<p>5:32 <em>And we are witnesses of these things</em>- Reading carefully, Peter says that he is a witness not only of the resurrection, but of the fact that Jesus is now at God's right hand and from that position of power has enabled forgiveness. How could Peter be a witness to <em>that</em>? For he hadn't been up to Heaven to check. Quite simply, he knew the extent of his own forgiveness. And so he therefore knew that truly, Jesus had ascended and was there in a position of influence upon Almighty God, to enable forgiveness. His own cleansed conscience was the proof that his belief in the Lord's ascension was belief in something true. And yet we ask: does our belief that Christ ascended really have this effect upon us?</p><p>Luke concludes by recording how the Lord reminded His men that they were &ldquo;witnesses&rdquo; (24:48); and throughout Acts, they repeatedly describe themselves as witnesses to Him (Acts 1:8,22; 2:32; 3:15; 5:32; 10:39,41; 13:31; 22:15,20; 26:16). This is quite some emphasis. This Christ-centeredness should also fill our self-perception; that we are witnesses to the Lord out of our own personal experience of Him. They were witnesses that Christ <em>is</em> on God&rsquo;s right hand, that He really <em>is</em> a Saviour and source of forgiveness (5:32); because they were self-evidently results of that forgiveness and that salvation. They couldn&rsquo;t be &lsquo;witnesses&rsquo; to those things in any legal, concrete way; for apart from them and their very beings, there was no literal evidence. They hadn&rsquo;t been to Heaven and seen Him; they had no document that said they were forgiven. They were the witnesses in themselves. This even went to the extent of the Acts record saying that converts were both added to the ecclesia, and also added to Christ. He <em>was</em> His ecclesia; they were, and we are, His body in this world.&nbsp;</p><p>We are &ldquo;witnesses on account of our being in him&rdquo; (Acts 5:32 RVmg.). We are His epistle to men and women; His words of expression consist in our lives and characters (2 Cor. 3:3).</p><p><em>And so is the Holy Spirit, which God has given to those that obey Him</em>- See on 5:29 <em>We must obey God rather than men</em>.</p>