… Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel … Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out … Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities (Acts 3:12, 19, 26).
WELL-MEANT OFFER ARGUMENT:
“The apostle is here speaking to an indiscriminate, unconverted crowd of thousands of Israelites. Many of the crowd, after his message was given, did not believe (Acts 4:1-3) and therefore were reprobates. Peter cannot, therefore, be speaking of irresistible grace to the elect. Rather, as verse 26 naturally reads, Peter is saying that God sent his Son Jesus to turn every one of them from their iniquities. In verse 19, the revealed purpose of God commanding them to repent and be converted is so that their sins would be blotted out. However, God’s revealed purpose in this was resisted and overturned in that Israel by and large rejected Jesus’ saving overtures to them.”
(I)
Prof. David J. Engelsma
In Acts 3, the apostle addresses with the blessing of the gospel, “the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers,” specifically “Abraham” (v. 25). And he identifies those whom God wills to bless as Abraham’s “seed.” In this seed, all the kindreds of the earth [will] be blessed. In other words, he addresses the Jewish audience from the viewpoint of the spiritual reality of the nation of Israel, which is the “seed” of Abraham. This is not all the members of the physical offspring of Abraham, but Jesus Christ and all those Jews, but only those Jews, who are united with Christ Jesus by faith, according to election. These persons, God wills to bless in the risen Jesus. These, it is God’s purpose to bless by turning them from their iniquities.
The question is, who are the children of the covenant that God made with father Abraham? Who are Abraham’s seed?
The answer to these questions is Galatians 3:16ff. The seed of Abraham is Christ Himself and all those [Jews, but also Gentiles] who are one with Christ by faith. If we are Christ’s by faith, we are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise (v. 29). And if we are not Christ’s, we are not Abraham’s seed and the objects of the will of God to bless.
Peter addressed the nation of Israel according to its true Identity, namely, those who are elected in Christ and who belong to Him. Them, God willed to bless, and them He did bless on that occasion by bringing them to faith and forgiving their sins.
If Peter referred to every physical Israelite, God failed in His desire to save, for although many in his audience believed and were saved, there were also those who did not believe and who were not blessed with salvation. (DJE, 11/02/2021)
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(II)
More to come! (DV)
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