The commentaries of M. John Calvin upon the Acts of the Apostles, faithfully translated…The commentaries of M. Iohn Caluin vpon the Actes of the Apostles, faithfully translated…

3 Opening. In this place he describeth the sum or subject of the disputation: and he putteth down two members concerning Christ, that He must have died and risen again, & that the son of Mary which was crucified is Christ. When the question is concerning Christ, there come 3. things in question. Whether he be, who he is, & what he is. If Paul had had to deal with the gentiles, he must have fet his beginning farther: because they had heard nothing concerning Christ: nether do profane men conceive that they need a mediator. But this point was out of doubt among the Jews, to whom the mediator was promised: wherefore Paul omitteth that as superfluous, which was received by common consent of all men. But because there was nothing more hard then to bring the Jews to confess that Jesus who was crucified was the redeemer, therefore Paul beginneth with this, that it was meet that Christ should die: that he may remove the stumbling block of the cross, and yet we must not think that he recited the […] history, but he taketh an undoubted principle, that the causes were showed why Christ must have suffered & rise again: to wit because he preached of the ruin of mankind, of sin & of the punishment thereof, of the judgement of God, and of the eternal curse wherein we be all inwrapped. For even the scripture calleth us hither, when it foretelleth the death of Christ. As Isaiah saith not simply that Christ should die,¹ but plainly expressing, because we have all erred, & every one hath gone his own way: he assigneth the cause of his death, that God hath laid upon him all our iniquities: that the chastisement of our peace is upon him, that by his stripes we may be healed: ⟨p. 409⟩that by making satisfaction for us, he hath purchased righteousness for us. So doth Daniel² show the force and fruit of his death in his 9. chapter, when he saith that sin must be sealed up, that eternal righteousness may succeed And surely there is no more apt or effectual way to prove the office of Christ, then when men being humbled with the feeling of their miseries, see that there is no hope left, unless they be reconciled by the sacrifice of Christ. Then laying away their pride, they humbly embrace his cross, whereof they were before both weary & ashamed.