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

oad, which is utterly impossible. The devil holds you tight so long as you have anything that belongs
to him. Whenever you give back to him all your sins, all your meanness, and everything you ever got
from him, then he has no more use for you and will not let you stay with him another minute. So then
you get off with a big shout, moving heavenward at a race-horse speed. The E.V. erroneously says
in this passage, “be converted,” as the verb is in the active voice, and literally means “turn.” While
“repent” and “turn” and “the blotting out of sin” are all specific, they constitute conversion, which
is generic. Here we see that the sinner has just two things to do — first, leave the devil and all of his
sins in the devil’s kingdom, where they belong. Then turn to the Lord with all his heart, soul, mind
and strength, casting his lot with Him for time and eternity. In that case, the Lord freely and eternally
blots out all of his sins from heaven’s chancery, so they never can be found again to bring back the
blush of shame. Thus the vilest reprobate and the blackest debauchee, rescued and washed, can shout
as loud as Gabriel on the golden streets, and defy all the archangels to find anything against him. In
vain they ransack the heavenly archives. The records are all destroyed; so the blood-washed slumites
shine as bright and shout as loud as the cherubim and seraphim. When the sinner by repentance has
left the devil and all of his sins with him forever and turned to the Lord, soul and body, heart, spirit,
life and influence forever, and all his sins are blotted out, this consummates the grand negative work
in the plan of salvation. Now the glorious positive side supervenes. The Holy Ghost raises him from
the dead, giving him the very life of God in regeneration; then the Holy Ghost Himself makes him
His happy incarnation, moving in to abide forever, thus verifying this beautiful promise, “In order
that times of soul-renewing may come from the face of the Lord.”
RETURN OF CHRIST.
20. The E.V. erroneously has a semicolon between the 19th and 20th verses. The inspired original,
spoken by Peter and written by Luke, has no stop whatever between these verses. Then what will our
brethren do who are unwilling to preach the second coming of Christ, as there is not even a comma
here, much less a period, on which they may slide out? Inspired Peter preaches the glorious spiritual
economy of full salvation and the second coming of Christ in the very same breath. Hence, if you
preach the former and leave out the latter, you will certainly grieve the Holy Spirit by breaking one
of His sentences in two in the middle without His authority. Good Lord, help us to be true to His
Word and not get wise above what is written: “And he may send forth unto you him who has been
preached unto you as the Messiah, namely Jesus,”
21. “Whom it behooveth heaven indeed to receive until the times of the restitution of all things
which God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from the beginning.” This Scripture reveals
the fact most unequivocally that Peter was enthused with the glowing anticipation of seeing his Lord
return to the earth, before he exchanged his silver trumpet for a golden harp. This expectation would
have been verified if the Pentecostal generation had preached the gospel of the kingdom to every
nation, calling out the Bride of Christ and preparing her to meet her coming Lord. In this they failed,
thus postponing our Lord’s return. You see here that Jesus is to remain in heaven “until the time of
restitution of all things spoken by the prophets from the beginning.” You know the prophets have
most unequivocally predicted the restoration of the world back to the Edenic state. The Son of Man
“came to destroy the works of the devil.” This world once existed without a devil in it. The prophet
John tells us positively that the devil is to be taken out, so we will again have this world without a
devil in it as in Eden times. The prophets certify over and over, “The desert shall rejoice and the