<p>5:31- see on Acts 2:33; 10:35,36.</p><p><em>Him did God exalt</em>- The same word is used about the lifting up of the Lord on the cross (Jn. 3:14; 8:28; 12:32). God sees time differently to us; He knew the lifting up of His dear son was the basis of His future exaltation. And so the same word is used about His lifting up and His exaltation.</p><p><em>With His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour- </em>This could mean 'to His right hand'; for it is there that He is Prince and Saviour. These are ongoing jobs- for the Lord is indeed an active Lord, ruling and saving His people. He is a &quot;Prince&quot;, the same word translated &quot;author&quot; in Heb. 12:2- He is the author and perfecter of our faith. He initiates faith, by giving not only forgiveness but repentance to people; and works out the whole process of their transformation and salvation.</p><p><em>To give repentance to Israel and remission of sins</em>- Man cannot truly know God and be passive to that knowledge; he must somehow respond to the God he sees so abundantly revealed to him. And so it is with an appreciation of the height and nature of the exaltation of the man Christ Jesus. This motivates to repentance and conversion, and therefore the man who has himself been converted by it will glory in it, and hold it up to others as the motive power of their salvation too. Acts 5:31 is a clear example. &quot;We are witnesses of these things&rdquo;- in the sense that Peter himself was a witness to the repentance and forgiveness brought about by God&rsquo;s resurrection and exaltation of His Son. Earlier Peter had preached Jesus of Nazareth as &ldquo;made&hellip; both Lord and Christ&rdquo;, and when they heard <em>this</em>, when he reached this climax of his speech in declaring that Jesus was now made <em>kurios</em>, the Greek word that would be used to translate Yahweh, <em>then </em>they were pricked in their heart and repented and desired association with Him in baptism (Acts 2:36-38). Later he boldly declared: &ldquo;Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men i.e. no other name given to any man as this Name was given to Jesus, whereby we must be saved&rdquo; (Acts 4:12). Peter had once struggled with the teaching of the Lord that whoever humbled himself would be exalted (Lk. 14:11). Now he joyfully preached the height of the Lord&rsquo;s exaltation, knowing that by so doing he was testifying to the depth of His humility in His life. Now he valued and appreciated that humility (his allusions to the Lord&rsquo;s washing of feel in his letters is further proof of this).&nbsp;</p><p>Notice that repentance, and not just forgiveness, was 'given' to Israel. A change of mind was given; and this surely is the gift of a holy spirit or mind. See on Acts 2:33; 10:35,36. But the recipient of the gift still had to respond. In Elijah's time, God turned Israel's heart back to Him, but they still had to return to Him (1 Kings 18:37). Jeremiah was an example of making good use of the gift of repentance: &quot;Surely after that I was turned, I repented&quot; (Jer. 31:19).<br />The early believers spoke constantly in their preaching of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ (Acts 2:21,23; 3:13-15; 5:30,31). The logical objection to their preaching a risen Jesus of Nazareth was: &lsquo;But He&rsquo;s dead We saw His body Where is He? Show Him to us&rsquo;. And their response, as ours, was to say: &lsquo;I am the witness, so is my brother here, and my sister there. We are the witnesses that He is alive. If you see us, you see Him risen and living through us&rsquo;. In this spirit, we beseech men in Christ&rsquo;s stead. Paul in Galatians 2:20 echoes this idea: &quot;I have been crucified with Christ: the life I now live is not <em>my </em>life, but the life which <em>Christ lives </em>in me&rdquo;. The spirit of the risen Christ lived out in our lives is the witness of His resurrection. We are Him to this world. The cross too was something which <em>shone</em> out of their lives and words. They sought to convict men of their desperation, the urgency of their position before God, the compelling nature of the cross, that they were serious sinners; that a man cannot behold the cross and be unresponsive, but rather must appropriate that work and gift to himself through baptism. The urgent appeal for repentance was quite a feature of their witness&nbsp;(2:38; 5:31; 7:51; 11:18; 17:30; 18:18; 20:21; 26:20; Heb. 6:1). May I suggest there needs to be a greater stress on repentance in our&nbsp;preaching, 20 centuries later.</p><p>Our Lord ascended to Heaven <em>so that</em> opportunity of repentance might be given to Israel (Acts 5:31), and <em>so that</em> He might give the Holy Spirit gifts to men (Eph. 4:8-13 cp. John 14-16 explaining how Jesus departed <em>in order</em> to receive the Comforter). It follows that the gifts of the Holy Spirit were given largely in order to convince Israel of the Gospel; and so too around the period of the second coming?</p><p>Note that it was repentance that was given on account of the Lord's resurrection and ascension. Not simply forgiveness. The gift of the Holy Spirit that was given on His exaltation was a mental, internal power; it was and is the power to repent. Those who do not repent are therefore stubbornly resisting God's powerful desire to see us change. See above on <em>With His right hand</em>.</p>