Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 17:31

"inasmuch as he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." — Acts 17:31 (ASV)

The climax of the address focuses on the progressive unfolding of redemption and the apex of that redemption in Jesus Christ. Since we are God’s “offspring” (GK 1169)—not in a pantheistic sense but in the biblical sense of being created in God’s image—we should not, Paul insists, think of deity in terms of gold, silver, or stone. All that idolatrous ignorance was overlooked by God in the past (cf. 14:16; Romans 3:25) because God has always been more interested in repentance than judgment. Nevertheless, in the person and work of Jesus, God has acted in such a manner as to make idolatry particularly heinous. To reject Jesus, therefore, is to reject the personal and vicarious intervention of God on behalf of humankind and to open oneself up God’s future judgment meted out by the very one rejected in the present. And God himself has authenticated all this by raising Jesus from the dead. The picture on the left shows the ruins of the temple of Zeus in Athens, with the Acropolis in the background. In the foreground of the other picture is Mars’ Hill, from where, perhaps, Paul delivered his address to the Council of Ares.