17 And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. 18 But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. (Acts 3:17-18 KJV)
William Burkitt’s Commentary
Observe here, 1. How careful the apostle was, not to drive these murtherers of Christ (and consequently the worst of men) to despair, but to draw them to repentance; in order to which,
1. He mitigates their sin, imputing it rather to ignorance and blind zeal, than to malice.
2. He is charitable as to impute it to the ignorance of the Pharisees their rulers also.
3. He calls them brethren, though guilty of so great a mistake in their judgment, and fault in their practice. Now brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.
Learn hence, That God used the ignorance of some, and malice of others, for his own glorious ends, in accomplishing the fore-ordained and fore-told death of our Redeemer.
Observe, 2. St. Peter acquaints them, to keep them from despair, that God hath decreed the sufferings of Christ for man, and by his prophets fore-told them, who, as they spake by one Spirit, did all speak the same things, as if they had all spoken out of one mouth. So that what the Jews did, he tells them, was, though unknown to them, a fulfilling of ancient prophecies and promises for man’s redemption. Those things which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath now fulfilled.
The death and sufferings of Christ, with all the circumstances relating thereunto were all ordained by God, and foretold by the prophets; which though it doth not excuse his murtherers from the guilt of a dreadful sin, yet may be improved as an argument to keep them from despair. What God before had shewed, he hath now fulfilled.