Amen! Let's be honest about the Greek here and admit that grammatically there are different possibilities for interpretation of the verse.
There are basically two very different interpretations of Acts 2:38.
1. The interpretation of the Church Fathers, the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Anglican churches, the Lutheran churches, the Methodist churches, and the Presbyterian churches.
2. The interpretation of Churches which hold to Baptist theology.
Our theology is going to dictate how we interpret it: there is no way to get around that fact.
I am a theologically conservative
Baptist Christian, but I know better than to read my Baptist theology into a verse like Acts 2:38 which is expressly clear unless one reads his Baptist theology into the verse.
Acts 2:22. “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—
Acts 2:23. this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
Acts 2:24. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
Acts 2:25. For David says concerning him, “‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;
Acts 2:26. therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope.
Acts 2:27. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption.
Acts 2:28. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’
Acts 2:29. “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
Acts 2:30. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne,
Acts 2:31. he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.
Acts 2:32. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.
Acts 2:33. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
Acts 2:34. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand,
Acts 2:35. until I make your enemies your footstool.”’
Acts 2:36. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Acts 2:37. Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Acts 2:38. And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:39. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” (ESV, 2011)
Peter’s preaching in Acts 2:22-36 convicted his Jewish audience of the fact that they had crucified the man whom God had made both Lord and Christ, and they asked Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replies and tells them that they must “repent and be baptized” (μετανοήσατε, καὶ βαπτισθήτω). The construction in both the Greek and the English shows that both acts are of equal weight—and that both acts are necessary!
Moreover, we know from 1 Peter 3:18-22 that Peter believed that water baptism, when it is “an appeal to God for a good conscience,” “saves” the recipients of water baptism.
1 Peter 3:18. For Christ also died for sins once for all,
the just for
the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;
19. in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits
now in prison,
20. who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through
the water.
21. Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience--through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
22. who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him. (NASB, 1995)
Peter finds here a correspondence between the water of the flood and the water of baptism. The water of the flood lifted the Ark and the eight persons aboard it up out the sinful world that was being destroyed. Corresponding to that, water baptism, when it is not merely the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience, now saves us. Compare Colossians 1:9-14,
Col. 1:9. For this reason also, since the day we heard
of it we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
10. so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please
Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
11. strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously
12. giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.
13. For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,
14. in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (NASB, 1995)
The water of the flood lifted the Ark and the eight persons aboard it up out the sinful world that was being destroyed; Christ “rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.”
Peter sees salvation being accomplished through water baptism. Paul apparently did also,
Titus 3:4. But when the kindness of God our Savior and
His love for mankind appeared,
5. He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
6. whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
7. so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to
the hope of eternal life. (NASB, 1995)
Paul clearly states here that God our Savior “saved us… by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.” Paul and Peter were both Jews, and to a Jew washing with water for spiritual cleaning and water baptism were very closely related to each other. The very large majority of New Testament scholars believe that both Paul and Peter taught that water baptism is effectual for the salvation, and the Early Church Fathers taught that God’s Grace for salvation was conferred upon believers through water baptism. This appears to me to have been the case in the Early Church, not as the exclusive means of conferring grace, but as the typical means. In Acts 10:44, we find a definite exception, and in my experience, the exception has become the norm.
