Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 3:26

Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

26. Unto you first ] That the Jews might first receive the blessing themselves, and then spread it abroad.

God, having raised up ] Not spoken here of the resurrection of Jesus, but recalling the promise of Moses ( Act 3:22) that a prophet should be raised up and sent unto the people.

his Son Jesus ] his Servant (as Act 3:13). The best authorities omit Jesus.

sent him to bless you ] by the times of refreshing alluded to Act 3:19. The way and means to which blessing is to be by the repentance and turning again to which the Apostle has been exhorting them.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Unto you first – To you who are Jews. This was the direction, that the gospel should be first preached to the Jews, beginning at Jerusalem, Luk 24:47. Jesus himself also confined his ministry entirely to the Jews.

Having raised up – This expression does not refer to his having raised him from the dead, but is used in the same sense as in Act 3:22, where God promised that he would raise up a prophet, and send him to teach the people. Peter means that God had appointed his Son Jesus, or had commissioned him to go and preach to the people to turn them away from their sins.

To bless you – To make you happy; to fulfill the promise made to Abraham.

In turning away – That is, by his preaching, example, death, etc. The highest blessing that can be conferred upon people is to be turned from sin. Sin is the source of all woes, and if people are turned from that, they will be happy. Christ blesses no one in sin, or while loving sin, but by turning them from sin. This was the object which he had in view in coming, Isa 59:20; Mat 1:21. The design of Peter in these remarks was to show them that the Messiah had come, and that now they might look for happiness, pardon, and mercy through him. As the Jews might, so may all; and as Jesus, while living, sought to turn away people from their sins, so he does still, and still designs to bless all nations by the gospel which he had himself preached, and to establish which he died. All may therefore come and be blessed; and all may rejoice in the prospect that these blessings will yet be bestowed on all the kindreds of the earth. May the happy day soon come!

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Act 3:26

Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you.

Sent to bless you

I. God sent Jesus to bless us. We should have thought that after the Jews had slain the prophets, God would have had no more to do with them; or that if He sent His own Son, it would be to take vengeance upon them. But when the Jews murdered Jesus, what would you expect God to do? A human father could scarcely forgive such murderers; it needs a God to do that. What did He do? This: He raised up Jesus, and not to punish evil-doers, but to bless. Many look upon religion as a sad thing; but it is the most joyous inspiration of life. Jesus is not a taskmaster; He gives rest to the weary and help to the heavy-laden. He charms the dullest life, sweetens the bitterest cup, salves the deepest wound, heals the most stricken heart, gives joy to the sorrowful, peace to the troubled, hope to the despairing, pardon of sin to the penitent, salvation from the power of sin to the believer, and eternal felicity to all who trust Him.

II. God sent Jesus to bless us in turning away every one of us from our iniquities. Without sin life would be very joyous; but when we yield to anything which we know to be wicked, gladness at once departs. A man may gratify his wicked propensity, and by so doing satisfy, for the time being, his physical appetite, but the hunger of his soul for peace is not satisfied. The greedy boy, who hides behind the door, away from his brothers, to eat the whole of his big apple alone, is fully satisfying his appetite, yet he is unhappy, and comes from his feast vexed, sullen, and spiritless. Had he divided the apple amongst his brothers, what a joyous lad he would have been! Greediness, or any other sin, brings sorrow to the soul.

1. The greatest blessing, therefore, that God can give us is to turn us away from our sins. We may turn away from sin in our outward life, and, at the same time, love and indulge it in our hearts; but Jesus would turn us from sin altogether; and in order to do so, He begins first with the heart. Make the fountain pure, and the stream shall be pure. The philosophy of the unbeliever tries to guide the human ship by outside pressure; but Jesus puts a rudder to it, and gives it a magnet of love to show its pathway in the trackless deep. He is not satisfied with half-measures. We must be turned away from our sins. There has been, unfortunately for the world, a church-organisation which has allowed its priests to sell indulgences for sin. But Jesus knows sin to be so hurtful, that He could not, at any price, give a licence to permit it. He came to take sin away. A man says, If I do not cheat, I shall have to go to the workhouse. Jesus teaches us to reply, Under such circumstances you would be happier if you walked along an honest path to the workhouse, than on the road of cheating to a palace. As you would hastily pass a house in which you know the small-pox to be, so would Jesus have us turn away from sin. May the Lord, likewise, turn away every one of us from our sins!

2. The text goes on to say, that God sent Jesus to bless us, in turning away every one of us from our iniquities. Then the worst man in the world is capable of being saved. Here is a man who has been guilty of many crimes, and is now standing at the bar to receive sentence. The judge may say within himself, No good can be done with this man; he has been twice in penal servitude, and we must now get rid of him altogether. Penal servitude for life! But God dooms no man to life-servitude to sin. Jesus comes to open the prison doors in the soul of every one of us; and the man who is the chief sinner of this age may be saved. Your life may be like a tangled string, which you have tried to unravel, but failing to do so, you have thrown it among the ashes. That tangled string wearied your patience, and you gave it up; but though your life just now is like the tangled string, Jesus is not weary of blessing you, and in this world He will never give you up. As every tangled string can be undone, so every sinful life can be converted. God sent Jesus to bless such as you; and His skilful fingers, His loving heart, and His patient Spirit will work in you until you are like Himself.

III. Jesus turns us from our iniquities by–

1. The powerful inducement of pleasing God. To call upon a man to turn from iniquity because it will be a good thing for himself is to appeal to his lowest motive, and is not the most successful way in winning souls. To bribe a man by promising something good if he will serve the Lord, or to intimidate him by the threat of the torment of hell, is a popular way of winning men, but it is the least successful. The most powerful force in the heart of a child is the love which constrains him to obedience, because if he did wrong he knew it would grieve his mother. Jesus draws us effectually from sin by reminding us of the loving heart of God; our sin grieves Him, and it should pain us to grieve His loving heart.

2. Revealing the goodness of God. His goodness in first loving us should draw us to Himself. After Jesus had risen from the dead, He said, Go and preach the gospel to every creature, beginning at Jerusalem. He was not angry because the Jews rejected and crucified Him; and there was nothing in His heart but love to them. (W. Birch.)

The servant of the Lord and his blessing

Notice–

I. The boldness and loftiness of the claim which is here made for Jesus Christ.

1. Long ago Peter had said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And as long as Jesus Christ had been with them none of them had wavered in that belief; but the Cross shattered all that for a time. We trusted that it had been He that should have redeemed Israel. There had been plenty of pretenders to the Messiahship (Act 5:36), and death had disposed of all their claims. And so it would have been with Christ, unless He had risen from the dead. But the faith and hope in His Messiahship which had died with Him on the Cress, rose with Him to newness of life–as we see from such words as these.

2. Now the characteristic of these early addresses contained in chap. 2.-4., is the clear decisiveness with which they put forward Christ as the fulfilment of Jewish prophecy. The Cross and the Resurrect el poured a flood of light on the Old Testament. Almost every word here has reference to some great utterance of the past, which now for the first time Peter is beginning to understand.

(1) God, having raised up His Son Jesus. The reference is not to the resurrection, but to the prediction in Act 2:22. Now that prediction, no doubt, refers to the prophetic order, and the word, a prophet, is a collective, meaning a class. But the order does not come up to the ideal of the prophecy. For the appendix to the Book of Deuteronomy is plainly referring to the prophecy, when it sadly says, And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses. The prophetic order, then, was a prophecy by reason of the very incompleteness of the noble men who composed it; not only by their words, but by their office and by their limitations, they pointed onwards to Him who not only, like the great law-giver, beheld God face to face, but from the beginning dwelt in the bosom of the Father and therefore declares Him perfectly to men. The manifold methods and fragmentary portions of the revelations to the prophetic order are surpassed by the one final and complete utterance in the Son, as noonday outshines the twilight dawn.

(2) His Son Jesus means, literally, a boy or a child, and like our own English equivalent, is sometimes used with the meaning of a servant. For instance, we talk about a boy, or a maid, or a man, meaning thereby to express the fact of service in a graceful and gentle way; to cover over the harsher features of authority. So the centurion in Matthews Gospel, when he asks Christ to heal his little page, calls him his boy, which our Bible properly translates as servant. The reasons for adopting servant here rather than son are these: that the New Testament has a distinct expression for the Son of God, which is not the word employed here: and that the Septuagint has the same expression which is employed here as the translation of Isaiahs, the Servant of the Lord.

(a) Now it is interesting to notice that this expression as applied to Jesus Christ only occurs at this period. Altogether it occurs four times in these two chapters, and never again. Does not that look like the frequent repetition of a new thought which had just come to a man and was taking up his whole mind for the time? The Cross and the resurrection had opened his eyes to see that the dim majestic figure that looked out on him from the prophecy had had a historical existence in the dear Master whom he had lived beside; and we can almost perceive the gladness and surprise swelling his heart as he thinks–Ah! then He is My servant whom I upheld. Of whom speaketh the prophet this? Wonder of wonders, it is of Jesus of Nazareth, and we are His witnesses. If you turn to the second half of Isaiahs prophecies, you will find that they might almost be called the biography of the Servant of the Lord. And whilst I admit that the collective Israel is often intended by the title the Servant of the Lord, there remain other parts of the prophecy which have distinctly a person for their subject, and which cannot apply to any but Him that died and lived again. For instance, is there anything which can correspond to the words, when His soul shall make an offering for sin He shall see His seed? Who is it whose death is the birth of His children, whom after His death He will see? Who is it whose death is His own voluntary act? Who is it whose death is a sacrifice for others sin? Who is it whose days are protracted after death, and who carries out more prosperously the pleasure of the Lord after He has died?

(b) But that name on Peters lips is not only a reference to prophecy, but it is a very beautiful revelation of the impression of absolute perfection which Christs character made. Here was a man who knew Christ through and through; and the impression made upon him was this: All the time that I saw Him there was never a trace of anything but perfect submission to the Divine will. Jesus asserted the same thing for Himself. I do always the things that please Him: Which of you convinceth Me of sin? Strange claims from one who is meek and lowly of heart! Stranger still, the world, not usually tolerant of pretensions to sanctity, has allowed and endorsed the claim.

(c) So the claim rises up into yet loftier regions; for clearly enough, a perfect and stainless man is either an impossible monster or something more. And they that fully believe that Gods will was absolutely and exclusively done by Jesus Christ, in all consistency must go a step further and say, He that perfectly did the Fathers will was more than one of us, stained and sinful men.

II. The dawning vision of a kingdom of world-wide blessings.

1. Peter and all his brethren had had their full share of Jewish prejudices. But I suppose that when they found the tongues of fire sitting on their heads they began to apprehend that they had been intrusted with a world-wide gospel. The words before us mark very clearly the growing of that consciousness, while yet the Jewish prerogative of precedence is firmly held. Unto you first–that was the law of the apostolic working. But they were beginning to learn that if there were a first, there must also be a second; and that the very words of promise to the father of the nation which he had just quoted pointed to all the nations of the earth being blessed in the seed of Abraham. If Israel was first to receive the blessing, it was only that through Israel it might flow over into the whole Gentile world. That is the true spirit of Judaism, which is so often spoken of as narrow and exclusive. There is nothing clearer in the Old Testament than that the candle is lighted in Israel in order that it might shed light on all the chambers of the world. That was the genius of Judaism, and that is Peters faith here.

2. Then, again, what grand confidence is here! What a splendid audacity of faith it is for the apostle with his handful of friends to stand up in the face of his nation to say: This Man, whom you hung on a tree, is going to be the blessing of the whole world. Why, it is like the old Roman story of putting up to auction in the Forum the very piece of land that the enemys camp was pitched upon, whilst their tents were visible over the wall. And how did all that come? Was all that heroism and enthusiasm born out of the grave of a dead man? The resurrection was the foundation of it, and explains it, as nothing else can do.

III. The purely spiritual conception of what Christs blessing is. What has become of all the Jewish notions of the blessings of Messiahs kingdom? That had not been the kind of kingdom of which they had dreamed when they had sought to be first in it. But now the Cross had taught Peter that Him hath God raised up a Prince and a Saviour to give–strange gift for a prince to have in his hand–to give repentance unto Israel, and remission of sins.

1. The heart, then, of Christs work for rice world is deliverance from sin. That is what man needs most. There are plenty of other remedies offered for the worlds ills–culture, art, new social arrangements, progress of science and the like, but the disease goes deeper than these things can cure. You may as well try to put out Vesuvius with a teaspoonful of cold water as to cure the sickness of humanity with anything that does not grapple with the fundamental mischief, and that is a wicked heart. There is only one Man that ever pretended He could deal with that, and it took Him all His power to deal with it; but He did it! And there is only one way by which He could deal with it, and that was by dying for it, and He did it! So He has conquered. Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? When you can lead a crocodile out of the Nile with a bit of silk thread round his neck, you will be able to overcome the plague of the world, and that of your own heart, with anything short of the great sacrifice made by Jesus Christ.

2. The secret of most of the mistaken and partial views of Christian truth lies here, that people have not got into their hearts and consciences a sense of their own sinfulness. And so you get a tepid, self-sufficient and superficial Christianity; and you get ceremonials, and high and dry morality, masquerading under the guise of religion: and you gel Unitarian and semi-Unitarian tendencies in churches. But if once there came a wholesome, living consciousness of sin all such mutilated Christianity would crumble.

3. So I beseech you to put yourself in the right place to understand the gospel by the recognition of that fact. But do not stop there. It is a matter of life and death for you to put yourselves in the right place to receive Christs richest blessing. You can only do that by feeling your own personal sin, and so coming to Him to do for you what you cannot do for yourselves, and no one but He can do for you.

4. And notice how strongly the text puts the individuality of this process. Every one–or rather each one. The inadequate notions of Christianity that I have been speaking about are all characterised by this amongst other things: that they regard it as a social system diffusing social blessings and operating on communities by elevating the general tone and quickening the public conscience and so on. Christianity does do that. But it begins with dealing with men one by one. Christ is like a great King, who passing through the streets of His capital scatters His largesse over the multitude, but He reserves His richest gifts for the men that enter His presence chamber. Even those of us who have no close personal union with Him receive of His gifts. But for their deepest needs and their highest blessings they must go to Christ by their own personal faith–the flight of the solitary soul to the only Christ. (A. Maclaren, D. D)

Christ and His blessing

I. The parties concerned. Why was the first offer of Christ made to the Jews?

1. Because they were the only Church of God for that time. And God hath so much respect for the Church, that they shall have the refusal and the morning-market of the gospel.

2. They were the children of the covenant (verse 25). God follows a covenant people with more offers of grace than others.

3. Christ came of them after the flesh, and was of their seed (Rom 9:5), to teach us to seek the salvation of our kindred first.

4. That He might magnify His grace and faithfulness, not only in the matter of the gospel, but even in the first offer of it (Rom 15:8; 1Th 2:14-15).

5. This was necessary too for the confirmation of the gospel. Christ did not steal into the world privately, but He would have His law set up where, if there were any falsehood in it, it might easily be disproved; and because the main of the Jewish doctrine was adopted into the Christian, and was confirmed by the prophecies of the Old Testament, they were the only competent judges to whose cognisance these things should be first offered.

6. That the ruin of that nation might be a fit document and proof of Gods severity against the contemners of the new gospel (Act 13:45-47).

7. That the first ministers might be a pattern of obedience, to preach where God would have them, to preach in the very face and teeth of opposition.

II. The benefit offered: wherein is set forth the great love of God unto the people to whom the gospel comes.

1. In designing such a glorious person as Jesus Christ: having raised up His Son Jesus.

2. In that He gave notice, and did especially direct and send Him to them: hath sent His Son.

3. Why He came among them in His Word: it was to bless them.

III. The blessing interpreted. They expected a pompous Messiah, that should make them an opulent and potent nation. But Christ came to convert souls unto God.

IV. What it is to be turned from sin. Take these considerations:

1. Man fallen, lay under the power and guilt of sin (Eph 2:1-3). So man was both unholy and guilty.

2. Christ came to free us from both these.

(1) The guilt (Eph 1:7);

(2) and the power (Tit 3:5).

3. To be turned from sin implies our whole conversion. Though one part only be mentioned, the term from which, yet the term to which is implied (chap. 26:18).

4. That remission of sins is included in our conversion to God (verse 19, chap. 5:31).

V. It is a blessed thing to be made partakers of this benefit. Blessedness imports two things–

1. An immunity from, or a removal of, the great evil, and that is sin.

(1) The great cause of offence between God and us is taken out of the way (Isa 59:2).

(2) We are freed from the great blemish of our natures (Rom 3:23).

(3) We are freed from the great burden of sin.

(4) Being turned from our sins, we are freed from the great bane of our persons and all our happiness (Psa 32:1-2; Rom 8:1).

2. The enjoyment of positive good. It is a blessed thing to be turned from our sins because–

(1) This is the matter of our serenity, comfort, and peace here (Isa 32:17).

(2) It is the pledge of our eternal felicity hereafter; for heaven is the perfection of holiness, or the full fruition of God in glory (Heb 12:14; Eph 1:13-14). (T. Manton.)

Christ and His blessing

I. God raised up His Son Jesus to be a prophet (verse 22, Deu 18:15).

1. To teach the will of God (Isa 61:1).

2. To expound it to us (Joh 14:2; Joh 15:15).

(1) By His prophets (1Pe 3:19; Neh 9:30).

(2) Himself (Heb 1:1-2; Heb 2:2-3).

(3) His apostles (2Co 5:19-20).

(4) His ministers (Eph 4:11-12).

II. God sent Him.

1. By promise in the Old Testament (1Pe 1:10-11; 1Pe 3:19; Gen 3:15).

2. In person in the New (Gal 4:4-5).

(1) First to the Jews (Act 2:39; Joh 4:22).

(a) He was first promised to them.

(b) Born of them.

(c) Manifested Himself first among them (Mat 4:12; Mat 4:17).

(2) To the Gentiles also (Act 2:39; Act 11:18; Act 15:7-9; Gal 3:14; Gen 22:17-18).

III. He was sent to bless us (Gen 22:17-18).

1. To purchase a blessing for us (Gal 3:13-14).

2. To apply it to us.

IV. His great blessing is conversion from sin (Psa 1:1; Psa 32:1; Psa 23:2). lsit not a blessed thing to know–

1. Our sins pardoned (Mat 9:2).

2. God reconciled (Rom 5:1).

3. That we have an interest in Christ (1Jn 3:24).

4. To have a pacified conscience (2Co 1:12).

5. To delight ourselves in the best things (Psa 1:2).

6. To be related to God (Gal 4:6).

7. To have all things blessed to us (Rom 8:28).

8. To have an infallible evidence of our title to heaven (Rom 8:1; Mat 25:46).

V. Christ has purchased this blessing for us (Mat 1:21; 1Pe 1:18; Tit 2:14; 1Jn 3:8).

1. What?

(1) Pardon; therefore conversion (Eze 18:30; Act 2:38).

(2) Peace with God; therefore conversion.

(3) Redemption from misery; therefore conversion (Luk 13:3).

(4) Heaven; therefore conversion (Joh 3:16; Heb 13:14).

2. How? Note–

(1) All men are sinners.

(2) Christ undertook to cleanse us from our sins.

(3) This could not be but by purchasing the same grace we lost by sin.

(4) No way to obtain grace but by the Spirit of God.(Eze 36:27; Num 14:24).

(5) God would not send His Spirit until mans sins were satisfied for, and so God reconciled.

(6) Christ by His death satisfies for sin (1Jn 2:2).

(7) And so purchased the donation of the Spirit (Joh 16:7).

(8) The Spirit sent into our hearts, turns us from sin (2Th 2:13). (Bp. Beveridge.)

The blessed mission

I. Gods gracious act, Raised up Jesus.

II. Gods merciful purpose, To bless you.

III. Gods blessed way, By turning every one of you, etc.

IV. Gods great encouragement, To you first (H. Allon, D. D.)

The gospel blessing

I. The work is not described only as Christs, but rather as Gods work in Christ. We are too ready to make a difference; to think of God as all justice, and of Christ as all love. In past days men had used a loose and unscriptural language about Christs calming Gods wrath. The language of Scripture is always this: God so loved the world, etc. What things soever the Son doeth, these also doeth the Father likewise. There is but one will, one work. Never run away from God, but ever seek Him and see Him in the Son.

II. Christ has a mission to us. There is no thought more delightful than that of the mission of Christ as He now is in heaven; of His having an errand, and apostleship still towards us (Heb 3:1). We are all called to from heaven: that is the meaning of partakers of a heavenly calling. We are all like Saul of Tarsus when Jesus Christ spoke to him suddenly from heaven. Christ is calling to us. In His Word, by His minister, in conscience, by His Spirit also. And then, as we recognise this truth, we are told also to fix our thoughts upon Him as the apostle of our profession (or confession). God has sent, is sending, Him to us, with a message, addressed to each one of us separately, every one of you, not a vague, general, promiscuous mission, but a direct and single one to each. You are not lost in a crowd. If this be so, how shall we escape if we neglect so great, because so minute and so personal, a salvation?

III. A mission of what sort? Is it that of One who comes from the dead to appal and to terrify? the apparition of a reprover and a prophet of evil? Hear the text: to bless you; to speak well of you; to declare good to you; and in the very act of doing so, to communicate the good of which He tells. Is not this the very notion of a Gospel? It is not a threatening, a reproof, it is not even a condition of acceptance, or a rule of duty: it does not say, like the Law, Do this, and thou shalt live: its essential character is that of an announcement; tidings of something already done; the good news of some change which God has made in our state and in our prospects. And what is that? Surely that God forgives us, whatsoever we are. God sent Him not to curse, but to bless; not to judge the world, but to save.

IV. How is this mission of blessing made effectual?

1. Is it a flattering of human vanity, a lulling of human indolence, the intelligence that God has forgiven, and that therefore man may lie asleep in his sins that, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, and that therefore we may continue in sin if only to swell the triumphs of Divine grace? None of these things. Sent Him to bless you, in turning away each one of you from his iniquities.

2. Does this description of Christs work seem to militate against the former? Does any one say, Then, after all, the gospel is a law: it is only the old story once again, You must be holy, and then God will save? Oh the ignorance and the hardness of these hearts of ours! Is there no difference between working for forgiveness and working from forgiveness, between being holy because we are loved, and being holy that we may be loved, between the being commanded to turn ourselves from our sins, and the being blessed by finding ourselves turned from them by another? Your hearts tell you that there is all the difference! Which of us knows not something of the force of gratitude? Which of us has not felt that it is one thing to please a person as a duty, and another to please a person out of love? Which of us has not known the strange effect of a word or an act of affection, from one whom we are conscious that we have injured? how it sometimes rolls away the whole barrier between us, makes us ashamed of our ill-temper, and heaps coals of fire upon our head? Even thus is it with the man whom God has forgiven. How did David begin to inquire, What reward can I give unto the Lord for all His benefits that He hath done unto me? and answer himself, saying, I will receive the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord: yea, I will love much, having been much forgiven!

3. But there may be some here present who cannot understand the connection of the words. They may be saying, I know that my sins are wrong; and I can understand being required to part with them: but how can it be a blessing to give up this pleasant thing which sin is to me? But does your sin make you happy? Have you found the pleasure of sinning as great as its anticipation? Have you found the morning after sinning a bright and pleasant awakening? Have you never known what it was to curse the fetter which bound you, and to long (even without hoping) to be free? Have you not sometimes looked back upon a past and now unattractive sin with bitter remorse, with astonishment at your own infatuation? Then that experience has shown you what it would be to look back upon a life of sin, from a world where it will be too late ever to repent. A thing which has all these marks of misery upon it cannot be happiness. If there is any power or any person, in earth or in heaven, who can set us free from this influence, the coming of that power or that person may indeed be said to be a blessing. Cost us what it may, it will be a blessing if it succeeds. And when that victory is wrought wholly through the power of love; through an assurance of free forgiveness; through the agency of an inward influence as sweet as it is constraining; how much more may it be so regarded! God grant that each one of us may know it for ourselves! (Dean Vaughan.)

The blessing of Christ in the heart

Lady Somerset at Chicago said that in a fishermans but in the extreme north-east of Scotland, she saw a picture of our Saviour, and as she stood looking at it the fisherman told her its story: I was way down with the drink, he said, when one night I went into a public, and there hung this picture. I was sober then, and I said to the bar-tender, Sell me that picture, this is no place for the Saviour. I gave him all the money I had for it, and took it home. Then, as I looked at it, the words of my mother came back to me, I dropped on my knees, and cried, O Lord Jesus, will you pick me up again, and take me out of all my sin? No such a prayer is ever unanswered. To-day that fisherman is the grandest man in that little Scotch village. I asked if he had no struggle to give up liquor; such a look of exultation came over his face as he answered, Oh, madam, when such a Saviour comes into the heart He takes the love of drink right out of it. This Saviour is ready to take every sin out of your heart if only you will let Him.

Christs errand of mercy

After the long, sharp winter, a bright, beautiful day comes like a benediction. As I looked up toward the welcome sun, this thought came into my mind: Yonder sun is ninety-six millions of miles away. These rays of light have travelled all that stupendous distance, and yet I have only to drop the curtain of my eyelid and I am left in total darkness. There might as well be no sun as to have his rays shut out at the last instant from this little doorway of my eye. Even so has the Lord Jesus Christ come from His infinite, far-away throne, on His errand of mercy, to a sinners soul. That sinner has but to close up his hearts door and keep it bolted, and for him there might as well have been no redemption and no Redeemer. Eternal life is refused, eternal death is chosen at that very spot, the door of the human heart. (T. L. Cuyler.)

The generous mission of Christ

When Madame Sontag began her musical career she was hissed off the stage at Vienna by the friends of her rival, Amelia Steininger, who had already begun to decline through her dissipation. Years passed on, and one day Madame Sontag, in her glory, was riding through the streets of Berlin, when she saw a child leading a blind woman, and she said, Come here, my little child, come here. Who is that you are leading by the hand? And the little child replied, Thats my mother; thats Amelia Steininger. She used to be a great singer, but she lost her voice, and she cried so much that she lost her eyesight. Give my love to her, said Madame Sontag, and tell her an old acquaintance will call on her this afternoon. The next week in Berlin a vast assemblage gathered at a benefit for that poor blind woman, and it was said that Madame Sontag sang that night as she had never sung before. And she took a skilled oculist, who in vain tried to give eyesight to the poor blind woman. Until the day of Amelia Steiningers death, Madame Sontag took care of her, and her daughter after her. That was what the queen of song did for her enemy. But, oh, hear a more thrilling story still. Blind, immortal, poor and lost, thou who, when the world and Christ were rivals for thy heart, didst hiss thy Lord away–Christ comes now to give thee sight, to give thee a home, to give thee heaven. With more than a Sontags generosity He comes now to meet your need. With more than Sontags music He comes to plead for thy deliverance. (T. De Witt Talmage.)

Gods plan for making us happy

We are told, in a simple allegory, that when man was made in the image of God, one of the bright angels about the throne was appointed to wait upon him, and to be his constant companion. After this beautiful image had been marred by sin, Happiness could no longer recognise the Heavenly Fathers likeness upon earth, and pined to go back to her happy home on high. Fallen and wretched man now wandered about searching for a friend to make good his loss. He looked on the fair face of Nature, and saw her gay and cheerful; but Nature assured him that she could offer no alleviation for his misery. Love appeared so bright and joyous, that man, in his disappointment, turned next to her; but she timidly shrank back at his approach, while her tender eyes overflowed with tears of sympathy. He now sought friendship, and she sighed and answered, Caprice, anxiety, and the fear of change are ever before me. Disappointed at these repeated failures, man followed after Vice, who boasted loudly, and promised great things; but even while she talked with him the borrowed roses dropped from her withered brow, and disclosed the wrinkles of sorrow and the deep furrows ploughed by pain. Retreating in haste from the haunts of the vile enchantress, he now sought for Virtue, hoping that the secret of happiness might be learned from her; but she assured him that Penitence was her proper name, and that she was powerless to bestow the boon he craved. Brought down at last to the verge of despair, man applied to grim Death, who relaxed his forbidding aspect, while he answered with a smile: Happiness can no longer be found upon the earth. I am really the friend of man, and the guide to the blessedness which his heart yearns after. Hearken to the voice of Him who died on the Cross of Calvary, and I will, at last, lead man through the shades of the dark valley to the delectable mountains, where Happiness makes her perpetual abode. The allegory which I have thus tried to repeat, is a mere expansion of the text. God does not secure happiness to His people–

I. By making all of them rich. Instead of saying, Blessed are ye rich, He says, Blessed are the poor. The only really happy rich man is the one who acts as Gods steward, paying his lawful tithes to the Church, and dealing kindly with the suffering poor. Dr. Guthrie says: Money will buy plenty, but not peace; money will furnish your table with luxuries, but not you with an appetite to enjoy them; money will surround your bed with physicians, but not restore health to your sickly frame: it will encompass you with a crowd of flatterers, but never promise you one true friend; it will bribe into silence the tongues of accusing men, but not an accusing conscience; it will pay some debts, but not one, the least, of your debts to the law of God; it will relieve many fears, but not those of guilt, the terrors that crown the hour of death.

II. By bestowing on us the empty honours of the world. It is true, multitudes imagine that happiness is to be found in them; but experience always proves how grievously they were mistaken. The devil seems to have persuaded himself that even the Son of God could be tempted by such a bribe. A mandarin puffed up with a sense of his high position was fond of appearing in the public streets, sparkling with jewels. He was annoyed, one day, by an uncouth personage, who followed him about, bowing often to the ground, and thanking him for his jewels. What does the man mean? cried the mandarin; I never gave you any of my jewels. No, returned the other; but you have let me look at them, and that is all the use you can make of them yourself. The only difference between us is, that you have the trouble of watching them.

III. By affording them a large share of worldly pleasure. Most of the things which are called worldly pleasures not only fail to make people happy, but leave positive misery behind them. And then, the terrible phantom, which, in moments of solitude and silence, must disturb the minds of the most frivolous–the end; when God shall bring all these things into judgment. When the Chevalier Gerard De Kampis, a rich and proud man, had finished his magnificent castle, he gave a great entertainment to all his wealthy neighbours. At the close of the sumptuous banquet, the guests made speech after speech, lauding their host to the skies, and declaring him to be the happiest of men. As the chevalier loved flattery, this fragrant incense was most acceptable; and nothing disturbed his equanimity, until one of the guests who had, thus far, kept silence, gravely remarked: Sir Knight, in order that your felicity should be complete, you require but one thing, but this is a very important item. And what thing is that? demanded the astonished nobleman. One of your doors must be walled up, replied his guest. At this strange rejoinder several of the guests laughed aloud, and while Gerard himself began to think the man was mad, he preserved self-control enough to ask: Which door do you mean? I mean that through which you will one day be carried to your grave. The words struck both guests and host, and the proud man saw the vanity of all earthly things, and began from that moment to lay up treasure in heaven.

IV. But by sending His Son Jesus, to turn away every one of them from his iniquities. There can be no salvation for us, unless we are delivered from our sins. God only makes men happy by making them holy (Mat 1:21). Lycurgus would allow none of his laws to be written, insisting that the principles of government must be interwoven with the lives and manners of the people, as the only sure way of promoting their happiness. He who would abide by the commandments of God must be able to say with David, Thy word have I hid within my heart. He who will be received into the presence of God and enjoy the blessedness of heaven, is the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness (Eph 4:24). We are made heirs of glory only by putting on Christ; but we are made meet for the inheritance of the saints through a studied and careful conformity to the Divine precept: Be ye holy, for I am holy. Say of no sin, however trivial it may appear, Is it not a little one? but following after holiness, let evil under every possible disguise be your abhorrence. (J. W. Norton, D. D.)

The gospel turns men from sin

If a physician were called to see a patient who had a cancer on his breast, the only thing to be done would be to cut it out from the roots. The physician might give palliatives, so that the patient would have less pain–or he might make his patient believe it was no cancer–or forget that he had a cancer near his vitals; but if the physician were to do this instead of removing the evil, he would be a wicked man and the enemy of his patient. The mans case was such that the only favour which could be conferred upon him would be to cut out the cancer. Now all agree that sin is the great evil of the soul of man. Nothing can make man more spiritually happy here, or fit him for happiness hereafter, but the removal of sin from his nature. Sin is the plague-spot on the soul which destroys its peace, and threatens its destruction unless removed. It is therefore certain that if the love of God were manifested towards man, it would be in turning man from sin which produces misery, to holiness which produces happiness. (J. B. Walker.)

Turning away every one of you from his iniquities.—

The blessedness of conversion

I. That the indulgence of sin is the grand source of human misery. We increase by our own transgressions the maladies to which we are naturally exposed: our understandings become more confused; our affections more depraved; our passions, appetites and tempers more unrestrained and virulent; our disappointments more bitter and acute; and all this progressive advancement in evil and misery is the consequence of increasing indulgence in sin.

II. That christ especially blesses His people in turning away every one of them from their iniquities.

1. In that as a prophet He enlightens their understanding to perceive the evil, the misery, and the ruinous consequences of sin, both as it regards the present and the future state.

2. This turning from iniquities is progressive; at first the gross and outward acts of sin are cut off, unlawful and expedient pleasures, and indulgences follow, many things of a doubtful and indifferent nature are then relinquished. The tongue, the temper, the thoughts, are gradually brought more and more under regulation and restraint; holy principles are cultivated; the spirit of fervent charity takes possession of the soul; and pity, meekness, forbearance, compassion, patience, holy resignation, lively hope, and heavenly joy increase and abound. (T. Webster, B. D.)

The return of the affections to God

The history of man on this side of the grave is like the history of the natural world: the seasons change; if the winter chills, the summer warms; if darkness wraps in its shade, light cheers with its brilliancy. Thus joy and sorrow, hope and fear, satisfaction and perplexity are mingled together. Under these circumstances it is very material to know whether there be any mode of defending ourselves against such an increase of sorrow, and of insuring to ourselves such an increase of comfort. Here in the text is a chart to the wanderer, a light to the benighted, a shelter to the forlorn, a certainty to the dubious! The misery of man lies chiefly in the circumstances of his moral condition; he is wretched under the effects of his iniquities. His remedy must be found in the return of his affections to God; God sent Christ to bless you by turning you away from your iniquities. The sorrows of man mainly issue from the depravity of his affections. He is guilty before God. Certainly his passions, earthly and selfish, spurn every barrier when occasions exasperate their movements. To restrain them under such excitements is as impracticable, as, by the weight of the dews of heaven, to chain down the fiery matter which a volcano is about to cast forth. But to come to individual experience. From whence does the largest portion of mans sufferings arise? Is it not from the disordered state of his affections? Is there not a disease of the heart, which is widely prevalent, and which no skill can heal? To reproduce happiness in a sinful being requires, therefore, a remedy applicable to the inward disease in his mind; a remedy which not only respects a new and favourable relation on the part of God, but also a new and holy state of the affections on the part of man. In other words, the happiness of a sinner will depend first upon, the conviction that God has pardoned him, and secondly, upon the consciousness that he loves the Being who has thus tenderly dealt with him. Now the remedy which Christianity brings forward to the view of him who believes it, is exactly of this kind. Jesus Christ came to bless you by turning away every one of you from his iniquities. He holds out to us pardon and peace, and He gives us the disposition to love the nature and the heart from which that pardon flows! In this complex operation the means of human happiness are unfolded. The pardon of sin is complete and free, unclogged with any condition or qualification. There is no more condemnation, but perfect reconciliation and peace. Now the belief in this truth, under the agency of the Spirit, conveys healing to the heart. Sin becomes loathsome when its consequences are thus made visible in the personal sufferings of Jesus Christ, and obedience to the will and mind of God then becomes identical with peace and happiness. Thus Christ blesses by turning away from iniquity, by procuring at once the pardon of sin, and by healing the disease of sin; by restoring peace in the relations between God and man, and by making Gods character the glowing object of attractive imitation. (G. T. Noel, M. A.)

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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 26. Unto you first, God, having raised up] As you are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant, the first offers of salvation belong to you, and God thus makes them to you. The great mission of Jesus Christ is directed first to you, that you may be saved from your sins. God designs to bless you, but it is by turning each of you away from his iniquities. The salvation promised in the covenant is a salvation from SIN, not from the Romans; and no man can have his sin blotted out who does not turn away from it.

1. We may learn from this that neither political nor ecclesiastical privileges can benefit the soul, merely considered in themselves: a man may have Abraham for his father, according to the flesh; and have Satan for his father, according to the spirit. A man may be a member of the visible Church of Christ, without any title to the Church triumphant. In short, if a man be not turned away from his iniquities, even the death of Christ profits him nothing. His name shall be called JESUS, for he shall SAVE his people FROM their SINS.

2. If Christ be the substance and sum of all that the prophets have written, is it not the duty and interest of every Christian, in reading the Scriptures, to search for the testimony they bear to this Christ, and the salvation procured by his death?

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Unto you first; the Jews and inhabitants of Jerusalem, who are the lost sheep of the house of Israel. St. Peter did not yet know, that the Gentiles should be called, until he was taught it by the vision, Act 10:1-48; and though our Saviour had told the apostles that they should be his witnesses unto the uttermost part of the earth, Act 1:8, they understood it only of those of their own nation, scattered or dispersed abroad, 1Pe 1:1.

Raised up his son, Jesus; which word does not only refer to the resurrection of Christ, but to his being constituted and appointed to be a Prince and a Saviour; thus it is said, a great prophet is risen up amongst us, Luk 7:16; and, God hath, raised up a horn of salvation, Luk 1:69. Howsoever, it is by virtue of Christs being raised from the dead, and carried into his kingdom, that we are blessed. In turning away everyone of you from his iniquities; this is the greatest blessing indeed; hence our Saviour hath his name imposed by God on him, Mat 1:21, and was called Jesus, because he saves his people from their sins; and without this being saved from our sins, nothing can be a blessing to us, Isa 3:11; and, There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked, Isa 57:21. Add to this, that if any be turned from their iniquities, it is through the blessing of God in Christ.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

26. God, having raised upnotfrom the dead, but having provided, prepared, and given.

his Son Jesus“HisServant Jesus” (see on Ac3:13).

sent him to blessyouliterally, “sent Him blessing you,” as if ladenwith blessing.

in turning away every one ofyou from his iniquitiesthat is, “Hitherto we have allbeen looking too much for a Messiah who should shed outward blessingsupon the nation generally, and through it upon the world. But we havelearned other things, and now announce to you that the great blessingwith which Messiah has come laden is the turning away of every one ofyou from his iniquities.” With what divine skill does theapostle, founding on resistless facts, here drive home to theconscience of his auditors their guilt in crucifying the Lord ofGlory; then soothe their awakened minds by assurances of forgivenesson turning to the Lord, and a glorious future as soon as this shallcome to pass, to terminate with the Personal Return of Christ fromthe heavens whither He has ascended; ending all with warnings, fromtheir own Scriptures, to submit to Him if they would not perish, andcalls to receive from Him the blessings of salvation.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Unto you first, God having raised his Son Jesus,…. Which may be understood, either of the incarnation of Christ, and his exhibition in the flesh; which is sometimes expressed by raising him up, and is no other than the mission, or manifestation of him in human nature, as in Lu 1:69. Or of the resurrection of him from the dead, and the exaltation of him at the right hand of God:

sent him to bless you; in person, according to the former sense; for he was indeed sent only to the people of Israel, and to them he preached; many of whom were blessed with converting grace under his ministry; but according to the latter sense, and which seems most agreeable, he was sent in the ministry of the word, and came by his Spirit, first to the Jews, among whom the Gospel was first preached for a while, and was blessed to the conversion of many thousands among them, both in Judea, and in the nations of the world, where they were dispersed:

in turning away everyone of you from his iniquities; in this the blessing lay, and is rightly in our version ascribed to Christ, and to the power of his grace, in the ministration of the Gospel and not to themselves, as in many other versions; as the Syriac version, “if ye convert yourselves, and turn from your evils”; making it both their own act, and the condition of their being blessed; and the Arabic version likewise, “so that everyone of you departs from his wickedness”; but that work is Christ’s, and this is the blessing of grace he himself bestows, and is a fruit of redemption by his blood, Tit 2:14.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Unto you first (H ). The Jews were first in privilege and it was through the Jews that the Messiah was to come for “all the families of the earth.”

His servant ( ). As in verse 13, the Messiah as God’s Servant.

To bless you ( ). Present active participle to express purpose, blessing you (Robertson, Grammar, p. 991). In turning away ( ). Articular infinitive in the locative case, almost preserved in the English.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

His Son Jesus. The best texts omit Jesus. Render servant for son, and see on ver. 13.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “Unto you first,” (humin proton) “To you all first,” to Israel, to the Jew first, in priority, or to the seed of Abraham, Rom 1:16; Joh 1:11-12. Even our Lord sent His apostles first restrictedly, to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” during His ministry, then to Israel (Jerusalem first) after His resurrection and Holy Spirit empowering of the church, Act 1:8; Act 2:1-11.

2) “God, having raised up His Son Jesus,” (anastesas ho theos ton paida autou) “God having raised up His servant-Son or obedient Son,” Php_2:6-8.

3) “Sent Him to bless you,” (apesteilen auton eulogounta humas) “Sent Him who repeatedly blessed you all,” in granting repentance to them thru the word, and empowering of the Spirit, Act 2:36-37; Act 3:19.

4) “In turning away every one of you,” (en to apostrephelin hekaston) “in repeatedly turning everyone,” calling them to turn from their unbelief and rebellion, thru the witnessing of the 120 disciples, of Peter’s Pentecost message, the daily witnessing of those who were saved on Pentecost, and thru his miraculous power demonstrated in the healing of the lame man.

5) “From his iniquities,” (apo ton ponerion humon) “From his wickednesses,” wicked deeds or iniquities, his former ways of life in rejecting and persecuting the Christ of glory; The Holy Spirit, working thru the witness of the apostles and members of the Lord’s church, is here represented as Jesus seeking to turn men from lawlessness and rebellion to salvation, Act 3:19. To persecute the church is to persecute Jesus Christ, Act 9:4; Php_3:6.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

26. He hath raised up his Son. He gathereth out of the words of Moses that Christ is now revealed. But the words do seem to import no such thing; yet doth he reason fitly thus, because the blessing could no otherwise be, unless the beginning thereof did flow from the Messias. For we must always remember this, that all mankind is accursed, and, therefore, there is a singular remedy promised us, which is performed by Christ alone. Wherefore, he is the only fountain and beginning of the blessing. And if so be that Christ came to this end, that he may bless the Jews first, and, secondly, us, he hath undoubtedly done that which was his duty to do; and we shall feel the force and effect of this duty in ourselves, unless our unbelief do hinder us.

This was a part of the priest’s office under the law, to bless the people; and, lest this should be only a vain ceremony, there was a promise added; as it is, (Num 6:27.) And that which was shadowed in the old priesthood was truly performed in Christ, (Heb 7:1.) Concerning which matter we have spoken more at large in the seventh chapter to the Hebrews. I like not Erasmus’s translation; for he saith, when he had raised him up, as if he spoke of a thing which was done long ago. But Peter meaneth rather, that Christ was raised up, when he was declared to be the author of the blessing; which thing, since it was done of late and suddenly, it ought to move their minds the more. For the Scripture useth to speak thus, as in the last place, of Moses, whereunto Peter alludeth. To raise up a prophet, is to furnish him with necessary gifts to fulfill his function, and, as it were, to prefer him to the degree of prophetical honor. And Christ was raised up then, when he fulfilled the function enjoined him by his Father, but the same thing is done daily when he is offered by the gospel, that he may excel amongst us. We have said that in the adverb of order, first, is noted the right of the first-be-gotten, because it was expedient that Christ should begin with the Jews, that he might afterward pass over unto the Gentiles.

Whilst that he turneth. He doth again commend the doctrine of repentance, to the end we may learn to conclude under the blessing of Christ newness of life, as when Esaias promiseth that a “Redeemer should come to Zion,” he addeth a restraint; (200) “Those which in Jacob shall be turned from their iniquities.” For Christ doth not do away the sins of the faithful, to the end they may grant liberty to themselves to sin under this color; but he maketh them therewith all new men. Although we must diligently distinguish these two benefits which are linked together, that this ground-work may continue, that we are reconciled to God by free pardon, I know that other men turn it otherwise; but this is the true meaning of Luke; for he speaketh thus word for word, “In turning every one from his wickedness.”

(200) “ Restrictionem,” a reservation.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(26) Unto you first. . . .Here again we note, even in the very turn of the phrase as well as of the thought, an agreement with St. Pauls formula of the purpose of God being manifested to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile (Act. 13:46; Rom. 1:16; Rom. 2:9-10). St. Peter does not as yet know the conditions under which the gospel will be preached to the heathen; but his words imply a distinct perception that there was a call to preach to them.

His Son Jesus.Better, as before, Servant. (See Note on Act. 3:13.)

Sent him to bless you.The Greek structure gives the present participle where the English has the infinitive, sent Him as in the act of blessing. The verb which strictly and commonly expresses a spoken benediction is here used in a secondary sense, as conveying the reality of blessedness. And the blessing is found, not in mere exemption from punishment, not even in pardon and reconciliation, but in a change of heart, in turning each man from his wickednesses. The plural of the abstract noun implies, as in Mar. 7:22, all the many concrete forms in which mans wickedness could show itself.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

26. Unto you first See note on Mat 10:5. To the Jews, as the ancient theocracy, the Gospel was to be first presented that they might be the main body of the theocracy still. Christ was their birthright until they had fully rejected him. But when they fully, like Judas, betrayed and rejected him, like Judas they were cast away and another came into the birthright. The churchdom, the covenant, all the promises, went to the heirs by faith, who now became the true Israel.

First Implying that Jesus would be sent to the Gentiles next. Peter fully understood from the teachings of Jesus that the Gentiles should be called; the real error of the apostles was the supposition that the Gentiles were to be circumcised and become Jews. (See note on Act 10:1.)

Turning every one of you It was a weak cavil of the Jewish advocate Orobio that Jesus could not be Messiah because he did not, as according to this passage, turn every one of them from sin. The same sophism is persistently used by modern Universalism. It ignores the fact that even according to the Old Testament (for instance, Eze 33:11) the purposes of God’s mercy, being conditional upon man’s consent, are often not fulfilled. Christ was sent to turn them under proviso, often expressed and always implied, that they consent to be turned. They cannot turn unless he turn them; he cannot turn them unless they turn.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Act 3:26. Unto you first Accordingly the gospel was, by the grace of our blessed Redeemer, every where offered first to the Jews. Had it been otherwise, humanly speaking, many who were converted in this method, might have been exasperated and lost. The word , here rendered having raised up, does not refer to the resurrection from the dead, as it generally does in other places, but to the word , Act 3:22.raising him up as a prophet in Israel. The next clause may mean, “God sent his Son Jesus to bless you with the highest blessings; namely, to save as many of you as will accept his grace,from your greatest enemies; that is, from your sins, and from the deserved punishment.” Many commentators, however, give the sentence a different turn, rendering the last clause upon your turning every one of you, &c. or every one of you turning, &c. that is, “All those of you who through grace turn from sin, shall be entitled to his blessing.” But the former seems to me the preferable reading, as the great gospel blessing is the conversion of sinners. Nor can it be any reasonable objection to say, with Orobio, that Christ did not in fact turn every one of them from their iniquities, since it must be allowed, that he took every such step as was proper for that purpose, consistently with his divine perfectio

Inferences.Happy are those souls, who are so formed for devotion, that the proper returning seasons of it, whether public or private, are always welcome! Doubly delightful is that friendship, which, like this of Peter and John, is endeared, not only by taking sweet counsel together, but by walking to the house of God in company! Psa 55:14.

If we desire that this devotion should be acceptable, let us endeavour not only to lay aside all the malignant passions, and to lift up holy hands without wrath; but let us stretch out our hands in works of benevolence and kindness. To our piety, let us add the most diffusive charity which our circumstances will permit; and there are none whose circumstances will forbid every exercise of it. As for those who have neither silver nor goldsuch as they have, let them give.

The holy apostles, we see, had not enriched themselves, by being entrusted with the distribution of those goods which were laid at their feet; but had approved themselves faithful stewards. The members of Christ were far dearer to them than any temporal interest of their own; and fatally, most certain, would the true church, in all ages, have been mistaken, if it had measured the worth of its pastors by their wealth. They bestowed nevertheless a much more valuable bounty. And if it be more desirable to heal men’s bodies than to enrich them, how much more advantageous is it to be the instruments of healing their souls? Which, if it be ever accomplished, must surely be in the same name, even that of Jesus of Nazareth. May he strengthen the feeble powers of fallen nature, while we are attempting to raise men up! And may spiritual health and vigour, when restored, be improved, like the cure wrought on this lame man, in the service of God, and in a thankful acknowledgment of his goodness!

We are not to wonder, that, as the name of Jesus, their great Deliverer, is incomparably precious to all that truly believe, such have also some peculiarly tender friendships for the persons, by whose means he has wrought this good work upon them. O may many such friendships be formed now, and be perfected in glory! And, in the mean time, may the ministers of Christ be watching every opportunity of doing good, and, especially, when they see men under any lively impressions which tend towards religion! May they have that holy mixture of zeal and prudence, which taught the apostles now to speak a word in seasona word which proved so remarkably good, and was owned by God in so singular a manner, for the conversion and salvation of multitudes that heard it!
Happy the minister, whose heart is thus intent upon all opportunities of doing good, as these apostles were. Happy that faithful servant, who, like them, arrogates nothing to himself, but centres the praise of all in him, who is the great Source from whom every good and perfect gift proceeds. Happy the man, who is himself willing to be forgotten and overlooked, that God may be remembered and owned! He, like this wise master-builder, will lay the foundation deep in a sense of sin, and will charge it with all its aggravations on the sinner, that he may thereby render the tidings of a Saviour welcome, which they can never be till this burden has been felt. Yet will he, like St. Peter, conduct the charge with tenderness, and respect, and be cautious not to overload, even the greatest offender.

We see in this speech of St. Peter the absolute necessity of repentance; which therefore is to be solemnly charged upon the consciences of all, who desire that their sins may be blotted out of the book of God’s remembrance, and that they may share in that refreshment, which nothing but the sense of his pardoning love can afford. Blessed are those that have experienced it; for they may look upon all their present comforts as the dawning of eternal glory to their persevering souls; and having seen Christ with an eye of faith, and received that important cure, which nothing but his powerful and gracious name can effect, may be assured that God will send him again, to complete in all his faithful saints the work he has so graciously begun, and to reduce the seeming irregularities of their present state into everlasting harmony, order, and beauty.

In the mean time, let us adore the wisdom of his providence, and the fidelity of his grace, which have over-ruled the folly and wickedness of men to subserve his own holy purposes, and have accomplished the promise so long since made of a Prophet to be raised up to Israel like Moses, and indeed gloriously superior to him, both in the dignity of his character and office, and in the great salvation which he was sent to procure. This salvation was first offered to Israel, which has rendered itself so peculiarly unworthy by killing the Prince of Life. May we rejoice that it is now published to us, and that God has condescended to send his Son to bless us, sinners of the Gentiles, in turning us from our iniquities! And viewing this salvation in its true light, may we remember, that if we are not willing to turn from iniquity, from all iniquity, from those iniquities which have been peculiarly our own, it is impossible we should have any share in it!

REFLECTIONS.1st, Among the many miracles performed by the apostles, one notable one is recorded in this chapter.

1. The apostles by whom it was wrought, were Peter and John: they were going up to the temple together at the stated hour of prayer, being the ninth hour, or three o’clock in the afternoon.

2. The poor object, on whom the miracle was performed, was a beggar, a cripple from his mother’s womb, who lay at the Beautiful gate of the temple, which was made of Corinthian brass, more precious than gold, and asked alms of them that entered into the temple: seeing Peter and John, therefore, about to enter, he asked of them an alms. Note; (1.) Those who are poor, and incapable of working, are the true objects of charity. (2.) They who are drawn to the temple by the love of God, will have their hearts enlarged in tenderest compassion toward the wants of the necessitous.

3. Peter and John, looking earnestly at him, bid him attend to them, as about to shew him a singular favour; and the poor man, expecting an alms, looked attentively at them: when Peter addressed him, saying, Silver and. gold have I none; but such as I have, and what silver and gold never could procure, give I thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk; by his authority I speak, and his power shall enable thee for what I command. Then taking him by the right hand, he lifted him up, and immediately the astonishing cure was wrought, his feet and ancles received strength. Note; (1.) The riches of grace are infinitely more valuable than the treasures of both the Indies. (2.) According to our abilities, we must be ready to communicate of the gifts of God with which he has entrusted us, whether temporal or spiritual. (3.) In this impotent man, every sinner may read his own case and cure. [1.] By nature, without grace, from our birth, thus spiritually paralytic are we. [2.] The temple is the place where the poor impotent sinner should be found, for there the Lord dispenses the alms of his grace. [3.] The ministers of Christ say not in vain arise and walk, to those who have no power of themselves to help themselves, but come penitently to Jesus; for he, in whose name they speak, does, by his Spirit accompanying their word, enable the helpless but believing soul for that which they enjoin. [4.] Christ first lays hold of the awakened sinner by the hand of his grace, and then the sinner lays hold of Christ by the hand of faith, and feels an unusual power communicated to his paralytic soul.

4. The lame man, transported with joy at the strange alteration which he instantly felt, leaped up with astonishing agility, and stood firm on his feet, and walked about before all present in token of his perfect cure, and entered with his benefactors into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. Note; (1.) If our souls have received a spiritual cure, then will our hearts and lips be filled with praise and thanksgiving to the God of all grace, and we shall be happy in employing the strength he has given us, in walking in his holy ways. (2.) They who have found a blessing from the ministry of Christ’s servants, will not fail to accompany them into the temple, that they may reap farther benefit from their prayers and discourses.

5. The people who beheld him, were struck with wonder and surprize at seeing him thus walking and praising God, knowing that it was the same cripple who had lain at the gate of the temple; and whilst, as in an ecstacy, he hung about Peter and John, expressing his unutterable gratitude for this mercy received by their means, the people gathered round them in the part of the temple called Solomon’s porch, greatly wondering at this amazing miracle, and at those who wrought it. Note; They who have been made the instruments of good to our souls, cannot but be dear to us, and embraced with peculiar affection.

2nd, St. Peter, beholding the concourse of people assembled on this occasion, improves so happy an opportunity, to preach the gospel to those who seemed so affected with the miracle before them. A word in season, how good is it!
1. He humbly disclaims all the honour of the miracle, which was due to his Master alone. Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this, when so much greater cures have been before performed among you by the Lord Jesus? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? Note; (1.) The most successful ministers must be the most humble; the more they are admired of others, the lower they must lie down at the feet of Jesus, ascribing to him alone the praise. (2.) We are too apt to idolize the men and ministers, who have been made signal instruments of good to us; but we should look farther, even to him who alone giveth the increase.

2. He preaches to them that Jesus, whom they had crucified, by whose power alone this miracle was wrought. The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, that covenant-keeping God, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus, owning him in this high character; not only by all the miracles which he had wrought, but by his resurrection from the dead, and ascension to heaven; whom ye delivered up as a malefactor into the hands of the Roman governor, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, as your King Messiah, requiring his crucifixion; when he, convinced of his innocency, was determined to let him go. But ye, instigated by the priests and rulers, with savage barbarity denied the holy One, and the Just, whom none could ever convince of sin, and whose spotless purity none could impeach; and as a most provoking aggravation of your guilt, desired a murderer to be granted unto you, in preference to him, and killed the Prince of Life, the author and fountain of natural, spiritual, and eternal life; whom God hath raised from the dead; defeating all the malice of his enemies, rolling away the reproach of the cross, and exalting him to a state of the most transcendant glory; whereof we are witness; have seen and conversed with him after his resurrection, and are endued with these miraculous powers by him, to make our testimony more regarded. And his name, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know; acting under his authority, and trusting on his power, this incontestable miracle has been performed: yea, the faith which is by him, exercised upon him as the object, and wrought in us by him as the author, hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all; for this thing was not done in a corner, but publicly in the temple; and the perfection of the cure was evident to every beholder.

3. Yet dreadful as their guilt was, he means not to drive them to despair. And now, brethren, exceeding sinful as your conduct has been, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers; I persuade myself that many, I would hope the most, who were engaged in that black deed, were blindly hurried on by their passions and prejudices, and knew not what they did; else they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory, 1Co 2:8. But those things which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled; and though this be no extenuation of your wickedness, yet since the very end of his dying was, in order to obtain remission of sins for the most miserable and desperate, there is still hope, even for those whose hands are red with his blood. Note; (1.) Love bids us hope the best, even of the vilest; and not to impute to them worse motives than may really have influenced them. (2.) The wickedness of men God can overrule, and bring good out of their evil.

4. He exhorts to an immediate penitent return to him whom they had crucified. Repent ye, therefore, of this atrocious deed; and, since there is yet hope towards God, be converted: turn to this Jesus, as the true Messiah: laying aside your pride and prejudices, yield up your hearts to his guidance and government, and fly to the atoning blood of his cross, which was shed for this very purpose, that your sins, however great, numberless, and aggravated, may be blotted out, and your guilt cancelled, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; those joyful seasons of consolation which now you will experience, when turning unto him you shall be filled with joy and peace in believing, and shall also find favour with him, and, if faithful unto death, be acknowledged by him, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints: in his presence then, if you perseveringly cleave to him, shall you possess bliss unutterable, and under his shadow enjoy an eternal rest from all the burdens of sin, sorrow, and temptation. For he shall send Jesus Christ, this Jesus whom he hath made both Lord and Christ, and appointed the Judge of quick and dead, even him which before was preached unto you, in all the sacred oracles, and by his own blessed ministry; whom the heaven must receive, whither we have seen him ascend, and where he now sits enthroned in glory, until the times of restitution of all things, when the mystery of godliness shall be finished, and his eternal kingdom shall finally come at the great day of his appearing to judge the world. Note; (1.) The great inducement to evangelical repentance, is the promise of pardon and forgiveness. (2.) They who truly turn to Jesus, shall find refreshing and rest to their souls, and reconciliation with a pardoning God. (3.) Though Christ be now exalted to his throne, we expect his coming a second time: Oh that we may be prepared to meet him! then shall it be a time of refreshing indeed; when, seeing him face to face, his faithful followers shall all be changed most perfectly into the same image, be like and with him for ever.

5. He supports what he had said by an appeal and reference to the scriptures, which they professed to believe. For these are the things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began, concerning the kingdom of his Messiah. For instance, Moses, that great lawgiver, in whom you glory, he bore a noble testimony to Jesus, and truly said unto the fathers in the wilderness, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, sprung from the flock of Abraham, like unto me; who shall with far greater dignity be a Mediator between God and you; shall deliver you from worse than Egyptian bondage, and, from the most intimate knowledge of God, shall reveal to you his mind and will, if you believe in him: him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you; embracing his doctrines, obedient to his precepts, and observant of his institutions with implicit faith, unbounded love, and unreserved submission; yielding up your souls to his guidance and government. And it shall come to pass, that every soul which will not hear that prophet, and believe and obey him, shall be destroyed from among the people, cut off by some notorious stroke of divine vengeance; or finally and eternally separated from the faithful. Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel, in whom the spirit of prophesy revived, and those that follow after, in a long succession, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days; speaking of the Messiah, his sufferings, glory, and kingdom, from its beginning on earth, till its consummation in heaven.

6. He draws a most encouraging motive from their relation to the prophets, to receive their word, and believe in the Messiah, of whom they testified. Ye are the children of the prophets, their disciples, and descended from the patriarchs, and heirs of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed, which Seed was Christ, whose salvation shall extend to all nations; therefore, being the immediate offspring of the great Father of the faithful, Unto you first, God having raised up his Son Jesus, sending him in the human nature, and raising him from the dead, hath sent him to bless you, by his own ministry and labours, and now, by investing us with power and authority to preach his gospel, in which the most powerful motives are urged, in order to your conversion; and which his Spirit makes effectual in turning away every one of you, that believe in him, from his iniquities, and bringing you to pardon and salvation. Note; (1.) Jesus is come to be the blessing of the world. Without him, the curse and wrath of God must have for ever abode upon us all. (2.) Iniquity is the cause of all our misery; when Christ comes to the sinner, he not only pardons his guilt, but converts his soul, and thus effectually recovers him to the life of grace, in order to bring him, if faithful, to the life of glory.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Act 3:26 . Progress of the discourse: “This bestowal in accordance with God’s covenant-arrangements of salvation on all nations of the earth through the Messiah has commenced with you ,” to you first has God sent, etc.

] sooner than to all other nations. “Praevium indicium de vocatione gentium,” Bengel. Rom 1:16 ; Rom 11:11 . On this intimation of the universality of the Messianic salvation Olshausen observes, that the apostle, who at a later period rose with such difficulty to this idea (ch. 10), was doubtless, in the first moments of his ministry, full of the Spirit, raised above himself, and in this elevation had glimpses to which he was still, as regards his general development, a stranger. But this is incorrect: Peter shared the views of his people, that the non-Jewish nations would be made partakers in the blessings of the Messiah by acceptance of the Jewish theocracy . He thus still expected at this time the blessing of the Gentiles through the Messiah to take place in the way of their passing through Mosaism. “Caput et summa rei in adventu Messiae in eo continetur, quod omnes omnino populi adorent Jovam illumque colant unanimiter,” Mikrae Kodesch , f. 108. 1. “Gentes non traditae snnt Israeli in hoc saeculo, at tradentur in diebus Messiae,” Berish. rab. f. 28. 2. See already Isa 2:2 f., Isa 60:3 ff.

] causing His servant to appear (the aorist participle synchronous with .). This view of . is required by Act 3:22 . Incorrectly, therefore, Luther, Beza, Heumann, and Barkey: after He has raised Him from the dead .

] blessing you . The correlate of ., Act 3:25 . This efficacy of the Sent One procuring salvation through His redeeming work is continuous .

] in the turning away , i.e. when ye turn from your iniquities (see on Rom 1:29 ), consequently denoting that by which the must be accompanied on the part of the recipients (comp. Act 4:30 ) the moral relation which must necessarily be thereby brought about. We may add, that here the intransitive meaning of , [153] and not the transitive, which Piscator, Calvin, Hammond, Wetstein, Bengel, Morus, Heinrichs adopt ( when He turns away ), is required by the summons contained in Act 3:19 .

The issue to which Act 3:25-26 were meant to induce the hearers namely, that they should now believingly apprehend and appropriate the Messianic salvation announced beforehand to them by God and assured by covenant, and indeed actually in the mission of the Messiah offered to them first before all others was already expressed sufficiently in Act 3:19 , and is now again at the close in Act 3:26 , and that with a sufficiently successful result (Act 4:4 ); and therefore the hypothesis that the discourse was interrupted while still unfinished by the arrival of the priests, etc. (Act 4:1 ), is unnecessary.

[153] So only here in the N. T.; but see Xen. Hist. iii. 4. 12; Gen 18:33 , al. ; Sir 8:5 ; Sir 17:21 ; Bar 2:33 ; Sauppe, ad Xen. de re eq. 12. 13; Krger, Lev 2:5 .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 1746
HOLINESS THE GREATEST BLESSING

Act 3:26. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

THE ground on which the Jews rejected our blessed Lord was, that, in their estimation, he opposed Moses. The Apostle Peter therefore referred to Moses and the prophets, to shew that Jesus was the very person whose advent they had all predicted: and that Moses, in particular, had required them to believe in Him, as the only possible means of ever obtaining acceptance with God: A prophet shall the Lord God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me: Him shall ye hear, in all that he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people. Then, in my text, he tells them, that God, having raised up his Son Jesus, had sent him to them first, in order to bless them, in turning away every one of them from their iniquities. In opening these words, I will shew,

I.

Why Christ was preached first to the Jews

This was done by a special appointment of Almighty God,

1.

Because with them primarily was the covenant made

[To Abraham and his seed were the promises given: and the covenant was renewed with Isaac and with Jacob, his lineal descendants. From these the whole Jewish nation sprang; and consequently they were regarded as heirs of the blessings which had been so limited. To them this privilege had been confined for two thousand years. The law of Moses, which forbad all unnecessary intercourse with the Gentiles, tended to confirm them in the idea that the blessings belonged exclusively to them. Our Lords own declaration, that he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; and his directions to his Disciples, not to go into the way of the Gentiles, or into any city of the Samaritans, but only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, yet further established this sentiment in their minds; and that so strongly, that they could not divest themselves of the idea, that they were to confine their ministrations to the Jews. Hence we find, six years after the day of Pentecost, the Apostle Peter needed repeated visions, and an express revelation from Heaven, to remove his prejudices, and to prevail on him to preach the Gospel to Cornelius. And so strong was the same prejudice on the minds of all the Apostles, that in full conclave, as it were, they called him to account for going to a Gentile; and were with difficulty persuaded that, in so doing, he had not sinned against God [Note: Act 10:15-16; Act 11:17-18.]. Even St. Paul, till the Jews were incurably obstinate in their rejection of his message, always addressed himself in the first instance to the Jews [Note: Act 13:46.]: and in this he conformed to that express command, to preach the Gospel unto all nations, beginning at Jerusalem [Note: Luk 24:47.]. The reason for this preference being shewn them, is assigned by the Apostle in the verse before my text: Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers; and therefore unto you, first, has God sent his Son to bless you.

2.

Because the offer of the Gospel to them, in the first instance, would shew that Christianity could stand the test of the severest examination

[Had it been made to the Gentiles first, the hearers would naturally have said. These preachers are vile impostors and deceivers. Their Head and Leader has been put to death by the laws of his own country; and they come and persuade us that he was a divine person, dying for the sins of men. If they could bring any proof of what they say, why do they not persuade their own people first, and establish their religion in the place where these transactions came to pass? The reason is obvious: they know that their assertions will not stand the test of inquiry: and therefore they come to palm their falsehoods upon us, who cannot so easily detect them. This would be a reasonable ground for rejecting all they said. But, when they first of all addressed themselves to the Jews, who knew all that had taken place, and therefore were good judges of the question before them, it seems at least that the preachers of this strange doctrine defied detection as impostors, and were persuaded of the truth of their own assertions. Had they not fully believed that Jesus was the Messiah, and that they could prove it beyond contradiction, they would never have thought of attempting to convince the very persons who had so lately put him to death, and the very persons to whom their statements must of necessity be so galling and offensive. As far as their judgment went, it is clear they must have thought their ground tenable against the whole world.]

3.

Because the reception of it amongst them would stamp its truth beyond contradiction

[Within fifty days of our Saviours crucifixion, thousands were, by one single address, converted to his religion; and from that day forward were multitudes overpowered by a conviction that was irresistible. At last, even their most bitter enemy, who had sought and laboured to extirpate Christianity, embraced it, and became the most zealous, active, and successful of all its advocates. Could this religion, established as it was without human power, and in the face of the most bitter persecution, be false? Had the powers of this world been engaged in its favour, or had force been used for the propagation of it, or had its doctrines sanctioned the indulgence of our corrupt appetites, it might possibly have succeeded, as the Mahometan delusion afterwards did. But it opposed all the passions and prejudices of mankind, and yet prevailed over them by the mere force of truth and the weight of evidence; and that not only over the poor and ignorant, but over multitudes who were fully competent to the task of examining its claims. The reception of it therefore, by them, was a public seal to its truth, and a recommendation of it to the very ends of the earth,]

4.

Because the rejection of it justified the Apostles in offering it to the Gentiles

[The Apostles, as we have seen, felt a backwardness to go to the Gentiles: but the obstinacy of the Jews compelled them: and this was their apology for so doing [Note: Act 18:6; Act 28:28.]. No doubt, if it had so pleased God, both Jews and Gentiles might have grown to any extent upon the same stock. But God, in his inscrutable wisdom, had determined otherwise: and therefore the Jews were broken off, that we Gentiles might be graffed in [Note: Rom 11:19.]: and in this was Gods righteous dealing manifest. As many as would walk in the steps of Abraham, were received to mercy: but when the proffered mercy was rejected and despised, the day of mercy closed upon them, and they were left to reap the fruit of their impenitence and unbelief.]

Our next inquiry must be,

II.

What was the blessing which he was sent to impart?

The Jews expected a temporal Messiah, who should deliver them out of the hands of all their enemies, and exalt them to a state of unrivalled power upon earth. And, no doubt, to those who could see nothing beyond the literal sense of prophecy, the prophetic writings appeared strongly to justify this expectation. But this was not Gods purpose respecting them: it was a spiritual, and not a temporal kingdom, that Christ came to establish. Sin and Satan were the enemies that were to be subdued: and a kingdom of righteousness was to be established throughout the world. Holiness was the blessing which Christ was sent to impart:
Holiness, I say, was that which Christ was sent to bestow
[He was not only to make reconciliation for iniquity, but to make an end of sin, and to bring in everlasting righteousness [Note: Dan 9:24.]. He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us, not merely from perdition, but from all iniquity also, and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works [Note: Tit 2:14.]. In truth, his very name was intended to designate this special appointment: He shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins [Note: Mat 1:21.]. And the whole Scriptures bear witness to this, as the great object which he came to accomplish [Note: Eze 36:25-27. Eph 5:25-27.] ]

And, as it was the end, so has it also invariably been the effect, of the Gospel

[There can scarcely be conceived a more just representation of the Gospel and its blessings than that which the miracle in the preceding context affords us. A man was lame from his birth. By the Apostle Peter he was healed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And immediately you find the use which be made of the mercy vouchsafed unto him: He, leaping up, stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple; walking, arid leaping, and praising God [Note: ver. 8.]. Here you see a man previous to his reception of the Gospel: never has he stirred one step in the ways of God. Here also you behold him as soon as the word came with power to his soul: in the sight of all, he rises to newness of life. The House of God is the first place that he affects, in order that he may honour his heavenly Benefactor; and there, with a joy unknown before, he puts forth all his energies in the service of his God. Thus it was in the day of Pentecost: and thus it will be, though in different degrees, in all who truly believe in Christ.]

And what is blessedness, if this be not?
[If the healing of the mans body was such a source of joy, what must the healing of the soul be? The truth is, that s n is the one source of all the misery that is upon earth: and the restoration of men to a measure of their pristine holiness in Paradise will restore them also, in the same proportion, to their pristine happiness. Holiness, in so far as it is wrought in the soul, is the commencement of heaven upon earth.]

See then here,
1.

What Christianity really is

[It is thought, by the generality, to be plan devised and executed for the salvation of men from destruction. But this is a very low and contracted view of Christianity. It is a plan for the remedying of all the evil which sin has done: for restoring the Divine image to the soul, as well as for rescuing it from perdition. I pray you, brethren, to view it in this light; and to remember, that heaven itself would be no blessing to you, if sin had possession of your soul ]

2.

What is the blessing now offered unto you

[If Jesus was sent, in the first place, to the Jews, he is now sent to you: and the blessing which he first offered to them, he now offers to you. It is in this sense that men are to be blessed in him; and for this shall all nations call him blessed [Note: Psa 72:17.]. Do not, I entreat you, suffer your minds to be drawn aside by earthly vanities. What have they ever done for you? or what can they do? If you were elevated to the highest rank, and put into possession of all that the world could give you, what would it all effect in a way of permanent and solid happiness? You would soon be forced to give the same testimony respecting it as Solomon did, that it is all vanity and vexation of spirit. But where did you ever find a person give such a testimony respecting holiness? Where did you ever find a man who was not happy in proportion as his in-dwelling sins were mortified, and all heavenly graces were exercised in his soul? O that you could be prevailed upon to try what this blessedness is! You would soon find that the peace flowing from religion passeth all understanding, and that its joys are unspeakable and glorified.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

REFLECTIONS

What a sweet thought is it to my soul, that to all the crippled faculties of my fallen nature; the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth can make me whole. Yea, his name, through faith in his name, will give a perfect soundness to all his redeemed. Lord! grant that in all my approaches to thy house of prayer, I may go always in thy name, making mention of thy righteousness, even thine only. And oh! with what holy joy and rapture, shall I tread thy courts, when God the Almighty God of our fathers! the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; thou hast indeed glorified thy Son Jesus! Oh! Lord, send down thine ascension-gifts, and bless my soul, in all the sweet manifestations of thy love. In thee, and by thee, and from thee, let all my joy be found. As a child in the Covenant, which God made with our fathers, being Christ’s, and consequently Abraham’s seed, and an heir according to the promise; let all my springs arise, and let that assurance to the great father of the faithful be mine also: In thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

26 Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

Ver. 26. To bless you ] Eph 1:3 .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

26. ] , first ; implying the offer to the Gentiles (but as yet, in Peter’s mind, only by embracing Judaism ) afterwards: see ch. Act 13:46 ; Rom 1:16 .

It is strange how Olshausen can suppose that the Spirit in Peter overleapt the bounds of his subsequent prejudice with regard to the admission of the Gentiles: he never had any such prejudice , but only against their admission uncircumcised , and as Gentiles .

It is still stranger how a scholar like Dr. Burton can propose the ungrammatical and unmeaning rendering, “ is perhaps used with reference to Christ’s first coming, as opposed to his second.” This would require , and would certainly imply in the mind of the speaker an absolute exclusion of all but Jews till the second coming .

, not ‘ from the dead :’ but as in Act 3:22 .

, His Servant : see note, Act 3:13 .

, indefinite, of the sending in the flesh; sent , not ‘ hath sent ;’ it does not apply to the present time , but to God’s procedure in raising up His Servant Jesus, and His mission and ministry: and is distinct from the of Act 3:20 . This is also shewn by the pres. part. , ingeniously, but not quite accurately rendered in E. V. ‘ to bless you .’ He came blessing you (his coming was an act of blessing it consisted in the : an anarthrous present participle in such a connexion carries necessarily a slightly ratiocinative sense), in (as the conditional element of the blessing) turning every one from your iniquities : thus conferring on you the best of blessings. ., in allusion to ., Act 3:25 . in this sense, see Luk 8:5 . The application to the present time is made by inference: ‘ as that was His object then, so now :’ but (see below) the discourse is unfinished.

The intransitive sense of , ‘ which blessing is to be gained by ( in ) every one of you turning from your iniquities ,’ given in the Vulg., ‘ut convertat se unusquisque,’ and maintained by Theophyl., c [37] , Beza, Kuinoel, Meyer, &c., on the strength of Act 3:19 , is inadmissible, as is not found thus used in the N. T., and we have the precedent of ref. Luke and Rom 11:26 for the transitive sense. The argument from Act 3:19 tells just as well for it : ‘Repent and be converted, for this was the object of Jesus being raised up, to confer on you this very blessing, the turning away each of you from your iniquities.’

[37] cumenius of Tricca in Thrace, Cent y . XI.?

This discourse does not come to a final conclusion as in ch. Act 2:36 , because it was interrupted by the apprehension of the Apostles .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Act 3:26 . : again emphatic. In the words of St. Peter we may again note his agreement with St. Paul, Act 13:46 , Rom 1:16 (Act 10:11 ), although no doubt St. Peter shared the views of his nation in so far that Gentiles could only participate in the blessings of the Messianic kingdom through acceptance of Judaism. , cf. Act 3:22 , , “his servant,” R.V., see above on Act 3:13 . also shows that . here refers not to the Resurrection but to the Incarnation. : as in the act of blessing, present participle; the present participle expressing that the Christ is still continuing His work of blessing on repentance, but see also Burton, N. T. Moods and Tenses , p. 171. : this use of governing the dative with the infinitive is most commonly temporal, but it is used to express other relations, such as manner, means, as here ( cf. Act 4:30 , where the attempt to give a temporal sense is very far-fetched, Hackett, in loco ); see Burton, u. s. , p. 162, and Blass, Grammatik des N. G. , p. 232. This formula of with the dative of the article and the infinitive is very common in St. Luke, both in his Gospel and in the Acts, and is characteristic of him as compared with the number of times the same formula is used by other writers in the N.T., Friedrich, Das Lucasevangelium , p. 37, and also Zeller, of the Apostles , ii., p. 196, ., also in the LXX the same construction is found, cf. Gen 19:16 ; Gen 34:15 , etc. : probably intransitive (Blass, Grimm, and so often in LXX, although the English A. and R.V. may be understood in either sense). Vulgate renders “ut convertat se unusquisque,” but the use of the verb elsewhere in Luk 23:14 ( cf. also Rom 11:26 , Isa 59:20 ) makes for the transitive sense (so Weiss, in loco ). The argument from Act 3:19 (as Alford points out) does not decide the matter either way (see also Holtzmann). , cf. Luk 11:39 , and adjective frequent both in the Gospel and in the Acts; in LXX both words are very common. The word may denote miseries as well as iniquities, as Bengel notes, but the latter sense is demanded by the context. according to Jngst does not mark the fact that the Jews were to be converted first and the Gentiles afterwards, but as belonging to the whole clause, and as referring to the first and past sending of Jesus in contrast to the second (Act 3:20 ) and future sending in glory. But to support this view Jngst has no hesitation in regarding 25 b as an interpolation, and so nothing is left but a reference to the of God with the fathers, i.e. , circumcision, which is quite in place before a Jewish audience.

St. Peter’s Discourses . More recent German criticism has departed far from the standpoint of the early Tbrigen school, who could only see in these discourses the free composition of a later age, whilst Dr. McGiffert, in spite of his denial of the Lucan authorship of Acts, inclines to the belief that the discourses in question represent an early type of Christian teaching, derived from primitive documents, and that they breathe the spirit of St. Peter and of primitive Jewish Christianity. Feine sees in the contents of the addresses a proof that we have in them a truthful record of the primitive Apostolic teaching. Just the very points which were of central interest in this early period of the Church’s life are those emphasised here, e.g. , the proof that Jesus of Nazareth, the Crucified One, is the Messiah, a proof attested by His Resurrection, the appeal to Israel, the chosen people, to repent for the remission of sins in His name. Nor is there anything against the speeches in the fact of their similarity; in their first and early preaching, as Feine urges, the Apostles’ thoughts would naturally move in the same circle, they would recur again and again to the same facts, and their addresses could scarcely be otherwise than similar. Moreover we have an appeal to the facts of the life of Jesus as to things well known in the immediate past: “Jesus of Nazareth” had been working in the midst of them, and Peter’s hearers were witnesses with him of His signs and wonders, “as ye yourselves know,” Act 2:23 ; we become conscious in such words and in their context of all the moral indignation and the deep pain of the Apostles at the crucifixion of their Master, just as in Act 3:13 we seem to listen to another personal reminiscence of the Passion history (see Beyschlag, Neutest. Theol. , i., pp. 304, 305; Scharfe, Die Petrinische Strmung , 2 c., pp. 184, 185).

The fact that no reference is made to, or at all events that no stress is laid upon, the doctrinal significance of the death of Christ, as by St. Paul, is again an intimation that we are dealing with the earliest days of Apostolic teaching the death of the Cross was in itself the fact of all others which was the insuperable offence to the Jew, and it could not help him to proclaim that Christ died for his sins if he had no belief in Jesus as the Christ. The first and necessary step was to prove to the Jew that the suffering of the Messiah was in accordance with the counsels of God and with the voices of the prophets (Lechler, Das Apostolische Zeitalter , pp. 230, 231). But the historical fact accepted, its inner and spiritual significance would be imparted, and there was nothing strange in the fact that disciples who had themselves found it so difficult to overcome their repugnance to the mention of their Master’s sufferings, should first direct their main efforts to remove the like prejudice from the minds of their countrymen. But we cannot adduce from this method that the Apostles had never heard such words as those of Christ (Mat 20:28 , Mar 10:45 , cf. 1Pe 1:18 ) ( cf. the striking passage in Beyschlag, u. s. , pp. 306, 307), or that they were entirely ignorant of the atoning significance of His Death. St. Paul, 1Co 15:1-3 , speaks of the tradition which he had received, a tradition in which he was at one with the Twelve, Act 3:11 , viz. , that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures (Feine, Die vorkanonische Ueberlieferung des Lukas ; see p. 230).

When we pass to the consideration of St. Peter’s Christology, we again see how he starts from the actual experience of his hearers before him: “Jesus of Nazareth, a man,” etc. plainly and fearlessly St. Peter emphasises the manhood of his Lord the title which is never found in any of the Epistles leads us back to the Passion and the Cross, to the early records of the Saviour’s life on earth, Act 24:9 ; Act 22:8 . And yet the Crucified Nazarene was by a startling paradox the Prince or Author of Life (see note on ); by a divine law which the Jews could not discern He could not save Himself and yet another paradox there was no other Name given amongst men whereby they must be saved.

St. Paul could write of Him, Who took upon Him the form of a servant, Who humbled Himself, and became obedient to the death of the Cross, Phi 2:6 ; and St. Peter, in one familiar word, which so far as we know St. Paul never used, brings before his hearers the same sublime picture of obedience, humility, death and glory; Jesus is the ideal, the glorified “Servant” of God (see note on Act 3:13 ). But almost in the same breath St. Peter speaks of the Servant as the Holy and Righteous One, Act 3:14 ; holy, in that He was consecrated to the service of Jehovah ( , Act 4:27 ; Act 4:30 , see note, and Act 2:27 ); righteous, in that He was also the impersonation of righteousness, a righteousness which the Law had proclaimed, and which Prophets and Kings had desired to see, but had not seen (Isa 53:11 ). But whilst we note these titles, steeped each and all of them in O.T. imagery, whilst we may see in them the germs of the later and the deeper theology of St. Paul and St. John (see Dr. Lock, “Christology of the Earlier Chapters of the Acts,” Expositor , iv. (fourth series), p. 178 ff.), they carry us far beyond the conception of a mere humanitarian Christ. It is not only that Jesus of Nazareth is set before us as “the very soul and end of Jewish Prophecy,” as Himself the Prophet to whom the true Israel would hearken, but that He is associated by St. Peter even in his earliest utterances, as none other is associated, with Jehovah in His Majesty in the work of salvation, Act 2:34 ; the salvation which was for all who called upon Jehovah’s Name, Act 2:21 , was also for all in the Name, in the power of Jesus Christ, Act 4:12 (see notes, l. c , and cf. the force of the expression in 1Co 1:2 , Schmid, Biblische Theologie , p. 407); the Spirit which Joel had foretold would be poured forth by Jehovah had been poured forth by Jesus raised to the right hand of God, Act 2:18 ; Act 2:33 (see further notes in chap. Act 10:36 ; Act 10:42-43 ).

One other matter must be briefly noticed the correspondence in thought and word between the St. Peter of the early chapters of the Acts and the St. Peter of the First Epistle which bears his name. A few points may be selected. St. Peter had spoken of Christ as the Prince of Life; quite in harmony with this is the thought expressed in 1Pe 1:3 , of Christians as “begotten again” by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. St. Peter had spoken of Christ as the Holy and Righteous One, so in the First Epistle he sets forth this aspect of Christ’s peculiar dignity, His sinlessness. As in Acts, so also in 1 Pet. the thought of the sufferings of Christ is prominent, but also that of the glory which should follow, chap. 1, Act 3:11 . As in Acts, so also in 1 Pet. these sufferings are described as undeserved, but also as foreordained by God and in accordance with the voices of the Prophets, 1Pe 1:11 ; 1Pe 2:22-25 . As in Acts, so in 1 Pet. it is the special task of the Apostles to be witnesses of the sufferings and also of the resurrection of Christ, chap. Act 5:1 . As in Acts, so in 1 Pet. we have the clearest testimony to the of Christ, 1Pe 1:21 ; 1Pe 4:11 . As in Acts stress is laid not only upon the facts of the life of Christ, but also upon His teaching, Act 10:34 ff., so also in 1 Pet., while allusions are made to the scenes of our Lord’s Passion with all the force of an eye-witness, we have stress laid upon the word of Christ, the Gospel or teaching, Act 1:12 ; Act 1:23 ; Act 1:25 , Act 2:2 ; Act 2:8 , Act 3:19 , Act 4:6 . As in Acts, so in 1 Pet. we have a reference to the agency of Christ in the realm of the dead, 1Pe 3:19 ; 1Pe 4:6 . As in Acts, Act 10:42 , so in 1 Pet. Christ is Himself the judge of quick and dead, Act 4:6 , or in His unity with the Father shares with Him that divine prerogative, cf. Act 1:17 . As in Acts, so in 1 Pet. the communication of the Holy Spirit is specially attributed to the exalted Christ, cf. Act 2:33 , 1Pe 1:11-12 . As in Acts, so in 1 Pet. Christ is the living corner-stone on which God’s spiritual house is built, Act 4:12 and 1Pe 2:4-10 . As in Acts, so in 1 Pet. not only the details but the whole scope of salvation is regarded in the light and as a fulfilment of O.T. prophecy, cf. Act 3:18-25 , 1Pe 2:22-23 ; 1Pe 1:10-12 . But this correspondence extends to words, amongst which we may note , Act 2:23 , 1Pe 1:2 , a word found nowhere else in the N.T., and used in each passage in the same sense; , 1Pe 1:17 , and only here in N.T., but cf. Act 10:34 , . twice used by St. Peter in Act 5:30 ; Act 10:39 (once by St. Paul), and again in 1Pe 2:24 ; only in the Cornelius history, Act 10:28 , by St. Peter, and in 1Pe 4:3 ; with the genitive of that to which testimony is rendered, most frequently in N.T. used by St. Peter, cf. Act 1:22 ; Act 6:13 ; Act 10:39 , and 1Pe 5:1 ; and further, in Act 4:11 = 1Pe 2:7 , Act 10:42 = 1Pe 4:5 , the verbal correspondence is very close.

See on the whole subject Nsgen, Apostelgeschichte , p. 48; Lechler, Das Apost. Zeitalter , p. 428 ff.; Scharfe, Die Petrinische Strmung , 2 c. , p. 122 ff.; Lumby, Expositor , iv. (first series), pp. 118, 123; and also Schmid, Biblische Theologie , p. 389 ff. On the striking connection between the Didache 1 , and the language of St. Peter’s sermons, and the phraseology of the early chapters of Acts, see Gore, Church and the Ministry , p. 416.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Acts

THE SERVANT OF THE LORD

Act 3:26 .

So ended Peter’s bold address to the wondering crowd gathered in the Temple courts around him, with his companion John and the lame man whom they had healed. A glance at his words will show how extraordinarily outspoken and courageous they are. He charges home on his hearers the guilt of Christ’s death, unfalteringly proclaims His Messiahship, bears witness to His Resurrection and Ascension, asserts that He is the End and Fulfilment of ancient revelation, and offers to all the great blessings that Christ brings. And this fiery, tender oration came from the same lips which, a few weeks before, had been blanched with fear before a flippant maidservant, and had quivered as they swore, ‘I know not the man!’

One or two simple observations may be made by way of introduction. ‘Unto you first’-’first’ implies second; and so the Apostle has shaken himself clear of the Jews’ narrow belief that Messias belonged to them only, and is already beginning to contemplate the possibility of a transference of the kingdom of God to the outlying Gentiles. ‘God having raised up His Son’-that expression has no reference, as it might at first seem, to the fact of the Resurrection; but is employed in the same sense as, and indeed looks back to, previous words. For he had just quoted Moses’ declaration, ‘A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you from your brethren.’ So it is Christ’s equipment and appointment for His office, and not His Resurrection, which is spoken about here. ‘His Son Jesus’-the Revised Version more accurately translates ‘His Servant Jesus.’ I shall have a word or two to say about that translation presently, but in the meantime I simply note the fact.

With this slight explanation let us now turn to two or three of the aspects of the words before us.

I. First, I note the extraordinary transformation which they indicate in the speaker.

I have already referred to his cowardice a very short time before. That transformation from a coward to a hero he shared in common with his brethren. On one page we read, ‘They all forsook Him and fled.’ We turn over half a dozen leaves and we read: ‘They departed from the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.’ What did that?

Then there is another transformation no less swift, sudden, and inexplicable, except on one hypothesis. All through Christ’s life the disciples had been singularly slow to apprehend the highest aspects of His teachings, and they had clung with a strange obstinacy to their narrow Pharisaic and Jewish notions of the Messiah as coming to establish a temporal dominion, in which Israel was to ride upon the necks of the subject nations. And now, all at once, this Apostle, and his fellows with him, have stepped from these puerile and narrow ideas out into this large place, that he and they recognise that the Jew had no exclusive possession of Messiah’s blessings, and that these blessings consisted in no external kingdom, but lay mainly and primarily in His ‘turning every one of you from your iniquities.’ At one time the Apostles stood upon a gross, low, carnal level, and in a few weeks they were, at all events, feeling their way to, and to a large extent had possession of, the most spiritual and lofty aspects of Christ’s mission. What did that?

Something had come in between which wrought more, in a short space, than all the three years of Christ’s teaching and companionship had done for them. What was it? Why did they not continue in the mood which two of them are reported to have been in, after the Crucifixion, when they said-’It is all up! we trusted that this had been He,’ but the force of circumstances has shivered the confidence into fragments, and there is no such hope left for us any longer. What brought them out of that Slough of Despond?

I would put it to any fair-minded man whether the psychological facts of this sudden maturing of these childish minds, and their sudden change from slinking cowards into heroes who did not blanch before the torture and the scaffold, are accountable, if you strike out the Resurrection, the Ascension, and Pentecost? It seems to me that, for the sake of avoiding a miracle, the disbelievers in the Resurrection accept an impossibility, and tie themselves to an intellectual absurdity. And I for one would rather believe in a miracle than believe in an uncaused change, in which the Apostles take exactly the opposite course from that which they necessarily must have taken, if there had not been the facts that the New Testament asserts that there were, Christ’s rising again from the dead, and Ascension.

Why did not the Church share the fate of John’s disciples, who scattered like sheep without a shepherd when Herod chopped off their master’s head? Why did not the Church share the fate of that abortive rising, of which we know that when Theudas, its leader, was slain, ‘all, as many as believed on him, came to nought.’ Why did these men act in exactly the opposite way? I take it that, as you cannot account for Christ except on the hypothesis that He is the Son of the Highest, you cannot account for the continuance of the Christian Church for a week after the Crucifixion, except on the hypothesis that the men who composed it were witnesses of His Resurrection, and saw Him floating upwards and received into the Shechinah cloud and lost to their sight. Peter’s change, witnessed by the words of my text-these bold and clear-sighted words-seems to me to be a perfect monstrosity, and incapable of explication, unless he saw the risen Lord, beheld the ascended Christ, was touched with the fiery Spirit descending on Pentecost, and so ‘out of weakness was made strong,’ and from a babe sprang to the stature of a man in Christ.

II. Look at these words as setting forth a remarkable view of Christ.

I have already referred to the fact that the word rendered ‘son’ ought rather to be rendered ‘servant.’ It literally means ‘child’ or ‘boy,’ and appears to have been used familiarly, just in the same fashion as we use the same expression ‘boy,’ or its equivalent ‘maid,’ as a more gentle designation for a servant. Thus the kindly centurion, when he would bespeak our Lord’s care for his menial, calls him his ‘boy’; and our Bible there translates rightly ‘servant.’

Again, the designation is that which is continually employed in the Greek translation of the Old Testament as the equivalent for the well-known prophetic phrase ‘the Servant of Jehovah,’ which, as you will remember, is characteristic of the second portion of the prophecies of Isaiah. And consequently we find that, in a quotation of Isaiah’s prophecy in the Gospel of Matthew, the very phrase of our text is there employed: ‘Behold My Servant whom I uphold!’

Now, it seems as if this designation of our Lord as God’s Servant was very familiar to Peter’s thoughts at this stage of the development of Christian doctrine. For we find the name employed twice in this discourse-in the thirteenth verse, ‘the God of our Fathers hath glorified His Servant Jesus,’ and again in my text. We also find it twice in the next chapter, where Peter, offering up a prayer amongst his brethren, speaks of ‘Thy Holy Child Jesus,’ and prays ‘that signs and wonders may be done through the name’ of that ‘Holy Child.’ So, then, I think we may fairly take it that, at the time in question, this thought of Jesus as the ‘Servant of the Lord’ had come with especial force to the primitive Church. And the fact that the designation never occurs again in the New Testament seems to show that they passed on from it into a deeper perception than even it attests of who and what this Jesus was in relation to God.

But, at all events, we have in our text the Apostle looking back to that dim, mysterious Figure which rises up with shadowy lineaments out of the great prophecy of ‘Isaiah,’ and thrilling with awe and wonder, as he sees, bit by bit, in the Face painted on the prophetic canvas, the likeness of the Face into which he had looked for three blessed years, that now began to tell him more than they had done whilst their moments were passing.

‘The Servant of the Lord’-that means, first of all, that Christ, in all which He does, meekly and obediently executes the Father’s will. As He Himself said, ‘I come not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.’ But it carries us further than that, to a point about which I would like to say one word now; and that is, the clear recognition that the very centre of Jewish prophecy is the revelation of the personality of the Christ. Now, it seems to me that present tendencies, discussions about the nature and limits of inspiration, investigations which, in many directions, are to be welcomed and are fruitful as to the manner of origin of the books of the Old Testament, and as to their collection into a Canon and a whole-that all this new light has a counterbalancing disadvantage, in that it tends somewhat to obscure in men’s minds the great central truth about the revelation of God in Israel-viz. that it was all progressive, and that its goal and end was Jesus Christ. ‘The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy,’ and however much we may have to learn-and I have no doubt that we have a great deal to learn, about the composition, the structure, the authorship, the date of these ancient books-I take leave to say that the unlearned reader, who recognises that they all converge on Jesus Christ, has hold of the clue of the labyrinth, and has come nearer to the marrow of the books than the most learned investigators, who see all manner of things besides in them, and do not see that ‘they that went before cried, saying, Hosanna! Blessed be He that cometh in the name of the Lord!’

And so I venture to commend to you, brethren-not as a barrier against any reverent investigation, not as stopping any careful study-this as the central truth concerning the ancient revelation, that it had, for its chief business, to proclaim the coming of the Servant of Jehovah, Jesus the Christ.

III. And now, lastly, look at these words as setting forth the true centre of Christ’s work.

‘He has sent Him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.’ I have already spoken about the gross, narrow, carnal apprehensions of Messiah’s work which cleaved to the disciples during all our Lord’s life here, and which disturbed even the sanctity of the upper chamber at that last meal, with squabbles about precedence which had an eye to places in the court of the Messiah when He assumed His throne. But here Peter has shaken himself clear of all these, and has grasped the thought that, whatever derivative and secondary blessings of an external and visible sort may, and must, come in Messiah’s train, the blessing which He brings is of a purely spiritual and inward character, and consists in turning away single souls from their love and practice of evil. That is Christ’s true work.

The Apostle does not enlarge as to how it is done. We know how it is done. Jesus turns away men from sin because, by the magnetism of His love, and the attractive raying out of influence from His Cross, He turns them to Himself. He turns us from our iniquities by the expulsive power of a new affection, which, coming into our hearts like a great river into some foul Augean stable, sweeps out on its waters all the filth that no broom can ever clear out in detail. He turns men from their iniquities by His gift of a new life, kindred with that from which it is derived.

There is an old superstition that lightning turned whatever it struck towards the point from which the flash came, so that a tree with its thousand leaves had each of them pointed to that quarter in the heavens where the blaze had been.

And so Christ, when He flings out the beneficent flash that slays only our evil, and vitalises ourselves, turns us to Him, and away from our transgressions. ‘Turn us, O Christ, and we shall be turned.’

Ah, brethren! that is the blessing that we need most, for ‘iniquities’ are universal; and so long as man is bound to his sin it will embitter all sweetnesses, and neutralise every blessing. It is not culture, valuable as that is in many ways, that will avail to stanch man’s deepest wounds. It is not a new social order that will still the discontent and the misery of humanity. You may adopt collective economic and social arrangements, and divide property out as it pleases you. But as long as man continues selfish he will continue sinful, and as long as he continues sinful any social order will be pregnant with sorrow, ‘and when it is finished it will bring forth death.’ You have to go deeper down than all that, down as deep as this Apostle goes in this sermon of his, and recognise that Christ’s prime blessing is the turning of men from their iniquities, and that only after that has been done will other good come.

How shallow, by the side of that conception, do modern notions of Jesus as the great social Reformer look! These are true, but they want their basis, and their basis lies only here, that He is the Redeemer of individuals from their sins. There were people in Christ’s lifetime who were all untouched by His teachings, but when they found that He gave bread miraculously they said, ‘This is of a truth the Prophet! That’s the prophet for my money; the Man that can make bread, and secure material well-being.’ Have not certain modern views of Christ’s work and mission a good deal in common with these vulgar old Jews-views which regard Him mainly as contributing to the material good, the social and economical well-being of the world?

Now, I believe that He does that. And I believe that Christ’s principles are going to revolutionise society as it exists at present. But I am sure that we are on a false scent if we attempt to preach consequences without proclaiming their antecedents, and that such preaching will end, as all such attempts have ended, in confusion and disappointment.

They used to talk about Jesus Christ, in the first French Revolution, as ‘the Good Sansculotte .’ Perfectly true! But as the basis of that, and of all representations of Him, that will have power on the diseases of the community, we have to preach Him as the Saviour of the individual from his sin.

And so, brethren, has He saved you? Do you begin your notions of Jesus Christ where His work begins? Do you feel that what you want most is neither culture nor any superficial and external changes, but something that will deal with the deep, indwelling, rooted, obstinate self-regard which is the centre of all sin? And have you gone alone to Him as a sinful man? As the Apostle here suggests, Jesus Christ does not save communities. The doctor has his patients into the consulting-room one by one. There is no applying of Christ’s benefits to men in batches, by platoons and regiments, as Clovis baptized his Franks; but you have to go, every one of you, through the turnstile singly, and alone to confess, and alone to be absolved, and alone to be turned, from your iniquity.

If I might venture to alter the position of words in my text, I would lay them, so modified, on the hearts of all my friends whom my words may reach now, and say, ‘Unto you- unto thee , God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, first in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.’

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

iniquities. Greek. poneria. App-128.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

26.] , first; implying the offer to the Gentiles (but as yet, in Peters mind, only by embracing Judaism) afterwards: see ch. Act 13:46; Rom 1:16.

It is strange how Olshausen can suppose that the Spirit in Peter overleapt the bounds of his subsequent prejudice with regard to the admission of the Gentiles:-he never had any such prejudice, but only against their admission uncircumcised, and as Gentiles.

It is still stranger how a scholar like Dr. Burton can propose the ungrammatical and unmeaning rendering, is perhaps used with reference to Christs first coming, as opposed to his second. This would require ,-and would certainly imply in the mind of the speaker an absolute exclusion of all but Jews till the second coming.

, not from the dead: but as in Act 3:22.

, His Servant: see note, Act 3:13.

, indefinite, of the sending in the flesh; sent, not hath sent; it does not apply to the present time, but to Gods procedure in raising up His Servant Jesus, and His mission and ministry: and is distinct from the of Act 3:20. This is also shewn by the pres. part. , ingeniously, but not quite accurately rendered in E. V. to bless you. He came blessing you (his coming was an act of blessing-it consisted in the : an anarthrous present participle in such a connexion carries necessarily a slightly ratiocinative sense), in (as the conditional element of the blessing) turning every one from your iniquities: thus conferring on you the best of blessings. ., in allusion to ., Act 3:25. in this sense, see Luk 8:5. The application to the present time is made by inference:-as that was His object then, so now:-but (see below) the discourse is unfinished.

The intransitive sense of ,-which blessing is to be gained by (in) every one of you turning from your iniquities,-given in the Vulg., ut convertat se unusquisque, and maintained by Theophyl., c[37], Beza, Kuinoel, Meyer, &c., on the strength of Act 3:19, is inadmissible,-as is not found thus used in the N. T., and we have the precedent of ref. Luke and Rom 11:26 for the transitive sense. The argument from Act 3:19 tells just as well for it: Repent and be converted, for this was the object of Jesus being raised up, to confer on you this very blessing, the turning away each of you from your iniquities.

[37] cumenius of Tricca in Thrace, Centy. XI.?

This discourse does not come to a final conclusion as in ch. Act 2:36, because it was interrupted by the apprehension of the Apostles.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Act 3:26. , first) A previous intimation as to the call of the Gentiles.-, having raised up) of the seed of Abraham.-) Act 3:13 [His servant, not His Son, as Engl. Vers.]-, blessing) This is deduced from Act 3:25.- ) Active: in turning away. Christ is He who turns away both us from wickedness, and ungodliness from us: Rom 11:26, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. It is a thing not to be done by human strength.-) wickednesses, iniquities, whereby the blessing is impeded. denotes both wickedness and misery.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

first: Act 1:8, Act 13:26, Act 13:32, Act 13:33, Act 13:46, Act 13:47, Act 18:4-6, Act 26:20, Act 28:23-28, Mat 10:5, Mat 10:6, Luk 24:47, Rom 2:9, Rom 2:10, Rev 7:4-9

having: Act 3:15, Act 3:22

sent: Act 3:20, Act 3:25, Psa 67:6, Psa 67:7, Psa 72:17, Luk 2:10, Luk 2:11, Rom 15:29, Gal 3:9-14, Eph 1:3, 1Pe 1:3, 1Pe 3:9

in: Isa 59:20, Isa 59:21, Jer 32:38-41, Jer 33:8, Jer 33:9, Eze 11:19, Eze 11:20, Eze 36:25-29, Mat 1:21, Eph 5:26, Eph 5:27, Tit 2:11-14, 1Jo 3:5-8, Jud 1:24

Reciprocal: Gen 12:3 – in thee Gen 18:18 – become Gen 50:20 – God meant Lev 3:2 – kill it Lev 9:22 – his hand 2Sa 6:18 – as soon 1Ch 4:10 – bless me Psa 3:8 – thy blessing Psa 21:6 – made Psa 85:8 – but Psa 115:12 – the house of Israel Isa 61:9 – they are Isa 65:23 – for Jer 31:18 – turn Jer 32:39 – for the Jer 50:20 – the iniquity Mic 7:20 – General Zec 10:9 – live Mat 15:24 – I am not Mat 25:34 – Come Luk 1:72 – perform Luk 5:32 – General Joh 1:11 – came Joh 2:19 – I will Act 2:24 – God Act 2:39 – the promise Act 5:30 – raised Act 5:31 – to give Act 10:36 – word Act 11:18 – granted Act 11:19 – to none Act 13:23 – raised Act 13:30 – General Rom 1:9 – the Rom 9:4 – promises Rom 11:26 – and shall Rom 15:8 – Jesus 2Co 1:20 – all Gal 3:14 – through 1Ti 1:15 – that Heb 4:2 – unto us 1Pe 1:20 – but

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

6

Act 3:26. Unto you first. Peter was speaking to Jews, and he meant to tell them that they were to receive the blessings of the promised seed of Abraham before the Gentiles. (See Act 13:46; Rom 1:16.) Turning away every one of you from his iniquities in this discourse, corresponds with “save yourselves from this untoward generation,” in Act 2:40.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Act 3:26. Unto you first God, etc. First. St. Peter here clearly recognises definitely that upon others as well as Israel, the glory of the Lord has risen (Isaiah 60). Perhaps at this moment, full of the Holy Spirit, the fact of the glorious breadth of redemption flashed on the speakers mind with startling clearness; and then, when the moment of inspiration was over and gone, the old Jewish prejudices and jealousy mastered him again, for we see by the history of the Acts, as the Lords purposes were gradually developed, how slowly and even reluctantly St. Peter gave up calling common or unclean what God had cleansed. The utter impossibility of the admission of the Gentile world into the Church, except through the medium of Judaism, was deeply rooted in the hearts of Peter and the apostles. They had all been brought up in the rigid school of Jewish Messianic hopes, which admitted, certainly, the great heathen world into Messiahs kingdom, but only on the stern condition of all becoming Jews and submitting to the requirements of the Mosaic law. The Gentiles are not handed over to Israel in this age, but they will be in the days of Messiah (Berish. Rab. f. 28, 2, quoted by Meyer; see also Olshausen on this place).

Having raised up his Son. Not from the dead, but, as in Act 3:22, having caused to appear. His Son, , His Servant (see note on Act 3:13).

To bless you (), blessing. Thus fulfilling the great promise made to Abraham, In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. The act of blessing not done once and for all, but a continuing one on the part of the Lord Jesus from His throne in heaven.

In turning away every one of you from his iniquities. Or better rendered, provided that each one turn from his iniquities, ut convortatse unusquisque (Vulg.). Commentators are divided on the question whether possess (a) a transitive or (b) an intransitive meaning here. For (a) it is urged that this verb is not found used intransitively in the New Testament. The transitive sense is explained by Alford thus: He came blessing you, in turning away every one from your iniquities, thus conferring on you the best of blessings (so generally Calvin, Hammond, Wetstein, Bengel, Hackett, and apparently Gloag). For (b) a list of passages where the verb is used intransitively is given by Meyere.g., Xen. Hist. iii. 4, 12; Horn. Od. iii. 597; LXX. Gen 18:33. If this intransitive sense be adopted, the meaning of the passage would be, Which blessing is to be gained by every one of you turning from your iniquities (Theophilus, cumenius, Beza, Meyer, De Wette, and the Vulgate). The intransitive meaning (b) is decidedly to be preferred. Thus the blessing of the Lord Jesus is made to depend on the individual life, and the concluding words of St. Peters second sermon bring out prominently the grand truth, that the promised blessing will come not to the man who merely professes an orthodox belief, but to the man who, receiving Jesus, lives the life which Jesus loves.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Here note, 1. That the offer of Jesus Christ, and eternal salvation by him, was first made to the people of the Jews, because they were the children of the covenant; that is, the only people in visible communion with God throughout the whole world.

Note, 2. The benefit offered; God’s Son is raised up; that is, either,

1. authorised, consecrated, and appointed to be a Saviour; or

2. Raised from the grave.

You crucified him with wicked hands; but behold the divine clemency!

He is first offered to you his crucifiers: God has sent his Son, in the preaching of the gospel, first to you; and tis not to take vengeance on you, but to bless you: He being the great High Priest, blesses you authoritatively and effectually; and the blessing he dispenses is not a temporal blessing as you expected, a pompous Messiah, a secular kingdom, but spiritual, in turning souls from sin to God: He offers to bless you by turning every one of you from your iniquities.

Oh! that we would all subserve Christ in that great work! He is the principal agent; let us be subordinate instruments, by practising holiness ourselves, and promoting holiness in others.

Learn, 2. That to be turned by Christ from our iniquities, is the greatest blessing we can receive from him; because ’tis a spiritual blessing, a fundamental blessing, a comprehensive blessing, and endearing blessing, an everlasting blessing.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

See notes on verse 25

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

26. Peters afternoon sermon in Solomons porch, like his forenoon sermon on Mt. Zion, is climacteric in the enforcement of these two great cardinal gospel truths, i. e., entire sanctification and the coming King.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Verse 26

To bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. Here, for the first time, we have evidence that the apostles had arrived at a full understanding of the real nature of the redemption which Jesus Christ came to procure. Their erroneous ideas, which had continued even after the resurrection, (Acts 1:6,) seem to have been now forever removed.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

3:26 Unto you first God, having {k} raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

(k) Given to the world, or raised from the dead, and advanced to his kingdom.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes