Acts 2:32–36

In Acts 2:33 Peter speaks of Jesus, "being by the right hand of God exalted," and in Acts 5:29-31 the "other apostles" join in the same blessed theme — "Him has God exalted." Peter uses the word "exalted" to describe the Lord's present position. It is the same word used in John chapters 3, 8 and 12 for the "lifting up" of the Son of Man! That truly touches our affections, and touches them deeply. He who endured the cross with all its shame has been "highly exalted" by God.

The "right hand" speaks of authority, power, and eminence. According to Exodus 15:6, delivering and subduing power belong to the right hand. In Genesis 48:14 the right hand gives blessing that is sovereign and cannot be taken back. Acts 2:32-36 hails His exaltation as God's approval of Him, and at the same time as a reversal of man's judgment.

As the exalted Man, Jesus had received the promised Holy Spirit from the Father, and had poured Him out on His disciples. At His baptism He received the Holy Spirit for Himself, as the dependent Man. Now He receives the same Holy Spirit on behalf of others, as their Representative. By pouring out the Spirit these others were baptized into one body and became His members.

It was not simply God putting His Spirit into the prophets and others. It was a man exalted to glory, who received it to give it to others. So Psalm 68 says, "Received in respect of man," or as Acts explains it, "for men." But He received it as man, for them.

There were clear signs in front of them, and shown through them, that the Father's promise had been fulfilled. The promised Holy Spirit was not in Himself something the senses could take in. Still, outward power came with Him. This distinction matters greatly. Otherwise, when these outward signs are absent, men are in danger of overlooking and denying that incomparable gift, which was always above its effects.

Peter points to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as proof of a glorious fact. The risen Jesus had "been exalted by the right hand of God," and had "received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit." The Spirit's presence on earth was and is unanswerable proof. It shows not only the resurrection, but also that the risen Jesus has left this world and gone to the Father.

David himself had not ascended to the heavens, any more than he had risen from the dead. The One David spoke of was to sit in the seat of administration and power until His foes were made His footstool. So here is the conclusion of the whole matter. The pouring out of the Spirit, which they had seen and heard, proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that God had made the crucified Jesus both Lord and Christ.

But when Christ went up on high, He received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit. What amazing comfort, confidence, and rest this should give us! Suppose the Holy Spirit had been given straight to us. We might well think that if we did not behave as we should, the gift could be taken back.

So Peter cites another psalm. It shows that the Messiah had to ascend and sit at the right hand of Jehovah. He had shown just as clearly that resurrection was foretold of Him and of no one else. "For he says himself, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool." Who was the man that sat at God's right hand? No one could pretend it was David. It was his Son, the Messiah. This matched exactly what the apostles had seen for themselves.

We freely grant that David did not ascend into the heavens. The Lord says the same of Himself after He rose, and yet He had been in Paradise with the pardoned thief... the departure of the spirit to God is never counted as "ascension."

His sitting at Jehovah's right hand proclaimed in the clearest way that, though a man, He would also be God... Then Peter quoted it in Acts 2:34, and Paul in Hebrews 1:13. Both dwell on the words of Jehovah, "Sit at my right hand." Who in David's day could have said that of David's son, unless the Holy Spirit guided him and spoke through him? So we learn that the Psalm foretold the Lord's ascension. No one who accepted the Psalm as the inspired Word of God could question that authority.

Psalm 132 secures the risen Son of David as the everlasting King on His throne in Zion. It brings the rich privileges that belong to His kingdom on earth and in Israel. If Psalm 132 does that, the quotation from Psalm 110 testifies to His present exaltation in heaven. The proof of this was conclusive. The Father had now fulfilled His promise and given the Holy Spirit. They could see and hear that outpouring beyond dispute.

This can refer to no one but the Lord Jesus. He is therefore David's Lord. The prophecy does not show Him taking His throne at once. It shows Him seated at God's right hand for a set time, before God would subdue His enemies under His feet.

Are souls, when they are subdued by grace, made the footstool of their Conqueror? We have always understood that when men are converted they are united to Christ — made one body and one spirit with Him... This all makes sense if the psalm predicts Christ's exaltation to the right hand of God. There He waits in patient grace until the moment He receives commission to tread down His enemies, placed under His feet as a footstool.

Peter takes up these words in this way in his appeal to the nation at Pentecost, and his appeal was most powerful. He set two ways open to his hearers. One was surrender to Him whom God had set at His right hand. If they refused that, the other was to be crushed beneath His victorious feet. And it must be one or the other for every soul of man.

Would anyone object to the thought of a man in heaven? Peter credits another Psalm to David too, and so does the Book of Psalms. It had foretold this: "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool." David's Lord was to sit at Jehovah's right hand. David's Lord had done that. The proof of it was there in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which had taken place that day.

The Lord drew attention to this Psalm (Matthew 22; Mark 12; Luke 20), and clearly asserted that it was about the Messiah. He asked the Pharisees whose son the Christ was, and pointed to David's words calling the Messiah "My Lord." By this He showed that, though David's son, He must be greater than the son of Jesse, King of Israel. And His sitting at Jehovah's right hand proclaimed in the clearest way that, though a man, He would also be God.

But another day was to dawn, and we are introduced to it as soon as we begin to read Psalm 110... now He speaks to Him in resurrection, saying, "Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool." Jehovah acknowledges Him as Lord and places Him at His right hand — but it is "until…" There is a prospect before Him. The seat He is to occupy is high and exalted, yet it is provisional, until that prospect becomes reality. The day of His poverty is over. The day of His patience is begun.

We have, then, two entirely distinct and contrasted periods. In the first, Christ sits at the right hand of God. He holds the acknowledged title of universal supremacy, but He waits for His enemies to be made His footstool. During this period, God bears with the enemies in patient grace, and gathers the co-heirs who are to sit with Him on His throne. This period fills the gap between the resurrection of Christ, the firstfruits, and the resurrection of those who are Christ's at His coming. The other period starts when Jehovah makes Christ's enemies His footstool. Then He begins to crush them by His power, and to subject all things to Himself in actual fact.

But God said to Christ, "Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool." And the Lord Jesus Christ, rejected by man, is sitting at God's right hand as Man. He waits there until His enemies are made His footstool. Patient grace is working meanwhile to call sinners to a knowledge of the salvation which He has worked out.

The words declare His Deity, for they tell us that He was David's Lord. They also proclaim His exaltation, which followed His humiliation and rejection by men. Peter takes them up in this way in his powerful appeal to the nation at Pentecost. He set two ways before his hearers. One was surrender to Him whom God had set at His right hand. Refusing that, the other was to be crushed beneath His victorious feet. And it must be one or the other for every soul of man.

Being "made" Lord and Christ is quite consistent with His having been both during His time on earth. These things were always His, but now He was officially installed as such, as the risen and glorified Man. Wonderful news for us; but terrible news for those who had been guilty of His crucifixion. It simply guaranteed their dreadful damnation, if they persisted on their course.

Think of a professed commentator like Dr. C. Wordsworth. He committed himself, and the Dictionary of the Bible with him, to the astonishing error that God made Jesus to be Jehovah! He refers to Acts 2:36, which is about official glory, not about the Deity of Jesus or His being Jehovah.

But there is more in the title "Lord" than authority. He has been put into that place of power to give out the grace of God to men. That is a very important side to this great title. In Acts and in Romans you will find salvation tied again and again to Him as Lord. "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31)… The Lord Jesus Christ is on the throne of God to give out to men the grace of God.

Jesus is Lord in a new way. He was always Lord, because of who He is in His Person: God the Son. But now, as Man, He has been made Lord of all… On earth He was the Christ, the Messiah of Israel, God's Anointed. But Israel refused Him, and put their Messiah on a cross. At God's right hand He is God's Anointed, not only in relation to Israel, but as Head over all things.

This can refer to no one but the Lord Jesus, who is therefore David's Lord. Prophecy speaks of Him not as taking His throne at once, but as seated at God's right hand for a set time, before God would put His enemies under His feet. For those who have faith this is plain to see. The conclusion is triumphant and inescapable… Israel had rejected Him. But God has raised a solemn issue with them by raising Him from the dead and giving Him the highest place of glory and honour.

Their eyes were opened and what did they discover? That they were actually against God Himself — the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And about what were they at odds with Him? About the law? No. About the prophets? No. About the rites and ceremonies, the statutes and institutions of the law of Moses? No. All this was true and bad enough. But there was something far beyond all this. Their guilt had reached its peak in the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth.

Peter takes up these words in his appeal to the nation at Pentecost, and his appeal was most powerful. He set two ways open to his hearers. The first was to surrender to Him whom God had set at His right hand. The other, for those who refused that, was to be crushed beneath His victorious feet. And it must be one or the other for every soul of man.

This solemn appeal to conscience rested on Scripture testimonies that were direct and undeniable. Its effect was both instant and lasting. The truth of God searched His people and spared them nothing. His grace met them in sovereign goodness, and established them in the Christ Whom they had so blindly and wickedly rejected.