In 2:24-32 Peter speaks concerning the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. His resurrection was God’s approval of Him to be the Messiah. Through the resurrection of Christ God was declaring that the resurrected Christ was the real Messiah, the One anointed and appointed by God to carry out His eternal commission.
Acts 2:24 says, “Whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of death, since it was not possible for Him to be held by it.” Here and in verse 32 Peter says that God raised up Jesus. In 10:40 and 41 he says the same thing again but adds, “He rose from the dead.” Regarding the Lord as a man, the New Testament tells us that God raised Him from the dead (Rom. 8:11). Considering Him as God, it tells us that He Himself rose from the dead (Rom. 14:9). In the same principle, regarding Him as a man, the New Testament tells us that He was killed by men (Mark 9:31). But considering Him as God, it tells us that He laid down His life of Himself (John 10:18). This also proves His dual status—human and divine.
Acts 2:24 says that it was not possible for the Lord to be held by death. The Lord is both God and resurrection (John 1:1; 11:25), possessing the indestructible life (Heb. 7:16). Because He is such an ever-living One, death is not able to hold Him. He delivered Himself to death, but death had no way to detain Him; rather, death was defeated by Him, and He rose up from it.
Acts 2:25 says, “For David says in regard to Him, I saw the Lord continually before me, because He is on my right hand, that I should not be shaken.” The words “I saw” introduce a declaration of Christ in His resurrection. Here “Lord” refers to God. When Christ is held by God (as in Isa. 41:13; 42:6), God is on His right hand. But when He is exalted by God, He is sitting on the right hand of God (Acts 2:33; Psa. 110:1; Eph. 1:20-21).
Acts 2:26 continues, “Therefore my heart was made glad and my tongue exulted; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope.” This is a quotation from Psalm 16:9 in the Septuagint. But in the original Hebrew text the word for tongue is “glory,” which is a synonym of soul, according to Genesis 49:6 and Psalm 7:5. In His trust in God, Christ’s heart was made glad, and His soul exulted while He was in Hades (Acts 2:27).
The Greek word translated “rest” may also be rendered dwell, reside, pitch its tent. After Christ died on the cross, while His soul exulted in Hades, His flesh (body) rested in the tomb in hope, trusting in God.
Acts 2:27 goes on to say, “Because You will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will You permit Your Holy One to see corruption.” Hades, like Sheol in the Old Testament (Gen. 37:35; Psa. 6:5), is the place where the souls and spirits of the dead are kept (Luke 16:22-23). Here in Acts 2:27 “corruption” refers to corruption of the body in the tomb.
Acts 2:28 continues, “You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of gladness with Your presence.” Here the ways of life are the ways to get out of death into resurrection. The Greek word for “presence” also means countenance. Christ was resurrected into God’s presence, especially in His ascension (2:34; Heb. 1:3).
In 2:29 through 31 Peter says, “Men, brothers, let me speak to you plainly concerning the patriarch David, that he both deceased and was buried, and his tomb is among us until this day. Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins he would seat One upon his throne, he, seeing this beforehand, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that He was neither left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.” The Greek word rendered “fruit” in verse 30 is karpos, used for Christ only in the sense of offspring here and in Luke 1:42. It is used for the fruit of the tree of life in Revelation 22:2. Christ is the branch of Jehovah (Isa. 4:2) and of David (Jer. 23:5), and the fruit of Mary and of David, that we may eat of Him as the tree of life.
Acts 2:30 speaks of Christ as the One who would sit upon David’s throne. This was also declared to Mary by the angel at the conceiving of Christ (Luke 1:32-33).
In Acts 2:32 Peter gives a concluding word concerning Christ’s resurrection: “This Jesus God raised up, of which we all are witnesses.” The Greek word for “which” here may also be rendered “whom.” The apostles were witnesses of the resurrected Christ, not in word only, but also by their life and action. Especially they bore witness of His resurrection (4:33), which is the crucial focus in carrying out God’s New Testament economy.