Day 1116: Salvation comes through faith - Acts 11 vs 1 – 18

1-3 Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

4-8 But Peter began and explained it to them in order: “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. And I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ But I said, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9-10 But the voice answered a second time from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. 11-12 And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. 13-14 And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon who is called Peter; he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’

15-17 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?” 18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.” Acts 11:1-18 English Standard Version.

We see in vs 1-3 something of the problem that plagued the early Church for many years. Jewish converts to Christianity were troubled by hearing the report of gentiles receiving God's message of salvation. Peter was criticized for going to such people and eating with them. Paul also had to deal with such people, as indicated by Galatians 2:14, where Paul challenged Peter, saying “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?” That was after certain men arrived from James, and Peter and Barnabas were carried away because they feared those who belonged to the circumcision group.

But at this stage of events Peter readily explained to the Jews the vision he'd received, and the voice he had heard saying: ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ He went on to tell of how at that moment, three men from Caesarea had arrived at his doorstep to ask him to come to Caesarea. And he goes on to testify how six brothers went with him, and they all saw how the Holy Spirit was given to the gentiles even as he preached. The initial response was one of praise to God, saying “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.” A breakthrough moment was reached.

The fact that Cornelius is not mentioned again shows that the issue here was wider than him. God was showing the Church that salvation is by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law. Paul would later write to people in Galatia that “before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. The law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:23-28) This was the real issue which God was showing the Church. But it would still take time to sink in.