Acts 2:22 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.
Hear these words! Words to those law-less men to whom God provided clear evidence of who Jesus was. According to God’s definite plan and foreknowledge… those men crucified and killed Jesus! The crucifixion wasn’t what made them lawless, that was a grisly but legal process. Their law-lessness was rejecting the signs of God in their midst they should’a recognized. They rejected those signs because their God inhabited the place of their choosing, acted in response to their record of His laws and then waited until they were ready to approach Him with a legal sacrifice. Their law-lessness was blind unbelief in what God had already made known to them about His presence in their long and revered history.
25 For David says concerning him, “‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; 26 therefore my heart was glad, my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. 27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’
Long before Jesus, David knew[a] that God was always present with him and accessible. He knew even when his sin was revealed God would not abandon him to destruction. He knew death could not destroy the Holy One. He knew the Lord had made known the paths of life. He knew God’s presence filled him with unshakable hope that made his heart glad. He knew because God had made it known to him. Even the history of God’s presence that lived in David’s words from the past was not enough for the lawless men to believe God would be present with them, now! Their law-lessness was that God had come into their midst and made Himself known to them and they rejected Him. They should’a known!
[a] quoting Psalm 16:8-11
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