Problem: Acts 20:28—“Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, wherein the Holy Spirit has
set you as overseers, to shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased [or ‘acquired for
Himself’] with his own blood.”
Solution: As our blessed Lord Jesus is both God and Man in His Person, Scripture can, therefore, speak of
the atoning blood of God. But this, of course, refers to human blood, His infinitely precious blood, not
to some sort of “divine” blood. (For we must never confound the two natures; rather, that which is true
of either nature is always true of, and attributable to, His one undivided Person.) And as such, the
assembly is His; it is God the Son’s church. Yet, because of the fundamental truth of the Triunity
of the Godhead, the assembly is also God the Father’s and God the Holy Spirit’s.
Compare:
“And Simon Peter answering said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus
answering said to him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it
to thee, but my Father who is in the heavens. And I also, I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and
on this rock [upon the rock of Himself, upon the truth of His Person as the eternal Son] I will
build my assembly [it is His assembly, the assembly of God the Son], and hades’ gates shall
not prevail against it. . . From that time Jesus began to shew to his disciples that he must go
away to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be
killed, and the third day be raised.” (Matt. 16:16-18, 21)
“But if I delay, in order that thou mayest know how one ought to conduct oneself in God’s house,
which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth. And confessedly the
mystery of piety is great: God [or, ‘Who,’ ‘He who,’ the relative pronoun contextually referring
back to none other than God (referred to twice: ‘God,’ the ‘living God’) in the Person of God the
Son, who] has been manifested in flesh, has been justified in the Spirit, has appeared to
angels, has been preached among the nations, has been believed on in the world, has been
received up in glory.” (1 Tim. 3:15-16)
“He Who shed His blood for us was God. If the Saviour here was not God, His purchase would have
only a creature’s value, and must be wholly insufficient to acquire on God’s part the assembly as it
was, yea, as it is. Being a divine Person, His gaining it to Himself by blood has an infinite and eternal
efficacy.” (WK)
“Thus, if Jesus had not been a man, man had derived no such benefit as the gospel proclaims.
If He had not been God, the benefit could only have been human, earthly, and temporal. To
give such a boon as Christianity offers, He must be both God and man in the same person.
Again, if He had not died as man, there could have been no Christian redemption by blood. If
He who died had not been Divine, the value of blood-shedding had been only that of a
creature, and limited. To be infinite, not in person only, but in His sacrifice for us, He must be,
as Scripture declares He was, both God and man. . . . It is worthy of God to save the lost, but it is
only worthy of Him to save holily and righteously at all cost to Himself, at infinite cost, yet to save
freely of grace, and therefore by faith of His testimony that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. In every other scheme love is
lost, or righteousness is compromised, or guilty man is flattered. The cross of Christ alone
satisfies and harmonises all truth, meeting every want of man and every attribute of God. . . . It
[the divine-human Person of Christ] is the keystone of Christianity. Without it not only is its
salvation a myth but its morality is a cheat. For all is built on the capital truth that God in Divine love humbled Himself to become man and die for sinners, that He might save and bless the believer to the
uttermost, not by Christ only, but with Him.” (WK)
The following comments on the unique expression of “the Lord and Father” found in James 3:9 are
fitting as to the unique expression “the assembly of God which He has purchased with His own blood”
found here in Acts 20:28:
“There seems no sufficient ground then for doubting that ‘the Lord’ in the usual acceptation of the
term is here combined with ‘the Father’ [in James 3:9] as objects united in our praise [of one Divine
Person, namely the Father—literally, ‘the Lord and Father’]. That it is unusual, all admit; but so it is
in many a phrase of holy writ, that our narrowness of thought may be corrected and enlarged
out of the fulness of divine truth. On the other hand no one should stumble at predicating ‘Lord’ of
the Father, if such were the aim of the inspiring Spirit here. For though . . . He [Jesus] is in distinctive office one sole Lord, as the Father is simply in His nature one sole God (1 Cor. 8:6), it does not follow that ‘Lord’ may not be applied to the other Persons in the Godhead. Thus in 2 Cor. 3 it is predicated of the Spirit in the last clause of the last verse.” (WK)
Now compare the following passages where the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is explicitly called
very “God,” as in Acts 20:28 (and note that these are only a few examples setting forth His absolute
Deity; they do not include, e.g., all of those many NT scriptures wherein He is shown to be equal
and one with the Father in the unity of the divine nature, or “Lord” in the unmistakable and
inescapable sense of “Jehovah” or declared to be the Self-Existent, Ever Existing One, the “I AM”; nor
do they include all of those many OT scriptures which declare the coming Messiah as Jehovah
Himself, and/or which speak exclusively of the true God, Jehovah, and which the NT repeatedly and
methodically applies, throughout, to the Son as Jehovah, Jehovah-Messiah (Exod. 3:13-15; Deut.
10:17; 1 Kings 8:39; Neh. 9:6-7; Ps. 8:1-2; 34:8; 45:6; 68:18; 97:7; 102:25-27; 136:3; Isa. 6:1-10;
7:14; 8:8, 10, 13-14; 9:6-7; 28:16; 40:3, 10, 28; 43:10-11; 44:6, 24; 45:11-12; 45:22-23; 48:12-13; Jer.
17:10; Joel 2:32; Mic. 5:1b-5a; Zech. 11:12-13; 12:10; 13:7; Mal. 3:1; etc., etc.)):
“In the beginning was the Word [not ‘came into being’ in the beginning, but ever ‘was’ in the
beginning, and thus had no beginning], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and [to be even
more emphatic and absolute] without him not one thing [no exceptions: not a single thing!]
came into being which has come into being [that is, not one created thing exists apart from the
eternal Word bringing it into existence!].” (John 1:1-3)
“Then he says to Thomas, Bring thy finger here and see my hands; and bring thy hand and put it
into my side; and be not unbelieving, but believing. Thomas answered and said to him, My
Lord and my God. Jesus says to him, Because thou hast seen me thou hast believed:
blessed they who have not seen and have believed.” (John 20:27-29)
“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he himself shall save
his people from their sins. Now all this came to pass that that might be fulfilled which was spoken
by the Lord, through the prophet, saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring
forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is, being interpreted, ‘God with us.’”
(Matt. 1:21-23)
“Who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the law-giving,
and the service, and the promises; whose are the fathers; and of whom, as according to flesh,
is the Christ who is [literally, ‘the one being’] over all God blessed for ever. Amen.” (Rom. 9:4-
5)
“For let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus; who, subsisting in the form of
God, did not esteem it an object of rapine [as something to be snatched at or seized to His own
advantage or enrichment] to be on an equality with God; but emptied himself, in taking the
form of a servant, in being come in the likeness of men; and having been found in figure as a
man, humbled himself in becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross.
Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and granted him a name, that which is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of heavenly and earthly and infernal
beings, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord [that He is supreme Lord:
Jehovah, Jehovah-Jesus] to God the Father’s glory.” (Phil. 2:5-11)
“Awaiting the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus
Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify to
himself a peculiar people, zealous for good works.” (Tit. 2:13-14)
“But as to the Son [the Father says in Ps. 45:6], Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever, and
a sceptre of uprightness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. . . . And [as to the Son, the Father says in
Ps. 102:25-27], Thou in the beginning, Lord [Jehovah, the Self-Existent, Uncreated, Ever
Existing, Eternal One, who caused the ‘beginning’ of all things to begin], hast founded the earth,
and works of thy hands are the heavens. They shall perish, but thou continuest still; and they
all shall grow old as a garment, and as a covering shalt thou roll them up, and they shall be
changed; but thou art the Same [another Divine title of the only true God, Jehovah, meaning ‘the
self-existent one who does not change,’ in contrast to all creatures who are such as are indeed
changeable], and thy years shall not fail.” (Heb. 1:8, 10-12)
“For every house is built by someone; but he [Christ, the Son] who has built all things is God
[as demonstrated in Heb. 1].” (Heb. 3:4)
“Simon Peter, bondman and apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have received like precious
faith with us through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ.” (2 Pet. 1:1)
“But if I delay, in order that thou mayest know how one ought to conduct oneself in God’s house,
which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth. And confessedly the
mystery of piety is great: God [or, ‘Who,’ ‘He who,’ the relative pronoun contextually referring
back to none other than God (referred to twice: ‘God,’ the ‘living God’) in the Person of God the
Son, who] has been manifested in flesh, has been justified in the Spirit, has appeared to
angels, has been preached among the nations, has been believed on in the world, has been
received up in glory.” (1 Tim. 3:15-16)
“And the life has been manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and report to you the
eternal life [the eternal Son], which was with the Father, and has been manifested to us . . .
And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding that we should
know him that is true; and we are in him that is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true
God and eternal life. Children, keep yourselves from idols.” (1 John 1:2; 5:20-21)
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon his
shoulder; and his name is called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God**, Father of eternity [or,
‘Father of the age,’ of the coming age, the Millennial Kingdom age], Prince of Peace. Of the
increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and
over his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with judgment and with righteousness, from
henceforth even for ever. The zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this.” (Isa. 9:6-7)
[**‘Mighty God,’ as in Isa. 10:21; 42:13; Jer. 32:18; Neh. 9:32; Deut. 10:17—a Divine Title of
Jehovah: El Gibbor, God the Mighty, the Hebrew word Gibbor (‘Mighty’) meaning Masterful Hero,
Warrior, Champion; and is thus distinct from and in no sense a comparative to the selfsame
Jehovah’s other Divine Title: El Shaddai, God the Almighty, the Hebrew word Shaddai (‘Almighty’)
meaning All-Powerful, All-Sufficient—which Divine Title intrinsically belongs likewise to the
Omnipotent Jehovah-Jesus, the First and the Last, He who is the Alpha and the Omega, the Lord
God Almighty (Rev. 1:8 with 22:12-13; 1:17 and 2:8).]
