Acts 3:26

26. Unto you first See note on Matthew 10:5. To the Jews, as the ancient theocracy, the Gospel was to be first presented that they might be the main body of the theocracy still. Christ was their birthright until they had fully rejected him. But when they fully, like Judas, betrayed and rejected him, like Judas they were cast away and another came into the birthright. The churchdom, the covenant, all the promises, went to the heirs by faith, who now became the true Israel.

First Implying that Jesus would be sent to the Gentiles next. Peter fully understood from the teachings of Jesus that the Gentiles should be called; the real error of the apostles was the supposition that the Gentiles were to be circumcised and become Jews. (See note on Acts 10:1.)

Turning… every one of you It was a weak cavil of the Jewish advocate Orobio that Jesus could not be Messiah because he did not, as according to this passage, turn every one of them from sin. The same sophism is persistently used by modern Universalism. It ignores the fact that even according to the Old Testament (for instance, Ezekiel 33:11) the purposes of God’s mercy, being conditional upon man’s consent, are often not fulfilled. Christ was sent to turn them under proviso, often expressed and always implied, that they consent to be turned. They cannot turn unless he turn them; he cannot turn them unless they turn.