Why does it say in Acts 1.2, "...after that he through the Holy Spirit had given commandments unto the apostles whom He had chosen". What is the meaning of the Lord Jesus speaking through the Holy Spirit, because we never read in the Gospels that He did this in His public ministry?
This is an interesting question. We certainly do not read in the four Gospels that the Lord Jesus spoke by the Holy Spirit, and yet we need to remember that everything the Lord did in His life was by the power of the Holy Spirit. This unusual statement is really a fitting conclusion to Luke’s Gospel and is indicative of the new manner in which God would communicate to men in this present dispensation. It is found here because it anticipates the descent of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost and the rest of the book of Acts, for in this book we have over 50 references to the person of the Holy Spirit. The statement indicates that in His resurrection appearances Christ, by the Spirit, was at work. Does this same strange that it should be after His resurrection? Is this not a appropriate close to the Gospel of Luke and his references to the Spirit? This ends the Lord’s life experience on the earth as it began, in association with the Spirit.
There may be another suggestive thought in the Lord speaking through the Holy Spirit. If the Lord spoke after His resurrection by the Spirit it may give more than a hint that we too shall still have the Spirit dwelling in us in our resurrected or glorified state and that we shall do things by His power. He will be in us as the power for perfect worship and holy service in the eternal state. The idea that the Spirit will be redundant in the future bliss of the day of God is not in Scripture. The Lord teaches that the Spirit will be with the believer forever (see John 14.16).
John J Stubbs
In what way were sins "remitted" before the cross? Were repentant sinners forgiven at the time of their repentance, or did God simply withhold judgment by covering their sin until after the cross, when they were forgiven?
The verses that need to be taken into account in answering this question are, "…Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Rom 3.24-26).
The Greek word, paresis, translated "remission" is found only here in the New Testament and means "a passing over" or "a passing by of debt or sin" (W E Vine). A different word, aphesis, meaning "a dismissal or release", is used of the forgiveness of sins and is found in such passages as "this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Mt 26.28), and "without shedding of blood is no remission" (Heb 9.22).
The expression, "sins that are past" refers to sins of the old economy committed prior to Calvary. On the Day of Atonement divine justice was not fully satisfied. God might have punished the sins of the children of Israel, but He did not. He moved in forbearance and remitted (i.e. passed over) their sins because of the blood upon the Mercy Seat. Atonement covered sins in Old Testament times; however, it needed to be repeated - it was never a finished work.
It is true that David himself was brought to a point where he acknowledged to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin" (2 Sam 12.13). Indeed, in his penitential psalm David says, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered" (Ps 32.1). Nevertheless, there could never be absolute forgiveness of sins until the work of Christ was complete. In contrast to what took place on the Day of Atonement, propitiation was made once and for all at Calvary.
It is clear from Romans 3.25 that propitiation took into account those sins of the past covered by atonement in view of Christ’s death. Paul establishes that God was righteous in exercising forbearance in passing over those sins, in view of the sacrifice to come and in virtue of the blood that would be shed.
David E West
