THE KING’S BUSINESS
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erate those who do evil, for they do it of their own choice, though it is according to God’s eternal plan, and the fact that it was according to the “ determinate counsel and foreknowledge o f God” that Jesús was crucified, does not in any way exonerate the crucifiers o f Jesus. The thing that was done, though it was part o f God’s plan, was done through “the hands o f lawless men,’’ and was-a display o f the desperate wicked ness o f the human heart. Nothing in the world’s history brings out so clearly the awful, appalling hate o f the human heart toward God, as does the treatment o f God’s Son, whom He had so clearly shown to be His Son. While the Jews themselves had not with their own hands crucified Christ, it was really they who had done it through the hands o f the metí without law, who had been the actual nailers o f Christ to the cross. They were back o f the actual perpetrators o f the infamous deed, and it was therefore their deed. But back of them was our sins which necessitated the death o f Christ in our place (Gal. 3:10, 13), so that every sinner is a crucifier of Christ, and every one who contintles in sin and refuses the Saviour, deliberately accepts his part as a participant in this blackest infamy in all the world’s history. vs. 24-27. "Whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs o f death: because it was not possible that He should be holden of (rather, by) it. For David saith concern ing Him, I beheld the Lord always before my face; for He is on my right hand, that I should not be moved ___ .Because thou wilt .not leave,, my soul in (rather, unto) Hades, neitker wilt thou give thine Holy One to see corruption.” Whom man cruci fied, God raised. It was not possible that the Prince o f Life should be continuously holden by death. And just as the Lord Jesus could not be held fast by death, no more can we be held fast by it if we are in Him. As He arose, it is certain -that we also must rise some day (cf. 1 Thess. 4:14). David, hundreds o f years before, had caught a glimpse o f the greater David who would go down into 'Hades, but Who would not stay there, and whose flesh would
not even see corruption, as He would be raised the third day, before corruption set in. David’s words, read in the light of Peter’s interpretation o f them in verse 31, make' it Hear that, at death, the soul went into Hades, the under-world, the world o f the departed, but the flesh ordinarily lay in thé grave and decayed. But the soul of Jesus was not left in Hades, but brought up out o f Hades, and His flesh was brought up out o f the grave and not suffered to see corruption. It did not dissolve into gases, (as Russellism tries to teach lis) for that would be to “ see corruption.” It was kept from' dissolution and raised. In his predic tion David makes it clear that even the body, the “flesh,” o f the Messiah was to “ dwell in hope,” and that there was to be an immediate resurrection before corrup tion set in. That David himself really saw that his prediction looked beyond himself to a coming Divine Messiah, is evident from his use o f word's, “thine Holy One.” H e certainly could not have used these words o f himself, though very likely David wrote wiser than he knew, for God often put words- in the mouth o f prophets the full significance o f which they themselves did not understand (1 Peter 1 :10, 11), ' If was not so much the prophets that were inspired,, as their utterances, and especially their recorded utterances (cf. 2 Tim. 3 :16, where we are told that it is the Scripture, i.e., what is written, ' that is God breathed). Though Peter was an eye witness o f the resurrection, he goes to the Scripture for proof before appealing to his own exped ience. This is deeply significant ; it shows what value even men who were themselves supernaturally taught o f God, attached to the Scriptures already written. v. 29. Brethren, let me say unto you freely (rather, with boldness) of the Patri arch David, that he both died and was bur ied, and his tomb is with us unto this day ” The purpose o f these words o f Peter was to show that David’s words could not refer to himself. His tomb was still among them ; his flesh which was suffered to see corrup tion lay there in the tomb! evidently his prediction did not refer to himself. The
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