DECEMBER 7, 2023

 “Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” (Acts 5:31)

During Jesus’ ministry, He specifically told the Twelve that men would drag them before courts and flog them but they were to teach their oppressors about Him anyway. This is precisely what Peter is doing here. Jesus also told them not to worry about what to say because the Holy Spirit would give them the right words.

Peter’s words go far beyond the Sanhedrin’s initial concern about resurrection and popularity. The Greek root word archēgos, used in the original text, can be translated as “prince,” or “captain,” or even “pioneer” or “founder.” Some translations use “author” to translate this same word in Hebrews 12:2. Peter is directly accusing the Sanhedrin of executing the One who originated the Jewish people and promised to save them, not only killing Him but defiling Him by hanging Him from a tree.

With that accusation, it’s no wonder the council can’t hear Peter’s call for repentance. God raised Jesus from the dead, and His death and resurrection provide how they can repent of their sins and receive forgiveness from God. Before too long, some of the priests will repent and follow Jesus. Right now, they can’t get over the audacious claim that the heretic they had crucified is sitting in a place of honor at God’s side.

Jesus has been exalted and raised on high, being called the “Prince.” The title “Prince” or “King” was often applied to the Messiah. It denotes that He has dominion and power, especially the power needed to give repentance and the pardon of sins. The word repentance here is equivalent to reformation or a change of life. In the text, it is said that He provides this repentance “to Israel,” but His office was not to be confined to only Jews of Israel. Other passages show that it would be extended to the Gentiles. The reasons why Jews are specified here are probably because the Messiah was long promised to the Jewish people, and His first work was there; and because Peter was addressing Jews, and how He was particularly desirous of leading them to repentance or the pardon of sin, an act which can be performed only by God.

His exaltation is evidence that His work was accepted and that thus a foundation is laid by which repentance is available and may be connected with pardon. Unless there was some way of “forgiveness,” sorrow for sin would be of no value, even at all. He is entrusted with all power in heaven and earth to apply His work to people or bring them to repentance. Jesus has authority in this state at God’s right hand over all that can affect the mind. He sends His ministers; He directs the events of sickness, disappointment, health, or prosperity that will influence the heart.

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DECEMBER 5, 2023

 “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?” (Romans 11:33, 34)

In thus concluding the discussion of those deep and unsearchable subjects which in the former parts of this Epistle have engaged his attention, Paul most emphatically intimates the impossibility of comprehending the infinitude of the Divine attributes. But far from judging, like many, that we have nothing to do with such mysteries, he delighted to discourse on the glorious perfections of Jehovah as displayed in these doctrines. And, as they bear most directly on the state and security of Christians, he designates them in the beginning of the next chapter, “the mercies of God,” involving all blessings in store for God’s people and constituting the foundation and support of all his exhortations to practical duty.

Paul, by no means, denies that these great truths are, as the Apostle Peter noted, “hard to be understood.” On the contrary, he intimates the absolute impossibility of giving utterance to the boundless, unfathomable, incomprehensibility of the Divine attributes as manifested in God’s dealings with the children of men.

If this great Apostle, enjoying as he did such unparalleled privileges, favored with such “abundance of revelation,” and writing under the dictation of the Holy Spirt, was compelled to confess that the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God were unsearchable, how vain and idle are all the speculations and conjectures of human wisdom on the subject! The judgments of the Lord must, like their Author, be infinite, and consequently, can neither be measured nor ascertained by finite creatures further than they are revealed from the fountain of light. The wisest of men need counsel from others. The angels, we are told “desire to look into” the wonderful works of their Creator, in order to increase their knowledge, but the majesty of God stands alone in the universe. He needs no counselor. Well might the Apostle in the contemplation of the majesty of God, and the unsearchable riches of His wisdom and knowledge exclaim, “Who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?”

The same question was put to Job when the Lord answered him out of the whirlwind. He was in a moment humbled in the dust. “I know,” said he, “that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore I have uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.” To the same effect also the Psalmist David appeals to the Lord in the 131st Psalm, “LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty; neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.”

The Apostle, in addition to what he had declared of the unsearchableness of the Lord’s judgment, adds, as another reason why man should cease proudly to challenge the proceeding of his Maker, “Who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?” He thus at once declares the spring of all out knowledge, and consequently our inability to pursue our inquiries beyond the bounds of revelation. We are also reminded how utterly impossible it is for a creature to bring his Creator under obligations. How absurd must it then be to speak of the merit of our good works.

The conclusion to which the Apostle arrives by all these considerations is expressed in the last verse of the Chapter. “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen.”

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NOVEMBER 30, 2023

 “His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” (Matthew 25:21)

The parables were teaching tools often used by Jesus to break down challenging Spiritual concepts into easily accessible terms. These were often applicable to things that the audience at the time dealt with and are still highly relevant today. Jesus uses two parables in this chapter to illustrate a state of constant readiness for His return after He has gone. His followers should be working for Him while they wait. They must not be like the foolish young women who missed a wedding feast because they forgot oil for their lamps. They must be like the servants who doubled their master’s investments while He was away. Jesus concludes with a third descriptive passage, showing how He will judge between the righteous and evil when He returns as King.

Matthew 25:14-30 compares the kingdom of heaven to three servants of a wealthy master. Each was given resources – the master’s assets – and commanded to do business with them while he was away. Two servants apply the supplied funds and double the sums the master leaves with them. They are richly rewarded when he comes back. The third servant buries the money and does nothing with it out of supposed fear of the master. The master condemns his laziness and evil, casting him out. Jesus’ servants must work diligently for Him while waiting for His return, not wasting the talents and resources they have been given.

The parable is meant to instruct Jesus’ servants on how to live while awaiting His return. The master in the story left town after giving these three servants large sums of tradable “cash.” These are counted using the measure of “talents.” A single talent might have been as much as a common laborer could earn in twenty years. Now, the master has returned, after a long time, to see what they had done with the money that He had entrusted to them.

The first servant makes his report, having used his master’s five talents to earn another five talents. The master trusted the servant with great wealth and the servant earned the equivalent wealth for his master.

Now, the master responds. He calls the man a good and faithful servant and tells him, “Well done,” rewarding him in two ways. First, he tells the servant that because he has been faithful over little, he will make him responsible for much more. Second, he welcomes the servant to share in his own personal joy. In other words, the master includes the servant in a closer connection to himself, managing more of his own estate and walking in a joyful relationship with him.

Jesus shows that those who use what He gives them to increase what is His will also be rewarded with more significant opportunities and joy when He returns. We need to use the things we’re given in order to further the kingdom of God, and therefore, we will have the right to enter into the joy of the Lord.

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NOVEMBER 28, 2023

 “Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people…” (Titus 2:14) “But ye are…a peculiar people…” (I Peter 2:9)

The ungodly will sometimes in their description of God’s people bear testimony to the truth of Scripture. They look at Christ’s redeemed people and say, “What a peculiar bunch!” They use the same word, but they do not mean it in the same sense as do the Apostles Paul and Peter in the two texts quoted above.

In the eyes of the world Christians are odd, Scripture does not deny that it is true; however, Scripture’s meaning is that we are peculiarly Christ’s own. He has called us out of the world so that we should be separate. When the ungodly say of us that we are odd misfits, they may be right, but what they see as undesirable, Christ sees as well-pleasing. Thus, our peculiarity ought to be worn as a badge of honor.

Webster defines the word “peculiar” as “something different from the normal or usual.” If the world around us is seen as normal or usual, then let us be peculiar. Christians ought to be manifestly different from the world with respect to the things in which we take delight and with respect to the object of our love and worship. (I John 2:15; Matt. 6:24)

The word “peculiar” also means “characteristic of a particular person or group.” This seems to be what the Apostles mean when referring to Christ’s redeemed Church as “a peculiar people.” They are particularly His, and they bear a peculiar resemblance to Him. Again, whatever the intended connotation, believers should consider it their highest honor to be described as “a peculiar people.”

The desire of every longing soul whom God has moved by His Spirit is sweetly breathed forth in the language of Ruth the Moabites when she said to Naomi, her mother-in-law, “Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” It is true of every living soul whom God has quickened to new life that they see in His people something unusual; something characteristic of a blessed people who make up a peculiar family – the family of God. Ruth’s heart cleaved to Naomi with affection, and with desire to be one with her and her people. She would leave her friends and family and homeland in order that she might dwell with the people of God, and that she might die with them. (Ruth 1:16)

Though they are far from perfect and though in them are many faults and failings, yet with all their imperfections and infirmities, they are the people of the living God. If then we are walking with those who are on the straight and narrow path that leads to eternal life, we will inevitably carry about with us some mark, some evidence, that we belong to this peculiar people. It shall be manifest that God has separated us by a work of grace upon the soul which distinguishes us “from all the people that are upon the face of the earth.” (Exodus 33:16)

These peculiar people were set apart by the original separation of them in the eternal council of the Triune God. They were chosen in Christ before all worlds, that they might be holy and without blame before Him in love; that they might be a people in whom the Lord Jesus takes delight, and in whom He might be glorified. And thus, this peculiar people are “blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” In the beginning, when there was nothing but God, before the creative Voice of God made all things, this people had being in the mind of the Creator. In virtue of this, they are each brought forth in time, and in God’s appointed season given new spiritual existence by the quickening operation of the Holy Spirit. This new life is made manifest by holy actions and desires which set us apart from the world and declares us to be a peculiar people.

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