By Jeffery M. Leonard, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biblical & Religious Studies, Samford University
JESUS SAVES
Acts 2:22–24, 32–41
At various points in Church history, individuals have undertaken the task of producing so-called “harmonies” of the Gospels. These works take the narratives, parables, sayings and sermons from the canonical Gospels and combine them into one work rather than four. While these kinds of combinations can be interesting from a scholarly perspective, some early attempts in this direction aimed at a different goal, namely to have Christians actually replace the four individual Gospels with the one combined account of the life of Christ.
Thankfully, the Church rejected these attempts. To turn the four Gospels into one always involves trimming away or sanding down elements of one Gospel account in favor of another. What is gained by resolving one narrative tension or another is far outweighed by what is lost as the distinctives of the evangelists’ four pictures of Jesus are blurred out to form one.
One particularly fascinating distinction in Luke (and its companion, Acts) has to do with Luke’s presentation of the death of Jesus. While we often think of Jesus’ death through the theological lens of substitutionary atonement — that Christ died on our behalf and in our place — Luke places his emphasis somewhere else.
Luke underscores the fact that the death of Jesus was a crime and we were its perpetrators. When he saw the lifeless body of Christ on the cross, the centurion in Luke declared, “This Man really was righteous” (23:47). Luke insists that we were ultimately the ones who killed this innocent Man.
Jesus was sent to be our Savior. (22–24)
As the crowds gathered after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, it was Peter who took the lead in addressing them.
Peter insists that Jesus’ identity was plain for all to see; He was “a Man attested to you by God with miracles, wonders and signs that God did among you through Him, just as you yourselves know.” And yet, despite the fact that Jesus’ appointment by God was clear, Peter charges, “You used lawless people to nail Him to a cross and kill Him.” A few verses later, Peter will make this point once more as he refers to “this Jesus whom you crucified” (v. 36).
Jesus is exalted as Lord. (32–36)
Despite our complicity in the death of His Son, the Father refused to abandon us to our own fate. Jesus lived His life reaching out to outcasts of society, and He died a cruel and ignoble death.
The Father’s ultimate stamp of approval on the way Jesus lived and the way He died was exercised as God raising Him up (v. 24). From His lowly status as the suffering Servant, God exalted His Son to sit at His right hand and rule as “both Lord and Messiah.”
Jesus becomes our Savior when we trust in Him. (37–41)
As the assembled crowds heard Peter’s Pentecost sermon, Luke tells us, “they were pierced to the heart.” They turned to Peter and the apostles and begged to know, “Brothers, what should we do?”
Peter’s response was one that is now quite familiar to us: “Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.”
In his own distinctive way, Luke reminds us of our complicity in the death of Jesus and urges us to turn to God, seeking His forgiveness.
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