READING TIME: 1-2 MINUTES
Sept 6, 2019
Dave, could you please explain God’s sovereignty in Acts 2:23?
Peter used the strongest possible language to communicate divine sovereignty in the outworking of God’s plan for the crucifixion. Peter acknowledged the outworking of God’s’ pre-temporal plan by the foreknowledge and placed full responsibility for the crucifixion upon the evil men who did it. There is no hint or implication that God forced the will of the Jewish leaders, Judas Iscariot, Pontius Pilate, King Herod Antipas, or the Roman soldiers. They were doing their own thing in their sinful way.
Harold Hoehner showed that the crucifixion had to have happened in AD 33 as opposed to AD 30. It would be no trouble for an omniscient God to orchestrate events by His intensive knowledge of each of the players and circumstances. Indeed, Peter explicitly included God’s foreknowledge in the implementation of His plan. Since the cross is at the very center of God’s plan, God was directly involved in this event. However, the force of Peter’s words must not be extended or extrapolated to other less central events.
Regarding Christ’s crucifixion, God is merely said to have planned Christ’s rejection and to have known beforehand the actions of men acting according to their depraved nature. Knowing this did not cause them to do it.
Sources Used
Badger, Anthony B. Confronting Calvinism: A Free Grace Refutation and Biblical Resolution of Radical Reformed Soteriology, 190.
Hoehner, Harold. “Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ: Part V,” Bibliotheca Sacra 524 (Oct ’74), 340-348.
Olson, C. Gordon. Beyond Calvinism & Arminianism: An Inductive Mediate Theology of Salvation. 3rd Edition Expanded, Revised, & Updated. Global Gospel Publishers, 32.
