Charles Spurgeon Commentary Acts 2:22-23

"Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God unto you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, even as ye yourselves know; him, being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay:" — Acts 2:22-23 (ASV)

Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:

This was bold talking, for Peter was doubtless addressing many of the very people who had put the Lord to death, and he charges them with it. Observe how he declares that Christ's death was in accordance with "the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God," yet he expressly says that "by wicked hands" they had crucified and slain him. It never occurred to Peter that the counsel of God deprived men of the responsibility and guilt of their actions.

No, nor does it ever need to occur to you. If anyone says to you, "When anything is according to the foreknowledge and counsel of God, how can God blame the doer of it?" you may tell him that he first has to explain to you what he means; and if he says there is a difficulty in it, ask him to tell you what the difficulty is. Those who knew better than the objector could see none.

The inspired apostle Peter could see none; but when he was most vehement in charging these men with guilt, yet, at the same time, he said that it was by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Surely, he was a bad pleader to introduce into his argument anything that could be readily construed into an excuse for those he was accusing. But there is no real excuse in it; the free agency of man is as true as the predestination of God; the two truths stand fast forever.

It is the folly of man to imagine that they disagree. If you do wrong, you are accountable for the wrong; and if there is a providence which ordains everything—as certainly there is—yet that providence does not take away from any man the full responsibility for anything that he does. So, truly did Peter say to these Jews concerning Christ, Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.

You men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:

How boldly he puts the truth before his hearers! He presses home upon them the charge of Christ's murder, yet he skillfully softens it by that introduction about "the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God."

This is a very wonderful verse, because it shows us that everything is predetermined and foreknown by God; and yet when people act wickedly, they are responsible for it. Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.

There is no one in this world who knows where these two great truths of human free agency and divine predestination meet. There have been all sorts of schemes and inventions to make the two doctrines agree; and one group of people has denied one of the truths, and another group has denied the other. But do not do anything of the kind.

Believe them both, yet do not pretend that you can reconcile them. It may be that, in another state, with a larger capacity of mind than we at present possess, we will be able to reconcile these two truths.

I am not sure that we will do so, and I do not know that even angels can understand this great mystery; but it is a grand thing to exercise faith where we cannot comprehend what is revealed to us.

The one who only believes what he can understand will have a very short creed, and soon he will have none at all; but the one who believes what he cannot understand, simply because it is taught to him by revelation from God, is the person who walks humbly with his God, and he will be accepted.

I thank God for the mystery that conceals so much from us; where would there be room for faith if all things were as plain as A B C?