baptism is the new birth, to be born of water and the Spirit. Through baptism,
we symbolically participate in the death and resurrection of Jesus when we’re
buried with him in baptism and raised to walk in newness of life. It is the time
when the old self is destroyed and a new self is created. Our sins are washed
away and we are reconciled to God through Jesus’ blood.

The Protestant Reformers had it wrong when they said that salvation is
entirely the work of God. Salvation is entirely by the power of God, but we are
called on to cooperate with him.

We find example after example in the Bible that demonstrates the truth of this
principle. The marching around the walls of Jericho, Naaman being
commanded to dip himself 7 times in the Jordan, and the blind man being told
by Jesus to wash himself in the pool. In each case, it was the power of God
that produced the desired result—the walls came down, Naaman was
cleansed of his leprosy, and the blind man received his sight. But in each
case, the people were told to do something in order to receive God’s gift.
– Kurt Paquette