Читать книгу The Acts of the Apostles - William Barclay - Страница 22

SAVE YOURSELVES

Acts 2:37–41

When they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and they said to Peter and to the other apostles: ‘Brethren, what are we to do?’ Peter said to them: ‘Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for this promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off, to all those whom the Lord your God invites.’ With many other words he gave his witness and he urged them: ‘Save yourselves from this crooked generation.’ So they accepted his word and were baptized, and on that day there were added to them about 3,000 people.

THIS passage shows with crystal clarity the effect of the cross. When people realized just what they had done in crucifying Jesus, their hearts were broken. ‘I,’ said Jesus, ‘when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself’ (John 12:32). Everyone has had a hand in that event. Once, a missionary told the story of Jesus in an Indian village. Afterwards, he showed the life of Christ in slides projected against the whitewashed wall of a house. When the cross appeared on the wall, one man rose from the audience and ran forward, crying: ‘Come down from that cross, Son of God. I, not you, should be hanging there.’ The cross, when we understand what happened there, must pierce our hearts.

That experience demands a reaction. ‘Repent,’ said Peter, ‘first and foremost.’ What does repentance mean? The word originally meant an afterthought. Often, a second thought shows that the first thought was wrong; and so the word came to mean a change of mind. But, if we are honest, a change of mind demands a change of action. Repentance must involve both change of mind and change of action. We may change our minds and come to see that our actions were wrong; but we may be so much in love with our old ways that we will not change them. We may change our ways but our minds remain the same, changing only because of fear or prudence. True repentance involves a change of mind and a change of action.

When repentance comes, something happens to the past. There is God’s forgiveness for what lies behind. Let us be quite clear that the consequences of sins are not wiped out. Not even God can do that. When we sin, we may well do something to ourselves and to others which cannot be undone. Let us look at it this way. When we were young and had done something bad, there was an invisible barrier between us and our mother. But when we went and said we were sorry, the old relationship was restored, and everything was right between us again. Forgiveness does not abolish the consequences of what we have done, but it puts us right with God.

When repentance comes, something happens for the future. We receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and in that power we can win battles we never thought to win and resist things which by ourselves we would have been powerless to resist.