Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Acts 13:39

A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.

by him all that believe are justified from all things--The sense requires that a pause in the sentence be made here: "By him the believer is absolved from all charges of the law." What follows, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses--is not an exceptional but an explanatory clause. The meaning is not, "Though the law justifies from many things, it cannot justify from all things, but Christ makes up all deficiencies"; but the meaning is, "By Christ the believer is justified from all things, whereas the law justifies from nothing." (Note.--The deeper sense of justification, the positive side of it, is reserved for the Epistles, addressed to the justified themselves: and whereas it is the resurrection of Christ here, and throughout the Acts chiefly, which is dwelt on, because the first thing in order to bring peace to the guilty through Christ was to establish His Messiahship by His resurrection, in the Epistles to believers His death as the way of reconciliation is fully unfolded).

Read Acts 13:39 →Read the full chapter →John Gill's Exposition →Barnes' Notes →Wesley's Explanatory Notes →Tyndale Open Study Notes →Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge →

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