Thousands of those Jews were stabbed to the heart by what they heard Peter say. So, when they asked Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men, brothers, what shall we do?” Peter directed them to God’s Chief Agent of life by saying: “Repent, and let each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the free gift of the holy spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all those afar off, just as many as Jehovah our God may call to him. . . . Get saved from this crooked generation.” (Acts 2:37-40) If after they got immersed in water they received the free gift of God’s holy spirit through Christ this meant that they were taken into the new covenant.

4. What, then, did the water baptism of those Jesus symbolize?

⁴ Well, then, what did their baptism in water symbolize? Inasmuch as their baptism was to be “in the name of Jesus Christ” and since it was preceded by their repentance toward Jehovah God, it symbolized their presenting of themselves to God to do his will. Doing his will included their accepting of Jesus Christ as their God-given “Lord” and as their God-given “Christ” or Messiah.

5, 6. (a) Their receiving forgiveness of sins would come through whom, and what were their sins that now needed to be forgiven? (b) According to Hebrews 9:14, in what would the forgiveness of their sins result for them?

⁵ Without accepting Jesus Christ as “both Lord and Christ” they could not gain “forgiveness of [their] sins.” These sins that God now forgave through Jesus Christ were not the sins that they had committed against the Mosaic Law covenant. That covenant with natural Israel was now past, canceled, and the promised new covenant had now been mediated by the better Mediator, Jesus Christ. So the sins over which they needed to repent toward God were primarily their sin against God by sharing in the impalement of his Son Jesus Christ together with their sins in general. Their receiving forgiveness of sins from God through Christ would result in their getting a good conscience.

It logically follows, therefore, that the three thousand Jews who repented and got baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and received the free gift of the holy spirit were taken into the new covenant through the ‘better mediator,’ Jesus Christ.​—Acts 2:41.