Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, х archeegon (G747) kai (G2532) sooteera (G4990)] - the one word expressing that Royalty which all Israel looked for in Messiah, the other the Saving character of it which they had utterly lost sight of. Each of these features in our Lord's work enters into the other, and both make one glorious whole. (See the notes at Acts 3:15; Hebrews 2:10.)
For to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. "Israel," it will be observed, is here represented as the immediate object of the whole divine purpose of mercy in Christ, as being the direct children of the promise. Hence, the rule of preaching was ever "to the Jew first." In fact, at this earliest stage of the Christian Church the accession of the Gentiles at all was probably not before the apostle's mind, and any express allusion to it would have needlessly grated on the ears of a hostile Sanhedrim. (See the notes at Acts 2:14-47, Remark 1, at the close of that Section.) But it is of more importance to observe the two august titles here given to Jesus, and the sense in which they are used. While Jesus dispenses His gifts as a "Prince," the gifts themselves are those of a "Saviour" - "repentance and the remission of sins." (Compare Zechariah 6:13; and see Acts 4:12.) On the relation of the one of these to the other, see the note at Acts 20:21.