What does Acts 3:19 mean?
A crowd has gathered at Solomon's Portico to discover how a lame beggar is suddenly leaping and praising God (Acts 3:8–11). Peter explains that it is not his own power that healed this man, but the power of Jesus, whom the crowd rejected as their Messiah (Acts 3:12–16). He tells them to repent of their sins, including 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.
Repentance is a major theme in Jesus' ministry, even now. In order to be saved, we must accept that our sins are wrong and that God provides the way we should live. This isn't just an intellectual exercise; we need to allow the belief to change us, inside and out. That doesn't mean we'll never sin again. It means our goal is to hate sin as much as God does. True repentance is connected to a "godly grief" that we have rebelled against God (2 Corinthians 7:9).
Peter says if they repent, their sins will be "blotted out." At that time, a lot of writing was done on papyrus. Papyrus sheets were made by taking the stalk of a type of aquatic grass, cutting the pith into strips, and pressing the strips together. This material doesn't readily absorb ink; the ink dries on the surface. So a damp cloth can wipe the ink off—those marks can literally be "blotted out."
