When all the people, greatly amazed, ran to Peter, John, and the lame man, Peter said to them, “Men, Israelites, why are you marveling at this man? Or why are you gazing at us, as though by our own power or godliness we have made him to walk? The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him” (vv. 12-13). Some manuscripts add “the God of” before Isaac and Jacob. Why in verse 13 did Peter speak of God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Why did he not speak simply of God? This title refers to the Triune God, Jehovah, the great I AM (Exo. 3:14-15). According to the Lord’s word in Matthew 22, this divine title implies resurrection: “Concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken to you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (vv. 31-32). Peter referred to God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because this indicates that He is the God of resurrection.
Peter told the people that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob “glorified His Servant Jesus.” God glorified the Lord Jesus through His resurrection and in His ascension (Luke 24:26; Heb. 2:9; Eph. 1:20-22; Phil. 2:9-11).
In 3:14 Peter said to the people, “But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a man who was a murderer to be granted to you.” What does it mean to say that the Lord is the Holy One? In this verse “Holy” indicates that Jesus, the Nazarene, the One despised by the Jewish leaders, was absolutely for God and separated unto Him. Furthermore, He was absolutely one with God. According to the denotation of the word “holy” in the Bible, it signifies one who is absolutely unto God, who is absolutely for God, and who is absolutely one with God. In all of human history only the Lord Jesus is such a One. David was good, but at least in one instance he was for himself and not for God. However, throughout His entire life the Lord Jesus was absolutely separated unto God, for God, and one with God. There was never an instant when He was not absolutely for God and one with Him. Therefore, He is called the Holy One. He alone deserves the title “the Holy One.”
According to 3:14, Peter called the Lord Jesus not only the Holy One but also the Righteous One. To be righteous is to be right with God and also with every one and with every thing. Only the Lord Jesus can be called the Righteous One, because only He is right with God and with everyone and with everything. In ourselves we are not right with God, with others, or even with things. For example, in anger we may kick a door or knock over a chair. This is to be wrong with the door or the chair. We, therefore, cannot be the Righteous One.
As the Righteous One, the Lord Jesus is the Right One. He was never wrong with God or with any one or with any thing. Consider the time He cleansed the temple: “He found in the temple those selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money-changers sitting there. And having made a whip of cords, He drove them all, both the sheep and the oxen, out of the temple, and He poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned the tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, Take these things away; do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise” (John 2:14-16). The Lord Jesus certainly was right in doing this. If He had not done it, He would have behaved like a politician. The Lord saw the sinful situation, and He was indignant. However, suppose He had said to Himself, “I should not do anything out of anger. If I do, there will be a record that I once did something when I was angry. I need to consider Myself and behave carefully.” However, as the Righteous One, the Lord cleansed the temple in a righteous way. He was never wrong, for He was always the Righteous One.
In his second message to the Jews, Peter called the Healer the Servant, the Holy One, and the Righteous One. How was Peter, who was unlearned, able to give such a word? As we shall see, when those in the Sanhedrin perceived that Peter and John “were uneducated and unlearned men, they marveled, and they recognized them, that they had been together with Jesus” (4:13). Although Peter was uneducated and unlearned, he could give the message recorded in Acts 3 by the life-giving Spirit who was within him. Here the Spirit did not speak directly by Himself. Rather, according to the principle of incarnation, the Spirit spoke through Peter, an uneducated person. Therefore, the points concerning the Lord Jesus are divine, but the speaking is still that of an uneducated fisherman. In Acts 3 the Spirit spoke through a fisherman. In his speaking Peter could declare that the Lord Jesus is the Holy One, the One absolutely separated unto God, for God, and one with God, and also the Righteous One, the One who is right with God, with everyone, and with everything.