The apostles could testify of the word of the Lord’s grace even though they had only the Old Testament. Can we find the word of grace in the Old Testament? Instead of finding the word of grace, the Jewish people paid attention to the word of the law with all the commandments. What they had was the word of God’s law, not the word of the Lord’s grace. Nevertheless, the word of the Lord’s grace existed already in the Old Testament. This made it possible for the apostles to testify concerning it.
Let us consider some examples of the word of the Lord’s grace found in the Old Testament. Consider Genesis 3:15: “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Here we see that the seed of the woman will bruise the serpent’s head. Is this not a word of the Lord’s grace? Certainly it is. After Adam and Eve had eaten of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they tried to hide from God. The voice of the Lord sounded out to Adam and said, “Where art thou?” (Gen. 3:9). Adam and Eve were frightened, perhaps thinking that God would sentence them to death. But instead of speaking a word of condemnation or judgment, the Lord spoke a word of grace. In Genesis 3:15 He condemned the serpent and gave Adam and Eve a word of grace. Adam and Eve must have been very happy when they heard the Lord’s word in Genesis 3:15. They must have hated the serpent, and now the Lord was telling them that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent. This surely is a word of grace.
Another example of a word of grace found in the Old Testament is Genesis 12:2 and 3, where God says to Abraham, “I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing...and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” This certainly is not a word of law; it is a word of grace. The Jews in the synagogues were spiritually blind and could not see the word of the Lord’s grace in the Old Testament.
Other examples of the word of the Lord’s grace are found in the book of Isaiah. Consider Isaiah 7:14: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” This is a word of grace. Another word of grace is in Isaiah 9:6: “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” This also is an example of the many words of the Lord’s grace in the Old Testament.
We have seen that in chapter thirteen of Acts Paul applied the “holy and faithful things of David” to the resurrected Christ (vv. 33-35). Paul understood these as referring to Christ in resurrection. Who other than Paul would be able to understand that the holy and faithful things of David refer to the resurrected Christ? To be sure, Paul was the best “miner,” the one most able to dig into the depths of the Old Testament in order to find the riches of the word of the Lord’s grace.
In Acts 2 Peter gave an excellent message concerning the resurrected Christ. When you read chapter two of Acts, you may be quite impressed with Peter’s message. But have you previously had an adequate appreciation of Paul’s preaching in Acts 13? Many readers of Acts do not appreciate this message properly because they have not seen what is revealed in it concerning Christ in resurrection. Yes, Peter’s preaching in chapter two is excellent but it is somewhat superficial. But Paul’s preaching in Acts 13 is very deep and marvelous.
In his preaching in Acts 13 Paul indicates that in resurrection Christ became the firstborn Son of God. He applies Psalm 2:7 to the resurrected Christ to indicate that to Christ resurrection was a birth. We may not realize that Christ’s resurrection was His birth. Have you ever heard this? According to the Bible, in resurrection Christ in His humanity was begotten of God to be His firstborn Son. Whereas the only begotten Son of God is for the embodiment of the divine life, the firstborn Son of God is for the propagation of this divine life. Actually, we were born with Christ in His resurrection. In this sense, therefore, Christ’s resurrection was a universal birth. The point we are emphasizing here is that Paul dug out from the Old Testament the truth that Christ in His resurrection was born to be the propagating factor of the divine life. In resurrection He was born to be the firstborn Son of God for the propagating reproduction of the divine life.
In his “mining” of the Word Paul also found that Christ in His resurrection became all the holy and faithful things, the trustworthy and sure things, of David. Paul realized that “the sure mercies of David” (Isa. 55:3) refer to the Christ in His resurrection. Today some enjoy singing Psalm 89:1: “I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.” However, those who sing this psalm may not have an adequate understanding of what mercy is. They may think that mercy is simply a feeling of pity that God has towards us. But according to Paul’s understanding, the mercies of the Lord are Christ in His second birth, that is, Christ in His resurrection. Paul’s digging into the Word is marvelous, and we admire his study of the Scriptures. In digging into the Word no one can compare with him. In Acts 13 Paul preached the all-inclusive Christ.
For generations the Jews read the Old Testament in the synagogues. But what they heard was the word of God’s commandment, not the word of the Lord’s grace. However, when the Lord Jesus proclaimed the New Testament jubilee in Luke 4, He selected a word of grace from the book of Isaiah.
We need to see the significance of the expression “the word of His grace” in Acts 14:3. This phrase is a strong indication of a change of dispensation, of a change of God’s arrangement in His economy.
In chapter thirteen Paul’s preaching to the Jews was mainly based on the revelation in the Old Testament concerning Christ. His preaching in chapter fourteen however, is to the Gentiles. As we consider this chapter, we shall see Paul’s wisdom in preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. His preaching to the Gentiles in this chapter is based not on the revelation of the Old Testament concerning Christ; it is based on God’s creation.