Skip to main content

What happens when you kill the Author of Life?

By
Acts 2:22-24  22  “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23  this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24  God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 

Acts 2 contains possibly one of the best "sermons" ever given in the Bible.  Here Peter lays out point #2 of his two point sermon.  That Jesus Christ is the Messiah and Savior.  The description that Peter has of Jesus is incredible.  Jesus was "attested" by God: proved, approved, set forth, demonstrated, exhibit A to be the Messiah and Savior of all men.  He is the one, the signs and wonders done through him in front of their eyes proved Jesus to be from God and acting on the behalf of God.  

This Jesus, vs 23, was delivered up according to God's perfect plan and knowledge.  This was no accident or tragic irony that Jesus was set forth as the savior and Messiah.  This has been God's plan since the beginning, he planned, set up, sent forth, directed and put Jesus precisely where he was to accomplish out salvation.  It was God's plan to deliver up his son to be crucified.  But even though it was God's perfect plan from before the ages began it was also fully and completely the choice of sinners and their desire to crucify Jesus Christ.  

The blood of the son of God was on their hands, and by extension our hands.  "you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men."  As Peter would say later in Acts 3:15 - "You killed the Author of Life." This is the great reality.  God put forward Jesus as the sacrifice for our sins by his perfect plan, and we chose to carry out the sacrifice of the Author of life.  A great irony indeed.  The perfect functioning of divine sovereignty and human responsibility.  Jesus was crucified because we wanted him to be, and because God wanted him to be.  Us because he offended us, got too close to calling out our sin and disrupting the status quo, and God because He wanted us to be free and redeemed from that very sin.  

Which is why the story doesn't end with the blood on our hands,  it ends this way.  "God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it." We wanted him dead, never to disturb us or our sin again.  God raised him up so that he would redeem us from that sin.  The Author of Life could not be defeated by death.  In fact he would make the death that should be ours for our sin work backwards on itself.  Instead, us who merited death for putting him to death have been given life through trust in his death and resurrection.

So the pangs of death that should be ours are replaced by life.  They could not hold out Savior and they cannot hold us IF we are in Him.  The one whom we crucified, in God's plan has also redeemed us.  God's perfect plan worked out for us.  Praise the Lord!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Mystery Revealed

By
(I was given this) stewardship from God… to make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:25-27 What comes to mind when I say the word Mystery? Generally our answer would be something unknown to us currently and potentially unsolvable. A mystery generally involves our inability to come to full knowledge of something because of our limitations.  Mysteries riddle us, confuse us and often leave us scratching our heads in fuzzy misunderstanding.  Many would find this to be true with the Bible itself; It is mysterious, hard to understand and confusing.    Yet, God gives us help. He has granted a gifts to help us understand that which is mysterious about his word.  Here, it says that Paul himself was given this stewardship to make...
1 comment
Read more

Time flies

By
Whew, It seems as if time had flown by so incredibly fast. The last 4 weeks have been incredible jam-packed days where the grace of God has been so evidently seen. I arrived the 25th of May in Red Cloud, NE. This is a community of about 1,000 people. My dad is the high school principal and math teacher up at the school, that coupled with spending last summer here working a couple of jobs and being apart of the Congregational Church has been an inroads to a lot of ministry. This year I am with the Congregational "Bible" church (same church, newly acquired name, to reflect what we are centered upon) to fulfill my graduation requirements for Moody. I am full time with the church this summer and am actually getting paid to do this work! Which keeps me much more sane than trying to work two jobs and tackle responsibility with the church. As much as I enjoyed working at the drive in and the Cafe last summer, it is nice to be able to concentrate on the body of believers here...
4 comments
Read more

Transformed by a Transfer

By
13  He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.    Colossians 1:13-14 Transfers change things. On the small scale we find ourselves, maybe more often than we like, transferring money from the savings account to the debit or credit card account to cover the amount.  The transfer that we make there changes things.  Doing so avoids a penalty, covers our credit, and accomplishes something in our lives and the way we are able to live.  The bigger the transfer, the bigger the change moving forward.  Any transfer has effects, it changes things. Think for a moment of an even bigger transfer.  Suppose you were called into the office at work and you were told you were going to be transferred. At that point you would want to know the location and the scope of your transfer.  If you were merely being shifted to a different area ...
Post a Comment
Read more