The Pulpit Commentary on Acts 2:21

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

The common salvation.

"And it shall be," etc.

I. WHAT IT IS.

1. Salvation, both present and eternal, in the great day of the Lord; amid the terrors of judgment.

2. Spiritual life, given by God, given to all and of every condition, manifested in the life and in the character, opening the eyes of the soul to Divine realities and future glories; flesh receives it, and is made spiritual; a new creation is pledged by it; flesh lifted up into the immortality of heaven.

3. Salvation through the Name of the Lord, wrought by him, illustrated by the wonderful facts of his history, secured by his infinite merit.

II. THE SIMPLE CONDITION. "Call on the Name of the Lord;" another description of faith in Old Testament language, including:

1. The soul's cry for help in the sense of sin and misery; call as one dying.

2. Apprehension of the Savior. The name is the person, the character, the claim, the authority, the promise.

3. Prayerful consecration in response to the Divine grace. The day of salvation is light around us. We accept the light as the light of life.

4. Universality of the proclamation—"whosoever." The spiritual gifts are not poured out upon all, but the moving of a new life is the invitation to growth in grace. The words of Joel remind us that there are special crises of opportunity, which it is awful sin to slight. Where many are "calling on the Lord," shall we be dumb? "Who shall abide the day of his coming?"—R.

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