God’s Word for You

Acts 5:30-32 God exalted him to his right hand

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Tuesday, November 26, 2019

30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you arrested and killed by hanging him on a cross. 31 God exalted him to his right hand as Prince and Savior, to give to Israel repentance and the forgiveness of sins. 32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

By saying “the God of our fathers,” Peter is proclaiming that all of the expectations that the Jews had of the Messiah are fulfilled by Jesus. He also makes the Sanhedrin directly responsible for acting out against God’s chosen Christ. He puts them into the same category as those who rebelled against Moses, such as Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (Numbers 16:1). When those men opposed Moses, “the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households” (Numbers 16:32). Peter does not call down God’s wrath on them, but he seizes the moment to proclaim the gospel to them.

Peter confesses that Jesus was hung “on a xylon,” (ἐπὶ ξύλου). This word can mean any kind of wood, even a tree (as many translate). The reason for his choice of words is the command from Moses: “If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance” (Deuteronomy 21:22-23). The Sanhedrin didn’t bother to make any move toward removing Jesus’ body from the cross before sundown, leaving it to someone else, even though doing so would have desecrated the land of Israel! They didn’t really care about the Law of Moses, they only cared about silencing the man they saw as a rival for the people’s attention.

In three sentences, Peter presents the key points of Jesus’ states of humiliation and exaltation, and he also demonstrates the apostles’ faith and understanding of the Trinity. He covers the suffering, crucifixion and death of Jesus. In his state of humiliation, he suffered many things, but in his crucifixion in particular he suffered the agony of God’s wrath over the sins that were charged to his account. Jesus himself had no sins at all, but he was, as John said, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). We can’t brush aside John’s words, since they were prophetic and were in fact the whole point of his ministry, to point the people to Christ as Savior of the world. Jesus Christ suffered damnation in our place, experiencing what it is to be forsaken by God (Matthew 27:46), and in doing so, he represented and stood in the place (or hung in the place) of all humanity. Peter said later to the Galatian Christians: “He bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).

There are four important steps to Jesus’ exaltation: His descent into hell, his resurrection, his ascension, and sitting at the right hand of God. A fifth, that he will come again to judge us, has not yet taken place. Of the four, Peter touches on all here except the descent into hell (for which see 1 Peter 3:18-19).

In the resurrection (“The God of our fathers raised up Jesus”), God showed mankind that Christ’s suffering and death happened for the benefit of all people. “He was raised to life for our justification” (Romans 4:25), “He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:15). In addition, in his resurrection our faith is strengthened (1 Corinthians 15:14,17), his deity is attested (Romans 1:4), and our resurrection is made certain (John 11:25; 1 Thessalonians 4:14).

In the ascension and in seating Christ at his right hand (“God exalted him to his right hand as Prince and Savior”), the Father showed a change in Christ’s humanity, from the vulnerable being born of Mary who was able to suffer and die, to the glorified and triumphant man, risen from the dead as one day we will be, no longer subject to suffering and death but forever human in the glorified human state awaiting us all. Yet Jesus’ ascension is more glorious than ours will be. His was to his eternal place of glory at the right hand of the Father. The Scriptures prophesied this: “When you ascended on high, you led captives in your train; you received gifts from men, even from the rebellious—that you, O LORD God, might dwell there” (Psalm 68:18).

Sitting at God’s right hand is a position of authority and dominion: “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet’” (Psalm 110:1), which Paul quotes according to the Spirit’s meaning: “For he must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:25). The right hand of God is not a place, as if a schoolboy wants his friend to sit with him at the lunch table. It is complete and absolute rule over all things according to his grace, mercy, power and glory. Christ’s seat at God’s right hand is no more a singular place in heaven than is God’s right hand itself, for God is everywhere in heaven, and Christ is everywhere in heaven and on earth. Therefore, his rule is everywhere and over all things. Paul says simply: “He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy” (Colossians 1:18).

God the Father, Paul says, is the one who exalted Christ. Jesus Christ is the one who is exalted. And the Holy Spirit is the witness. Here is the doctrine and the work of the Trinity neatly laid out with regard to this doctrine and all others. We believe it because the Holy Spirit has been given to us through the working of the gospel in our hearts. This is Peter’s message. It would have one of two effects on his listeners. Either they would be converted and edified by it (as we have been), or it would enrage them into a blind and murderous fury. But so it is with the Word of God. It always works; it never returns empty. Whatever it does, it is always to the glory of God.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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