Acts 2:22-36 You men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs… I. THE FACT HERE STATED. "Him hath God raised up," etc. Note — 1. That Jesus did experience everything which death is able to inflict upon mortal man. It was not, as some ancient heretics pretended, the mere appearance of death, but the reality, which He underwent. He felt "the pains of death." And so fearful and rapid was the operation of His sufferings, that, of the three who were crucified together, He alone was dead, when the hour arrived for removing the bodies. And death had then full dominion over Him. 2. That He was set free from the power of death by being raised to life again. To all human appearance the hopes of His cause were for ever buried with Him. But at this point the power of death was broken, and the grave is robbed of its victory. "Death has no more dominion over Him." He is raised — not as the widow's son at Nain or Lazarus, again to die — but to wear for ever that scarred body which He has brought with Him out of the sepulchre. 3. That this event was effected by Divine power: "Him hath God raised up." This circumstance may excite no wonder in your minds; for who can raise the dead but God only? Unquestionably, He alone, who first "breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life," can restore it after He hath taken it away. Call to mind, however, what He Himself had openly declared long before His death, "No man taketh My life from Me," etc. Scripture teaches us that each Person in the blessed Trinity took His share in effecting this glorious resurrection. (1) The Father (Hebrews 13:20). (2) The Son (John 2:19). (3) The Holy Ghost (Romans 1:4; 1 Peter 3:18).These would be contradictory statements were it not for that mysterious doctrine, that our God is one God in three Persons. That doctrine reconciles all; while it still calls upon us to wonder and adore. II. THE REASON ASSIGNED FOR IT. Had Jesus so willed, death could not have taken hold of Him; nor could it keep its hold one moment; longer when God commanded, "Loose Him and let Him go." The impossibility here dwelt upon, however, seems to mean something more than that arising from God's irresistible power. It could not be, because — 1. Prophecy had long ago foretold that it should not be; "and the Scripture cannot be broken." 2. No good end would have been answered by the continuance of Christ under the power of death. All that He had suffered was in order to His being "the propitiation for our sins." Now those agonies needed not to be eternal, although they were an equivalent to that eternal punishment which is our desert. The Sufferer being infinite, the merit of His sufferings was so likewise. And for the same reason, the humiliation of the grave once submitted to was enough, since it was the infinitely glorious Son of God who condescended to endure it. Just as "one offering" sufficed for "the sins of many," so one short sojourn in the tomb of dishonour was sufficient to earn its infinite reward. More was not required — and God does nothing unnecessarily. 3. Satan's apparent triumph would then have been a real one. The chief end of Christ's coming was to "destroy the works of the devil." Of this, Satan himself was fully aware; and to prevent his own defeat left no effort untried. He assailed the mind of Jesus with temptations: he stirred up enemies against His life. Defeated in the former by Christ's holy nature, he appeared to succeed in the latter, and possibly began to boast that he had now triumphed over the only Redeemer of men. And had Jesus still lain in the corruption of the grave, who could have gainsaid this boast? St. Paul himself allows that it would have been the ruin of our hopes (1 Corinthians 15:17). Jesus, therefore, must needs rise again. 4. He had still one perpetual work to perform on behalf of His people, which required His entire presence as perfect Man before God. As our Priest He had offered the sacrifice for sins; in the same character He had now to make continual "intercession for us." "He might have done this," you say, "in His Divine Person, or by His human soul in glory." Why not as well say He might have made atonement without a human body? No — the presence of that living body is indispensable, as an evidence of His merit, as the pledge of His claims. (J. Jowett, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: |
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