Acts 2:38 is the grace of God to mankind. It is the most gracious verse in the Bible. That’s because nothing is more gracious on the part of God than granting repentance (Acts 11:18), washing away our sins, and filling us with His Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:38 was announced as the plan of salvation on the birthday of the Church. It was received as the standard for salvation by all the Apostles (Acts 2:42). It was based on the Great Commission that Christ had given to them just days earlier. It was presented as the means of salvation for the entire Church age (Acts 2:39). All the converts to Christianity in the book of Acts came to receive it. There was no other salvation doctrine offered in the Christian era. In cases where someone was found who lacked the complete Acts 2:38 experience, the deficiency was addressed and corrected (Acts 8:14-17; 18:24-28; 19:1-6). All the churches that were established in the Apostolic era were saved by it. All of Paul’s epistles were written to people and churches who had received the Acts 2:38 experience. The fact that Acts 2:38 was the common salvation in the Apostolic era is soundly based on the Great Commission and the Day of Pentecost but there is also internal proof of it in the epistles themselves.
The Galatian Church, like all the rest, had the Acts 2:38 experience. That is clear from all the reasons stated above. It is also clear from Paul’s words that the Galatians had received the original Apostolic message, which no earthly or heavenly source, including Paul himself, could change (Galatians 1:6-9). The error of the Galatians was that they were persuaded by certain Judaizers to include the necessity of circumcision as well in order to be saved. Paul wrote them to refute this grievous heresy. Look at the passage:
6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
9 As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
What’s notable in this context is that Paul referred to the initial means by which they were saved as the grace of God (v.6). That means was, literally, Acts 2:38. The other gospel he referred to in verse 7, into which they were presently drawn and by which they were removed from Christ, was the corruption of Acts 2:38 involving the additional requirement of circumcision. From this, we can see that grace is not the loose and sloppy, indistinct, all-inclusive commodity some think it is. While God’s grace is intended for, and offered to, everyone (John 3:5; Matthew 7:13-14), it is only received by those who accept its definite and particular prescribed terms (John 3:5) and continue to hold exclusively to them (1Corinthians 15:1-2).
Paul emphasized again in chapter 5 that an alteration of the singular means Christ offered for salvation is a fall from grace.
1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
It is plain from his words that he associated the grace of God with the Apostolic message delivered on the Day of Pentecost and that a corrupt version of it removed a person from Christ (1:7; 5:2,4).
From a theological standpoint, Galatians 1:8-9 and 5:1-5 essentially say that the grace of God is received by the Acts 2:38 salvation experience and that, if a person doesn’t hold exclusively to Acts 2:38 for salvation, he falls from grace.
The Galatians didn’t stop believing in Christ when they added the necessity of circumcision. They undoubtedly still considered themselves Christians, maybe even better ones. But Paul made it clear that what Christ prescribed for salvation, and what was preached from the beginning of the Christian era, is the only means to be in, and abide in, the grace of God. That is because what is offered in Acts 2:38 is the grace of God. Salvation through repentance, baptism in Jesus’ name for the remission of sins, and the infilling of the Holy Ghost is wholly the result of the shed blood of Christ. These tenets alone provide salvation. Alteration of them is corruption and amounts to another Gospel, not the one established by Christ on the Day of Pentecost.