What does Acts 3:25 mean?
Peter is finishing his speech to a group of Jews on the Temple Mount who have crowded around him, trying to find out how he healed a lame man (Acts 3:1–11). Peter has explained that the power came from Jesus—the Jesus they crucified (Acts 3:12–16). He says they acted ignorantly, though by their actions what God had foretold was fulfilled; the people need to repent (Acts 3:17–19). Peter explains how their betrayal and Jesus' life were prophesied in the Jewish Scriptures—the Old Testament (Acts 3:17–24). He also hints at Jesus' return (Acts 3:20–21).In this verse he has one last prophecy to show them. Some of God's covenants with people were bilateral—if the Israelites obeyed God, He would bless them (Exodus 19:5–8). But His promise to Abraham was unconditional. God promised to multiply Abraham's descendants, numbering them as the stars in the heavens and the sand on the seashore, and that in those descendants all the people in the world would be blessed (Genesis 22:17–18). God chose him for this so that his descendants would eventually obey God, not if they would (Genesis 18:18–19).
The Jews in Peter's audience are the literal descendants of Abraham and the spiritual descendants of the prophets who foretold of Jesus' coming and death. It is through them—through Israel as a whole—that God sent His son (Matthew 1:2–16; Luke 3:23–34). Jesus verified that He is the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham (John 8:56). In Galatians 3 Paul specifies that Jesus is the One through whom the blessing of Abraham is given to all people. Salvation is by faith and made available to Gentiles as well as to Jews. It is not by law, but by the promise. Paul writes, "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise" (Galatians 3:27–29).
Peter doesn't yet understand how the nations will be blessed. He has yet to receive a strong lesson from God that Gentiles will be welcome to the Holy Spirit (Acts 10). He has yet to see how the Gentiles will accept Jesus far more than the Jews will. It will get to the point that Paul will remind the Gentiles that they owe the Jews for their salvation and tell them that when witnessing their salvation, the Jews may become jealous and also turn to their Messiah (Romans 11:17–24).
Acts 3:11–26 transcribes the sermon Peter gives at the temple. While Peter and John enter the temple to pray, Peter heals a lame beggar who has asked for alms. The man is healed and leaps up, praising God (Acts 3:1–10). When this catches the crowd's attention, Peter explains that the healing power did not come from them but from Jesus of Nazareth whom the Jews killed. The results are mixed; the Jesus-followers gain unwanted attention from the Jewish officials (Acts 4:1–3), but five thousand men plus women find faith in Jesus (Acts 4:4).
Acts 3 is comprised of two sections: the healing of a lame man and the explanation of that healing. First, a man who has been lame his whole life approaches Peter and John to beg from them at the temple. When Peter heals him in Jesus' name, a crowd gathers around. Peter gives witness to Jesus (Acts 1:8) and tells the crowd that Jesus' authority and power healed this man. Looking back as modern readers, we see how, as the man's body symbolically ''repented,'' or turned away, from its broken form into freedom of movement, so the people can repent from their broken thoughts, actions, and beliefs, and find freedom from sin.
