Repentance, Baptism And The Gift Of The Holy Spirit -- By: Ned B. Stonehouse

Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 13:1 (Nov 1950)
Article: Repentance, Baptism And The Gift Of The Holy Spirit
Author: Ned B. Stonehouse


Repentance, Baptism And The Gift Of The Holy Spirit

N. B. Stonehouse

THE title of this article is suggested by the language of Acts 2:38, a passage rendered in the RV as follows: “Repent ye and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”. And the purpose of this study is to reflect upon some of the basic problems with which these words of the apostle Peter confront the reader of Acts. In particular I have in view certain questions that relate to the teaching concerning the Holy Spirit as that comes to expression in this verse and in the larger context of this Lucan writing. Repentance and baptism will be under discussion very largely only as that may be required to illumine the basic question of the nature of the operations of the Holy Spirit.

An advantage of this approach is that, whereas such matters as repentance and baptism are not reflected upon with sufficient frequency and fulness to allow dogmatic formulations of these doctrines on the basis of the data of Acts alone, there is a pervasive occupation with the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. The distinctive approach of Luke to the history of the Christian church which he records may be summed up in terms of an interpretation of its origins and development as being basically and conspicuously the work of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is viewed as the foundation of all that follows. The age depicted in Acts is the age of the Spirit, an age that stands apart as “the last days” of prophecy (Acts 2:17) which have been decisively introduced by the divine action in “pouring out” the Spirit.

Acts indeed is not narrowly pneumatological. The promise of the Spirit is “the promise of the Father” (1:4; Luke 24:49). And it is the exalted Christ who pours out the Spirit (2:33), and thus is understood as carrying forward his ministry

following his ascension through the Spirit (cf. 1:1 f., 4 f., 8). The work of the Spirit is thus integrated with that of the Father and of the Son. Nevertheless, it is the baptism and enduement of the Spirit that is pervasively and most conspicuously in the foreground.

So much would perhaps be generally admitted today as to the general approach of Acts to Christian history. But thereafter divergent viewpoints emerge, and many such dif...

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