Caesar and the Sacrament: Baptism: A Rite of Resistance by Streett R. Alan

Author:Streett, R. Alan [Streett, R. Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781498228411
Publisher: Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers
Published: 2018-01-27T16:00:00+00:00

7.2 The Human Side of Salvation

First, Peter called on his audience, as part of scattered Israel, to “repent” (μετανοήσατε), i.e., turn away from the present alliances and way of thinking, and turn back to God. “Israel as a whole needed to repent.” 201 The turning should start with this group gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate Pentecost.

Second, Peter commanded them to “be baptized” (βαπτισθήτω), i.e., immersed in water “in the name of Jesus Christ” (ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ). Baptism “in the name” distinguished Christian baptism from other Jewish immersion practices and John’s baptism. 202 Hurtado says the phrase identifies Jesus as God’s sole intermediary of salvation. 203

From the time of John the Baptist onward, repentance and baptism were connected (Luke 3:3; Acts 2:38; 13:24; 19:4). They were not conceived as being separate from each other, but together constituted conversion, the human side of salvation. 204 According to Joel and quoted by Peter earlier in his sermon, “[E]veryone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (v. 21). 205 In his closing exhortation, he urged them to take action: “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation” (v. 40).

Luke records the result: “So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added” (Acts 2:41). The restoration of the kingdom had begun.

A large swath of Jews took the necessary action to escape out from under the power of the present age, and come under the reign of God’s exalted king.

Conversion for the first Pentecostal believers entailed breaking with the past (repentance) and making a subversive sacramentum (baptism) to the one whom Rome and its Jewish collaborators crucified for treason and fomenting revolution.

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