Acts 7:51 - Meaning and Application

Stephen seems to have been moving toward the point that, just as the temple would pass away, so would temple service. The glory of both would be to give way to the worship of the Father in spirit and truth, established in the Messiah’s kingdom, free from the showy ceremonies of the old law. But he saw that they could not bear it, so he stopped short and turned to a sharper rebuke.

They had listened patiently while he told the story of the Old Testament, since that was learning they prized themselves. But when he implied that their power and control had to come down, and that the church must be ruled by holiness, love, and a heavenly mindset, they would not hear him out. So, filled with wisdom, courage, and power, he exposed their true character. If they would not accept the gospel as a witness to them, it would become a witness against them.

Like their fathers, they were stubborn and unwilling to be changed by the many ways God tried to reclaim and reform them. They were stiff-necked, meaning they would not bow their will to God’s rule, as a bullock refuses the yoke (Acts 7:51). A stiff neck is the same as a hard heart, set in its own way and unwilling to yield. This had long marked the Jewish nation (Exodus 32:9; Exodus 33:3; Exodus 33:5; Exodus 34:9; Deuteronomy 9:6; Deuteronomy 9:13; Deuteronomy 31:27; Ezekiel 2:4).

They were also uncircumcised in heart and ears. In outward sign, they were Jews marked by circumcision, but inwardly they were like pagans, with hearts and ears not given to God (Jeremiah 9:26). Their sinful desires kept them from hearing God’s voice, and their hearts stayed hard against what was most commanding and most moving. They did not have the inward circumcision made without hands, the putting off of the sinful nature (Colossians 2:11).

They were not only unchanged by God’s attempts to reform them, they were angry at them. Stephen says, “You always resist the Holy Spirit.” They resisted the Holy Spirit when he spoke through the prophets, whom they opposed, mocked, hated, and persecuted. That is especially what he means here, as his next words show: “Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?” By persecuting and silencing those who spoke by the Holy Spirit, they resisted the Holy Spirit himself.

Their fathers had resisted the Holy Spirit in the prophets God sent to them, and they did the same in Christ’s apostles and ministers, who spoke by the same Spirit. In fact, these later messengers had greater gifts, yet they were resisted even more. They also resisted the Holy Spirit when he worked on their consciences. They would not obey the convictions and warnings within them. God’s Spirit struggled with them, as he had with the people before the flood, but they kept choosing their corrupt desires over their convictions and rebelled against the light.

There is something in our sinful hearts that always resists the Holy Spirit. The flesh fights against the Spirit and against his motions. But in God’s chosen people, when the right time comes, that resistance is overcome. After the struggle, Christ takes his throne in the soul, and every proud thought that rose against him is brought under his rule (2 Corinthians 10:4, 2 Corinthians 10:5). So the grace that brings about this change is better called conquering grace than merely irresistible grace.

Like their fathers, they persecuted and killed those God sent to call them to duty and offer mercy. Their fathers had been the constant and cruel persecutors of the Old Testament prophets (Acts 7:51). There was not one of the prophets they did not attack at some time. Even in the best reigns, when rulers did not persecute them, a hostile part of the nation mocked and abused them. Most of them were at last put to death, sometimes under legal cover and sometimes by public rage. What made this sin worse was that the prophets had spoken ahead of the coming of the just One, giving news of God’s kind purpose to send the Messiah in due time. Men who brought such good news should have been welcomed and honored, but instead they were treated like the worst criminals.

They were also the betrayers and murderers of the just One himself, as Peter had already told them (Acts 3:14, Acts 3:15; Acts 5:30). They hired Judas to betray Jesus and in effect forced Pilate to condemn him. So the charge rightly falls on them as his betrayers and murderers. They showed themselves to be the true children of those who killed the prophets that foretold his coming, because by killing Jesus they proved they would have done the same to him in an earlier age. In this way, as Jesus had warned, they brought on themselves the guilt of all the prophets’ blood.

They also treated God’s revelation with contempt and refused to be guided by it. This made their sin worse, because God had given his law to their fathers and his gospel to them, and both had been wasted on them. Their fathers received the law and did not keep it (Acts 7:53). God first spoke those great truths to them, and then wrote them down, yet they treated the law as if it were something foreign, not meant for them. The law is said to have been received through angels because angels took part in the solemn giving of it, with thunder, lightning, and the blast of the trumpet.

The law was given with great honor. It was appointed by angels (Galatians 3:19), and God is described as coming with ten thousand of his holy ones to give the law (Deuteronomy 33:2). It was also spoken through angels (Hebrews 2:2). All of this gave honor both to the law and to the Lawgiver, and it should have deepened their respect for both.

Yet those who received the law did not keep it. They broke it at once in a serious way when they made the golden calf. They also received the gospel, now given not through angels but through the Holy Spirit, not with the sound of a trumpet, but in the still more striking gift of tongues. Even so, they did not embrace it.

They would not yield to the clearest proof, just as their fathers had not. They were determined not to obey God, whether in his law or in his gospel. Stephen likely had much more to say, and he would have said it if they had let him. But he was dealing with wicked, unreasonable men who could no more listen to reason than they could speak it.