Bible Truth #349 - Acts 2:22-23

Acts 2:22-23

22  Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:

23  Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:

What can be said to clarify verse 23? Nothing. It is as clear as anything ever written in God’s Word. Jesus Christ is, not was, Jesus Christ IS the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). Before He even created the world it was God’s plan to crucify His Son. And not only was it His plan, He carried it out, it was accomplished before the foundation of the world.

When God created time, everything that was going to take place in history, has already occurred in eternity (Isaiah 46:10). That is why He said that Christians were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). Christ died a substitutionary death for us and He did it before Creation. If a man wasn’t chosen and placed in Christ before God created the world, he has no hope of being saved (Ephesians 2:12, 1 Thessalonians 4:13). On the other hand, we were predestined for salvation according to God’s plan and He works all things after the counsel of His own will, His plan (Ephesians 1:11).

Judas was chosen just as the other 11 apostles were chosen but when he devised his plan of betrayal, was this something he did of his own volition? I’ve heard a man of God say the worst thing God could do for any man is to leave him alone and that man, according to his nature, the nature he is conceived and born with, that man will naturally do evil and not be able in any way, shape, manner, or form please God (Romans 8:8). Not only did Herod and Pontius Pilate do what God wanted them to do (Acts 4:28), Judas did exactly what God intended him to do, he was fulfilling God’s prophesied plan for his life (Psalm 41:9). Yes, Judas exercised his so-called “free will” but it was God’s plan for him just as it was God’s plan for Herod and Pontius Pilate. Judas did what God’s determinate counsel had him to do.

Everything, EVERYTHING has been established and ordained of God, including His choice of the Elect, and the death of His only begotten Son. God planned it and determined it would take place.