By
faith in his name, his name has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which is through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. “Now, brothers, I know that you did this in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But the things which God announced by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled.
Acts 3:16-18
Acts 3 [12.] When Peter saw it, he responded to the people, “You men of Israel, why do you marvel at this man? Why do you fasten your eyes on us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up, and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had determined to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, to which we are witnesses. By faith in his name, his name has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which is through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
Acts 3 [17.] “Now, brothers, I know that you did this in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But the things which God announced by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled.
Acts 3 [19.] “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Christ Jesus, who was ordained for you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God spoke long ago by the mouth of his holy prophets. For Moses indeed said to the fathers, ‘The Lord God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him in all things whatever he says to you. It will be that every soul that will not listen to that prophet will be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who followed after, as many as have spoken, they also told of these days.
Meaning:
Peter has confronted the crowd in Solomon’s porch with a hard truth: they denied the Holy and Righteous One and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead (Acts 3:14-15). Now he explains the healing they have just seen and then speaks to them with surprising gentleness. The same Jesus whom they rejected is the one whose name has made the lame man whole, and God has used even their ignorant rejection to fulfil what the prophets foretold.
- “By faith in his name, his name has made this man strong”
Peter repeats the word “name” for emphasis. In the Bible a person’s name stands for the person himself, his character and authority. To act in Jesus’ name is to act by his authority and power. Peter had said to the beggar, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!” (Acts 3:6). Before the council he would say again that “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, in him does this man stand here before you whole” (Acts 4:10).
- “The faith which is through him”
Whose faith was it? The text does not settle every detail, and readers understand it in different ways. Some think of the apostles’ faith, since the lame man had asked only for money. Others think the man believed when Peter spoke. Many point out that Peter stresses that this faith comes “through him”: Jesus is both the object of faith and the one who gives it. Jesus often said to those he healed, “your faith has made you well” (Mark 5:34), yet faith itself is God’s gift. Either way, the man received “perfect soundness,” complete health, publicly “in the presence of you all.”
- “I know that you did this in ignorance, as did also your rulers”
After his strong accusation Peter speaks tenderly, calling them “brothers.” He acknowledges that they did not understand who Jesus really was. On the cross Jesus himself prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Paul says that if the rulers of this world had understood God’s wisdom, “they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8), and that the people of Jerusalem and their rulers fulfilled the prophets “because they didn’t know him” (Acts 13:27).
Ignorance did not make them innocent; Peter still calls them to repent (Acts 3:19). But it left the door of mercy open. The law of Moses provided atonement when a person “sins unwittingly” (Numbers 15:27-28). Paul, once a persecutor, wrote, “I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief” (1 Timothy 1:13).
- “That Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled”
Here Peter shows God’s sovereign hand. What the people did in ignorance, God had announced long before through his prophets. Isaiah had written of the Servant, “But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5). After his resurrection Jesus asked, “Didn’t the Christ have to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:26). Peter later wrote that the Spirit of Christ in the prophets “predicted the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that would follow them” (1 Peter 1:11).
The Significance of Acts 3:16-18
- Power in the name of Jesus
Jesus is still the source of every true healing and every changed life. Faith in his name brings wholeness, not because of any formula, but because the living Lord answers those who trust him.
- Mercy for the ignorant
Peter’s gentle words show the heart of God. Even those who rejected Christ can be forgiven if they turn to him. No one who sincerely repents is beyond the reach of his mercy.
Cross-References:
Luke 23:34: "Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing." Jesus’ prayer from the cross.
Isaiah 53:5: "The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed." The suffering Servant foretold.
Conclusion: Peter explained that faith in Jesus’ name had made the lame man completely whole, a faith that itself comes through Jesus. He then told the crowd that they and their rulers had acted in ignorance, yet God had used their deed to fulfil what all the prophets foretold about the Christ’s suffering. The passage holds out both the power of Christ’s name and the mercy of God.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible