Acts 3:19
“Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord,”
Where this sits
Peter preaching in the temple after a lame man was healed, to a crowd that had been present weeks earlier at the crucifixion.
Reflection
Blotted out is a technical term from the ancient world, and it describes a specific physical act.
Documents were written in ink that sat on the surface of papyrus rather than soaking into it. A debt could therefore be cancelled by wiping the writing off with a wet sponge, leaving the sheet blank and reusable. Nothing was scratched out or crossed through; the record simply stopped existing while the material it was written on remained.
That is the image Peter reaches for while addressing a crowd in Jerusalem, some of whom had been in the city when Jesus was killed weeks earlier. He does not soften what they had done — a few verses back he says plainly that they had disowned the Holy One and asked for a murderer instead. Then he offers the sponge.
Two verbs come first, and they are not the same. Repent is a change of mind. Turn again is a change of direction — the body following the mind. Peter asks for both, in that order, and gives no other conditions.
And what follows is unexpected: times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. The Greek suggests cool air, a breath, relief after heat. Peter does not describe forgiveness primarily as safety from consequences. He describes it as weather changing.
- Theme:
- Forgiveness
- Book:
- Acts