Then Peter said unto them
Being the mouth of the apostles, and being ready to give advice,
and speak a word of comfort to their distressed minds:
repent:
change your minds, entertain other thoughts, and a different
opinion of Jesus of Nazareth, than you have done; consider him,
and believe in him, as the true Messiah and Saviour of the world;
look upon him, not any more as an impostor, and a blasphemer, but
as sent of God, and the only Redeemer of Israel; change your
voice and way of speaking of him, and your conduct towards his
disciples and followers; a change of mind will produce a change
of actions in life and conversation: bring forth fruits meet for
repentance; and make an open and hearty profession of repentance
for this your sin. And this the apostle said, to distinguish
between a legal and an evangelical repentance; the former is
expressed in their being pricked to the heart, on which they were
not to depend; the latter he was desirous they might have, and
show forth; which springs from the love of God, is attended with
views, or at least hopes of pardoning grace and mercy, and with
faith in Christ Jesus: it lies in a true sight and sense of sin,
under the illuminations and convictions of the Spirit of God; in
a sorrow for it, after a godly sort, and because it is committed
against a God of love, grace, and mercy, and it shows itself in
loathing sin, and in shame for it, in an ingenuous
acknowledgement of it, and in forsaking it: and this is moreover
urged, to show the necessity of it, as to salvation, for such
that God would not have perish, he will have come to repentance;
so to their admission to the ordinance of baptism, to which
repentance is a pre-requisite; and to which the apostle next
advises:
and be baptized everyone of you;
that repents and believes; that is, in water, in which John
administered the ordinance of baptism; in which Christ himself
was baptized, and in which the apostles of Christ administered
it; in this Philip baptized the eunuch; and in this were the
persons baptized that were converted in Cornelius's house; and it
is distinguished from the baptism of the Spirit, or with fire,
the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit mentioned in the last
clause of this verse; and which ordinance of water baptism was
administered by immersion, as the places, Jordan and Aenon, where
John performed it, and the instances of it particularly in
Christ, and in the eunuch, and the end of it, which is to
represent the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, as well
as the primary signification of the word, show. And this is to be
done,
in the name of Jesus Christ;
not to the exclusion of the Father, and of the Spirit, in whose
name also this ordinance is to be administered, ( Matthew
28:19 ) but the name of Jesus Christ is particularly
mentioned, because of these Jews, who had before rejected and
denied him as the Messiah; but now, upon their repentance and
faith, they are to be baptized in his name, by his authority,
according to his command; professing their faith in him, devoting
themselves to him, and calling on his name. The end for which
this was to be submitted to, is,
for the remission of sins;
not that forgiveness of sin could be procured either by
repentance, or by baptism; for this is only obtained by the blood
of Christ; but the apostle advises these awakened, sensible,
repenting, and believing souls, to submit to baptism, that by it
their faith might be led to Christ, who suffered and died for
their sins, who left them buried in his grave, and who rose again
for their justification from them; all which is, in a most lively
manner, represented in the ordinance of baptism by immersion: the
encouragement to it follows,
and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy
Ghost:
not the grace of the Spirit, as a regenerator and sanctifier; for
that they had already; and is necessary, as previous to baptism;
unless it should mean confirmation of that grace, and stability
in it, as it appears from ( Acts 2:42 ) they
afterwards had; but rather the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit,
particularly the gift of speaking with tongues, which Christ had
received from the Father, and had now shed on his apostles; see (
Acts
19:5-6 ) .