Acts 5:31

5:26-33 Many will do an evil thing with daring, yet cannot bear to hear of it afterward, or to have it charged upon them. We cannot expect to be redeemed and healed by Christ, unless we give up ourselves to be ruled by him. Faith takes the Saviour in all his offices, who came, not to save us in our sins, but to save us from our sins. Had Christ been exalted to give dominion to Israel, the chief priests would have welcomed him. But repentance and remission of sins are blessings they neither valued nor saw their need of; therefore they, by no means, admitted his doctrine. Wherever repentance is wrought, remission is granted without fail. None are freed from the guilt and punishment of sin, but those who are freed from the power and dominion of sin; who are turned from it, and turned against it. Christ gives repentance, by his Spirit working with the word, to awaken the conscience, to work sorrow for sin, and an effectual change in the heart and life. The giving of the Holy Ghost, is plain evidence that it is the will of God that Christ should be obeyed. And He will surely destroy those who will not have Him to reign over them.

Him hath God exalted with his right hand: see Acts 2:33 . A Prince; to conquer and subdue all his enemies, to defend and protect his subjects. A Saviour; to save from sin, according to his name, Jesus, Matthew 1:21 ; viz. from the condemnation that is due unto it, and the pollution that is acquired by it. To give repentance; repentance is the gift of God; and nothing does more avail with us to repent, than the loss of Christ, (his bitter suffering and death), by whom the world is crucified unto us, Galatians 6:14 : and if repentance includes newness of life, (as it does), who would not walk in that way which our blessed Lord hath recommended, and in which only we can enjoy him; that doing as he did, we may come at last to be where he is? And forgiveness of sins, which never fails to accompany true repentance, and is therefore also called repentance unto life, Acts 11:18 .

Acts 5:31 . Ἀρχηγὸν καὶ σωτῆρα , a Prince and Saviour ) The Author of salvation: Hebrews 2:10 , ἀρχηγὸν τῆς σωτηρίας : that is, He exalted Him to be a Prince and Saviour; ch. Acts 2:36 .— ὕψωσε , hath exalted ) The exaltation presupposes the resurrection from the dead, or even includes it. Php 2:9 .— δοῦναι , to give ) Repentance is a joyful gift , not a matter of sorrow: ch. Acts 11:18 ; 2 Timothy 2:25 .— μετάνοιαν , repentance ) whereby Jesus is accepted as a Prince .— ἄφεσιν , forgiveness ) whereby He is accepted as a Saviour .— ἁμαρτιῶν , of sins ) even of that sin which ye have committed against Jesus, Acts 5:28 .

31. Prince and a Saviour—the first word expressing that Royalty which all Israel looked for in Messiah, the second the Saving character of it which they had utterly lost sight of. Each of these features in our Lord's work enters into the other, and both make one glorious whole (compare Ac 3:15; Heb 2:10). to give—dispensing as a "Prince." repentance and remission of sins—as a "Saviour"; "repentance" embracing all that change which issues in the faith which secures "forgiveness" (compare Ac 2:38; 20:21). How gloriously is Christ here exhibited; not, as in other places, as the Medium, but as the Dispenser of all spiritual blessings!

Verse 31. - Did God exalt for hath God exalted , A.V.; remission for forgiveness , A.V. With his right hand ; i.e. by his mighty power, as the instrument of Christ's exaltation. A Prince ( Acts 3:15 , note). Repentance first, "a new heart and a new spirit" ( Ezekiel 36:26 ), and forgiveness next (comp. Acts 2:38 ; Acts 3:19 , etc.). Acts 5:31

31 . Him hath God exalted with his right hand ] The right hand is the symbol of might. Cf. Exodus 15:6 , and “His right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory” ( Psalm 98:1 ). to be a Prince and a Saviour ] Mark how with the claim of sovereignty there is closely joined the promise of salvation. If Christ seeks to rule over men it is that He may save them. for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins ] Thus offering the way of salvation to all those who were ready to accept it. These words to a Jew would have great significance, for they had a saying (T. B. Sanhedrin 113 a) that salvation was one of the things which God kept in His own power. If Christ then was to bestow this gift on Israel He must be owned by them as God.

(31) Him hath God exalted. —It is significant that St. Peter should use a word which, while it does not occur as applied to our Lord in the first three Gospels, meets us as so applied in St. John ( John 3:14 ; John 12:32 : “lifted up” in the English version). It had also been used of the righteous sufferer in the LXX. version of Isaiah 3:13 , and was afterwards used of the ascended and glorified Christ by St. Paul in Philippians 2:9 . A Prince.—See Note on Acts 3:15. To give repentance.—We note, as in Acts 2:38, the essential unity of the teaching of the Apostles with that of the Baptist (Matthew 3:2). The beginning and the end were the same in each; what was characteristic of the new teaching was a fuller revelation (1) of the way in which forgiveness had been obtained; (2) of the spiritual gifts that followed on forgiveness; and (3) the existence of the society which was to bear its witness of both.

Acts WHOM TO OBEY,-ANNAS OR ANGEL? OUR CAPTAINActs 5:31 . The word rendered ‘Prince’ is a rather infrequent designation of our Lord in Scripture. It is only employed in all four times-twice in Peter’s earlier sermons recorded in this Book of the Acts; and twice in the Epistle to the Hebrews. In a former discourse of the Apostle’s he had spoken of the crime of the Jews in killing ‘the Prince of life.’ Here he uses the word without any appended epithet. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we read once of the ‘Captain of Salvation,’ and once of the ‘Author of Faith.’ Now these three renderings ‘Prince,’ ‘Captain,’ ‘Author,’ seem singularly unlike. But the explanation of their being all substantially equivalent to the original word is not difficult to find. It seems to mean properly a Beginner, or Originator, who takes the lead in anything, and hence the notions of chieftainship and priority are easily deduced from it. Then, very naturally, it comes to mean something very much like cause ; with only this difference, that it implies that the person who is the Originator is Himself the Possessor of that of which He is the Cause to others. So the two ideas of a Leader, and of a Possessor who imparts, are both included in the word. My intention in this sermon is to deal with the various forms of this expression, in order to try to bring out the fulness of the notion which Scripture attaches to this leadership of Jesus Christ.

He is first of all, generally, as our text sets Him forth, the Leader, absolutely. Then there are the specific aspects, expressed by the other three passages, in which He is set forth as the Leader through death to life; the Leader through suffering to salvation; and the Leader in the path of faith. Let us look, then, at these points in succession. I. First, we have the general notion of Christ the Leader. Now I suppose we are all acquainted with the fact that the names ‘Joshua’ and ‘Jesus’ are, in the original, one. It is further to be noticed that, in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, which was familiar to Peter’s hearers, the word of our text is that employed to describe the office of the military leaders of Israel. It is still further to be observed that, in all the instances in the New Testament, it is employed in immediate connection with the name of Jesus. Now, putting all these things together, remembering to whom Peter was speaking, remembering the familiarity which many of his audience must have had with the Old Testament in its Greek translation, remembering the identity of the two names Joshua and Jesus, it is difficult to avoid the supposition that the expression of our text is coloured by a reference to the bold soldier who successfully led his brethren into the Promised Land. Joshua was the ‘Captain of the Lord’s host’ to lead them to Canaan; the second Joshua is the Captain of the Host of the Lord to lead them to a better rest.