Acts 13:38 in the King James Version reads, “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.”

This sentence sits inside Paul’s synagogue sermon at Antioch in Pisidia, where he addresses Jews and “men and brethren” who know the Scriptures and are waiting for the fulfillment of God’s promises. The words “Be it known unto you therefore” signal a conclusion drawn from everything Paul has just rehearsed: Israel’s history, God’s covenant dealings, the coming of the promised Saviour from David’s line, the rejection and death of Jesus in Jerusalem, and then the decisive claim that God raised him from the dead. Acts 13:38 is not a detached slogan; it is the announced meaning of the resurrection and of Jesus’ identity. Paul is saying that the events he has proclaimed are not merely news about the past but God’s present message to the listeners: because of who Jesus is and what God has done in him, forgiveness is now being publicly preached to them.

The phrase “through this man” is strikingly plain. Paul calls Jesus “this man” not to diminish him, but to emphasize the concrete, historical, and personal channel by which God is acting. Forgiveness is not presented as an idea, a ritual, or a general divine mood, but as something mediated “through” a particular person. In the immediate context Paul has identified Jesus as the one God raised up, the one who is connected to David’s promise, and the one who saw no corruption. So “this man” carries the weight of God’s fulfillment of Scripture in a living, identifiable figure. It also underscores a major theme in Acts: God’s salvation is accomplished in history and proclaimed in the present through the apostles’ witness to Jesus.

“Is preached unto you” highlights the way this forgiveness comes to them. It is proclaimed. It is announced. In Acts, preaching is not merely moral instruction; it is heralding what God has done and summoning a response of faith. The very form of the sentence has the tone of a royal proclamation: know this, brothers—this is what God is now declaring to you. The audience is not asked first to climb toward God by works; rather, God comes near to them by a message. The gospel moves outward from Jerusalem to the nations, and here it lands on their ears as an act of divine disclosure.

The heart of the verse is “the forgiveness of sins.” In the Old Testament background that Paul’s hearers would know, sin is not only personal failure but covenant-breaking guilt that separates people from God and brings condemnation. Forgiveness, therefore, is not shallow indulgence; it is the removal of guilt, the canceling of debt, the restoration of fellowship, and the lifting of judgment. In a synagogue setting, where the Law of Moses and the pattern of sacrifice were familiar, the word “forgiveness” would echo the entire sacrificial system’s aim—yet Paul is about to press an even more provocative point in the next verse, that believers are “justified from all things” in a way the Law could not accomplish. Acts 13:38 is the doorway into that claim: forgiveness is being preached now, and it is grounded “through this man,” not through the Law’s capacity to render a final clearing of guilt.

The verse also carries the theme of accessibility. Paul says forgiveness is preached “unto you.” That direct address matters. The sermon is not an abstract theological lecture; it is a personal offer and announcement to the listeners in that room. In Acts, the gospel repeatedly confronts hearers with the nearness of God’s saving action: the promise is not only for another generation, or only for Jerusalem, or only for an elite class, but is being spoken to ordinary “men and brethren.” The tone conveys invitation and urgency: what was promised, what was accomplished, is now being set before them.

Symbolically, the sermon’s movement into this verse is like passing from shadow to substance. The history of Israel, the covenant promises, David’s throne, and the Scriptures read each Sabbath are like a long road that leads to a single point. “Through this man” names the point. The forgiveness of sins is the destination the Law and the prophets pointed toward, but now it is proclaimed as arrived in Jesus. The resurrection, which Paul has insisted upon just before this verse, stands as God’s public vindication that Jesus truly is the one through whom forgiveness can be preached with authority. If death is the wage of sin, then a risen Saviour speaks powerfully to the reality that sin’s claim is being answered and overturned by God’s act.

The significance of Acts 13:38, then, is that it condenses the gospel into an announcement of pardon grounded in Christ’s person and God’s saving work. It declares that forgiveness is not earned, discovered, or assumed, but preached—made known—because God has acted. It frames Christianity, at its core, not first as a new law or a reformed morality, but as a message of remission offered “through this man,” Jesus, to those who hear. In the flow of Acts, it marks the widening of that message to new regions and new hearers, while remaining anchored in the same central claim: the forgiveness of sins is now proclaimed in Christ.