but God raised him from among [the] dead,
Paul is preaching in the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia, and he has just traced Israel's history down to the trial, the cross, and the tomb. Then the sentence turns: God answers what men did, and Paul's whole gospel hangs on that turn.
Paul's address is a string of plain facts. One writer sets out its shape:
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.
Everything before this verse belongs to men: the cross and the sealed tomb. One writer shows how complete the enemy's victory looked:
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."
The same reversal is put in a single line elsewhere. Human hands had closed the story; God opened it again:
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.
Notice who acts in the sentence: God. One writer explains what that act announced to the world:
"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.
Paul does not just mention the resurrection. He proves it. One writer explains why he took such trouble:
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.
after_note:
The verse rebukes human pride, but it does more than that. It hands something to everyone who believes:
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!
That blessing rests on God's side of the account, not on ours. The same writer shows where God won the victory, and on what terms:
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 turn — Man's part of the story ends at the tomb; the verse begins where God steps in and takes over the account.
- The Actor — God is the subject of the sentence. He raised Christ, and He showed the world His complete satisfaction with the work of the cross.
- The foundation — Promise fulfilled, plus God stepping in to raise Christ: these are the two basic parts of the gospel Paul preaches here and in Romans.
- The proof — Paul argues it from Scripture and from eyewitnesses. A finished atonement stands or falls with a risen Christ.
- The supply — The same fact that rebukes human pride gives peace, light, joy and blessing to all who believe. It rests on God's righteousness, not on ours.
who appeared for many days to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people.
Paul is preaching in the synagogue at Antioch. He has just said that men in Jerusalem buried Jesus, and that God raised Him. One question must follow. Who saw Him alive, and why should anyone believe them?
The first preachers did not argue the resurrection as a theory. They pointed to men who had seen it.
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.
Two details carry the weight of the verse: how long He appeared, and who saw Him. Neither is an accident.
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.
Kelly also weighs one small word in the verse — "now."
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 men who came up with Him from Galilee were not eager to believe He had risen. That reluctance, far from weakening their evidence, is what makes it hold up.
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.
Paul does not say they are witnesses to the world. He says "to the people," and that means Israel. He points his Jewish hearers to testimony aimed at them.
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."
Notice what Paul does not claim. He did not come up from Galilee, and he does not put himself in this company. Kelly notes that this takes nothing away from their witness, and that Paul sets himself and Barnabas apart from them.
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.
Paul had seen the risen Lord too, though not when the others did.
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.
- Seen. God did not give one quick glimpse of the risen Christ. He appeared over many days, so the fact rests on sight repeated again and again.
- Chosen. He appeared to those who had walked with Him from Galilee — the people best placed to know whether it was really Him.
- Slow. Their reluctance to believe is part of the proof. Men convinced against their own expectations are not inventing a story.
- Sent. Because they saw, they became witnesses "to the people." That testimony went to Israel first.
- Widened. Paul never walked with Him in Galilee. He saw the Lord later, in glory, and carried a second kind of witness — proof from men who had never met Jesus on earth.