The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed, hanging him on a tree. God exalted him with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins. We are his witnesses of these things; and so also is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
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Acts 5:30-32 sits inside this longer paragraph.
But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed, hanging him on a tree. God exalted him with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins. We are his witnesses of these things; and so also is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
Parallel Translations
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The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed, hanging him on a tree.
God exalted him with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins.
We are his witnesses of these things; and so also is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
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The God of oure fathers raysed vp Iesus whom ye slewe and hanged on tre.
Him hath god lifte vp with his right hand to be a ruler and a savioure for to geve repentaunce to Israell and forgevenes of synnes.
And we are his recordes concernynge these thinges and also the holy goost whom God hath geve to them that obey him.
Show all 3 translations
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The God of our fathers hath raised vp Iesus, whom ye slewe, and hanged on a tree.
Him hath God lift vp with his right hand, to be a Prince and a Sauiour, to giue repentance to Israel, and forgiuenes of sinnes.
And we are his witnesses concerning these things which we say: yea, and the holy Ghost, whome God hath giuen to them that obey him.
Cross-references (88)
- Galatians 3:13 (v30) Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,”
- 1 Peter 2:24 (v30) He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness. You were healed by his wounds.
- Luke 24:47 (v31) and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
- John 15:26-27 (v32) “When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify…
- Acts 10:39 (v30) We are witnesses of everything he did both in the country of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they also killed, hanging him on a tree.
Show all 86 cross-references
- Acts 2:33 (v31) Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out…
- Hebrews 2:3-4 (v32) how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation—which at the first having been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed to us by those…
- Hebrews 2:10 (v31) For it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many children to glory, to make the author of…
- Luke 2:11 (v31) For there is born to you today, in David’s city, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
- Acts 11:18 (v31) When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to…
- Acts 13:28-29 (v30) Though they found no cause for death, they still asked Pilate to have him killed. When they had fulfilled all things that were written…
- Acts 1:8 (v32) But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and…
- 1 John 4:14 (v31) We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world.
- Revelation 1:5 (v31) and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us, and…
- Isaiah 9:6 (v31) For a child is born to us. A son is given to us; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor,…
- Luke 24:47-48 (v32) and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of…
- Titus 3:4-6 (v31) But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward mankind appeared, not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but…
- Hebrews 12:2 (v31) looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and…
- Matthew 28:18 (v31) Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
- John 16:7-14 (v32) Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I don’t go away, the Counselor won’t come to you. But if…
- Acts 3:13-15 (v30) The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up, and denied in the…
- Acts 3:15 (v31) and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, to which we are witnesses.
- Acts 4:10-11 (v30) may it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God…
- Acts 5:29 (v32) But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.
- Acts 10:39-41 (v32) We are witnesses of everything he did both in the country of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they also killed, hanging him on a tree. God…
- Acts 13:31 (v32) and he was seen for many days by those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses to the people.
- 1 Peter 1:12 (v32) To them it was revealed, that they served not to themselves, but to you, in these things, which now have been announced to you through…
- Jeremiah 31:31-33 (v31) “Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according…
- Ezekiel 36:25-38 (v31) I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness, and from all your idols. I will…
- Zechariah 12:10 (v31) I will pour on David’s house, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me whom…
- Matthew 1:21 (v31) She shall give birth to a son. You shall name him Jesus, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins.”
- John 7:39 (v32) But he said this about the Spirit, which those believing in him were to receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus…
- Acts 2:4 (v32) They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak.
- Acts 2:22-24 (v30) “Men of Israel, hear these words! Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by…
- Acts 2:38 (v31) Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will…
- Acts 2:38-39 (v32) Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will…
- Acts 10:44 (v32) While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard the word.
- Acts 15:28 (v32) For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay no greater burden on you than these necessary things:
- 2 Timothy 2:25-26 (v31) in gentleness correcting those who oppose him: perhaps God may give them repentance leading to a full knowledge of the truth, and they may…
- 2 Peter 1:11 (v31) For thus you will be richly supplied with the entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
- Jude 1:25 (v31) to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.
- Acts 2:32 (vv30, 32) This Jesus God raised up, to which we all are witnesses.
- Acts 3:26 (vv30–31) God, having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to you first to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your wickedness.”
- 1 Chronicles 12:17 (v30) David went out to meet them, and answered them, “If you have come peaceably to me to help me, my heart will be united with you; but if you…
- 1 Chronicles 29:18 (v30) Yahweh, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this desire forever in the thoughts of the heart of your people, and…
- Ezra 7:27 (v30) Blessed be Yahweh, the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify Yahweh’s house which is in…
- Psalms 2:6-12 (v31) “Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion.” I will tell of the decree: Yahweh said to me, “You are my son. Today I have become your…
- Psalms 89:19 (v31) Then you spoke in vision to your saints, and said, “I have given strength to the warrior. I have exalted a young man from the people.
- Psalms 89:24 (v31) But my faithfulness and my loving kindness will be with him. In my name, his horn will be exalted.
- Psalms 110:1-2 (v31) Yahweh says to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.” Yahweh will send out the rod of…
- Isaiah 43:3 (v31) For I am Yahweh your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I have given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place.
- Isaiah 43:11 (v31) I myself am Yahweh. Besides me, there is no savior.
- Isaiah 45:21 (v31) Declare and present it. Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has shown this from ancient time? Who has declared it of old? Haven’t I,…
- Isaiah 49:26 (v31) I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh; and they will be drunk on their own blood, as with sweet wine. Then all flesh shall…
- Ezekiel 17:24 (v31) All the trees of the field will know that I, Yahweh, have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green…
- Ezekiel 34:24 (v31) I, Yahweh, will be their God, and my servant David prince among them. I, Yahweh, have spoken it.
- Ezekiel 37:25 (v31) They will dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob my servant, in which your fathers lived. They will dwell therein, they, and their…
- Daniel 9:25 (v31) “Know therefore and discern that from the going out of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem to the Anointed One, the prince,…
- Daniel 10:21 (v31) But I will tell you that which is inscribed in the writing of truth. There is no one who holds with me against these, but Michael your…
- Mark 2:10 (v31) But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic—
- Mark 4:12 (v31) that ‘seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest perhaps they should turn again, and their…
- Luke 1:55 (v30) as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his offspring forever.”
- Luke 1:72 (v30) to show mercy toward our fathers, to remember his holy covenant,
- John 20:21-23 (v31) Jesus therefore said to them again, “Peace be to you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on…
- Acts 2:36 (v31) “Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
- Acts 3:19 (v31) “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the…
- Acts 4:11 (v31) He is ‘the stone which was regarded as worthless by you, the builders, which has become the head of the corner.’
- Acts 13:23 (v31) From this man’s offspring, God has brought salvation to Israel according to his promise,
- Acts 13:33 (v30) that God has fulfilled this to us, their children, in that he raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second psalm, ‘You are my Son.…
- Acts 13:38-39 (v31) Be it known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man is proclaimed to you remission of sins, and by him everyone who believes is…
- Acts 22:14 (v30) He said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear a voice from his mouth.
- Romans 11:26-27 (v31) and so all Israel will be saved. Even as it is written, “There will come out of Zion the Deliverer, and he will turn away ungodliness from…
- 2 Corinthians 2:10 (v31) Now I also forgive whomever you forgive anything. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the…
- 2 Corinthians 13:1 (v32) This is the third time I am coming to you. “At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.”
- Ephesians 1:7 (v31) in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
- Ephesians 1:20-23 (v31) which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all…
- Philippians 2:9-11 (v31) Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,…
- Philippians 3:20 (v31) For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
- Colossians 1:14 (v31) in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.
- 1 Peter 3:22 (v31) who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him.
- 2 Peter 1:1 (v31) Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our…
- Titus 1:4 (v31) to Titus, my true child according to a common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.
- Titus 2:10 (v31) not stealing, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior, in all things.
- Titus 2:13 (v31) looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,
- 2 Peter 2:20 (v31) For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again…
- 2 Peter 3:18 (v31) But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.
86 distinct cross-references across this passage (88 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (19 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv30–32 30. The God of our fathers. They descend unto…
30. The God of our fathers. They descend unto the matter whereof they are to speak, that they may declare that they made small account of the commandment of the priests, not without cause, nor yet unadvisedly. For (as I have already said) the comparison between God and man taketh no place save only when there is some contrariety. Therefore they prove by this, that they are enforced by the fear of God to refuse the commandment of the priests; because God commandeth that which they forbid. Therefore, first of all, they say that God had raised up Christ, after the common custom of the Scriptures. For this speech is common, that God raised up prophets or judges, or rather ministers, whom he determined to use into some great work; which importeth as much as that all excellency of nature is weak, unless God do furnish those with singular gifts whom he preferreth unto any excellent office. Peradventure, also they allude unto that famous place of Moses, which Peter cited in his first sermon, (Deuteronomy 18:15, above 3:22.) They cite the God of the fathers by name, as the author, that they may declare that they bring in no new form of religion, neither yet will they enforce upon the people any new god. For they were to make answer to that false slander, that they went about to lead away the people from the law and the prophets. Not that they allow all that worship which was used by the fathers, as profane men are content with this only argument, that the fathers taught thus, that they do all things according to the custom and decree of their ancestors; but the apostles speak in this place of those fathers with whom God hath made his covenant, who followeth right and pure doctrine, who embraceth the promise of salvation with true faith; finally, who had their beginning of the heavenly Father, and who, through the only begotten Son of God, were the children of God together with their posterity.
Whom ye. In this member the apostles declare unto them plainly that they were the enemies of God who would have the chief honor given them as unto the governors and prelates of the Church. Whereupon it followeth that they are unworthy even of the smallest authority. Although there is also a prevention, being a token of boldness, when as he speaketh of that thing boldly and freely which they did account a shameful thing, to wit, lest any part of Christ’s glory should seem to be diminished because he suffered a slanderous death upon the cross; as if it had been said, You have slain him. Neither was your cruelty satisfied with a plain and common death; for he was hanged upon a tree. But neither could death extinguish his power; neither could that shame and reproach which he suffered amongst you take away his honor. Therefore the calling of God continueth firm and stable. Therefore, as the apostles hit the priests in the teeth with that wickedness and heinous offense which they had committed, so they prevent, by a granting, to express the manner of the reproachful death which Christ suffered, lest the authors of the wickedness triumph as having gotten the victory.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv30, 32 Christ is appointed and indeed declareth Prince and preserver…
Christ is appointed and indeed declareth Prince and preserver of his Church in despite of his enemies.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv30–32 30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus,…
30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.
Ver. 30. Ye slew and hanged on a tree] Constantine the Great, in honour of our Saviour, took away by a law that custom of crucifying men, in use, till then, among the Romans: a lingering and cruel kind of death; as was likewise that of impaling, very usual, saith Illyricus, among the ancients. The malefactors had a stake or pale (σκολοψ) thrust in at their anus, and it came out again at their shoulders; so that if the stake did not pierce their hearts or vitals, as it was thrust up, they lived sometimes two or three days in exquisite pain and torment. And to this kind of cruel death, said he, St Paul seemeth to allude, 2Co 12:7.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv30–32 The God of our fathers; this is the rather…
The God of our fathers; this is the rather mentioned by the apostle, that they might not think our Saviour, or they his ministers, preached any other God unto them, but him whom they had worshipped from their forefathers.
Hanged on a tree; a tree, or wood, which is rather mentioned than a cross, that the allusion to Deu 21:23 might be more full, where he that is hanged on a tree is accursed; and in that Christ was made a curse for us, Gal 3:13.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv30–32 Him hath God exalted with his right hand,.... Not…
Him hath God exalted with his right hand,.... Not at his right hand, though he is exalted to it, and is set down at it, but with, or by his right hand; that is, by his power: for being by him raised from the dead, he was exalted to the highest heavens, and placed in human nature at the right hand of God, on the same throne with him, crowned with glory and honour; and having a name above every name, and all power and authority both in heaven and in earth given him,
to be a Prince and a Saviour: being made and declared both Lord and Christ, Lord of lords, and Prince of the kings of tHe earth, the Prince of life and peace, the Head of the church, and over all things for the sake of it, and the Saviour of his body the church, of all the elect of God; not with a temporal, but a spiritual and eternal salvation, of which he is become the author by his obedience, sufferings, and death; and is an able and willing, a suitable and an only Saviour: and some of the branches of his power and grace are
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for to give repentance to Israel; to the Israel whom God has chosen for himself, and Christ has redeemed by his blood, and whom the Spirit calls by his graee: these being sinners, as well as others, stand in need of repentance; and whereas this is not in any man's power, but is the free gift of God's grace; for though he should give men time and space to repent, and afford them the means of it, yet if he does not give them grace to repent, they never will, such is the hardness of man's heart; Christ is appointed to give this grace to the chosen ones, which he does by sending his Spirit to convince of sin, and to take away the stony heart, and give an heart of flesh:
and forgiveness of sins; free and full forgiveness of all sins; which being obtained by his blood, is applied by his Spirit to all that truly repent of them; for these two always go together; where he gives the one, he also gives the other: the manifestations and applications of pardoning grace are only made to repenting sinners; and there are none that truly, and in an evangelical way, repent of sin, but who have some views, or, at least, hopes of pardoning grace; and none ever mourn more over sin, than those that see it in the glass of forgiving love.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv30–32 Hath raised up Jesus - Of the seed of…
Hath raised up Jesus - Of the seed of David, according to the promises made to our fathers.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv30–32 Verse 30. The God of our fathers raised up…
Verse 30. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus] It was well to introduce this, that the council might at once see that they preached no strange God; and that he who so highly honoured the patriarchs, Moses, and the prophets, had yet more highly honoured Jesus Christ in raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand, and proclaiming him as the only giver of salvation and the repentance which leads to it.
Whom ye slew] They charge them again with the murder of Christ, as they had done before, Ac 4:10-12, where see the notes.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv30–32 Raised up Jesus - This refers to his resurrection.
Raised up Jesus - This refers to his resurrection.
Hanged on a tree - That is, on the “cross,” Gal 3:13; 1Pe 2:24; Act 10:39; Act 13:29. This is the amount of Peter’s defense. He begins with the great principle Act 5:29, which they could not gainsay, that God ought to be obeyed rather than man. He then proceeds to state that they were convinced that God had raised up Jesus from the dead, and as they had such decisive evidence of that, and were commanded by the authority of the Lord Jesus to be “witnesses of that,” they were not “at liberty” to be silent. They were bound to obey God rather than the Sanhedrin, and to make known everywhere the fact that the Lord Jesus was risen. The remark that God had raised up Jesus whom they had “slain,” does not seem to have been made to irritate or to reproach them, but merely to “identify” him as the person that had been raised. It was also a confirmation of the truth and reality of the miracle. Of his “death” they had no doubt, for they had been at pains to certify it, Joh 19:31-34. It is certain, however, that Peter did not shrink from charging on them their guilt; nor was he at any pains to “soften” or “mitigate” the severe charge that they had murdered their own Messiah.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv31–32 Prince and a Saviour--the first word expressing that Royalty…
Prince and a Saviour--the first word expressing that Royalty which all Israel looked for in Messiah, the second the Saving character of it which they had utterly lost sight of. Each of these features in our Lord's work enters into the other, and both make one glorious whole (compare Act 3:15; Heb 2:10).
to give--dispensing as a "Prince."
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repentance and remission of sins--as a "Saviour"; "repentance" embracing all that change which issues in the faith which secures "forgiveness" (compare Act 2:38; Act 20:21). How gloriously is Christ here exhibited; not, as in other places, as the Medium, but as the Dispenser of all spiritual blessings!
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv30–31 30. God of our fathers—By this solemn expression the…
30. God of our fathers—By this solemn expression the apostles assume that Jesus and themselves are in true line of descent from the fathers and under sanction of their God. It was the God of Abraham by whom Jesus was exalted.
Raised up Jesus—These confessors are most careful in face of those Sadducees to insert the doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus in their avowal.
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Ye slew—Here again is the charge direct and personal. All sins and all sinners have virtually nailed Jesus to the cross; but these men literally, by direct authorization, performed the deed for all.
A tree—The Greek word does indeed literally signify tree or wood; but it also signifies the perpendicular beam of a cross, and so the word might have been correctly rendered cross.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv30–32 30. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus]…
30. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus] As Peter did in Act_3:13, so here the Apostles point out that there is no severance of themselves from the worship of the Covenant God of Israel, but that they were teaching that His promise through Moses had now been fulfilled, for that in Jesus the promised prophet had appeared. Cp. Deu_18:15, and St Peter’s speech, Act_3:22.
whom ye slew and hanged on a tree] Better, whom ye hanged on a tree and slew. This sentence describes the Roman, and not the Jewish mode of execution. With the latter people only those who were already dead were to be hanged (Deu_21:22; Jos_10:26).
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In the word which they use for slew the Apostles intimate that the guilt of the Crucifixion was as truly upon the Jews as if the act had been done by their hands, and not by those of the Roman soldiery.
The phrase hanged on a tree is used by St Peter again (Act_10:39), and by nobody else in the N. T. He also has a similar expression, tree for cross (1Pe_2:24), “He bare our sins in his own body on the tree.”
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv30–32 (30) Whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.—This…
(30) Whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.—This synonym for crucifying comes from the LXX. version of Deu_21:23, where it is used in a wider sense, including analogous forms of punishment, such as hanging or impaling. It meets us again in Peter’s speech to Cornelius (Act_10:39. Comp. Gal_3:13).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv30–32 Hanging him for and hanged, A.V. The God of…
Hanging him for and hanged, A.V. The God of our fathers, etc. Observe how carefully Peter preserves his own brotherhood with the Jews whom he was addressing, and the continuity of the New Testament with the Old Testament as being the sequel of the acts of the same God of Israel. Raised up; viz. from the dead; hgeire, not ajnisth, as 3:22, 26. Some, however (Calvin, Bengel, etc.), take hgeire, as here used, to mean "raised up" in the wider sense of ajnasthsai, as in the T.R. of Act_13:23, where, however, the R.T. has h Slew; viz. with your own hands, as dieceirisasqe means. It only occurs besides in Act_26:27.
Vers. 30-32. The cross and the crown.
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In this address which Peter delivered to the Sanhedrim we have another epitome of the gospel.
I THE LOWEST DEPTH OF EARTHLY SHAME. "Whom ye slew and hanged on a tree" (ver. 30). The Son of God was "made a little lower than the angels," even a Son of man, "for the suffering of death". (Heb_2:9) He stooped to the level of our humanity, in order that he might "taste death for every man." And he underwent that experience in its most dreadful form in darkness, pain, shame, desertion, inexpressible agony of soul. He went deliberately down to the very lowest point to which he could stoop, that he might finish the work the Father had given him to do.
II THE HIGHEST SUMMIT OF HEAVENLY HONOUR. "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus... him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior" (vers. 30, 31). "From the highest throne of glory to the cross of deepest woe" he had come; now he reascended from the grave to the throne, to the seat of heavenly power and blessedness. He has become an enthroned Redeemer, a sovereign Savior,
(1) occupying the foremost place in heavenly rank,
(2) dispensing salvation to the lost children of men, and
(3) receiving the willing homage, the affectionate service of the multitude he has redeemed. What more honorable, enviable, blessed position can we conceive than that of One who, seated in the very highest post of honor, is conferring the best of all imaginable boons, and is receiving, in return, the freest, richest, most rejoicing worship and service of his redeemed, both of those who are about his person "in the heavens," and of those also who are serving him and striving to follow him below?
III THE METHOD OF THE REIGNING SAVIOUR. He is a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance.., and forgiveness of sins." How does the exalted Lord carry on his great work as he reigns in heaven? By giving repentance and remission.
1. He gives to human souls a sense of the heinousness of their sin.
2. He dispenses to them, through his atoning sacrifice, full and free forgiveness of their sin. Thus he leads men everywhere away from their iniquity, and restores them to the favor and so to the happy service of the Supreme.
IV THE BLESSED CERTAINTY WE HAVE OF THE FACT OF HIS ELEVATION. (Ver. 22.) The apostles could assure the council that these things were so; they could place it beyond all doubt, inasmuch as
(1) they themselves were witnesses of the facts, and
(2) the Holy Spirit had confirmed their testimony by the signs and wonders he enabled them to work. We too have testimony, both human and Divine.
1. The human testimony of the apostles of our Lord; also of all Christian souls in all succeeding generations, who have witnessed for him and the power of his grace; and also the assurance of our contemporaries, who rejoice in the liberty with which he has made them free.
2. The Divine testimony of that gracious Spirit of God, who, though he works no signs and wonders around us, does work conviction, comfort, sanctity, strength, within us. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv31–32 Him hath God exalted with His right hand to…
Act_5:31
Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
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The end of the Saviours exaltation
Elevation is necessary to influence. Of what advantage is a candle under a bushel? While the sun is below our earth, all is dark and cold; but when he rises, he scatters his enlightening and enlivening beams. When the shrub rises up out of the ground, it requires support; but when it becomes a tree, the birds lodge in its branches. A man in the obscurity and contractedness of private life can only pour forth benevolent wishes and shed ineffectual tears. But give him pre-eminence, and thousands are protected by his power and enriched by his bounty. Take the case of Joseph, e.g. But a greater than Joseph is here. Jesus suffered from the hands of sinners; but His sufferings led to His exaltation. Some are exalted as princes who are by no means saviours. They sacrifice the lives of their subjects to save their own; but He sacrificed Himself for the welfare of His subjects. They are princes of war; but He is the Prince of peace. They are princes of death; but He is the Prince of life. They are princes and destroyers; but He is a Prince and a Saviour. Let us take three views of the blessings which the exalted Saviour gives.
I. Their meaning.
1. What is repentance? The inquiry is necessary because of the counterfeits of repentance. Pharaoh, Ahab, and Judas repented, and yet died in their sins. An old divine tells us that Genuine repentance consists in having the heart broken for sin, and from it.
(1) The subject of repentance, then, is convinced of sin. He sees that it is the greatest evil in the universe. Hence he feels shame, grief, and contrition--especially when he apprehends the goodness of God. This dissolves the heart, and makes him sorrowful after a godly sort. For the tear of evangelical penitence drops from the eye of faith; and faith while it weeps stands under the Cross. The pressure of these various feelings constitutes what we mean by having the heart broken for sin.
(2) But the man has now new dispositions and resolutions; and hence a new course of life. He is delivered from the love of all sin, however dear before. He is freed from its dominion, and avoids its occasions. And this is what we mean by having the heart broken from sin.
2. And what is forgiveness? It does not render a man innocent. Sin contracts guilt, and guilt binds over to punishment; forgiveness cancels this obligation, and restores the offender to safety. And frequently among men forgiveness extends no further. But God takes pleasure in those whom He pardons, and indulges them with the most intimate friendship. When two individuals have been at variance, the hardest to believe in reconciliation is the offender. A man once offended Augustus, and the emperor, to show his greatness of mind, declared that he pardoned him. But the poor creature, fearing the declaration was too good to be true, desired his majesty to give him some present as a proof that he had really forgiven him. Thus anxious is the awakened mind. Such a free and full forgiveness after all his heinous provocations seems incredible; he therefore desires a token for good: and many pledges of the most perfect reconciliation the God of all grace affords.
II. Their connection. This is not a meritorious connection, as if repentance deserved forgiveness, for they are both given; and how can one gift merit another? But there is between them a connection of--
1. Propriety. It would not accord with the wisdom of God to for give one incapable of enjoying or serving Him--yea, one who abhors Him. If a servant or a child were to behave improperly, though goodness may incline you to pardon, you would naturally require a proper state of mind, and signs of sorrow, confession, and reformation; otherwise your forgiveness would look like connivance or indifference, and encourage a repetition of disobedience.
2. Certainty. No one ever really enjoyed forgiveness without repentance; and no one ever truly exercised repentance without forgiveness. On the other hand, He that confesseth, and forsaketh his sins, shall have mercy.
III. Their source. Some think repentance a very legal subject; but there never was a greater mistake. For, not to mention that our Lord came to call sinners to repentance, and that the apostles went forth preaching everywhere that men should repent, repentance is peculiarly evangelical. The law has nothing to do with it; it does not even command it; all it has to do with the transgressor is to condemn. It allows him neither liberty nor ability to repent; but the gospel gives him both, and Christ was exalted to effect the purpose of the gospel. And if repentance be a gift, can the forgiveness be a purchase? Hence two things follow.
1. If we possess these blessings, we learn to whom we are to address our praise. In the Lord have I righteousness and strength.
2. If we want them, we see to whom we are to address our prayers. (W. Jay.)
Exalted to give
1. The murderer is haunted by the ghost of his victim. This is a part of the sublime machinery of providence for the punishment, and so for the prevention of crime. All history teems with examples of this. Witness Herod--John the Baptist, whom I beheaded, is risen from the dead. These high priests were compelled to undergo this inevitable sentence, Whom ye slew, God has exalted. Their victim has risen, and the murderers tremble. They showed Him no mercy, and expect none from Him. But now that He is exalted, and His enemies in His power, instead of taking vengeance He offers remission.
2. The water is exalted into the heavens that it may give rain. In the same way He who comes as rain on the mown grass was exalted that He might give Himself as the Living Water. The exalted Giver bestows every kind of good. Every good and perfect gift is from above. But the fundamental benefit, without which all others would be of no avail, is the twin gift promised in our text.
3. Repentance and forgiveness constitute one entire redemption. These two God has joined as He has joined the right and left sides of a body to make one organised life. To separate them is to destroy them. Forgiveness is an act of the Supreme God, repentance the act of sinful man, and yet both are the gift of the risen Redeemer. It is not like two portions of an extended straight line, but like two halves of a great revolving ring--as it goes rapidly round it seems as if this half were impelling that, and sometimes as if that were impelling this. From one point of view repentance seems to draw forgiveness, from another forgiveness seems to work repentance. It is true Christ says, If any man open I will come in; but it is also true that no one would open unless moved by the plaintive voice, Behold I stand at the door and knock. It is opening from within that lets the Saviour enter, but it is the pressure of the Saviour that causes the fastenings of the heart to give way.
4. We cannot determine the precise point at which the process begins. I do not know the point in the circle which the Spirit touches to communicate motion. All I know is that He gives it motion, and that when one point moves all move. And this wheel is like Ezekiels, so high that it is dreadful. The upper part is in heaven, while its lower edge rolls upon the earth. Forgiveness is an act done by God; the official act of the Judge on the great white throne. Repentance is a rending and a melting of the heart here upon earth. The lower part of the circle is in the chambers of the sinners soul, and yet every movement of a hairs breadth is accompanied by a corresponding movement on high. So there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth. These two were joined in Peters own experience. When he had denied his Lord, the Lord looked on Peter; that look conveyed pardon, and the repenting disciple went out and wept bitterly. (W. Arnot, D. D.)
Christ an exalted Prince and a glorified Saviour
I. The exaltation of christ, properly speaking, consists of four parts--His resurrection, ascension, sitting at the right hand of God, and His coming to judge the world. It is to His sitting at the right hand of God, however, that our attention is here called. And, regarding it, three circumstances are noticed in the text.
1. The dignity to which Christ is raised.
(1) The expression, with His right hand, does not denote the agency by which, but the glory to which He is exalted. It intimates that our Mediator enjoys Divine honour at the Fathers right hand, exercises Divine authority, and dispenses Divine government. This is a situation which no mere creature can occupy. I admit that the divinity of Christ being necessarily unchangeable, could not, strictly speaking, be humbled or exalted. But inasmuch as He took our nature into personal union with Him, He was humbled. And when His work was finished He dropped His lowly character, but not His human nature. Clothed in it He gloriously appeared before God on our behalf, and, as the reward of His undertaking, received, at His Fathers hands, universal authority.
(2) And let none suppose that the right hand of God in heaven denotes any visible proximity to the infinite Spirit, like nearness of place in the case of a prince at the right hand of an earthly sovereign. The human nature of Jesus, indeed, requires a local residence. But who can describe His dignity and glory in heaven? Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, etc.
2. The character in which He is raised, a Prince and a Saviour.
(1) As a Divine person, Jesus was never deprived of His royal supremacy, and therefore could never be exalted to a dignity from which He had never descended. But there was a dignity to which, as God and man in one person, He had never hitherto been formally raised, although from the beginning He had acted as King of the Church and Lord of the Universe. But this princely office arose entirely from the covenant made between the Father and the Son, which required from the latter obedience unto death, as absolutely necessary to His being formally installed into His regal authority as King in Zion.
(2) And as the nature of Christs kingly office is peculiar, so also is its exercise. His law, indeed, is still the immutable rule of righteousness. But there is exercised to obstinate sinners the most marvellous long-suffering; and to believers the freest and most astonishingly gracious forgiveness, joined with the choicest spiritual blessings. Such a mode of administration can only be accounted for on the principle that a system of mediatorial authority exists, in consequence of which sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed on unbelievers; and pardon, purity, spiritual protection, comfort, and eternal glory, secured to all the faithful.
(3) But Christ is not only an exalted Prince, but also a glorified Saviour. We have seen that as a Prince He completely secures the happiness and dignity of His people. Rut deliverance from sin could never have been realised unless, like the high priests of old, He had entered into the holy place, and presented the blood of His atonement as the ground of His intercession. He saves to the uttermost all that come to God by Him, because He ever lives to make intercession for them.
3. The agency of the Father in the exaltation of His Son--Him hath God exalted. We are here carried back to the council of peace, the agreement of the Divine persons in reference to the salvation of men. The Father was bound to exalt the Mediator when His work of humiliation was accomplished.
II. Its blessed consequences. Amongst these are the glory of God, the establishment of order and harmony in the universe, the increased light thrown upon Gods character and designs; but what chiefly concerns us is that the exalted Saviour bestows--
1. Repentance.
2. Forgiveness. Conclusion: This subject ought to be improved, especially by--
(1) Those who have good reason to conclude that they are already in possession of these blessings. Such are under infinite obligations to the God of all grace, and forget not that it flows through the channel of Christs mediation; and while you admire this salvation in its rise and progress and application, forget not to pray for the continued communication of grace to your soul. Remember that faith needs to be strengthened, and repentance deepened.
(2) Those who doubt their interest in Christ are here encouraged. Your very sorrow is a hopeful symptom. It is well that you feel your unworthiness; and instead of making it an argument against coming to Christ, use it as a strong argument to lay vigorous hold of Him.
(3) To those who are as yet destitute of Divine grace. These are of two classes.
(a) The hypocrite knows that he is not what he pretends to be. Yet, notwithstanding your aggravated guilt, you are invited to the Saviour.
(b) Let the self-deceiver open his eyes to his true state and character.
You say you repent; but yours is a legal repentance, which consists in a dread of the Divine wrath. Such a sorrow works death. Repentance unto life, on the other hand, is that sorrow which flows from a believing view of the atonement of Christ and of the evil of sin, as manifested in the Cross, and is recognised to be genuine only by the fruits of holiness which result from it. (W. Orr.)
A Prince and a Saviour
I. Note Christs titles and learn their meaning.
1. A Prince. This tells of--
(1) Honour as the reward of His sufferings on earth. While He was here He was treated as a felon. What presents the Prince of Wales brought home from his travels! But the Prince of Glory took home with Him His wounds only. But the shame and the rejection are now ended, and in glory Jesus is manifestly a Prince, reverenced, obeyed, and honoured.
(2) Power. His is no nominal princedom--He has both glory and strength. Unto Him is given the mediatorial kingdom, which includes all power in heaven and in earth, so that He is well styled the blessed and only Potentate. There is no bound to this power:
(3) Dominion. If Christ is to be yours you must let Him rule over you. He must reign. He claims to be Master and Lord to those who ask salvation at His hands; and is not the claim a just one? Whom should we serve but the Lord who became a servant for our sakes? It must be so, or salvation is impossible. You must accept Jesus to be a leader and a commander to you, or you cannot win the battle of life. You must yield Him loving obedience, or He will not be married to your souls. His dominion is sweetly tempered by love; so that, as the prophet writes, Thou shalt call Me no more Baali, that is, My Lord, with a hardness of rulership, but Ishi, My Lord, because Thou art my Husband.
2. A Saviour. Observe here--
(1) The perseverance of the Lords love. He was a Saviour here; He is a Saviour now that He has reached His throne. The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost, and now He is able to save them to the uttermost, etc.
(2) The prevalence of the work He achieved here. Here He was able to save, but His salvation was not complete, for He had not yet said, It is finished. Now His redeeming work is done, and saving is a simple matter to Him.
(3) His approachableness. You might be abashed at coming to a prince, but you may be encouraged in coming to a Saviour.
3. Put the words together--
(1) Prince-Saviour: one who is kingly in the salvation which He brings, and deals out no stinted grace, but makes us to receive of His fulness grace for grace.
(2) Saviour-Prince whose glory it is to save, whose kingdom and power and dominion are all turned in full force to achieve the work of rescuing His people.
II. Approach him, then, under these two characters.
1. As a Prince. And how shall we do that?
(1) With the sorrowful confession of past rebellion. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry.
(2) Accept His great purpose and submit to His rule. He is a Prince, therefore yield yourself to be His subject. The object of His rule is to make you love God, and to be like God.
(3) Surrender everything to Him. If He has redeemed you then you belong to Him; henceforth you are not your own, you are bought with a price.
(4) Pay your loving, loyal homage to your Prince. Behold Him in His glory, where all the angels cast their crowns before Him, while the elders adore Him with vials full of sweet odours.
2. As Saviour.
(1) Confessing that you need a Saviour.
(2) Believing that He is able to save you.
(3) Submitting entirely to His processes of salvation. He will not save thee in thy way, but in His way; and His way of saving thee is to make thee feel the smart and bitterness of sin, to make thee hate that sin, and so to turn thee from it for ever.
(4) Trusting Him as Saviour.
III. Mark his gifts.
1. Repentance. This does not mean to give space for repentance, nor to make repentance acceptable, but to give repentance itself. What is repentance?
(1) It is a change of mind.
(a) He can give thee to change thy mind about all the past, so that the things which pleased thee shall grieve thee, that which charmed thee shall disgust thee.
(b) He can also change thy mind as to the present and the future, so that instead of looking for present pleasure thou wilt find thy delight in future glory realised by faith.
(2) It includes a most needful sense of sin, and the Saviour can give thee this by His Spirit.
(3) He can work in thee desires after holiness and hatred of every false way; He can take the guile out of thy soul as well as the guilt out of thy life.
2. Forgiveness.
(1) He can pass an act of amnesty and oblivion for all thy sin. I have blotted out thy sins like a cloud, and as a thick cloud thy transgressions.
(2) When full forgiveness comes it brings with it the eternal removal of the penalty. The forgiven man cannot be punished.
(3) With pardon there shall come a restoration of every privilege.
IV. Ask Him for these gifts.
1. Humbly. You do not deserve them. You have no claim to His love, and must not set up any.
2. Importunately. Do not come with a cold heart and a trifling spirit. Come with this resolve, I will not leave the Cross till my sins have left me.
3. Believingly--believing that Christ can give, and that He is as willing as He is able.
4. Now. The Romans when they meant to bring things to an issue with an Oriental tyrant, sent their ambassador to bring his answer back--yes or no, war or peace. The messenger when he saw the king stooped down, and drew a ring upon the ground round the monarch; and then said, Step outside that ring, and it means war; before you leave that circle you must accept our terms of peace, or know that Rome will use her utmost force to fight with you. I draw a ring round you, and I demand an answer. Sinner, wilt thou now be saved or not? To-day is the accepted time, to-day is the day of salvation. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Jesus Christ a Prince and a Saviour
I. A Prince. According to--
1. His heavenly origin.
2. His Divine credentials, even when in the form of a servant.
3. His glorious exaltation to the right hand of God.
II. A saviour.
1. Already in the manger by His self renunciation.
2. On the Cross by His sacrifice.
3. On the throne by His intercession.
III. A Prince and a Saviour.
1. If He were not a Saviour He could not be a Prince--His fairest princely ornament is His crown of thorns.
2. If He were not a Prince He could not be a Saviour--the efficacy of His sacrifice depends on His Divine dignity.
3. As a Prince we must honour and obey Him, and as a Saviour love and confide in Him, in order to become partakers of His salvation. (K. Gerok.)
Repentance the gift of Christ
The doctrine of the gospel appears to be not only that Christ taught the efficacy of repentance, but rendered it of the efficacy which it is, by what He did and suffered for us; that He obtained for us the benefit of having our repentance accepted unto eternal life; not only that He revealed to sinners that they were in a capacity of salvation by what He did and suffered for them. And it is our wisdom thankfully to accept the benefit by performing the conditions on which it is offered, on our part without disputing how it is procured on His. (Bp. Butler.)
Repentance and remission of sin
I. The offices of Christ the Lord in His heavenly state, or what He is exalted to be, viz., a Prince and a Saviour.
II. The gifts at His disposal, or what He is able to bestow, viz., repentance and forgiveness of sins. Application:
1. Give to Him whom God hath exalted an exalted place in your thoughts and affections.
2. Give to Him, at all times, the daily homage of your faith and love and obedience.
(1) Go to Him as the only Mediator between God and man, the sole appointed medium of all your communications with the most High God.
(2) Go to Him, and give heed to Him, as presenting you at once with the noblest model, and strongest motives, in every duty.
(3) Go to Him farther as the authorised source and dispenser of spiritual blessings to your souls.
3. See that you value these blessings which He is exalted to bestow, and that you faithfully seek them according to His Word.
4. Take, then, the full consolation and encouragement of having such an exalted Redeemer. (James Brewster.)
Repentance and forgiveness
There are some who would object to this phraseology as unsound, if it were not the phraseology of Holy Writ. It appears to savour too much of legalism, both because it is repentance--not faith--with which the forgiveness of sins stands connected, and because in the statement of the two things, repentance is placed first in order. But it will be seen upon examination that here, as everywhere else, the grace of the gospel and the authority of the law are equally recognised, and that there is not the slightest sacrifice of the one of these Divine dispensations to the other.
I. Repentance and forgiveness of sins are here employed to denote the whole extent of that salvation which Christ has effected in our behalf.
1. Forgiveness of sins denotes it as applied to our condition. We are in a state of guilt--Liable to Gods displeasure, and under a sentence of condemnation. But Christ by suffering, the just for the unjust, procures for us redemption, even the forgiveness of sins. And thus, the only thing which separated between God and us being effectually removed, we are restored to His favour, and regain a title to every blessing.
2. Repentance denotes it in reference to our character. A change of character is as essential for us as a change of condition. Though pardon and eternal life had been procured for us, yet these we could not enjoy so long as we were alienated from God, by whom that pardon was to be granted and with whom that eternal life was to be spent. And accordingly provision is made in the gospel scheme for producing the revolution in our moral nature which is thus found to be indispensable. Of this revolution Christ is the author, as He is of every other benefit. In this way our salvation is complete.
3. The circumstance that faith is not specified does not amount to an underrating of its value, or a depriving it of its just province. Repentance includes faith, not only as one of its component parts, but as its essential feature. Faith, whether considered simply as a belief in the Divine testimony respecting Christ, or as an actual embracing of Him, and trusting in Him, enters into the very substance of repentance. Note that it is the repentance of Israel that is especially spoken of. They had crucified Christ. Their repentance must necessarily have mainly consisted in a transition from their obstinate infidelity to faith in Jesus as a suffering Saviour. In like-manner the predominant sin of all who have not repented, is that Christ has been offered to them, and that they have refused the offer. So that when they repent, the great thing they have to do is to open their ears and hearts to the message which the gospel brings them concerning the Saviour, and to flee for refuge in His Divine person and finished work.
II. Though repentance is first in order, it does not bear to forgiveness of sins the relation of cause to effect, and is not the condition of forgiveness. Were there nothing in the passage itself to indicate this we should be entitled to explain it by what the Bible says as to the nature of repentance--viz., that it cannot meritoriously contribute to the attainment of any blessing from God; and by the general analogy of Scripture, one of whose great objects is to strip all human moralities of every thing like good desert, or in cancelling the guilt of man. But we have no occasion to wander front the text. Forgiveness comes to us from Divine mercy. Christ is exalted to give it. And, represented as His gift, it is not traced to repentance as its source. Nay, the very juxtaposition of the two benefits serves to put them on the same footing- Repentance is just as much a gift as forgiveness. And if this be so, does it not; exclude altogether the idea of forgiveness being earned or deserved by repentance and virtually prohibit us from attaching any merit to the change that is effected in our character, more than to the change that is effected in our condition? And by, teaching us to assign the whole of our salvation to the achievement of Christ alone, does it not discountenance every feeling of confidence in our own performances, and bid us cherish as profound humility, in respect to our need of repentance, as in respect to our need of forgiveness? We must therefore simply regard ourselves as the mere undeserving recipients of both. We may recognise the distinction, that while the one is bestowed upon us, the other is wrought in us; but still for neither of them must we feel indebted to any virtue or efficiency of our own.
III. Repentance is indissolubly linked with forgiveness, and unless the first is wrought in us, most certainly the second is not conveyed to us. Men are very apt to overlook this. The fear of hell is felt to be so awful that they are desirous to escape from it, and the hope of heaven so delightful that they willingly entertain it. And as the gospel proposes a plan, whose tendency is to deliver from the one and to encourage the other, they cherish the expectation that, through Divine mercy, all will be well with them at last. But all this while they have overlooked that moral change without which punishment cannot be shunned, nor felicity reached. Now it requires no elaborate train of argument to demonstrate the utter groundlessness and danger of such views.
1. God commandeth all men everywhere to repent--Christ has said, Except ye repent, ye shall all perish and, with all the rich mercy which it unfolds, the gospel gives no one the slightest ground to hope for salvation, if the exhortation to repent is neglected. And do not you perceive that this position is a proof more ample and conclusive than anything else, that repentance is essential? Men are so much in love with sin that they not only cherish the prospect of going into heaven, though unprepared for it, but resolutely shut out from their view all that the God of heaven has told them of the necessity of a moral renovation, and deliberately rest upon the grace He has manifested, while they as deliberately maintain the character with which that grace is declared by Him to be completely irreconcilable. Wherefore, I would say to all such, look to this declaration of the Apostle Peter, in which repentance is as emphatically announced as forgiveness. It is honoured by having conferred upon it the precedence to forgiveness. At any rate, so closely are the two conjoined that you cannot look upon either without seeing both.
2. And besides this, consider repentance and forgiveness as proceeding alike from Christ. He died to purchase them--He is exalted to communicate them. And could this have been the case, unless both of them had been necessary for you? If both of them are thus demonstrated to be necessary for you, upon what principle consistent with duty or with safety can you be contented with only one of them? Are not you, in rejecting the other, doing what you can at once to frustrate the Saviours sufferings on the Cross, and to dishonour the power which He exercises, the mercy which He manifests, on His throne? (A. Thomson, D. D.)
The salvation in Christ
I. Offered by Him--as the Prince and the Saviour.
II. To be appropriated by us--in repentance and forgiveness of sins. (K. Gerok.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv31–32 31. “Him hath God exalted a Prince and a…
REPENTANCE AND REMISSION
31. “Him hath God exalted a Prince and a Savior at his right hand to give repentance and remission of sins to Israel.” Prince refers to the regal office of our Lord, and Savior to His atonement. He expiated our guilt on the cross, thus triumphing over sin, death and hell in His first advent. So the Father crowned Him mediatorial King at His right hand. During His absence the church is to preach the gospel of the kingdom to every creature, thus preparing the world for His second advent in glorious power, when He will be crowned King of all nations. If you want salvation, you must humble yourself before God till He gives you repentance. The true repentance is given of God, wrought in the heart by the Holy Ghost. The old style of seeking the Lord till you find Him is correct. The old colored people in the South used to sing over the mourners:
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“When I was a mourner just like you, I prayed on till I prayed right through.”
The great trouble in these days of superficialism is that the people are manipulated through, instead of praying through. We should seek till God gives us repentance. Remission of sins and repentance are like Siamese twins — inseparable. They always live and die together. “What God hath joined together let no man separate.” Truly neither men nor devils can separate them. Here is the radical deficiency in the religions of the world. Pagans, Moslems, Romanists, Greeks, Arminians, Syrians and Copts seem to have lost every trace of evangelical repentance, while the Protestant churches are close on their track. There has been a general collapse at this point in the last twenty-five years. Surely the last days are upon us. Evangelical repentance and the witness of the Spirit always come and go together. The popular so-called tearless repentance never brings the witness of the Spirit, from the simple fact that the Spirit never witnesses to a falsehood. Get the people to seek on till they find it out for themselves.
They will then make everybody else know it. Good Lord, save us from counterfeit repentance.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv31–32
Acts
WHOM TO OBEY,-ANNAS OR ANGEL?
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OUR CAPTAIN
Act 5:31.
The word rendered ‘Prince’ is a rather infrequent designation of our Lord in Scripture. It is only employed in all four times-twice in Peter’s earlier sermons recorded in this Book of the Acts; and twice in the Epistle to the Hebrews. In a former discourse of the Apostle’s he had spoken of the crime of the Jews in killing ‘the Prince of life.’ Here he uses the word without any appended epithet. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we read once of the ‘Captain of Salvation,’ and once of the ‘Author of Faith.’
Now these three renderings ‘Prince,’ ‘Captain,’ ‘Author,’ seem singularly unlike. But the explanation of their being all substantially equivalent to the original word is not difficult to find. It seems to mean properly a Beginner, or Originator, who takes the lead in anything, and hence the notions of chieftainship and priority are easily deduced from it. Then, very naturally, it comes to mean something very much like cause; with only this difference, that it implies that the person who is the Originator is Himself the Possessor of that of which He is the Cause to others. So the two ideas of a Leader, and of a Possessor who imparts, are both included in the word.
My intention in this sermon is to deal with the various forms of this expression, in order to try to bring out the fulness of the notion which Scripture attaches to this leadership of Jesus Christ. He is first of all, generally, as our text sets Him forth, the Leader, absolutely. Then there are the specific aspects, expressed by the other three passages, in which He is set forth as the Leader through death to life; the Leader through suffering to salvation; and the Leader in the path of faith. Let us look, then, at these points in succession.
I. First, we have the general notion of Christ the Leader.
Now I suppose we are all acquainted with the fact that the names ‘Joshua’ and ‘Jesus’ are, in the original, one. It is further to be noticed that, in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, which was familiar to Peter’s hearers, the word of our text is that employed to describe the office of the military leaders of Israel. It is still further to be observed that, in all the instances in the New Testament, it is employed in immediate connection with the name of Jesus. Now, putting all these things together, remembering to whom Peter was speaking, remembering the familiarity which many of his audience must have had with the Old Testament in its Greek translation, remembering the identity of the two names Joshua and Jesus, it is difficult to avoid the supposition that the expression of our text is coloured by a reference to the bold soldier who successfully led his brethren into the Promised Land. Joshua was the ‘Captain of the Lord’s host’ to lead them to Canaan; the second Joshua is the Captain of the Host of the Lord to lead them to a better rest. Of all the Old Testament heroes perhaps there is none, at first sight, less like the second Joshua than the first was. He is only a rough, plain, prompt, and bold soldier. No prophet was he, no word of wisdom ever fell from his lips, no trace of tenderness was in anything that he did; meekness was alien from his character, he was no sage, he was no saint, but decisive, swift, merciless when necessary, full of resource, sharp and hard as his own sword. And yet a parallel may be drawn.
The second Joshua is the Captain of the Lord’s host, as was typified to the first one, in that strange scene outside the walls of Jericho, where the earthly commander, sunk in thought, was brooding upon the hard nut which he had to crack, when suddenly he lifted up his eyes, and beheld a man with a drawn sword. With the instinctive alertness of his profession and character, his immediate question was, ‘Art thou for us or for our enemies?’ And he got the answer ‘No! I am not on thy side, nor on the other side, but thou art on Mine. As Captain of the Lord’s host am I come up.’
So Jesus Christ, the ‘Strong Son of God,’ is set forth by this military emblem as being Himself the first Soldier in the army of God, and the Leader of all the host. We forget far too much the militant character of Jesus Christ. We think of His meekness, His gentleness, His patience, His tenderness, His humility, and we cannot think of these too much, too lovingly, too wonderingly, too adoringly, but we too often forget the strength which underlay the gentleness, and that His life, all gracious as it was, when looked at from the outside, had beneath it a continual conflict, and was in effect the warfare of God against all the evils and the sorrows of humanity. We forget the courage that went to make the gentleness of Jesus, the daring that underlay His lowliness; and it does us good to remember that all the so-called heroic virtues were set forth in supreme form, not in some vulgar type of excellence, such as a conqueror, whom the world recognises, but in that meek King whose weapon was love, yet was wielded with a soldier’s hand.
This general thought of Jesus Christ as the first Soldier and Captain of the Lord’s army not only opens for us a side of His character which we too often pass by, but it also says something to us as to what our duties ought to be. He stands to us in the relation of General and Commander-in-Chief; then we stand to Him in the relation of private soldiers, whose first duty is unhesitating obedience, and who in doing their Master’s will must put forth a bravery far higher than the vulgar courage that is crowned with wreathed laurels on the bloody battlefield, even the bravery that is caught from Him who ‘set His face as a flint’ to do His work.
Joshua’s career has in it a great stumbling-block to many people, in that merciless destruction of the Canaanite sinners, which can only be vindicated by remembering, first, that it was a divine appointment, and that God has the right to punish; and, second, that those old days were under a different law, or at least a less manifestly developed law of loving-kindness and mercy than, thank God! we live in. But whilst we look with wonder on these awful scenes of destruction, may there not lie in them the lesson for us that antagonism and righteous wrath against evil in all its forms is the duty of the soldiers of Christ? There are many causes to-day which to further and fight for is the bounden duty of every Christian, and to further and fight for which will tax all the courage that any of us can muster. Remember that the leadership of Christ is no mere pretty metaphor, but a solemn fact, which brings with it the soldier’s responsibilities. When our Centurion says to us, ‘Come!’ we must come. When He says to us, ‘Go!’ we must go. When He says to us ‘Do this!’ we must do it, though heart and flesh should shrink and fail. Unhesitating obedience to His authoritative command will deliver us from many of the miseries of self-will; and brave effort at Christ’s side is as much the privilege as the duty of His servants and soldiers.
II. So note, secondly, the Leader through death to life.
Peter, in the sermon which is found in the third chapter of this Book of the Acts, has his mind and heart filled with the astounding fact of the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ, and in the same breath as he gives forth the paradoxical indictment of the Jewish sin, ‘You have killed the Prince of Life’-the Leader of Life-he also says, ‘And God hath raised Him from the dead.’ So that the connection seems to point to the risen and glorified life into which Christ Himself passed, and by passing became capable of imparting it to others. The same idea is here as in Paul’s other metaphor: ‘Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept’-the first sheaf of the harvest, which was carried into the Temple and consecrated to God, and was the pledge and prophecy of the reaping in due season of all the miles of golden grain that waved in the autumn sunshine. ‘So,’ says Peter, ‘He is the Leader of Life, who Himself has passed through the darkness, for “you killed Him”; mystery of mysteries as it is that you should have been able to do it, deeper mystery still that you should have been willing to do it, deepest mystery of all that you did it not when you did it, but that “He became dead and is alive for evermore.” You killed the Prince of Life, and God raised Him from the dead.’
He has gone before us. He is ‘the first that should rise from the dead.’ For, although the partial power of His communicated life did breathe for a moment resuscitation into two dead men and one dead maiden, these shared in no resurrection-life, but only came back again into mortality, and were quickened for a time, but to die at last the common death of all. But Jesus Christ is the first that has gone into the darkness and come back again to live for ever. Across the untrodden wild there is one track marked, and the footprints upon it point both ways-to the darkness and from the darkness. So the dreary waste is not pathless any more. The broad road that all the generations have trodden on their way into the everlasting darkness is left now, and the ‘travellers pass by the byway’ which Jesus Christ has made by the touch of His risen feet.
Thus, not only does this thought teach us the priority of His resurrection-life, but it also declares to us that Jesus Christ, possessing the risen life, possesses it to impart it. For, as I remarked in my introductory observations, the conception of this word includes not only the idea of a Leader, but that of One who, Himself possessing or experiencing something, gives it to others. All men rise again. Yes, ‘but every man in his own order.’ There are two principles at work in the resurrection of all men. They are raised on different grounds, and they are raised to different issues. They that are Christ’s are brought again from the dead, because the life of Christ is in them; and it is as ‘impossible’ that they, as that ‘He, should be holden of it.’ Union with Jesus Christ by simple faith is the means, and the only means revealed to us, whereby men shall be raised from the dead at the last by a resurrection which is anything else than a prolonged death. As for others, ‘some shall rise unto shame and everlasting contempt,’ rising dead, and dead after they are risen-dead as long as they live. There be two resurrections, whether simultaneous in time or not is of no moment, and all of us must have our part in the one or the other; and faith in Jesus Christ is the only means by which we can take a place in the great army and procession that He leads down into the valley and up to the sunny heights.
If He be the Leader through death unto life, then it is certain that all who follow in His train shall attain to His side and shall share in His glory. The General wears no order which the humblest private in the ranks may not receive likewise, and whomsoever He leads, His leading will not end till He has led them close to His side, if they trust Him. So, calmly, confidently, we may each of us look forward to that dark journey waiting for us all. All our friends will leave us at the tunnel’s mouth, but He will go with us through the gloom, and bring us out into the sunny lands on the southern side of the icy white mountains. The Leader of our souls will be our Guide, not only unto death, but far beyond it, into His own life.
III. So, thirdly, note the Leader through suffering to salvation.
In the Epistle to the Hebrews it is written, ‘It became Him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain’-or the Leader-’of their salvation perfect through sufferings.’ That expression might seem at first to shut Jesus Christ out from any participation in the thing which He gives. For salvation is His gift, but not that which He Himself possesses and enjoys; but it is to be noticed that in the context of the words which I have quoted, ‘glory’ is put as substantially synonymous with salvation, and that the whole is suffused with the idea of a long procession, as shown by the phrase, ‘bringing many sons.’ Of this procession Jesus Christ Himself is the Leader.
So, clearly, the notion in the context now under consideration is that the life of Jesus Christ is the type to which all His servants are to be conformed. He is the Representative Man, who Himself passes through the conditions through which we are to pass, and Himself reaches the glory which, given to us, becomes salvation.
‘Christ is perfected through sufferings.’ So must we be. Perfected through sufferings? you say. Then did His humanity need perfecting? Yes, and No. There needed nothing to be hewn away from that white marble. There was nothing to be purged by fire out of that pure life. But I suppose that Jesus Christ’s human nature needed to be unfolded by life; as the Epistle to the Hebrews says, ‘He learned obedience, though He were a Son, through the things which He suffered.’ And fitness for His office of leading us to glory required to be reached through the sufferings which were the condition of our forgiveness and of our acceptance with God. So, whether we regard the word as expressing the agony of suffering in unfolding His humanity, or in fitting Him for His redeeming work, it remains true that He was perfected by His sufferings.
So must we be. Our characters will never reach the refinement, the delicacy, the unworldliness, the dependence upon God, which they require for their completion, unless we have been passed through many a sorrow. There are plants which require a touch of frost to perfect them, and we all need the discipline of a Father’s hand. The sorrows that come to us all are far more easily borne when we think that Christ bore them all before us. It is but a blunted sword which sorrow wields against any of us; it was blunted on His armour. It is but a spent ball that strikes us; its force was exhausted upon Him. Sorrow, if we keep close to Him, may become solemn joy, and knit us more thoroughly to Himself. Ah, brother! we can better spare our joys than we can spare our sorrows. Only let us cleave to Him when they fall upon us.
Christ’s sufferings led Him to His glory, so will ours if we keep by His side-and only if we do. There is nothing in the mere fact of being tortured and annoyed here on earth, which has in itself any direct and necessary tendency to prepare us for the enjoyment, or to secure to us the possession, of future blessedness. You often hear superficial people saying, ‘Oh! he has been very much troubled here, but there will be amends for it hereafter.’ Yes; God would wish to make amends for it hereafter, but He cannot do so unless we comply with the conditions. And it needs that we should keep close to Jesus Christ in sorrow, in order that it should work for us ‘the peaceable fruit of righteousness.’ The glory will come if the patient endurance has preceded, and has been patience drawn from Jesus.
‘I wondered at the beauteous hours, The slow result of winter showers, You scarce could see the grass for flowers.’
The sorrows that have wounded any man’s head like a crown of thorns will be covered with the diadem of Heaven, if they are sorrows borne with Christ.
IV. Lastly, we have Jesus, the Leader in the path of faith.
‘The Author of faith,’ says the verse in the Epistle to the Hebrews. ‘Author’ does not cover all the ground, though it does part of it. We must include the other ideas which I have been trying to set forth He is ‘Possessor’ first and ‘Giver’ afterwards. For Jesus Christ Himself is both the Pattern and the Inspirer of our faith. It would unduly protract my remarks to dwell adequately upon this; but let me just briefly hint some thoughts connected with it.
Jesus Christ Himself walked by continual faith. His manhood depended upon God, just as ours has to depend upon Jesus. He lived in the continued reception of continual strength from above by reason of His faith, just as our faith is the condition of our reception of His strength. We are sometimes afraid to recognise the fact that the Man Jesus, who is our pattern in all things, is our pattern in this, the most special and peculiarly human aspect of the religious life. But if Christ was not the first of believers, His pattern is wofully defective in its adaptation to our need. Rather let us rejoice in the thought that all that great muster-roll of the heroes of the faith, which the Epistle to the Hebrews has been dealing with, have for their Leader-though, chronologically, He marches in the centre- Jesus Christ, of whose humanity this is the document and proof that He says, in the Prophet’s words: ‘I will put My trust in Him.’
Remember, too, that the same Jesus who is the Pattern is the Object and the Inspirer of our faith; and that if we fulfil the conditions in the text now under consideration, ‘looking off’ from all others, stimulating and beautiful as their example may be, sweet and tender as their love may be, and ‘looking unto Jesus,’ He will be in us, and above us-in us to inspire, and above us to receive and to reward our humble confidence.
So, dear friends, it all comes to this, ‘Follow thou Me!’ In that commandment all duty is summed, and in obeying it all blessedness and peace are ensured. If we will take Christ for our Captain, He will teach our fingers to fight. If we obey Him we shall not want guidance, and be saved from perplexities born of self-will. If we keep close to Him and turn our eyes to Him, away from all the false and fleeting joys and things of earth, we shall not walk in darkness, howsoever earthly lights may be quenched, but the gloomiest path will be illuminated by His presence, and the roughest made smooth by His bleeding feet that passed along it. If we follow Him, He will lead us down into the dark valley, and up into the blessed sunshine, where participation in His own eternal life and glory will be salvation. If we march in His ranks on earth, then shall we
‘With joy upon our heads arise
And meet our Captain in the skies.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv30–32 See notes on verse 29
See notes on verse 29
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v31 Saviour (See Scofield "Rom 1:16").
Saviour (See Scofield "Rom 1:16").
repentance Repentance. Act 8:22; Act 17:30; Mat 3:2.
Read full note →
forgiveness (See Scofield "Mat 26:28").
sins Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v30 5:30-32 We are witnesses of these things: The apostles,…
5:30-32 We are witnesses of these things: The apostles, as witnesses, were required to testify to what they had seen and heard (see Lev 5:1; cp. Acts 1:8; Matt 28:18-20; Luke 24:44-49; John 20:21).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.