¹⁴”But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, ¹⁵but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. ¹⁶And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all. ¹⁷And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. ¹⁸But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled.”

Peter pulls no punches—no more denying his Lord before the slightest of accusations (e.g., John 18:23–27). He goes, as it were, for the jugular. “But you” must have stung in his audience’s ears; one cannot help but picture Peter’s long finger sweeping across the crowd. He speaks with the power of a prophet who will not soft-pedal the truth to soften the blow. This is a full-out challenge to the souls of those standing before him.

To be sure, there is a time for “gentleness” when sharing the gospel (1 Peter 3:15b), and that will come in verse 17. But this time, Peter had to confront the gravity of their sin in no uncertain terms. Here he was not preaching primarily to the Roman soldiers who nailed Jesus to the cross, nor just to the Jewish religious leaders; this speech was directed at the Jewish people as a whole—“Men of Israel” (Acts 3:12). Israel had “disowned the Holy and Righteous One”! They murdered Him, executed Him in cold blood, “put to death the Prince of life.” How could their sin be worse?! Breaking even the least of the commandments invokes guilt (see Matt. 5:19, James 2:10); surely rejecting Jesus made them guilty of blatant, conscious rejection of the God of Israel. Yet Peter graciously offers them an opportunity to show that their rejection was a matter of ignorance (vs. 17). This is significant, for the Law says:

You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally . . . But the person who does anything defiantly . . . is blaspheming the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken His commandment . . . his guilt will be on him. (Num. 15:29–31).

Yet, as Peter said in his first sermon (Acts 2:23), he asserts again here: God had planned the death of Christ. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Cor. 5:19a)! Their intention to harm Jesus turned out for their good and the good of all people! Grace trumps sin.

Lord, thank You for using my sin to showcase Your abundant grace and glory!