Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest

Scriptures. When we undertake to help out the Bible, we always make a mistake and get into trouble.
The Bible, like God, does not need any help. If you will throw away your creeds and part company
with the devil, the Bible will do its own talking. Here it is positively specified that Jesus, the lineal
descendant of David, was born King of the Jews in David’s royal line. To be sure, He never reigned
on earth. Instead of crowning Him King they killed Him, but here Peter proves demonstratively that
he was crowned in heaven King of the Jews and successor of David to sit upon his throne. The Bible
is clear in this succession of David and perpetuity of his kingdom on the mediatorial throne in
heaven. As to David’s earthly throne, instead of all these efforts to find it perpetuated among the
Gentiles, which is utterly chimerical, turn with me to the Jerusalem council of apostles, elders and
brothers, highest authority this side of heaven, and you find the matter fully explained and the
problem solved. Acts 15:16: “After these things [i.e., the preaching of the gospel to all the Gentiles
in the present dispensation] I will return and build again the dynasty of David or the throne which
hath fallen down, and will rebuild the ruins of the same and set it up again.” Here we see positively
that the temporal wing of David’s throne had an interregnum at the time of Christ and the apostles,
which is to continue until the King returns in His glory. Then He is going to rebuild the throne of
David, restore his kingdom on the earth, destined, as the same Scripture goes on to say, “to
encompass all the nations of the globe.” Hence, we see that David’s kingdom in the earth is to have
this interregnum, which obtained in the former dispensation and continued to the end of the gospel
age. Therefore it is a great mistake to think we have to find David’s kingdom perpetuated in the
earth, as this would preclude the interregnum which the Scriptures positively reveal. Hence the
conclusion of the problem is the simple fact that Jesus Christ, the lineal Son, royal Heir and
Successor of David, was born King, and, though prohibited and crucified on earth, He was crowned
King when He ascended into heaven, and actually there sitteth on the throne of David, thus
perpetuating his kingdom forever. Since David really had no earthly throne, but as king of the divine
theocracy, his throne was in heaven, the capital of his kingdom, while it overlapped down in the
earth and gave Israel a prelibation of the blessedness of the heavenly kingdom, of which Jerusalem,
in the glory of David and Solomon, proximately symbolize heaven, and David’s earthly throne was
but the temporal counterpart of the heavenly. Hence the temporary dilapidation of David’s earthly
throne does not invalidate the eternal perpetuity of his kingdom, realized in the mediatorial
administration of Christ in heaven and destined in the coming millennial age, adumbrated in the days
of David, to reach down and girdle the globe in the glory of the heavenly kingdom. We find
interregnums in many of the time-honored kingdoms of the earth, such as Rome and Britain; but
these interregnums do not invalidate the perpetuity of these kingdoms. Neither does the interregnum
of David’s throne on earth invalidate the eternal perpetuity of his kingdom, especially in view of the
fact that the heavenly nucleus of that kingdom is literally perpetuated in the glorious reign of King
Jesus. The very fact that God said to Jesus on His congratulation and coronation, “Sit thou on my
right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool,” involves the unequivocal promise on the part of
the Father to shake down every rival potentate in all the earth, whether political or ecclesiastical. The
incarnation of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost was a positive confirmation of the coronation
of Christ in heaven, as the law must be fully satisfied before the promised restitution can be
consummated in the incarnation of the Holy Ghost, actually restoring the human to full spiritual
freedom and ushering in the millennial victory. Of course, Luke here gives us but a brief epitome of
Peter’s sermon, i.e., the salient points. God in the Abrahamic covenant promised the gift of the Holy
Ghost. That covenant must be sealed with the blood of Christ before the Holy Ghost, the Restorer
and Comforter, can be given.