Acts 13:26–41

By natural descent the Jews were Abraham's children. Yet they are called "sons of the stock of Abraham" (Acts 13:26), because they held a recognised position on earth connected with that forefather. Christians, on the other hand, are called "sons" of Abraham, but never children of Abraham. We are his sons, justified by faith. He is the father of all who believe, for "it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham" (Gal. 3:7). We are not his children as offspring of his stock — that is, by natural descent.

Here the apostle's address marks out, for the first time, the place given to Gentile converts.

We now come to a word of very large meaning. It is so large that it can cover other gospel words such as justification, redemption, reconciliation. Hebrews 2:3 shows how large that meaning can be. There God's mighty intervention on man's behalf, which the Lord Himself first began to speak, is called "such a great salvation." In Acts 13:26 the apostle Paul speaks of "the word of this salvation," using the term in just the same broad sense.

Paul's message in the synagogue dealt exactly with Habakkuk 1:5. When there was no salvation, and the prophet said, "You do not save," God raised up a Saviour to Israel who had died and who was risen. "The word of this salvation" was sent specifically to those who had rejected Christ. They all heard this word, and those who feared God were called to accept it.

The oldest manuscripts read "us." Most manuscripts support "you"; but "us" graciously includes the witnesses. The "you" just before may have got repeated.

From these words we learn one thing as clearly as possible. Every soul in that synagogue was called on, there and then, to take into his heart the blessed message falling from the preacher's lips. Not one was excluded. "To you is the word of this salvation sent." If anyone had asked the apostle whether the message was meant for him, what would the reply have been? "To you is the word of this salvation sent." Was there some preliminary question to be settled first? Not one. All the preliminaries had been settled at the cross.

He then goes on to say, "Whoever among you fears God, to you is the word of this salvation sent." Are you a God-fearing person, still looking towards God, though you do not yet know forgiveness and salvation? "To you is the word of this salvation sent."

Hearing the voice of the Son of God is not just hearing certain words the Lord spoke. In Acts 13:27 we learn that the people of Jerusalem heard the actual words of the prophets every Sabbath day. Yet they did not know "the voice of the prophets". It is clear, then, that we may hear the words and miss the voice. Again, in 1 Corinthians 14:10, we read there are "so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without meaning". The voice, then, is the true meaning of the words — the message that the words contain.

Ten thousand eyes saw Him as to His personal appearance (John 6:40), yet did not see Him in the truth of His Person. He was in the world and the world did not know Him (John 1:10). A hundred Scriptures had foretold His coming, His ways and His glories. Those Scriptures were in the hands of His earthly people, in His own land of Israel. Yet we read, "He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him" (John 1:11). More than that, in their ignorance of His glory, they fulfilled those very Scriptures in condemning Him.

Israel was sent "the word of this salvation". Against it stands the stubborn ignorance of those who boasted most: the people living in Jerusalem and their rulers. They had the voices of the prophets read to them sabbath by sabbath, yet they fulfilled them in unbelief. They knew neither themselves nor the One they presumed to judge — the Judge of Israel struck on the cheek, the Judge of living and dead hung on the tree… Yes, in their blindness they fulfilled everything God had written about Him. Law, psalms, and prophets all centre in Him. They should have known Him most of all, and they knew Him least; their eye was not clear, and their body was full of darkness.

They could bring no charge of guilt against Him, yet they demanded that Pilate hand Him over to death. Without realising it they had done just what Scripture said they would do. Prophecy had spoken of His betrayal, His crucifixion, the piercing of His hands and feet and side, and many more details. All of it came true to the letter.

God has His determinate counsel and foreknowledge. The Jews played their evil part, the Gentiles theirs. Their thoughts and feelings differed, yet together they showed their characters and their guilt. By that very act they fulfilled the prophets. The same act gave occasion for God to display His holiest judgment and to accomplish the work of His grace.

In the days after the death of Christ, the Spirit of God spoke through the apostle to Israel. He said, "You killed the Author of life," and also, "And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers" (Acts 3:15, 17). In His grace, God accepted that those who had murdered Jesus had sinned in ignorance… The deliberate, planned murder of the Lord, as the Sent One of God, would have been a sin beyond forgiveness.

He is the One of whom Pilate had to say, "I have found no cause of death in Him" (Luke 23:22). Pilate was using these words as a judge, yet they were true in the most absolute sense. We must die; but here at last is found on earth a blessed, perfect Man over whom death has no claim. There is plenty of cause of death in us, but no cause of death in Him.

Through His three and a half years of ministry the Saviour lived in the fierce glare of hostile criticism. He was no hermit, as John the Baptist was; the desert was not His home; He moved freely in and out among the people. So everyone knew all the facts of His life. If His enemies could have found a single flaw in Him, how it would have delighted their evil hearts! But He was God's holy One. The Passover lamb had to be "without blemish." Only such a lamb could picture the One who was holy in nature and stainless in all His ways.

Next Paul boldly sets out the terrible position the Jews had put themselves in… Along with spiritual blindness there was, as usual, the most glaring lack of common righteousness.

At the trial of our Lord, Pilate declared in public that he found no fault in Him. Yet he gave way to the fanaticism of the Jews. He was also afraid he might not stand well with Caesar if he let One who claimed to be the King of the Jews live. So, to his eternal shame, he gave sentence that it should be as His enemies demanded (Luke 23:24).

Their eye was not single, and their body was full of darkness. That darkness came to its head in the death of their own Messiah, forced out of a reluctant Pilate. Pilate was blind too, and he was not without warning and moral witness. Yet he was not as blind as those who said they could see. So their sin remained, and it remains, sadly, to this day!

They could bring no charge of guilt against Him, yet they demanded that Pilate hand Him over to death. Without realizing it they had done exactly what Scripture had said they would do. His betrayal, His crucifixion, the piercing of His hands and feet and side, and many other details spoken of in prophecy were fulfilled to the letter, then His removal from the cross and His burial in the grave.

Great promises of God lie scattered over the pages of the Old Testament. But death always stands in the way of their fulfilment. Then at last there comes One in whom there was "no cause of death" (Acts 13:28). He goes into death, yet death could not hold Him (Acts 2:24). So at last we find a Man who, in regard to the promises of God, is "the Yea" and "the Amen." As "the Yea" He is the One in whom the blessedness of every promise is displayed. As "the Amen" He is the One through whom God fulfils every promise.

The people of Jerusalem and their rulers heard the words of the prophets read out sabbath by sabbath, yet they fulfilled those words in unbelief. They did not know themselves, and they did not know the One they dared to judge. Yes, they blindly fulfilled everything God had written about Him. The law, the psalms and the prophets all centre on Him. He was the One they should have known best, and He was the One they knew least.

Acts 13:29 seems the widest of all. It speaks not only about the prophets but about "all that was written of him" being fulfilled. God, in His sovereignty, used wicked enemies to fulfil His purpose and the Scriptures — and those enemies remain fully responsible for what they did.

A crime could carry the death penalty, but only certain crimes called for hanging the body afterwards. The hanging showed that the man died under the curse of God. It was meant as a public disgrace and a warning to others. But that disgrace was not to last beyond the day of the hanging. Galatians 3:13 shows that this applies mainly to the Lord Jesus. At Calvary He was made a curse for us, and He bore the most dreadful disgrace for our sakes. But that awful treatment was limited to that one day. When His great work of atonement was finished, those who loved Him took His body and laid it in a grave.

But at last, "when they had carried out all that was written of Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb." His work was finished. Now man could do nothing more to insult that body, though God's patience had allowed such insults before. It is taken down from the cross and wrapped in spices, which suggest how sweet and fragrant that death was to God. It is laid in a new tomb that death had never touched. The ashes of the sacrifice were poured out in a clean place, and no decay is allowed to touch that Holy One.

They would have given Him the grave of the wicked, but God had foretold otherwise. An older translation of Isaiah 53:9 reads, "they appointed His grave with the wicked, but with the rich He was when He had died." The tomb was one in which no other dead person had ever lain.

Here we see the blindness of the world, and above all the blindness of Israel. Without knowing it they fulfilled all that was written about Him, right up to the moment when they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. "But God raised Him from the dead." It was not only that the promised One had come. It was also that God stepped in and raised Him from among the dead, at the point where unbelief seemed to have lost everything in His rejection and death. Glad tidings indeed! Glad tidings of a victory over all that sin could do, up to death itself.

In the synagogue of the Jews... they announce Jesus and the resurrection. Let us notice certain points in this address. As usual, it was made up of facts. The apostle tells Israel's history in brief, down to the time of David. He then lays down the two basic parts of the gospel: the fulfilment of the promises, and the powerful intervention of God in the resurrection of Christ, which showed Him to be the Son of God. In this way also he begins the Epistle to the Romans.

As to the tomb of this blessed One, Satan, with man as his partner, had things all his own way. When Jesus was born, He was laid in a manger, because the inn had no room for Him. All through His life on earth He was the constant object of Satan's malice. The cross was the great proof of this... the greed of hell had its fill when the great stone closed the mouth of the tomb. The victory seemed complete. Death wrapped itself around the Lord of glory. "But God raised him from the dead."

It is true that loving hands took Him down from the cross and placed Him in a tomb; but wicked hands sealed Him there, and the world hoped never to see Him again; "but God raised Him from the dead." The One whom men killed, God raised up.

"But God raised Him from the dead." Acts 13:30. How simple that is. This, then, was God's great public showing of His complete satisfaction with the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why people truly and gladly call the resurrection the foundational truth of the gospel.

Notice that the apostle Paul took great pains to prove that God had raised Christ from the dead. He proved it from the Scriptures and from the testimony of eyewitnesses. (Acts 13:30-37.) And with reason. The resurrection of Christ was the evidence that His work of atonement was complete, to the satisfaction of God... For it was God Himself who stepped in — stepped in with the overflowing joy of His own heart — and lifted out of the grave the One who died on the cross. And He seated Him at His own right hand in heaven, to show what He thought of the value of the work finished on the cross.

What a fact, proved by every kind of evidence that grace could, would, and did supply... And it is not only "the great exception" that rebukes the emptiness, pride, and self-will of unbelieving man. It is also such a source and supply of peace, light, joy and blessing to all who believe!

This was not only the promised One come at last. It was also God's own intervention, raising Him up from among the dead when unbelief had made everything seem lost in His rejection and death... God's grace in Christ wins the victory over evil in Satan's last stronghold. So man may believe and be saved, before God judges those who keep on refusing to believe. It is therefore no question of what man deserves. He has no righteousness before God — only unrighteousness, in every way.

The resurrection is the grand foundation truth of the gospel. To be a witness of His resurrection was the main requirement for an apostle (Acts 1). The truth Peter pressed most was that God had raised up Jesus, whom the Jews had crucified (Acts 2). He urged the same thing later in Solomon's porch (Acts 3), and before the Jewish council more than once (Acts 4, 5). The same was true in preaching to the Gentiles (Acts 10), and Paul pressed it even more than Peter did (Acts 13). This witness especially grieved the Sadducean leaders (Acts 4). It is what rouses the undying scorn or opposition of unbelief all over the world.

Here the apostle points out the gracious care and wisdom of God. He gave the risen Christ to be "seen," and not once or twice only, but for "many days." Now who could be valid witnesses of this staggering fact? People who barely knew Him, or did not know Him at all? Or those most familiar with Him when He was alive? Clearly the latter. So He appeared, once risen, to these very people. They were the slowest of all to believe He was alive again for evermore, and their slowness matched the depth of their grief and disappointment over His cross and His grave.

The common printed text, with more than one excellent ancient copy, leaves out the word "now," though it is really emphatic and important. They are at this moment, says the apostle, His witnesses to the Jews.

The disciples were slow to believe. They refused to accept that the Lord had risen until they had indisputable, first-hand proof. That is a strong point in the proof of His resurrection. If they had been gullible, ready to believe any tale they heard, you could understand their testimony carrying no weight. But these men were slow to believe such astounding news, and indisputable evidence convinced them. No one should deny their testimony.

In verse 31 he puts the twelve apostles clearly in the place of testimony to Israel. They had been with the Lord themselves, and they had seen Him after His resurrection. "They are," he says, "his witnesses to the people."

He insists on it just as strongly, even though he was not one of them. In fact, he contrasts himself and Barnabas with this group. Grace provided another character of testimony, so that the mouths of those who spoke against it might be stopped. Witnesses were raised up who had not known Him at all while He lived here on earth. Paul himself was bitterly hostile, until the Lord revealed Himself to His enemy and in him, outside Damascus, and made him His devoted servant.

An essential feature of apostleship was first-hand knowledge of the risen Saviour. An apostle had to be able to testify that he had seen Him himself, risen. That is why Paul asks his third question in 1 Corinthians 9:1. Paul saw Him, not during the forty days, but later in the full blaze of His glory.

From verse 32 comes the application of the facts about the Messiah, already given in verses 23-31. Chief among them are His death at man's hands, His resurrection by God, and the full witness of His appearing afterwards among those who knew Him best.

Christ's coming fulfilled the promise made to the fathers. Their children now had the good news of it in His Person here below. The raising up of Jesus in verse 33 therefore goes no further than the Child born, the Son given. Psalm 2:7 agrees. It refers not to His resurrection from the dead, as many have supposed, but to His birth, just as the words say... He, the Messiah, born of woman, born under law, was the object, accomplisher, and heir of the promises.

God raised up the Messiah according to promise and the prophecy of the second psalm. To that, verse 34 adds another and still more important truth: God raised Him up "from the dead"... Acts 3:22, 26 and Acts 7:37 are clear cases of this use of "raised up" in the same book.

The New Testament speaks of the Son as begotten in several places: Acts 13:32, Hebrews 1:5 and Hebrews 5:5. Not one of them refers to the Son being born. Each points instead to His being begotten to an office — in resurrection, in being supreme in the inhabited world, and in priesthood.

He begins with a short history of the people of Israel. It leads straight to the point: God fulfilled His promise to His people Israel by giving them Christ in incarnation (vv. 32-33). But Israel rejected and killed their Messiah. Humanly speaking, at this point all was lost. But what did God do? He "raised Him from among the dead, no more to return to corruption"... God had promised that David would have a descendant to sit on his throne (2 Sam. 7:16). This promise is absolutely certain, sure and unalterable. To fulfil it, God raised up Christ from among the dead.

Only the death and resurrection of the Messiah could make the covenant everlasting. Only that way could the promised holy or merciful blessings of David become unbreakable... Only that way could the soul even of the Jew live, or the door of grace open wide enough to take in a Gentile.

"Forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you" — not promised for the future, but proclaimed now, announced as a present reality. "And by Him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses."

The coming of Christ fulfilled the promise made to the fathers. Their children now had the good news of it in His person here below. The raising up of Jesus in verse 33 does not therefore go beyond the Child thus born, the Son thus given. This agrees with Psalm 2:7, which refers not to His resurrection from the dead, as many have supposed, but to His birth, as the words simply say. He, the Messiah, born of a woman, born under law, was the object, accomplisher, and heir of the promises.

The word "raised up" here has a wider meaning than where it is repeated just after. It means that God ordained Christ and, as it were, brought Him into the light by His own hand, so that He might fulfil the office of Messiah. Scripture also shows us kings and prophets raised up by the Lord. Acts 3:22, 26 and Acts 7:37 are clear cases of this use of "raised up" in the same book... "Raised up" is correct. "Raised again" would fit only if the text certainly pointed to the resurrection, and it does not at all. But "raised up again" is unjustifiable.

The eternal Son was never begotten. Even if He is called the only-begotten Son, the sense is not any begetting. It means "unique and the only one of its kind." But here we have the begetting: the creation of a being who has not been there before in this way — a man in this world... This wonder, "today I have begotten you," comes true; this miracle of the incarnation of the eternal Son of God. And the angel answered her [Mary], "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you." That is "today I have begotten you" in Psalm 2:7. And therefore the holy thing, this little child, this unique child, which shall be born, shall be called Son of God.

This passage is quoted in Acts 13:33, Hebrews 1:5 and Hebrews 5:5. This however presents no difficulty. It refers plainly to Christ as a man, Jehovah's Anointed and Jehovah's King, in connection with this world. The expressions used — "the hill of Zion," "the uttermost parts of the earth," and "this day" — clearly belong to the earth and to time. This confirms the view.

This psalm shows the royal glory and world-wide rule of Christ, the One whom Israel and the nations reject... The title here refers to His incarnation, and secondarily to His resurrection from the dead (Acts 13:33-34). So this statement is not about the fact of His eternal Sonship. It speaks of Him as Son of God in time. The eternal Son of God became incarnate, but this did not lower His eternal Sonship... "But for the truth, and for His own personal dignity, it is of the highest importance to remember this: His Sonship when incarnate, and in resurrection too, rests on His eternal relationship as Son. Without that, the other could not be."

"Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this Man" (Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, and glorified) "forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you" — not promised for the future, but proclaimed now, announced as a present reality — "and by Him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses."

The raising up of Jesus in verse 33 does not go beyond the Child born, the Son given. God raised up the Messiah according to promise and the prophecy of the second psalm. To that, verse 34 adds another and still more important truth: God raised Him up "from the dead". This is as certain as it is plain. It is no mere reasoning on the verse before, and no explanatory note. It is further teaching of the highest value. That is why the words come in this way: "But that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He has spoken thus…"

He is risen, not like Lazarus, Jairus' daughter, and others, to return to corruption, but never again to die (Acts 13:34). Death has no more dominion over Him (Rom. 6:9). He is alive, then, for ever — the living One (Rev. 1:18).

The proper sense of the word is pious, compassionate, that which is not profane. Scripture applies it to Christ, who sums up all the goodness of God towards men, as well as perfect piety… In Acts 13:34 the word translated "the sure mercies of David" is the same word translated "your Holy One" in verse 35 of the same chapter, and in Acts 2:27. The resurrection of Jesus, the Holy One who was not to see corruption, makes these holy things, or mercies, sure. They are the same mercies set out in Psalm 89.

We must have Christ's resurrection even to get the earthly blessings of Israel. So in Acts 13 Paul says that God raised Christ "up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption"; and "I will give you the sure mercies of David," Isaiah 55. Israel could not have them without death and resurrection. So the sure mercies of David are proof of resurrection. There was nothing sure till that. If they trusted in a living man, all failed.

Only the death and resurrection of the Messiah could make the covenant everlasting. Only so could the promised holy or merciful blessings of David stand unbreakable… Only so could the soul even of the Jew live. Only so could the door of grace open wide enough to take in a Gentile. So notice how the chapter in Isaiah begins: with God's call to "everyone who thirsts". He who was lifted up on the cross will draw all, not Jews only. A risen Messiah gives the utmost sureness to Israel's promises, yet He cannot be bounded in His grace any more than in His glory.

The resurrection, then, was God's answering act to the guilt of those who killed the Fulfiller of His promise. By raising the Lord Jesus, God secured to them "the sure mercies of David". So the apostle applies the further Scriptures quoted from Isaiah and Psalm 16 to the raised One, who is "no more to return to corruption"… And "through this Man" the apostle preached the good news of the forgiveness of sins, and of justification from all things for all who believe.

The quotation of Psalm 16:10 (verse 35) proves not His Sonship as man and Messiah here below, but His resurrection. So it stands in close and logical connection with verse 34. Peter had already used this Psalm in the same way in Acts 2:24-32. It is strange that any who believe the Christian revelation can allow a doubt that Christ's resurrection is the just and only meaning of the tenth verse of the psalm.

"Holy" here answers to the Greek word hagios, while the word used in the Greek Old Testament version of the Psalm (and quite accurately) is hosios. The first means holy in the strict sense, separate from evil... The second is often used of Christ in the Greek Old Testament as the "pious" or "gracious" One. In practice that comes to the sense of "holy" when said of man, and "merciful" when said of God. This is the word that occurs in Psalm 16 as quoted in Acts 13:35. Psalm 89 is very instructive: the first word is used of the Holy One of Israel, our King, in verse 18, while in verse 19 God speaks in vision of His Holy or gracious One — the One in whom His loving-kindnesses or mercies centred.

Also, "Your Holy One" would not see corruption. This of course refers to His body. His body was in a state of death, because the spirit and soul had left it; even so, it would not see corruption.

Paul then quotes Psalm 16:10... This is most striking, because it points to nothing less than a resurrection before corruption could set in.

But one man, the Messiah, was to taste death and yet see no corruption. David served the counsel of God in his own generation, but he saw corruption. So did all his descendants, except that One of whom he prophesied in the Spirit. Scripture cannot be broken. One man alone does and must fulfil the condition: who was He but Jesus, the Christ? In fact the witnesses gave the fullest evidence for His resurrection, apart from the predictions. All proofs centre in Him.

The Lord was perfectly sinless. So we can understand how His blessed holy body saw no corruption, for corruption is the effect of sin. He had also fully settled the question of sin by His atoning death on the cross, so death could have no further claim on Him. When sinful bodies die, death holds its sway and the process of corruption sets in at once.

He is now in the heavens in a body which saw no corruption, a body which is incorruptible for ever. He is the Firstfruits from among the dead. He is the pledge that God will raise the bodies of all believers in the same way, though in their case they saw corruption.

Paul reasons in verses 36 and 37 much as Peter does in Acts 2:29-31, and both with unanswerable power. But one man, the Messiah, was to see no corruption while tasting death. David in his own generation served the counsel of God, but saw corruption — as did all his descendants, except that one of whom he prophesied in the Spirit. Scripture cannot be broken. One man alone does and must fulfil the condition: who was He but Jesus, the Christ?

Paul urged this fact about our Lord Jesus Christ on those who heard him at Antioch. He contrasted Christ with the psalmist. David, he said, "fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption." But He whom God raised again "saw no corruption" (Acts 13:36-37). Those who deny the actual physical resurrection of Jesus must also deny that God kept His word in Psalm 16:9-11. They are committed as well to the blasphemy that Christ saw corruption. For it is written, "if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile" (1 Cor. 15:17).

At Antioch Paul is insisting that Christ did not see corruption, and that the psalm does not apply to David, for he has seen corruption. Does he say anything about his soul? Not a word. Stephen fell asleep — the word Paul uses of David — but Christ received his spirit.

In Acts 13:36 we have a full, unqualified commendation of David's life. No "but" comes in to spoil the picture. The New Translation gives a delightful rendering of this verse: "David, indeed, having in his own generation ministered to the will of God, fell asleep."

We notice that David "served his own generation by the will of God," or "in his own generation ministered to the will of God." He could not truly minister to his own generation unless he ministered to the will of God.

David had thought to do much in his day, and he was sincere in the thought. But he had to learn that the will of God for him was that he should "serve his generation." We too must learn this. A humble mind, a devoted heart, a tender conscience, an honest purpose are far more precious in God's sight than outward services, however showy and attractive.

Scripture says of David that he "served the purpose of God in his own generation" and then "fell asleep." We cannot serve a generation that lived before our time, or one that lives after we are gone. God has brought us into this world to serve Him today, in the time we were born into. Sighing after another day, one we may judge to be better, will get us nowhere. It will only tempt us to give up.

The New Translation renders this verse, "David, after he had in his own age served the will of God." That is the most any of us can do. It is impossible to predict the details of the future. My business is to do the little bit given to me in the present, as His grace enables me. I do it very imperfectly, as I can see, but the great Head on high has resources that are everlasting. To carry on His work through the years — that is His business.

The apostle to the Gentiles, in verses 36 and 37, reasons much as the apostle to the Jews does in Acts 2:29-31. Both speak with unanswerable power. But one man, the Messiah, was to see no corruption while tasting death. David in his own generation served the counsel of God, but saw corruption, as did all his descendants, except that One of whom he prophesied in the Spirit. Scripture cannot be broken. One man alone does and must fulfil the condition: who was He but Jesus, the Christ?

It was clear that David did not mean himself in that sixteenth Psalm, the one the apostle had just quoted. David died, was buried, and saw corruption. So he was writing about another — about Him whom God raised from the dead, the Lord Jesus Christ. … How would that come true? Not by keeping Him from death, but by raising the Lord Jesus Christ on the third day.

His work was finished. Now man could do nothing more to insult that body, though divine patience had permitted such insults before. It is taken down from the cross. It is wrapped in spices, which suggest the sweetness and fragrance of that death to God. It is laid in a new tomb that death had never tainted. The ashes of the sacrifice were poured out in a clean place, and no corruption may touch that Holy One (Acts 13:37).

Notice the great pains the apostle Paul took to prove that God had raised Christ from the dead (Acts 13:30-37). He proved it from the Scriptures, and from the testimony of eyewitnesses. And with reason. The resurrection of Christ was the evidence that His work of atonement was complete, to the satisfaction of God. Indeed, it was God's own demonstration that the death of His Son had glorified Him, and that the question of sin was settled once and for all. For God Himself stepped in. He stepped in with the abounding joy of His own heart, and He lifted out of the grave the One who died on the cross.

He is now in the heavens in a body which saw no corruption, a body which can never decay. He is the Firstfruits from among the dead. He is the pledge that the bodies of all believers will be raised in the same way, though their bodies did see corruption.

This fact is of basic importance for us today. Those who deny the actual physical resurrection of Jesus are committed to denying that God's Word in Psalm 16:9-11 came true. They are committed to the blasphemy that Christ saw corruption. And as a result they are committed to the falling away from the faith that was foretold. For it is written, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile" (1 Cor. 15:17).

If we look at the context of this verse, it is easy to see that "this Man" is Christ. The apostle had been showing that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, and proving that His resurrection had been foretold by David. The death and resurrection of Christ had been his theme. As soon as he had proclaimed a risen Christ, he turned to them and said, "Through this Man" — the risen Christ — "forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you."

The resurrection, then, was God's answering act to the guilt of the Jews, who killed the One who fulfilled His promise. By raising the Lord Jesus, He secured to them "the sure mercies of David." So the apostle applies the further Scriptures quoted from Isaiah and Psalm 16 to the raised One, who will never return to corruption. And "through this Man" was preached the good news of the forgiveness of sins, and of justification from all things for all who believe.

Some would like to persuade us that we cannot know our sins are forgiven. They say we must go on to the end of our life completely uncertain about this most vital question. Faced with such miserable teaching, what do those glowing words of the apostle Paul in the synagogue of Antioch mean? "Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this Man" — Jesus Christ, dead and risen — "is preached the forgiveness of sins; and by Him all who believe are justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses." Preached: not promised as a future thing, but proclaimed now. All who believe are justified — not shall be, or hope to be.

This fully authorises us to go to any man and tell him that Christ has died for him, and so forgiveness is preached to him (Acts 13:38). We can do this because as a propitiation — a sacrifice for sin — He gave Himself "a ransom for all"; He died "for the ungodly." The forgiveness of sins, however, is the portion of those who believe only, since it involves substitution.

Forgiveness of sins! They could have it right there and then. There was no need to bring a sin offering to the altar at Jerusalem, the only altar where a Jew was allowed to offer a sacrifice for a sin. We say for a sin, because that was all the law provided, and not even for every sin. There were many sins — every deliberate, defiant sin — for which the law made no provision (Num. 15:30). But this proclamation of forgiveness covered all sins, however serious.

To forgive is to graciously clear someone's offences. To justify is to righteously make someone not guilty. Only the blessed sacrifice of Christ can do such a wonderful thing. It removes the guilt of sin, and it credits the believer in Jesus with a righteousness that can never be taken away.

This is how early, how strongly and how plainly the apostle proclaimed this great truth. He meant it for all among the Jews who bowed to it, no doubt. But he stated it in words that would take in a Gentile believer just as much as an Israelite. The law of Moses could justify from nothing. "All who believe are justified from all things."

What an announcement to make in a synagogue of the Jews, and that after the reading of the law and of the prophets! ... But the law pointed out to Israel what they ought to do. The prophets carried God's message to a people who had failed, reminding them of what the law had commanded.

But he declares more than forgiveness. He declares that all who believe in Jesus are justified from all things. The law of Moses could never forgive sins or justify the guilty. It exposed and condemned sin, and declared all men guilty. To forgive is to graciously discharge one's offences. To justify is to righteously constitute one not guilty. Only the blessed sacrifice of Christ can do such a wonderful thing. It removes the guilt of sin. It also credits the believer in Jesus with a righteousness that can never be taken from him.

To be justified is to be cleared from every charge that could be brought against us. ... The law could most effectively bring charges against us. It could lay sins to our account and bring a righteous condemnation upon us. Only Christ can clear the believer, and clear him righteously, of every charge in the indictment. The sentence of condemnation is then lifted off him.

Here the law of Moses is no help at all, whatever the pride, the unbelief, or the ignorance of the Jew might think. There is no possibility of justification by that law, holy as it is, and the commandment holy and just and good. Law is all in vain to save. It can give neither life nor pardon, neither holiness nor power. It holds lust back, and so both exposes it and stirs it up. It is the power of sin, and it works out wrath. It is a ministry of condemnation and death.

Justified in Christ is always used in contrast to being justified in the law. Does justified in the law mean justified by being in the law? Of course not, everyone will say. No more, then, does justified in Christ mean justified by being in Christ. The phrase "justified in" tells of the cause of justification. It shows that we are justified by virtue of the thing named — whether the law, Christ, or His blood.

To all it is preached; there is no limit to the grace of Christ, any more than to the effectiveness of His blood. Among those who hear the gospel it takes effect only upon all that believe. For faith glorifies the Saviour God, as it humbles man the sinner.

Peter declares forgiveness of sins to those who repent and are baptized. Paul declares justification in Christ for the believer.

As far as God was concerned, that sin was forgiven along with all his other sins, for he stood "justified from all things". But toward Philemon, confession and some restitution were needed. ... If we have clearly wronged someone, nothing proves our repentance better than confession and restitution, as far as we are able.

In Habakkuk's day God had raised up the Chaldeans to carry out this work of judgment through government. Yet God's people were in such a low state that they would not believe God's testimony about His own work. They refused to see God's hand behind their enemies, whom He was using to discipline them. The apostle quotes this passage when he preaches the gospel at Antioch. There he announced the grace of God that proclaims forgiveness through Christ, and that all who believe are justified from all things. Then at once he quotes the prophet Habakkuk to warn them against despising the work of grace through unbelief, as their ancestors had despised the work of government through unbelief.

The words cited are mainly Habakkuk 1:5, with Isaiah 29:14 and Proverbs 1:24-31 perhaps also in view. Unbelief is the same evil scorn of God's word, whether long ago or in days to come. It is never worse than now, when grace begs people, just as they are, to be reconciled to God. And whatever work is still to be done in the future, none of it can ever match what God has already done — the ground on which the gospel goes out to every creature.

The apostle's fear was that they would despise this work of God. He was not afraid that they would be irreligious. He did not fear that they would break the law even more. He was not concerned for the moment about their morality or their care for others. He warns them against one thing only: the possibility that they would not believe the work of God... This was the danger for them, and it is ever the danger for all men. Man prefers his own work to the work of God.

"I WORK." This is the whole point. It is God's work that is preached. Turn from your own work, whether you think it good or bad, and believe God's work. As I have said, you see that work in a risen Saviour at God's right hand.

He proclaims a present, a personal, a perfect salvation to every creature under heaven, and he states it without any limit or condition. Everyone who heard him was responsible there and then to believe. Everyone who reads him now is just as responsible. Suppose someone had dared to tell the preacher that his hearers were not responsible — that they were powerless and could not believe, and that calling on them to believe only deceived them. What would his reply have been? The solemn appeal that closes his address is itself a full and overwhelming reply.

When people go so far as to despise God and His blessing, they perish, as Acts 13:41 says. In our day and in our land, crowds are slipping into that great sin with regard to the Gospel, and they stand on the brink of destruction.

It does seem in Scripture that when unbelief rises to the height of mockery, the testimony stops.

In Habakkuk's day God had raised up the Chaldeans for this work of governmental judgment. Yet we are told that God's people had sunk so low that they would not believe God's testimony to His own work. They refused to see the hand of God behind their enemies, whom He was using to discipline them. We know that the apostle quotes this passage when he preaches the gospel at Antioch. There he announced the grace of God that proclaims forgiveness through Christ, and that all who believe are justified from all things. Then at once he quotes the prophet Habakkuk to warn them against despising the work of grace through unbelief, as their forefathers had despised the work of government through unbelief.

We said he was quoting the Greek version. It is not word for word the same, but it agrees in sense. And it has what is not in the Hebrew — "you despisers," and also "and perish."

This might have seemed unclear, and the Jew could have brushed it aside. He would say, "That is exactly our conviction. We all know the nations are in a dangerous state. But why overlook the favour shown to the people of God?" So the application drops the direct reference to the nations. It makes everything pointed and personal to the people themselves... No one can justly plead the inherited place given to the Jew to keep them from the consequences of slighting and blaspheming God and His grace.

"I WORK." This is the whole point. It is God's work that we preach. Turn from your own work — whether you rate that work as good or bad — and believe God's work. We see it, as I have said, in a risen Saviour at His right hand.

Whatever work is still to come, none can ever match what God has already done. That work is the ground on which we preach the gospel to every creature. The Chaldeans were about to carry out judgment, and that was enough to stop any soul who listened to Habakkuk's warning... But what is any providential work of God, or any future harvest of judgment, next to what our Lord Jesus went through in His rejection and atoning work?

Never forget what the apostle does when he stands up as an ambassador of Christ, the herald of salvation. He proclaims in the most absolute and unqualified way a present, personal, perfect salvation to every creature under heaven. Everyone who heard him was responsible there and then to believe. And everyone who reads him now is just as responsible. Suppose someone had dared to tell the preacher that his hearers were not responsible — that they were powerless and could not believe, and that calling on them to believe was only deceiving them. What would his reply have been?

Esau lived wholly for this world and shut God out of his thoughts. He had not only done this, but had also despised what was of God. Now when people go so far as to despise God and His blessing, they perish, as Acts 13:41 says. In our day and in our land, crowds are slipping into that great sin about the gospel. They stand on the edge of destruction.