Acts 13:32-41 (NIV)
“We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm:
“‘You are my Son;
today I have become your Father’.
The fact that God raised him from the dead, never to decay, is stated in these words: “‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.’ So it is stated elsewhere: “‘You will not let your Holy One see decay.’
“For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed. But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay.
“Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses. Take care that what the prophets have said does not happen to you:
“‘Look, you scoffers,
wonder and perish,
for I am going to do something in your days
that you would never believe,
even if someone told you.'”
Paul finished his gospel presentation by citing Scripture fulfilled by Jesus that could have been fulfilled by no one else. First, to those who pushed back against the notion that God could have a Son, which many of the Jews did based on the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4), he cited Psalm 2:7, which clearly shows God claiming one person as His Son, a Psalm which, even in Jesus’ day, was considered by scholars to be messianic. Paul cites this not simply as a theological point, but as a promise from God Himself to David that He would one day send His own Son as the Messiah.
To support the biblical basis as well as the reality of the resurrection, Paul cited Isaiah 55:3, another messianic section of Scripture, in which God promised to fulfill for the Messiah all the holy and sure promises He made to David. Among those promises, Paul pointed to Psalm 16:10, the promise that God will not let His Holy One see decay. As Paul notes, this promise was not fulfilled for David himself, because he died, and his body decayed. Instead, its fulfillment waited for the Messiah, Jesus, who, even though He was certifiably dead, rose before decay could destroy His physical body.
Paul then completed his presentation of the good news with a clear declaration that through Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection, real forgiveness for sins was now possible, and real justification, legal blamelessness before God, was ensured. Paul noted that the law itself, while very capable of showing people where they were wrong, was powerless to make them right. But Jesus, God’s Deliverer, could do what the law was powerless to do (Romans 8:3).
Now that Paul had finished the presentation of the truth of the gospel, he added a warning. The truth, though perhaps difficult to believe in some places, had been clearly presented by a competent witness. Now the ball was in their court, and there were really only two options: they could believe and be saved, or they could scoff and turn away and ultimately be lost.
Father, I appreciate how Paul made his presentation clearly, logically, and without a big emotional appeal. The gospel, at its base deals with realities and facts, not emotions and feelings, and a reasoned response, an act of the will to admit one’s sinful state and to surrender to Jesus, carries one a lot further than an emotional response. Help me, Lord, when I share the gospel, to be very clear and reasoned, so that the people I am speaking with can make a reasoned response of the will and be truly saved. Amen.
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