03/02/2026
I believe Acts 2:38 is the way to salvation - repentance, baptism in Jesus’ name, and the reception of the Holy Ghost.
Some have argued that repentance and baptism are works, and as such cannot count toward salvation. They use Ephesians 2:8-9 that says we are saved by grace through faith, not of works, lest any (man) might boast. I believe repentance and baptism are not good works of men that they can boast about, but simply responsive acts of obedience that (as James said in James 2:20-22) perfect or complete our faith. In fact, study and context shows that Paul was talking about the works of Mosaic Law (Old Testament) in Ephesians 2.
I found another scripture today. In Acts, chapter 15, the disciple leaders are discussing whether new Gentile saints need to be circumcised according to the Old Mosaic Laws. Peter stands up and gives his account of the salvation coming to Cornelius (Gentiles) in Acts 10. He states that they were saved ‘just as we Jews’ were. How were they saved? They received the Holy Ghost, evidenced by speaking in unknown tongues (Acts 10), just as the Jews did in Acts 2. Peter and the other apostles baptized on the day of Pentecost in Acts 4, and Peter commanded the Gentiles to be baptized in Jesus’ name in Acts 10. He goes on to say there is no difference between them and us. So why, Peter asks, do we want to put yokes (of Old Covenant Law, which no one was able to bear) on the new Gentile saints?
But this is the verse that stood out to me, verse 11” “But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we are saved, even as they.”
Peter didn’t say that the way they had been saved in Acts 2 and Acts 10 was done away with, just because they were saved by the grace of God. In fact, he reposted how they all, Jew and Gentile alike, had been saved. And if you read on down in Acts 15, we see that they did not require circumcision for the Gentiles to be part of the new Church. But there is plenty of evidence that repentance and baptism in Jesus name, along with reception of the Holy Ghost, evidenced by speaking in tongues, continued (see Acts 19, for example.)
Grace has never done away with the ordinance of obedience to God’s commandments. No matter the particular covenant man has had with God, all were dependent, on man’s part, of obedience to what God required for Him to hold up His end of the particular covenant. There are plenty of examples in Scripture to show the disobedient do not make heaven.
