The good news of the gospel must, of necessity, be seen against the backdrop of the bad news of sin and guilt. Peter is not shy about reminding his Jewish audience of their grievous sin against Christ.
The first, and most grievous aspect of Israel’s sin, was they had put themselves in opposition to their God, the LORD God Most high! God had glorified His Son; the people of Israel had delivered up and denied and traded His Son for a murderer. We will take some time to consider each of these issues of rejecting Christ. But we need to understand that the most basic sin involved in “unbelief” is that we act in opposition to our Creator. He made us. We are responsible to Him. We are to glorify Him as God and to give Him thanks. It is He who, when He saw our sin, graciously promised to send a Savior that we might be restored. He had chosen a somewhat insignificant nation of people, Israel, and elevated them to the role of being the means by which that Savior would come (Deut. 7:1-11). The plan was that the people of Israel would be a light to the rest of the nations so they could know that the God of Israel, who was also the Creator of all the nations, had sent the One who would be the Savior of the world! And yet, the light of Israel was so dim that when the Savior arrived, the nations had no idea He was here (Jn. 1:10). It was because His own people, His kinfolk, His fellow-citizens, did not receive Him.
Here is what they did, according to Peter, who is just sharing what the Gospel writers (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) had recorded.
· God sent Jesus, His Servant, so called because it was so prophesied to Israel by Isaiah (Isa. 42:1-9; 49:1-13; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12). They delivered up God’s Servant to Pilate, even when Pilate could find no fault in Him and was inclined to release Him (Luke 23:13-17). It is interesting that the Greek word “delivered up” is the same word for “betrayed,” what Judas did. It described what your “friends” do. Again, it was Jesus fellow-countrymen who gave Him to Pilate.
· God sent His Son Jesus, who Himself was “the Holy One and the Just.” As “the Son of God” Jesus was God, come in the flesh! Forty times in the OT God referred to Himself as “the Holy One” (31 times as “the Holy One of Israel;” e.g. Isa. 41:14; 54:5). Jesus was also called “the Just One” (Ac. 7:52; 22:14) because of His righteous life, a fact even recognized by Pilate. And yet, the Jews denied Him. They refused to recognize what was verified by the word of His Father from heaven, the mighty works He did, the testimony of John the Baptist, and the fulfilment seen in Him of the word of Moses (John 5:31-47).
· In what was an added act of shame, they demanded of Pilate to exchange Barabbas, a known murderer, for Jesus, the Holy One and the Just, so that they might murder Him instead!
Now friends, Peter is right. These are the facts. This is what the Jewish people did. But do not fail to see what Peter also said in v17-18: Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Their eyes were blinded (2 Cor. 3:14). They did not understand what God was doing, through the death of His Son. And that is why, even after their betrayal and denial for which they were responsible, God still offered them the good news of having their sins blotted out by the blood of Christ!
The issue for us is not to condemn the Jews for what they did. It is for us to receive Him rather than betraying and denying Him. He is also our “kinfolk,” if you will. He took on human flesh, Jesus, the Holy One and the Just, becoming one with us so that He might not only bring salvation to Israel but to the whole world. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believed in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
No comments:
Post a Comment