The Acts of the Apostles (1911) — PDF Scan 253

Scan transcription helps with searching and selection. Use the printed page above for exact spelling and punctuation.

CORINTH 247 backward, and made clear the ministry of the Jewish priesthood. Paul ''testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ.'^ From the Old Testament Scriptures, he showed that according to the prophecies and the universal expectation of the Jews, the Messiah would be of the lineage of Abraham and of David ; then he traced the descent of Jesus from the patriarch Abraham through the royal psalmist. He read the testimony of the prophets regarding the character and work of the promised Messiah, and His reception and treatment on the earth; then he showed that all these predictions had been fulfilled in the life, ministry, and death of Jesus of Nazareth. Paul showed that Christ had come to offer salvation first of all to the nation that was looking for the Messiah's coming as the consummation and glory of their national existence. But that nation had rejected Him who would have given them life, and had chosen another leader, whose reign would end in death. He endeavored to bring home to his hearers the fact that repentance alone could save the Jewish nation from impending ruin. He revealed their ignorance concerning the meaning of those Scriptures which it was their chief boast and gior}^ that they fully understood. He rebuked their worldliness, their love of station, titles, and display, and their inordinate selfishness. In the power of the Spirit, Paul related the story of his own miraculous conversion, and of his confidence in the Old Testament Scriptures, which had been so completely fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. His words were spoken with solemn earnestness, and