Acts 5:29,30 - We must obey God rather than man

5:29

Peter replies quite simply that they must obey God rather than man. Now we need to be careful, for claiming to obey God is a claim that many a rogue has made, it can be an excuse for a multitude of sins. However, the gospel comes into conflict with the world. It always has done, and always will do, and we need to choose to obey God. We are here as God’s servants in the world. Now this does not mean an attitude of rebelliousness. Both Paul and Peter make obeying the civil authorities an important issue, but when the state commands something that is directly against the will of God we must choose God. If we have an attitude of rebelliousness then what we will find is that we act out of the flesh not the Spirit, and that never produces anything good. So, how do we do that? Well there is no simple set of rules, it is an attitude of heart. The best example is Daniel and his friends. In that book we see godly men who are submitted to the Babylonian authority, but are supremely submitted to God. There are key incidents where this brought them into conflict with the state, but this was not done out of a rebellious spirit, but a heart devoted to God.

5:30

Peter is very direct about what the religious leaders had done. “The God of our fathers” This shows that Jesus is the fulfilment of the Old Testament. The gospel does not represent a departure from the Old Testament, the God of the New Testament is exactly the same God as the God of the Old Testament. They had killed God’s Messiah, but God had raised Him from the dead. We find in all of the New Testament a much more direct approach than our society is happy with today, but we would be far better adopting the New Testament approach. Jesus is fully aware of the condition of our hearts, and the gospel is fully capable of dealing with the reality of what and who we are, so there is nothing to be gained by beating about the bush!