17 And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. 18 But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Acts 3:17-18
ll things fulfilled according to God’s will:
The mystery of the Gospel, and the death of the LORD Jesus Christ is that, although men by wicked hands crucified our LORD, counting Him to be a transgressor and blasphemer in their eyes, yet, God the Father was all the while accomplishing through those wicked hands what He had already declared that He should suffer. This was a central theme to the message preached by the apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost, where we read in Acts 2:23 -“Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.” And again in Acts 4:28- “for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.”
All things fulfilled even in man’s unbelief:
God in His infinite wisdom so ordains all things that all the while wicked men did what they willed, God was all the while fulfilling His will. When Peter calls these his ‘brethren,’ he is speaking of those who are his Jewish brethren in the flesh. He is not excusing their actions by saying that it was through ignorance they did it. The word ignorance is a compound word meaning ‘against knowledge.’ The apostle Paul said what he did was in ignorance, but then qualifies it with ‘in unbelief,’ 1 Timothy 1:13. Unbelief is the greatest manifestation of the rebellion of the heart of man, and is the evidence of being under the wrath of God, so long as a sinner remains in unbelief, John 3:36. All are by nature children of wrath, that is, in their nature wrathful, but only those are objects (vessels) of wrath that God has justly purposed to pass by from eternity, and justly executes judgment on them. In their case again, all the while they are doing their will in living out their lives in hatred for God and His Son, God is also fulfilling His will in their condemnation. Peter’s declaration, ‘I wot that through ignorance ye did it,’ means ‘through unbelief’ you did it, and therefore, without excuse.
All things fulfilled as foretold by the prophets:
Nonetheless, much as in the case of Joseph, who was hated and condemned to die by his brothers, in the end he declared in Genesis 50:20- “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” So Peter declared that man’s unbelief in no way kept God from accomplishing all that He had before declared through the prophets, in what He should suffer. “He hath so fulfilled,” means to fill to the fullest so that nothing else could be added to it outside of what God determined. Thankfully, it is so, because it is God the Father who had to be satisfied for Him to declare righteous those sinners, for whom Christ died. The good news is that HE DID, so that now we know with full assurance that it is FINISHED, because HE FULFILLED all that was written of Him that He should accomplish. What a glorious redemption story for those that God has loved from eternity, and for whom Christ has paid the complete debt.
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