Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

Expositions of Holy Scripture: the Acts by Alexander Maclaren
page 70 of 810 (08%)
sin, whereas it means a change of disposition or mind, which will be
accompanied, no doubt, with 'godly sorrow,' but is in itself deeper
than sorrow, and is the turning away of heart and will from past love
and practice of evil. The second, baptism, is 'in the name of Jesus
Christ,' or more accurately, '_upon_ the name,'--that is, on the
ground of the revealed character of Jesus. That necessarily implies
faith in that Name; for, without such faith, the baptism would not be
on the ground of the Name. The two things are regarded as
inseparable, being the inside and the outside of the Christian
discipleship. Repentance, faith, baptism, these three, are called for
by Peter.

But 'remission of sins' is not attached to the immediately preceding
clause, so as that baptism is said to secure remission, but to the
whole of what goes before in the sentence. Obedience to the
requirements would bring the same gift to the obedient as the
disciples had received; for it would make them disciples also. But,
while repentance and baptism which presupposed faith were the normal,
precedent conditions of the Spirit's bestowal, the case of Cornelius,
where the Spirit was given before baptism, forbids the attempt to
link the rite and the divine gift more closely together.

The Apostle was eager to share the gift. The more we have of the
Spirit, the more shall we desire that others may have Him, and the
more sure shall we be that He is meant for all. So Peter went on to
base his assurance, that his hearers might all possess the Spirit, on
the universal destination of the promise. Joel had said, 'on all
flesh'; Peter declares that word to point downwards through all
generations, and outwards to all nations. How swiftly had he grown in
grasp of the sweep of Christ's work! How far beneath that moment of
DigitalOcean Referral Badge