25 And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, 26 Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: 27 For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. 28 Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. 29 And when he had said these words, the Jews departed, and had great reasoning among themselves. (Acts 28:25-29 KJV)
William Burkitt’s Commentary
The obstinate infidelity and unreasonable unbelief which was found among the Jews under the apostle’s preaching was no doubt great grief of heart to him; but at their departure, he tells them that they would not be persuaded that this unbelief of theirs was what the prophet Esaias had long before punctually foretold, That hearing they will not see; having contracted such a wilful hardness, blindness, and deafness which will not allow them to hearken to any counsel which may end to their conversion and salvation.
Here note, That though the present unbelief of the obstinate Jews to whom the apostle now preached, was long before foretold by the prophets of God; yet the prophets’ prediction was no cause of their unbelief or that which laid them under an impossibility of believing, but the fault lay in their own obstinate wills, for which, by the just judgment of God, they were blinded and hardened. When sinners close their eyes wilfully, and say, They will not see.
Deus non deserit nisi deserentem; the Jews had forsaken God, and now God forsakes them. But the apostle tells them, that upon this refusal of theirs, he was to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, and that they would hear it, and gladly receive it, The salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it. Ac 28:29
Where observe, the epithet or title given to the gospel, The salvation of God.
1. It is styled salvation because it makes a tender and universal offer of life and salvation to lost sinners.
2. It is called the salvation of God because it is a salvation of his providing and contriving, of his revealing and discovering. It is his by way of patefaction and discovery; his by way of power and efficacy; The salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles.