Acts 3:21

Heaven must receive. The disciples had witnessed Christ’s ascension (ch. 1:9, 10), and they realized He must remain in heaven until His second advent. Jesus had told His disciples that it was necessary for Him to leave them (John 14:1-6), but even they did not understand until they saw Him ascend, and learned that they must look for His return.

Restitution. Or, “restoration.” Christ died as the world’s Redeemer, and therefore the promised restoration was made possible by His crucifixion.

Here Peter gives in embryo the idea that he develops fully and in a most forthright manner in 2 Peter 3:7—13. The new heavens and the new earth of the latter passage are a recovery, a restoration from the sin and degradation that, as a result of man’s fall into sin, destroyed the beauty and perfection of the original creation (see on Isa. 65:17-25; Micah 4:8).

This passage does not teach, as some have thought, that all men ultimately will be saved. That is not promised in Scripture. But it does express the idea of an ultimate state in which righteousness, and not sin, will have dominion over a redeemed and re-created world. It presents a supremely worthwhile goal for Christian experience resulting from true repentance and conversion, and offers even a wider hope for the possibilities of growth in wisdom and holiness in the world to come than Christendom sometimes has been willing to emphasize.

Which God hath spoken. This clause may be understood to refer either to the “times of restitution,” that is, the divine act of restoration foretold prophetically, or to “all things,” in which case it points to the fact of the fulfillment of God’s promises through the prophets. Here is a clear assertion that the utterances of the prophets are the messages of God. It was God who spoke through the prophets (see 2 Peter 1:21). The present passage is virtually identical with Luke 1:70.

All. Textual evidence attests (cf. p. 10) the omission of this word.

Since the world began. Or, “from of old.” These words take in the many unchanging promises exhibited in the prophets that have brightened the hopes of the people of God through the ages. Zacharias saw a beginning of the fulfillment of these promises with the birth of his son John (Luke 1:70). The plan of salvation has been set since before “the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8).