CONCERNING ACTS 2:38 - C!

It is odd how some passages of scripture become especially associated with a particular religious group. Whether Pentecostals or premillennialists, Adventists or Mormons, it is rather predictable what verses a particular persuasion will stress. This is not particularly bad, but it may be presumed that the more catholic a people become the less this sort of thing will be true of them. That we in Churches of Christ have our select passages cannot be denied. If the Baptists have John 3:16, then we have Acts 2:38; and that of course does not keep either of them from being among the great texts of the Bible.

Acts 2:38 has become a pivotal reference by which values are weighed. It is common among us to hear, “If we taught that like we do Acts 2:38 ...” And it is sometimes shortened, as I recall one letter reading, “And that is just as important as 2:38.” I even understood one correspondent who complained, “We’ve had enough of ‘38’; what we need now is lessons on Christian living.” Out west of Pecos it is something else to talk about a “38”, but it is safe to say among our folk that “38”, certainly 2:38, comes as near being a talisman as anything.

It is something like gopher wood. Some of our folk hear little of mesquite, sassafras, or gum but they are all at home with gopher. And it is always predictable in what context “the wood” will appear. At a summit meeting of some Christian Church and Church of Christ leaders in St. Louis some years back there was some rather candid exchanges on the instrumental music question. Some of the highly educated Christian Church men asked the non-instrumentalists to state precisely just what their objections were to the instrument. One prominent preacher was soon saying, “Well, you know God told Noah to use gopher wood.” The conversation went on and on, brotherly as well as informative. When it came time for that same preacher to say a word further, he advised, “Now God told Noah to use gopher wood on that ark, and that excluded all other wood.” It doesn’t particularly help when our Christian Church brothers point out that the gopher wood is quite beside the point, for it is a question as to whether Noah was left free to use hammer, saw or chisel, though they are not specified, in erecting the ark.

Well, this is not a discussion on instrumental music. I am only saying that some things, like gopher wood and 2:38, have gained a place in our repertoire. If I had a wood specialty shop, I’d like to handle gopher. It would really be something for a faithful brother to point with pride to his decorative mantle and say, “It’s gopher.” And how about a salad bowl made of gopher? And a bathtub? Well, there’s no need for intemperance.

As for Acts 2:38, I must admit that I glory in its great truths, and there are few passages that say so much in so few words. I might even agree with the brother that insists it is the greatest passage of holy writ. But I must question if it is really our passage all that much. It has three parts you know: a, b, and c. We have done our thing with a and b. but how about c? Acts 2:38c! A reference like that will arouse them from their nodding.

“Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized” is a; “everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins” is b; “and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” is c. Acts 2:38c. I recommend this as a fresh new scriptural reference for our people and for all the world.

Old Walter Scott, the golden oracle of the Restoration Movement, was well aware of Acts 2:38c when he reduced the plan of salvation to the fingers of one hand. He fingered them off with great success, and to the fascination of Alexander Campbell: faith, repentance, baptism, remission of sins, and the Holy Spirit. He would point out that the first three were man’s part and the last two God’s part. Scott would enter a town, go to a school and go over the finger exercise with the kids, telling them to bring their parents to hear him that night. His success was phenomenal, and he is credited with getting the Movement off the ground through mass conversion.

The finger exercise has remained with us through the years, sometimes referred to as the steps of salvation. There are still five steps, but they have changed, for the familiar H-B-R-C-B that have found their way onto many a blackboard and chart stand for hear, believe, repent, confess, baptize. It adds hear, which Scott would assume to be implied, and confess, which he would not see as formal but as a continuing profession of the believer. And it deletes remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. It proposes to set forth all” that man is to do to be saved, but it omits what God does for man, which was an important part of Scott’s presentation.

The omission of the Holy Spirit in the “Steps” approach testifies to what has happened to us as a people in recent generations. Like those Paul met at Ephesus, many of our people barely know that the Holy Spirit has ever been given, and the notion that the Spirit is virtually equivalent to the written Word is still prevalent. Some of our people have an appreciation for the gift of the Spirit, but they hardly accept the idea that he is really at work in their lives today. The truth is that our people generally are uncomfortable in a conversation about the Holy Spirit. He is largely absent in our teaching and preaching. If in our presentation of the plan of salvation, which most of our folk were nourished on, we had stressed the mission of the Spirit, as Scott did, we would be a more spiritual people today.

Our neglect cannot be attributed to any ambiguity in scripture, for Acts 2:38c has been there all along, and it is clear enough that the Holy Spirit is ours as a gift from God when we respond to the gospel in faith and obedience. Peter speaks of “the promise” that is for all, and in Eph. 1:14 Paul assures us that we received “the seal of the promised Holy Spirit,” which he relates to the eventual redemption of our bodies. He stresses the fact that our bodies are shrines of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor.6:1 9), and in Rom. 8:9 he says that “if one does not possess the Spirit of Christ, he is not a Christian” (NEB). We may presume that if that verse had said about baptism what it says of the Spirit that it would have top billing all these years.

That every believer receives the Spirit is evident enough throughout the scriptures.

“The Holy Spirit is given by God to those who are obedient to him” (Acts 5:32).

“The heavenly Father gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Lk. 11:13).

“Did you receive the Spirit by keeping the law or by believing the gospel message” (Gal. 3:2)?

“Do not give way to drunkenness and the dissipation that goes with it, but let the Holy Spirit fill you” (Eph. 5:18).

“God’s love has flooded our inmost heart through the Holy Spirit he has given us” (Rom. 5:5).

“God bestows upon you his Holy Spirit” (1 Thess. 4:8).

This heavenly Guest is not some slothful roomer who gratuitously imposes himself upon us, but he is busy doing His thing in our lives, blessing us to the degree that we release our will to his direction.

He makes intercession for us and helps us in our weakness (Rom. 8:26). He confirms that we are sons of God by His presence (Gal. 4:6). He floods our hearts with love (Rom. 5:5). He illumines our inward eyes so that we might better understand the wealth of our blessings (Eph. 1:18). He moves and directs our lives (Rom. 8:14). He harvests in our lives such fruit as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22). He gives us the Word of God, the sword (Eph. 6:17). He gives the church sundry gifts for its edification (Rom. 12:6-8). “In each of us the Spirit is manifested in one particular way, for some useful purpose” (1 Cor.12:7).

In the light of all this I’d say Acts 2:38c deserves an A, and it should be moved up somewhat in our list of priorities.—the Editor