Repent therefore and be converted, for the blotting out of your sins, so that times of refreshing may come from [the] presence of the Lord,
Peter speaks these words in Solomon's porch, to a crowd from the nation that had just crucified Jesus. His call ties a change in the hearers to a change in the world's future.
The verse gives one appeal in two words, and writers keep them distinct. Repentance is what the mind does; conversion is what the will does.
It is literally an after-thought, or changed thought. It is a judgment the mind forms on reflection, after it has already held another one. In Scripture it usually means the judgment I form in God's sight about my own past conduct and feelings... Conversion itself may follow repentance. By conversion I mean the full, deliberate turning of the heart to God. "Repent," says Peter, "and be converted." Conversion is the turning of the will to God.
The appeal in Acts 2 and the appeal here are not aimed at the same target. One gathered people out of the nation. This one puts a proposal to the nation itself.
Peter made a very remarkable proposal to Israel that day in Solomon's porch. In Acts 2 his appeal was to individuals, and those who responded at once stood apart from "this crooked generation." In Acts 3 the same preacher appealed to the nation as such... The heavens had received Him until the times of the restoring of all things. Now it was for Israel to say whether that time of universal blessing should begin at once.
After such a crime, an offer of blotted-out sins seems impossible. Commentators trace it back to what Jesus prayed on the cross.
Yet Israel is not at once set aside; on the contrary, "to the Jew first" the message of grace is proclaimed. Not only as individuals, but as a nation too... So, at the cross, the Lord intercedes: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Peter then proclaims to them that God accepted that prayer: "And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers."
Some older translations link the two halves of the verse with the word "when." One writer works from a rendering that reads "so that," and draws out what that changes.
The verse ends with a promise, however. It does not say "when," but "so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and He may send Jesus Christ, who was foreordained for you." Jesus had returned on high because the Jewish nation rejected Him. Yet the nation could still repent and turn to Him. If it did, God was ready to send Him back and bring in the times of kingdom refreshing. God made this promise in complete good faith. Yet He also knew that the nation as such would not change its mind about Christ. However rebellious Israel was, God would give them full opportunity to repent.
The blotting out is God's act, but it is not detached from what happens inside a person. One writer draws out both the ground of the pardon and the road to it.
They judge themselves before God and acknowledge their sins. Then divine grace blots those sins out, in the blood of their own Messiah. There is no other way. But oh, how moving beyond words for them above all people! But again, the power of the blood of Christ is precious. Yet no soul ever receives real blessing apart from the judgment of sin — of self — in the conscience.
The phrase is not vague comfort. It names a coming era, and it comes in a fixed order with the restoring of all things.
The times of refreshing would seem to be the gracious prelude to that great climax, "the times of restoration" of all things. Then righteousness shall reign. It would seem also that repentance and conversion of sinners will hasten the times of refreshing.
- Repent — a changed judgment of yourself, formed in God's sight. The mind reverses its verdict on your own past.
- Turn — conversion adds the will to the mind: the deliberate turning of the heart to God, which is why Peter says both.
- Blotted out — the pardon rests on the blood of the Messiah they rejected. It reaches a person through self-judgment, never around it.
- Refreshing — repentance does not just precede blessing; it aims at it: "so that," not "when."
- Restoration — Peter put his proposal to the nation. The world's wider blessing still waits on Israel's repentance, and on God sending Jesus back from heaven.
and he may send Jesus Christ, who was foreordained for you,
Peter's second sermon follows the healing of the lame man at the temple gate. It ends with an offer: if the nation turns back, God will send Jesus to them again. Two questions follow. What is this "refreshing"? And was the offer real?
Writers note a shift between Peter's first sermon and this one. In Acts 2 people were called out of a guilty generation one by one; here the nation itself is addressed.
A very remarkable offer was made to Israel that day in Solomon's porch. In Acts 2 Peter appealed to people one by one, and those who responded were at once separated from "this crooked generation." In Acts 3 the same preacher appealed to the nation as a whole. He called on the people to repent and turn to God. He promised them that if they did, their sins would be blotted out, and times of refreshing would come from the presence of the Lord. What is more, God would send Jesus back... Note carefully that the world's blessing waits for Israel's repentance. While that nation stays in unbelief, Jesus remains in the heavens, and the evil rule of the devil goes on.
Older translations read "when the times of refreshing shall come." Commentators press for "so that": repentance brings the refreshing. The ESV agrees.
It is clear that the apostle calls on the Jews to repent and turn to God, so that their sins might be blotted out. And this is so that (not when) the times of refreshing might come from the presence of the Lord, and He might send Jesus Christ... We do not doubt that Peter then saw the repentance of Israel as possible, if not likely. The passage itself shows that, if they repented, Jesus would certainly be sent from heaven without delay.
If the offer was real, why did nothing come of it?
Jesus had returned on high because the Jewish nation rejected Him. Yet if the nation itself would repent and turn to Him, God was ready to send Him back to bring in the times of kingdom refreshing. Of course, this promise was given in perfectly good faith, yet at the same time God knew that the nation as such would not change their mind concerning Christ. However rebellious Israel was, God would give them full opportunity to repent.
Another writer draws the same line between what we owe God and what God has planned.
God knows beforehand how people will receive the testimony, and He acts in that knowledge. Our responsibility is quite another thing. Christ presented Himself as Messiah to the Jews to confirm the promises, and they were bound to receive Him. Yet His rejection became the basis on which God accomplished all His purposes.
The wording marks Jesus out as the One already designated for this people — the very Man they had driven away is the One God holds in reserve for them.
Verses 19, 20 are given accurately: "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send the Christ who has been appointed for you, even Jesus."
Some read the refreshing as a fresh outpouring of the Spirit. Commentators answer that the Spirit had already come — it was the Spirit speaking through Peter who pointed forward to something else.
It is impossible to apply this passage to the Holy Spirit. He had already come down at that time, and had said through the apostle, "whom heaven must receive until the times of restoring all things." And in truth, the Holy Spirit has not restored all things.
The timing of Peter's words is itself the argument. Pentecost was the high point of the Spirit's power, and Peter spoke at that very moment.
This was the exact moment the Holy Spirit seized, through the apostle Peter, to declare as strongly as possible that these times are still future. A further mighty change must still take place. It will not come by fresh or repeated missions of the Holy Spirit on Christians or for Christian purposes, but by sending Jesus — that Jesus who has gone away to heaven.
Christ is sent to repair, not to wipe out. Writers also mark the limits of that repair.
Christ will be sent, according to these testimonies, not for the destruction, but for the restoring of all things.
Some have pressed the apostle's words to make them include even the unpardoned dead. The restoration does not go beyond what "God has spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets." No prophet tells us to look for the restoring to God's favour of men who have died in their sins.
The offer stood open until Stephen. His death was the reply.
Jesus was still "standing" in glory, ready to fulfil what Peter had said in Acts 3:20, if only they had repented. They did not repent, but gave a violent refusal by stoning Stephen and sending him after his Master.
- Offer. Peter addresses the nation as a whole and lays before it a return of the very Messiah it had rejected.
- Condition. The sense is "so that," not "when." Repentance comes first. Then the refreshing, and Jesus sent without delay.
- Person. The refreshing is not a further work of the Spirit, who had already come; it waits on Christ being sent from heaven.
- Scope. He comes to restore, not to destroy. But the restoring reaches only as far as the prophets spoke. It does not reach those who died in their sins.
- Result. Israel refused, and Stephen's death sealed the refusal. The times are put off, not cancelled. They wait for Jesus to be sent.