Acts 2:23, commentary and pictures

On the day of Pentecost Peter boldly charged all the house of Israel, including priests and rulers, that they themselves had taken Jesus and put Him to death by demanding Barabbas and crying for His crucifixion. He was handed over according to the settled purpose and foreknowledge of God, a plan made by the Father and the Son together before the foundation of the world to give Christ as the atoning sacrifice from love for sinners. That divine purpose did not excuse His killers or lessen their guilt, for they had strong evidence of who He was and chose unbelief, acting with wicked intent under Satan's control. He was slain for the sins of the world as the fulfillment of sacrifice and prophecy, yet God overturned that apparent victory by raising Him from the dead and exalting Him to heaven as humanity's Advocate. The preaching pricked hearers in the heart, calling them to repent and be baptized for remission of sins, and about three thousand were converted in one day.

Pentecost Setting and Charge

On the day of Pentecost, after the descent of the Holy Spirit, Peter proclaimed a risen Saviour with courage and boldness. His was a bold, Spirit-filled proclamation, preaching in demonstration of the Spirit and with power. The Spirit unfolded the character and work of Jesus before listeners who before had seen no beauty to desire in Him, lifting Him up and glorifying Him as exalted Prince and Saviour to give repentance and forgiveness of sins. Those glorious inner beauties are discerned not with natural eyes but because the Spirit quickens. That Spirit-filled preaching went out everywhere and thousands were converted in a day, showing that sinners are to be converted and believers have a part through the self-denying life of Christ, taking the Bible from house to house, making people hungry for the Word, waking from stupor and indifference, and giving the message to the world in the judgment hour.

The word was a decisive charge that they had taken Jesus and crucified Him. It was laid against all the house of Israel, whom God had made Jesus both Lord and Christ. It charged the priests and rulers with the sin of killing Christ.

The charge made their part personal and active. They had demanded that Barabbas, a murderer and thief, be released. They had called out for Christ to be crucified, choosing Barabbas over the Son of God.

Hearing the apostles proclaim that they had crucified the Son of God brought conviction and anguish and pricked the hearers in the heart. Many who after the crucifixion had joined in mocking Jesus recognized that the accusations against Him were false and that He was no pretender. Three thousand souls were brought to repentance and converted in one day. They were called to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for remission of sins to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and those added that day continued steadfastly in doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and prayers, continuing daily with one accord, eating with gladness and singleness of heart, while the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

God's Purpose and Human Responsibility

Him was delivered to death according to God's determinate counsel and foreknowledge and settled purpose, yet He was taken and crucified and slain by wicked hands acting with wicked intent. The delivery took place by that counsel while the people who took Him remained responsible for what they had done, and Peter states this as a decisive charge against those who rejected Christ. The verse confronts the people with what they had done, and their apparent victory in killing Jesus was overturned when He rose from the dead.

The determinate counsel was a plan made by the Father and the Son together before the foundation of the world, in which the Father sent Christ as the atoning sacrifice for sins because Christ loved the human race with the joy of seeing sinners redeemed. It was the only plan that could be made after man by yielding to sin incurred the penalty of transgression, so that mercy might be shown and yet the justice of God be fully met. The sacrifice was not made to create love in God toward men, for He loved before He gave, but the Father and the Son united in this wonderful sacrifice so that the character of God might be fully understood and the fullness of their mercy known by fallen angels and sinful men. Only One equal with the Father could make the sacrifice for the lost race, for divinity alone could exalt the sinner to sonship with God and make him a partaker of the divine nature.

God's purpose did not excuse the crucifiers or lessen their guilt, and those who crucified and killed Him were responsible for acting wickedly. God's providential hand controlled events for His glory and humanity's good, making Christ the Redeemer of humanity and ruler over the world, yet their crime remained heinous. God had given the Jews strong evidence of Jesus' identity and mission, so their ignorance did not excuse them; they chose not to know, and their unbelief made them guilty of the blood of the Son of God.

The suffering and death fulfilled what God had foretold through the prophets and holy men, which the disciples traced at Pentecost while explaining Jesus' doctrine and teaching this truth as part of the plan of salvation accomplished through the mercy and sacrifice of the Son of God. The Jewish leaders' rejection of Christ unconsciously fulfilled those prophecies even though they refused to recognize Him as God's Sent One, the One to whom the sacrifices pointed and in whom their hope of eternal life was centered. Peter's Pentecost message charged the priests and rulers with the sin of killing Christ, explaining that His suffering fulfilled prophecy while those who killed Him were still accountable for their act. Jesus Himself had told His disciples beforehand that He would be taken and crucified and rise on the third day, and His betrayal and crucifixion happened according to God's counsel and foreknowledge though wicked people carried them out.

The killers' apparent victory was overturned when Jesus rose from the dead. Though the incarnate God and Lord of life, He was delivered into the hands of wicked men for our sake. He suffered and died but rose triumphantly from the tomb, revealing His divine power over death.

Gospel Meaning and Application

Peter's testimony places the taking and crucifying by wicked hands between God's mighty works through Jesus and God's raising Him from the dead. That humiliation and death belong to the gospel preached about Christ in human form, followed by His resurrection and ascension to heaven to serve as humanity's Advocate. His death was accomplished through the mercy and sacrifice of the Son of God as part of the plan of salvation, which the disciples traced at Pentecost while explaining His doctrine and the fulfillment of prophecy. He was slain for the sins of the world as the great fulfillment of the sacrifices whose victims passed through Jerusalem's sheep gate, and His coming crucifixion completed Jerusalem's guilt in rejecting Him whose mercy had been despised.

His death fulfilled the vineyard parable, for as the husbandmen rejected and killed the heir, so Christ came to His own and was rejected, taken and crucified by wicked hands. Though He had come to bless those who rejected Him and came in love to save Israel, He was rejected by those He came to bless, seized and crucified. At Jerusalem the people for whom He had done so much became His murderers, and His rejection and death came despite God's love and efforts to save. Jesus grieved over Israel's refusal to receive Him, and that rejection brought Him deep grief even as He had come in love. After rising from the dead He spent forty days with His disciples, giving them instruction.

The wicked hands that took and slew Him acted under Satan's control. Satan had hated Christ for His position in the courts of God, hated Him more when himself dethroned, and hated Him for pledging Himself to redeem sinners, so from the manger to the cross he followed Him striving constantly to gain mastery over Him. He filled the hearts of priests and rulers with hatred toward Christ until the Saviour stood in Pilate's judgment hall in the hands of a lawless mob with hearts filled with violence that only Satan can inspire. Satan's agents disguised in priests' robes and rulers joined hands with the lowest and most degraded in an effort to take the life of the Son of God, showing the depths of wickedness reached by beings He had created and loved so well that He left His heavenly home to come to earth in their behalf in fighting against Him.

His enemies crucified Him in cruel murder, then circulated false reports about His resurrection. Against those reports stood the disciples' eyewitness testimony to His resurrection and ascension, empowered by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The religious leaders feared that if people accepted Him as Messiah they would be held answerable for His murder. The same spirit that led to His crucifixion was also at work in later persecutors, papal leaders who rejected God's law and imposed their own standard and sought to destroy God's people, acting in the same spirit that crucified Christ and slew the apostles. The Jewish leaders' rejection of the One to whom the sacrifices pointed and in whom their hope of eternal life was centered, while unconsciously fulfilling the prophecies, stands as a warning about the future history of the religious world.

The passage from this verse onward is a wonderful promise that even if Christ's followers lose their lives as the disciples did, Christ will raise them from the dead and place crowns of glory on their heads. The verse belongs to the Spirit-filled preaching of the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and they went out and preached the Word everywhere and thousands were converted in a day. It shows that sinners are to be converted and that believers have something to do in it through the self-denying life of Christ, taking the Bible from house to house, making people hungry to hear the Word, waking from stupor and indifference, and giving the message to the world in the judgment hour.