What is the meaning of Acts 2:24? But God raised Him from the dead • The spotlight shifts from human action—Peter has just accused the crowd of crucifying Jesus—to God’s direct intervention. • God’s raising of Jesus is historical and physical, echoing Luke 24:6, “He is not here; He has risen!”. • This resurrection fulfills Psalm 16:10, which Peter soon quotes (Acts 2:27), showing God keeps every promise. • Other witnesses affirm the same reality: “God raised Him on the third day and caused Him to be seen” (Acts 10:40); “He was delivered over to death for our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification” (Romans 4:25). • The resurrection certifies Jesus as “both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36), validating every claim He made about Himself. releasing Him from the agony of death • “Agony” pictures death as a painful restraint. At the cross Jesus truly died (John 19:33) and experienced the full penalty of sin, though He Himself was sinless (2 Corinthians 5:21). • By raising Jesus, God broke those chains permanently. Compare Revelation 1:18, where the risen Christ declares, “I hold the keys of Death and of Hades”. • This release also guarantees ours: “He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy the one who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14-15). • Practical comfort flows from this truth: believers now face death not as a hopeless finale but as a defeated foe (2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:21). because it was impossible for death to keep Him in its grip • The word “impossible” speaks of absolute incapacity; death simply had no power strong enough to hold the sinless Son of God. • Jesus had foretold this: “I lay down My life that I may take it up again… I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again” (John 10:17-18). • Divine nature assures victory: “In Him was life” (John 1:4); life Himself cannot remain dead. • The justice of God also makes it impossible: having fully paid sin’s wage (Romans 6:23), Jesus could not remain under its penalty. • Because death could not hold Him, it cannot ultimately hold those united to Him: “If we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection” (Romans 6:5). summary Acts 2:24 proclaims a triumphant chain of events: God intervened, raised Jesus bodily, shattered the pains of death, and proved that death is powerless before the sinless, divine Savior. This single verse not only grounds the gospel historically but also anchors every believer’s hope—our resurrection is as certain as His. |
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