Acts 4:8-12

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost That moment, according to the promise of his now glorified Master, (Matthew 10:20; Mark 13:11,) which was upon this occasion remarkably verified; said unto them With the utmost freedom; Ye rulers of the people, &c. He gives them the honour due to their office. If we this day be examined And called to an account as criminals, about the good deed Greek, ευεργεσια, the good work, or benefit, done to the impotent man, and you want us to declare by what means he is delivered from his calamitous state, and made whole Σεσωσται, is cured or saved: be it known unto you Probably the herald of God proclaimed this with a loud voice: that by the name of Jesus, whom ye lately crucified With all the marks of detestation and contempt, as a criminal worthy of the most infamous death, but whom God raised from the dead These rulers and elders knew in their own consciences that it was so. And, though they had hired the soldiers to tell a most senseless and incredible tale to the contrary, (Matthew 28:12,) yet it is observable, they did not, so far as we can know, dare to plead it before Peter and John. Even by him By his power and goodness; doth this man Cripple though he was from his mother's womb, as you well know; stand here before you whole Perfectly sound and well. This is the stone set at naught of you builders That is, of you, who by your office should have been, and who professed to be, builders of God's church, which, through the power of God, is become the head of the corner To which the whole building owes its strength, its union, and its beauty. See notes on Psalms 118:22. Neither is there salvation Temporal or spiritual; in any other: for there is no other name, &c., whereby we must be saved The apostle, in this passage, uses a beautiful gradation from the temporal deliverance which had been wrought for the poor cripple, by the power of Christ, to that of a nobler and more important kind, which is wrought by Christ for impotent and sinful souls. He therein follows the admirable custom of his great Lord and Master, who continually took occasion from earthly to speak of heavenly things.