27-28. “For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning Him. And though they found no cause of death in Him, yet desired they Pilate that He should be slain.”
What an indictment of mere religious knowledge! Human intelligence in the Word of God, apart from divine faith making personal application of it daily, is dangerous. The Jews were in the right place, had the right leaders, heard the right words, and observed the right days. But rather than receiving the Messiah, they fulfilled the prophetic word they knew so well, giving Him up to Roman crucifixion. Let’s not only read the Word, but in faith and obedience act on it!
29. “And when they had fulfilled all that was written of Him, they took Him down from the tree, and laid Him in a sepulchre.”
Wicked hands crucified the Creator; loving hands buried Him. In their inveterate hatred of the Christ and rebellion against God and His Word, these hardened, religious zealots could but fulfill divine prophecies foretelling their wicked deed. How important to willingly submit, by faith, to God’s will and wisdom. Only in doing that will be found true joy and liberty.
30. “But God raised Him from the dead.”
Whether as an act of hatred (crucifixion) or an act of loving honor (burial), man could do no more to the Saviour than allowed by God. However, God had the final and glorious word. His beloved Son rose victorious from among the dead. Let’s make sure that we ever allow our loving God to have the last word in our lives.
31. “And He was seen many days of them which came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses unto the people.”
32-33. “And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that He hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee.”
Paul, directed by the Spirit of God, beautifully uses the Old Testament Scriptures (here especially the psalms of David) to preach the resurrection of Jesus from among the dead. The Lord Himself said, “They are they which testify of Me” (John 5:3939Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. (John 5:39)).
God “raised up Jesus” that all His promises might be fulfilled in Christ, who was the “only begotten Son” born into this world. Never would they be altered or negated by man’s wicked deed.
How sweet to claim the promises of God given us in the Scriptures—to be able by faith to say, “I have got that thing!” God never makes a promise that He cannot or will not keep.
34. “And as concerning that He raised Him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, He said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David.”
Not only was the Lord Jesus raised up to fulfill all the promises of God, but He was raised up from the dead, having no longer ever to say anything to the awful but defeated foe, death, which He conquered at Calvary.
35. “Wherefore He saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.”
Another has said, “The Son of God became the Son of Man that the sons of men might become the sons of God.” The Lord Jesus was very God, yet fully man. Our finite minds cannot understand this, but we humbly bow to its majestic truth, knowing that though He died and was buried, yet His blessed body saw no corruption before rising from among the dead. The Lord fully and forever won the victory over death and the grave, and believers now share in wonderful liberty as children of God possessing His very life—eternal life. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Cor. 15:5555O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? (1 Corinthians 15:55)).
36-37. “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: but He, whom God raised again, saw no corruption.”
Those who rejected Jesus of Nazareth (the true Son of David) had immense national pride in David, their glorious warrior king. But he who won mighty victories for the people of God had no power to defeat man’s final foe, death. After fulfilling the will of God in serving his generation, David slept and his body saw corruption.
Yet, the Messiah, great David’s greater Son, whom the Jews had rejected and desired to be crucified, not only held the power over death and hell (hades—the grave), but God, showing His full satisfaction and delight in His beloved Son’s atoning work at Calvary, raised Him from among the dead.
38. “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.”
Paul does not say that through the Son of God forgiveness of sins was preached to the Jews, but through this Man—the humble, lowly, rejected Jesus of Nazareth, the Man of Sorrows. This One that they had despised and cast out was the only means of having their sins forgiven.
May we make much of the Man Christ Jesus, honoring Him in all we do and say. “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life” (Phil. 2:15-1615That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; 16Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. (Philippians 2:15‑16)).
39. “And by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.”
Not only were they intensely proud of David, but they boasted in the law given to them through Moses. Neither had power to give what they so desperately needed—full, free justification before God. “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. 6:1414But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. (Galatians 6:14)).
Ed.