That You May Know / Acts 10, 11 & 15
Cornelius was saved before he was baptized.
Peter preached forgiveness through faith in Jesus. While he was still speaking, God gave Cornelius and his household the Holy Spirit. Then Peter had them baptized.
Peter later explained why God gave them the Spirit: He had already cleansed their hearts by faith.
Acts 10
What happened at Cornelius's house
Cornelius was a Gentile, a man who wasn't Jewish. Peter was one of Jesus's apostles. God brought them together to settle a question the Jewish believers hadn't yet answered.
Up to this point, only circumcised believers had joined the Christian movement. The Jewish believers still did not know whether God would accept uncircumcised Gentiles without requiring them to become Jews first. He brought Peter and Cornelius together through visions, then demonstrated His answer beyond dispute.
Read Acts 10:42–48 in context
And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. 43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his Name.
While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, "Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" And he commanded them to be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.
Peter preaches forgiveness through faith.
To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his Name.
Acts 10:43In Greek, "everyone who believes in Him" stands in an emphatic position. Peter's point is universal: everyone who believes is saved. That fits the context, because God is bringing Gentiles into His people through faith.
The Holy Spirit falls on the Gentiles.
While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.
Acts 10:44Peter was willing to baptize these Gentiles because the miraculous evidence of the Holy Spirit showed that God had already saved them.[Acts 15:9]
This proved that Gentiles did not need to become Jews. God accepted them on the basis of their faith in Jesus alone, apart from any religious work or rite.
Peter recognizes what God has done.
Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?
Acts 10:47Why could Peter baptize the Gentile believers? Because God had cleansed them by faith and given them the Spirit.
Peter commands their baptism.
And he commanded them to be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ.
Acts 10:48Baptism is God's testimony to us, communicated through the Church, that He has accepted us. In baptism, God publicly marks us as His children!
More about baptism below
Acts 11 & 15
Peter explained what it meant.
When Peter got back to Jerusalem, other Jewish believers challenged him for going into a Gentile home and eating with the people there. Peter told them what had happened.
God gave them the same gift when they believed.
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?
Acts 11:17
This is the same "gift of the Holy Spirit" Peter promised in Acts 2:38. He says that the Gentile believers and even the Apostles themselves received it when they "believed in the Lord Jesus Christ" (11:17).
That is why the Apostles reached a conclusion that surprised them: God had granted the Gentiles "repentance unto life." Luke uses repentance to mean turning to God by believing in Jesus. The Gentiles therefore received life before and apart from either circumcision or baptism.
Read Acts 11:1–18 in context
Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, 3 "You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them." 4 But Peter began and explained it to them in order: 5 "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. 6 Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air. 7 And I heard a voice saying to me, 'Rise, Peter; kill and eat.' 8 But I said, 'By no means, Lord; for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.' 9 But the voice answered a second time from heaven, 'What God has made clean, do not call common.' 10 This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven. 11 And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. 12 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 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; 14 he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.' 15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' 17 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."
God had cleansed their hearts by faith.
And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.
Acts 15:8–9
Acts 15 expands on Acts 11, adding Peter's explanation that the gift of the Holy Spirit meant that God had accepted them and that their hearts were "cleansed" by faith (15:9).
Peter claimed that the Gentiles' hearts were purified by faith, just as the Apostles and other Jewish believers had been. This can only mean that their sins were forgiven through faith alone, because God purified their hearts after they believed the message but before they had done anything else. All this happened before they were baptized, and Peter said that the Gentiles were saved in the same way as the Jewish believers.
Read Acts 15:7–11 in context
7 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. 10 Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will."
Questions about this passage
A few objections
Was it only a miracle?
The objection: They received miraculous gifts before baptism, but that doesn't mean they received the indwelling Spirit or forgiveness.
Peter said the gift of the Spirit meant God had accepted them and cleansed their hearts by faith (Acts 15:8–9). Paul makes the same connection in Galatians 3.
The Galatians received the Spirit through faith alone. Paul treated the Spirit's presence as proof that they were saved and did not need circumcision. The Spirit was the proof of their salvation!
This passage also disproves the notion that someone can receive the sign-gifts of the Spirit without receiving the indwelling Spirit. Paul treats receiving the Spirit in verse 2 and God's working miracles in verse 5 as parallel evidence, then connects both to Abraham being counted righteous by faith.
Read Galatians 3:1–6 in context
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? 4 Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? 5 So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard? 6 So also Abraham "believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."
Was Cornelius a one-time exception?
The objection: God made an exception to establish Gentile inclusion. That doesn't change the requirement for everyone else.
Any claim that the Gentiles in Acts 10 were a one-time exception is simply incorrect. Peter said the same two things were true of the Gentiles and the Jewish believers:
- They were saved in the same way: through faith.
- They were saved at the same moment in each case: when they believed.
Then why baptize them?
The question: If God had already accepted them, what did their baptism accomplish?
Baptism is God's testimony to us, communicated through the Church, that He has accepted us. In baptism, God publicly marks us as His children! Baptism is HUGELY important because it is the work of God, rather than the work of man. It is theologically unsound, and also a downright shame, to reduce baptism to a religious procedure (a work of man!) by which we obtain God's grace.
What this means
God had already accepted them.
Cornelius and his household received the Holy Spirit before baptism. Peter said God had cleansed their hearts by faith, and that God saved them the same way He saved the Jewish believers.
They were baptized because God had accepted them. Their acceptance came through faith in Jesus.
From the Acts 10–15 discussion in That You May Know, by Toby Wilson.