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Acts 8:26–40
“Philip ran to [the Ethiopian eunuch] and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ And he said, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him” (vv. 30–31).
How should we understand the death of Christ? Given that salvation comes by believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:9), it is an important question. After all, it is not by affirming merely the historical facts that Jesus died and rose again that we are redeemed. If that were so, all we would need are the historical accounts of our Lord’s death, and saving faith would be little different from believing other historical facts such as that George Washington was the first president of the United States. Truth be told, the bare historical facts of Jesus’ death and resurrection, while essential, do not tell us much about what was actually happening on the cross. If we are just considering the facts of the event—Jesus’ arrest, trial before Pontius Pilate, crucifixion, resurrection—we could arrive at any number of different interpretations. We might say that Jesus died because of governmental injustice and oppression. We might say that His death was perhaps a tragic accident, that He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. We might say that the resurrection is just something unusual, having no significance beyond being an odd event in history.
The historical events that occurred in the Holy Land in the first century related to Jesus’ death and resurrection do not in themselves tell us why He died. If His death and resurrection are anything more than odd or tragic events, if they are in fact part of a larger divine plan, then we need God to tell us what they mean. He has done this in both the Old and New Testaments, with the Old Testament serving to predict and anticipate the work of Christ and the New Testament serving to authoritatively interpret and explain our Lord’s saving work in light of its Old Testament background and God’s eternal plan. We need the Apostolic testimony. To put it another way, we cannot have Jesus unless we also believe His Apostles, for we have no access to the work of Jesus and its meaning apart from the Apostolic revelation.
Evidence for this is found in today’s passage. Note that the Ethiopian eunuch was studying the Old Testament but could not understand its full significance and its fulfillment in Jesus until Philip explained it to him (Acts 8:26–40). Philip is likely the Philip chosen in Acts 6 to help meet the needs of the Hellenist widows in the Jerusalem church (vv. 1–6). He had sat at the feet of the Apostles and had been taught the meaning of the cross, so he was well equipped to convey the Apostolic interpretation of the work of Jesus.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Many people think they can follow Jesus without following His Apostles and their teaching. Yet we would not know Jesus at all without the writings of His Apostles and the writings of those who worked alongside the Apostles. In other words, the New Testament—all of the New Testament—is absolutely vital for knowing Jesus. Let us never neglect any part of it or any other part of Scripture.
For Further Study
- Deuteronomy 18:15–22
- 2 Chronicles 36:15–16
- John 14:25–26
- Ephesians 2:19–22