Someone asks the significance of the plural and singular words in Acts 2:38.

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If we translate Acts 2:38 literally, Luke quotes Peter as saying: "Repent [plural] and let each one of you be baptized [singular] in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your [plural] sins." If we read the sentence with the plural words together, it says: "Repent [plural] for the remission of your [plural] sins, and let each one of you [singular] be baptized [singular] in the name of Jesus Christ." This insight is especially meaningful in light of the background in Luke's Gospel and also in view of the specific audience Peter was addressing.

The special link between repentance and forgiveness coincides precisely with Luke's Gospel account of Jesus' final commission, "that repentance and remission of sins be proclaimed in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke 24:46-47). Now, in his second volume, Luke shows exactly that occurring. Here, in Jerusalem, Peter commands repentance for the remission of sins and baptism in the name of Jesus Christ.

The singular and plural words also highlight the nature of Peter's audience on that Pentecost Sunday, a crowd which included some of the very people who had demanded the death of Jesus less than two months before. To these people, who fancied themselves as God's covenant people based on physical birth, Peter now says: "Repent [plural] for the remission of your [plural] sins." There is no group security here -- the whole crowd must repent! But there is no hiding in a crowd, for this collective repentance calls for an individual response: "Be baptized [singular], every one of you." Finally, this individual response of baptism explicitly contradicts the group's previous rejection of Jesus, for it is a baptism "in (epi = 'based upon') the name (authority or person) of Jesus Christ" himself. Conversion is still for everybody -- one at a time -- and it means nothing less than wholehearted surrender to Jesus Christ.