A crowd has gathered at Solomon’s Portico to discover how a lame beggar is suddenly leaping without restraint and giving God all the praise (Acts 3:8–11). Peter lets the crowd know that it is not his by his own power that he is healed, but the power of Jesus Christ, who was rejected by the crowd as their Messiah (Acts 3:12–16). Peter tells them to repent of their sins in addition to the corporate sin of Jesus’ crucifixion.

“Repent” is from the Greek root word metanoeō. It doesn’t mean “to apologize;” it means to acknowledge your way is wrong and God’s way is right. It’s a complete change in your view of the world. It requires a turning away from what you believe is right to follow God’s right.

Repentance is a major theme in the ministry of Jesus even today. To be saved, we need to accept that our sins are wrong and that God provides the only right way to live. This isn’t just an intellectual exercise; we need to allow the belief to change us, inside and out. To completely turn away from what we know to be our normal to accept God’s truth as our new normal. That does not mean we will never sin again. It just means that our goal should move us towards hating sin as much as God does. True repentance is connected to a “godly grief” that we have rebelled against God which causes conviction that leads us to the cross daily for God’s foregiveness (2 Corinthians 7:9).

Peter says if they repent, their sins will be “blotted out.” At that time, papyrus was used to write on with ink. Papyrus sheets were made by taking the stalk of a certain type of aquatic grass, cutting the pith into strips, and pressing the strips together to form what we think of today as paper. This material doesn’t readily absorb ink; the ink dries on the surface. Individuals could use a damp cloth to wipe the ink off—those marks can literally be “blotted out.”

Acts 3:19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,

Questions to Ponder:
1.  Are you following what you think is right or God's right?
2.  Have you turned completely away from your old normal to follow God's truth?
3.  Has God's truth become your new normal?
4.  Does your conviction cause you to repent from sin?
5.  Do you go to God daily for repentance and foregiveness?