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Beale: new creation through resurrection from the de-creation of death and of kingdom establishment through resurrection are very closely linked

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Christ has begun to sit on the throne of the end-time kingdom, which he did not do in his ministry, though he was at that time inaugurating the kingdom. The fuller context of Acts 2:30–36 makes this clearer:

   And so, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh suffer decay. This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says:

          “The Lord said to my Lord,
         ‘Sit at My right hand,
         until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.’ ”

   Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.

 The main point is that Jesus’s resurrection and ascension are the beginning of an even more escalated kingship than was commencing in the midst of his ministry. He has now begun to fulfill the messianic prophecy of Ps. 110:1 (cited to indicate fulfillment in Acts 2:34–35). 

 The Spirit is poured out on believers to enable them to witness to this great redemptive-historical accomplishment (Acts 1:8; cf. 1:22; 3:15; 4:33; 13:31). Paul’s sermon in Acts 13 also underscores that Christ’s resurrection fulfilled the OT prophecy of God, who would install his Messiah as king: “God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘You are My son; today I have begotten You’ ” (13:33). And, as in Peter’s Acts 2 sermon, Jesus’s resurrection is viewed also as a fulfillment of a promise to David, especially with respect to transforming death and bodily decay (13:34–36) into an irreversible condition of a newly created body (quoting Isa. 55:3 in Acts 13:34, and Ps. 16:10 in Acts 13:35; see also Acts 13:37–38).

 Thus, in the two structurally crucial sermons in Acts 2 and Acts 13 the concepts of new creation through resurrection from the de-creation of death and of kingdom establishment through resurrection are very closely linked, which is especially highlighted by repeated mention of the resurrection of the Messiah (i.e., the eschatological Israelite king) in the Acts 2 account. Therefore, the idea of the new-creational kingdom is underscored by explaining Jesus’s resurrection from the dead. The topic of Jesus’s resurrection is also an important theme at points throughout the book of Acts (1:22; 3:15, 26; 4:2, 10, 33; 5:30; 25:19).


Beale, G. K. (2011). A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New (pp. 238–240). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

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