[Thursday's Devotional] - "...and you killed the Author of Life"

The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him.  But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life,
Acts 3:13-15 [ESV]

“…and you killed the Author of life,” Modern preachers don’t tend to put such comments into the opening lines of their sermons.  We preach about the love of God and our sinfulness, but this is very hard hitting stuff from Peter.  However, Peter is preaching to people who were physically involved in the death of Jesus.  Many of those who ran to see the healed paralysed man would be the same people who had shouted ‘crucify’ when Pilate had made his offer to them a few weeks earlier.  Even if individuals in that crowd had not been part of the crowd that bayed and shouted for Jesus’ blood, the charge would still have hit home. Ancient peoples had an understanding of communal guilt that we, in the heavily individualised west, have lost.  Had Peter preached those words today, individuals would have protested their innocence, but back then people understood communal guilt and the need to repent as a nation.

Very little good news here for the listeners, then?   The crowd would be thinking: so we killed Jesus who was the Christ and the author of life himself and God has raised him and by his power, people are healed, and so we are very much on the wrong side of the fence right now.  Peter then goes on to give the first of the good news, by saying that you acted in ignorance but God had ordained this action and had foretold it through the prophets.

But before we read this as simply a piece of contextual preaching, ask yourself a question.  

Whose sins did Jesus die for?  Was it just the crowd in Jerusalem 2000 years ago, or just the paralysed man’s?  Was it yours and mine too?  Yes, of course it was.  We may not have been there shouting for Jesus’ blood in Jerusalem at that Passover all those centuries ago, but we are all just as much a cause of Jesus’ death as those people were. It was our sins that God was dealing with when he planned our salvation and spoke of it through the prophets.  In fact, I believe, that God in his omniscience (all knowing) knew what the cost of loving was would be before he created us.  I believe that the need for the cross was a known factor throughout all eternity.  The author of life made us because he is love and planned the cross because he cannot stand the thought of eternity without me and you.

So set some time aside today.  Just think about the breadth, height and depth of the love of God for you.

John Martin-Jones