The people were cut to the heart. Why and how did this happen? It was not because the preaching was particularly eloquent, but because it was the truth of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit convicted them.
What shall we do, was their response. So Peter tells them to repent and be baptised. In order to receive Jesus we need to turn from our own ways and turn towards God's ways. Then they needed to be baptised into the name of Jesus Christ. They needed to commit themselves wholeheartedly to Jesus in order to receive forgiveness. They they too would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
We see here the key ingredients of conversion: repentance, commitment to Christ, forgiveness and receiving the Holy Spirit.
This applied not only to them, but to their children and to the whole world. The same message is relevant today. The "and to your children" cannot really be seen as promoting infant baptism, rather the verse is saying that this new way of life applies to all generations.
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