Though specific grammatical points
have been hotly contested (e.g., the meaning of eis or whether “for the
remission of sins” modifies the verb “baptized”), the most significant function
of Acts 2:38-39 is sometimes neglected. Joel prophesied that God would pour out
the Spirit on “all flesh” (Acts 2:17), and John’s work prepared the way for “all
flesh” to see God’s salvation (Luke 3:6). Peter announces that those who repent
and are baptized in the name of Jesus will receive the promise of the Holy Spirit,
the epitome of a redeemed people. To be “baptized” in (epi) the name” of
Jesus is to participate in restored Israel as people who “call on (epikalestai)
the name of the Lord” (Acts 2:21, 38). They are baptized “upon the name of
Jesus” as they “call upon” the name of Jesus for salvation (Acts 22:16). These
baptized believes from all over the world constitute a new community as restored
Israel. As others are baptized in the “name of Jesus,” the Samaritans in Acts
8:16 or the Gentiles (‘the ends of the earth”) in Acts 10;48, they, too, join
the same community. The restored people of God transcend ethnic and social
boundaries; it includes “all flesh.”
The ”promise” belongs to this
community (Acts 2:39), including the “promise” of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 2:33)
and much more. The promised Spirit is evidence of the fulfillment of God’s
promises to Abraham, including the promise that his seed would bless all nations.
The presence of the Spirit is a partial fulfillment, a down payment of sorts,
which looks forward to the full implantation of God’s promises when the peoples
of God inherit the cosmos (Rom 4:13). This new community, the church, is the
heir of Abraham through the work of the Messiah. (John Mark Hicks, Enter the
Water Come to the Table: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper in Scripture’s Story of
New Creation [Abilene, Tex.: Abilene Christian University, 2014], 63-64)
