And Peter opening his mouth said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons,
Peter is standing inside a Roman officer's house, a place he had always believed a Jew must not enter. His first words there correct his own thinking about God: who He accepts, on what basis, and how far the gospel now reaches.
Older translations render Peter's words as "God is no respecter of persons." He is not stating something he had always believed. He is dropping something he had believed wrongly.
Peter's opening words then are precious… Clearly he had himself thought that God was a respecter of persons, because his upbringing gave Israelites a higher place in God's sight than all other nations. In the church of God all of this must be completely levelled, and God used this miraculous way to press that truth on Peter.
"In every nation" is not about geography for its own sake. It marks how far God's blessing now reaches.
It is a question now of the grace of God going out world-wide; wherever there is a soul looking to God, that is the soul God will bless… Peter knew full well that Jesus was Lord of the Jews, but it never seemed to have sunk into his soul before that He was Lord of all.
One word here needs care. Writers say "accepted" is not the best rendering.
Peter now knows the truth. He has learned the lesson of the great sheet. As he says, in every nation anyone who fears Him and does what is right is "accepted" with Him — or, as it should be, "acceptable," or "well pleasing to Him." Acceptance rests on completely different ground, as we learn from Ephesians 1:6. This was a completely new lesson to Peter.
Cornelius feared God and did what was right. Commentators read that as a real work already begun in him, not as a man earning his way in.
It is plain that the call did not go out to a pagan idolater. Peter speaks here of a man who already feared God and did what is right. Cornelius was not an unconverted soul. He truly feared God, and he was full of prayer and giving to the poor. Of course, self-righteous prayer or giving could not have commended him to God… In going out to the Gentiles, it was wise and most gracious of the Lord to begin with someone no Jew could deny was godly.
Cornelius already knew the message God had sent to Israel. So why did he not claim it for himself?
Cornelius knew the gospel had gone out to the children of Israel. But he was a humble believer, and that is exactly why he did not claim the blessing for himself. The very essence of faith is this: you do not run ahead of God. You receive what He sends, and in the way He sends it.
Peter's words open a door. Writers are careful to mark what those words do not yet say.
Peter has at last seen that God shows no partiality. In every nation anyone who fears Him and does what is right is accepted with Him. This goes no further than admitting that blessing is for Gentiles as truly as for Jews. The truth of the one body had not yet been made known, and Paul was the honoured administrator of it… Peter went no further than admitting Gentiles to an equal place with the Jews: "God gave them the same gift as He gave to us."
What Peter learned about God cuts both ways for the reader.
Without respect of persons, God tells you that you are a sinner, and without respect of persons that His grace is toward you.
The same rule shapes how believers treat one another.
But "God shows no partiality" (Acts 10:34). And God's Word must govern the Church. She does not make it; she is taught by it. It says, "If you show partiality, you are committing sin" (James 2:9).
- Unlearned — Peter had once thought God ranked nations. His upbringing put Israel above the rest, and God levelled it.
- Acceptable — the better rendering is "acceptable" or "well pleasing." Acceptance itself rests on different ground, taught in Ephesians 1:6.
- Prepared — God began with a man already fearing Him and praying, someone no Jew could call ungodly.
- Restrained — Cornelius knew the message sent to Israel, yet he would not claim it. Faith receives what God sends. It does not run ahead of Him.
- Extended — the verse gives Gentiles an equal place, and no more. The God who shows no partiality forbids partiality in His people.
but in every nation he that fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him.
Peter had just seen a vision that overturned a lifetime of religious training, and now he stands in a Roman officer's house and says what he has learned. Two questions follow: does God treat all nations alike, and can anyone be "acceptable" to Him before hearing about Christ?
Peter's opening sentence is a confession as much as a statement. It reveals what he had believed until that morning.
Peter's opening words then are precious: "Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him." Clearly he had himself thought that God showed partiality, for his upbringing had given Israelites a higher place in God's sight than every other nationality. In the church of God all of this must be completely levelled. God used this miraculous way of pressing such truth on Peter.
Older English translations end this verse with "accepted." That can sound like a settled standing before God. One writer corrects the word, and points to different ground for a Christian's acceptance.
Peter now knows the truth. He has learned the lesson of the great sheet, as he says: "But in every nation he that fears Him and works righteousness is accepted with Him." It should be "acceptable," or "well pleasing to Him." Acceptance is on totally different grounds, as we learn from Ephesians 1:6. This was an entirely new lesson to Peter.
The ESV already reads "acceptable to Him."
Some have read this line as proof that sincere living earns salvation without the gospel. One writer answered that idea head-on.
"So to live that he might be saved" at once shows ignorance of the ways of God in grace — in fact, of the gospel, as regards Christ's work. "Right convictions and good practice" is not gospel. Is he born again? Acts 17:27 does not say a word about the Spirit's acting. Acts 10:35 says only that the man who is such and such is accepted. It was merely that blessing was not confined to the Jews, as is clear when you read the passage.
If God finds anything pleasing in a person, where did it come from? One writer traces it back to God Himself.
He now fully realizes that in every nation he that fears God and works righteousness is acceptable to Him. How could He indeed ignore what is but the fruit of His own work in the soul, wherever it is found?
Cornelius already prayed and gave to the poor. Yet he still had to send for a preacher. One writer draws a line here between being alive toward God and being saved.
But it is a mistake to suppose that Cornelius was a mere self-righteous formalist before Peter went to his house in Caesarea. He feared God, and his prayer and his alms came up as a memorial before Him. Cornelius already had eternal life. Yet he needed to hear words from the apostle, so that he and all his house should be saved. Salvation is more than being made alive. It is the conscious possession of the deliverance the gospel now announces, won through the work of Christ. Cornelius may have been safe before; he was saved after he received the message of grace and the gift of the Spirit.
God's own instruction to him was not to do something, but to hear something. The promise quoted comes from Acts 11:14, which the ESV renders "a message by which you will be saved."
What God tells Cornelius to do is to listen to "words, whereby you and all your house shall be saved." Many souls think that if they are to be saved, it is by works of some kind. But when God opens the way to the Gentiles, He rules out the thought of works. He says to this anxious man: send for my messenger, who shall "tell you words."
This verse had a practical outcome: a non-Jew did not have to become a Jew first. One writer also marks the limits of what Peter's vision revealed.
Peter's vision did not reveal the assembly as the body of Christ, neither did the admission of Cornelius. They only showed that in every nation the person who feared God was acceptable to Him. In a word, the favour of God was not limited to the Jews, and no one needed to become a Jew to share the salvation that is in Christ.
- Levelled. Peter's upbringing had placed Israel above every other nation. In the church of God that ground must be level.
- Acceptable. The word means "acceptable," or "well pleasing," rather than "accepted." A Christian's acceptance stands on totally different ground.
- God's fruit. What God finds pleasing in a man of any nation is what He Himself produced in that soul; He will not ignore His own work.
- Words, not works. Cornelius already prayed and gave, yet God told him to send for a preacher. Words to hear, not works to do.
- Door open. The result: no one has to become a Jew first. The favour of God is not fenced within one nation.
The word which he sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, (*he* is Lord of all things,)
Peter is standing in the house of Cornelius, a Roman officer. He sums up God's whole message to the world — peace, through Jesus Christ — and then adds five words that break every boundary he grew up with.
The verse does not say people must find peace. It says God sent the word and preached it. That reverses the way many people think about getting right with God.
How often are souls urged to make their peace with God! The truth is that Christ has made peace, and God has been proclaiming it in the gospel for more than 1800 years. The poor sinner has only to believe... Nothing but the blood of Christ, the Son of God's love, could make peace with a holy and righteous God. But the work is done and God has accepted it. Now God Himself proclaims it, and He wants you to receive it. "Preaching peace by Jesus Christ," said the apostle Peter in the house of Cornelius.
Peter names one source of peace: Jesus Christ. That matters for anyone who keeps checking their own progress for proof of peace.
So many live in miserable uncertainty because they do not rest in absolute faith on God's foundation. They are taken up with themselves instead of building on Christ alone. They are looking to experience rather than to a risen Saviour... God did not send peace to the children of Israel by spiritual experiences or by religious exercises. He does not send it to us Gentiles that way either. He sends peace by Jesus Christ alone.
Peter tells Cornelius he already knows this message. His own honesty was what kept him from claiming it.
You can see that a man might be godly and still not know the privileges of Christianity... Cornelius was not ignorant of this word. He had also heard that God was preaching peace through Jesus Christ. But it was "to the children of Israel." So why did Cornelius not get peace? For a beautiful reason. He was just and upright, and he knew he was not in the favoured circle of Israel. So he judged it was not for him.
The words in brackets are not decoration. They are the hinge the whole scene turns on.
He reminds them that they knew of the word of God sent to Israel by Jesus Christ. He is the One who preached peace in the middle of the strife and confusion of the nation. The parenthesis he adds, "He is Lord of all," shows that the message was not for Israel alone.
Peter had seen this majesty with his own eyes, and the memory breaks into his sermon.
Then we have the short but delightfully expressive parenthesis — "He is Lord of all." The apostle had heard the voice "from the excellent glory" telling the Father's delight in Christ. He had been an eyewitness "of His majesty." So he breaks off his talk to Cornelius, as it were, to express his heartfelt appreciation of the universal supremacy of his Lord.
Peter had preached Jesus as Israel's Messiah. Under the title "Lord," the national line disappears — and a personal demand appears.
He is Lord, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. His place as Messiah did apply more to the Jew, who had the holy writings, with their prophecies announcing the coming of the Messiah. But when we consider Him from the point of view of His Lordship, then all other distinctions vanish. He is Lord of the Jew, but He is equally Lord of the Gentile... If I turn to the Lord I shall at once admit myself to be under His authority. My place is subjection beneath His mighty Word.
Commentators tie this universal title to the resurrection. The risen Christ is beyond the borders that divide people here.
Jesus, risen from the dead, is Lord of all, not merely of the Jews. He is the Lord of all men and all things, for all things are put under His feet... Jesus, walking through this world, was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But risen from the dead, the Saviour has no national limits. There is no Gentile or Jew beyond the grave. Here there are geographical distinctions that mark people off from one another. Beyond the grave there are none — and that is where the Lord of glory is.
It also reaches into the future.
He is Lord of all, and you, my friend, will have to give an account to Him hereafter.
- Sent — God is the one who sends and preaches. Peace is not something people negotiate; it is news delivered.
- Made — the peace preached was already made by the blood of Christ. Believing it, not producing it, is the sinner's part.
- Through Christ — not through feelings, progress, or religious effort. Peace is only as steady as the foundation it rests on.
- Lord of all — those bracketed words carried the message past Israel's borders. They reached a Roman officer's house, and everyone since.
- All means you — if He is Lord of all, He is your Lord: today for peace, and one day for an account.
*ye* know; the testimony which has spread through the whole of Judaea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism which John preached --
Peter is in the house of Cornelius, telling a room of Gentiles that they already know the story. The verse says where that story ran and when it began — so why did Cornelius still need Peter to come?
Peter opens with news, not with new facts. God had sent that word to Israel — yet these Gentiles had heard it too.
The grace of God was now about to flow richly beyond the boundaries of Israel. Yet God had sent that word about Jesus Christ, Himself present among men, to the children of Israel only. Still, that word had spread widely through Galilee and Judea. Cornelius and his friends lived in those parts, so they knew all about it. They knew well the things that happened in the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth.
"Judea" here does not mean one small province. The word covers the whole land.
"Judea." This seems to stand for the whole land of Israel, as it clearly does in Acts 10:37, and in the Gospel at Luke 6:17, Luke 7:17, and Luke 23:5.
The starting point matters. Peter names a district in the north that people despised, a region named after the Gentiles.
This message was spoken of throughout Judea. It began from despised Galilee of the Gentiles, after the baptism which John preached. We read of it in Mark 1:14-15, where the Lord Himself called men to repent and believe the gospel. It is the only salvation for the Jew — and for the Gentile when he is called later, as Cornelius now began to be.
Peter dates the start from John's baptism. Commentators differ on which stretch of ministry the phrase covers. One reading ties it to the moment John went to prison:
The public testimony, or preaching, of our Lord began after John's imprisonment, and it began from Galilee. But this passage shows that before that He was gathering disciples by private teaching, and His disciples were baptising.
Another reading points back to an earlier work in the south that the Gospels do not record:
Early in His ministry He preached the gospel so widely that in Judea He "was making and baptizing more disciples than John" (John 4:1). We have no record of this huge campaign, and the scale of its success was amazing. Peter appears to point to it when he says that the word God sent, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, spread throughout all Judea (Acts 10:37).
Cornelius already had the facts. So what did a God-fearing man like him still lack?
He had the fear of God, and faith in Him. He even knew certain facts about Christ's ministry on earth. Yet he was not saved until he heard and believed the good news of the risen Christ and forgiveness in His name. Then God delivered him right out of the old world system that had held him, and brought him to Himself.
What he lacked was not information but permission.
As Acts 10:37 tells us, he knew very well the word that had spread through all Judea and was sent to the children of Israel. What he wanted was to learn on authority that God meant the same word of His grace for himself, a Gentile, and for others like him. He wanted it in all the freeness and fullness of the gospel. He did not dare take it without God's approval. He saw it clearly enough for Israel, whom he honoured as the old and chosen people of God.
- Known. Peter starts from what his Gentile hearers already knew. The life and death of Jesus were public news across the land, not a private tradition.
- Begun. The message dates from John's baptism and started in Galilee — a despised region named after the Gentiles.
- Bounded. God sent that word to Israel, and it ran through Judea — a name that here covers the whole land, not one province.
- Not enough. Cornelius knew the account, but knowing it did not save him. He had to hear and believe the message of the risen Christ and forgiveness in His name.
- Released. He needed authority to claim as a Gentile what he had only ever seen as Israel's. Peter's visit gave him that.
Jesus who [was] of Nazareth how God anointed him with [the] Holy Spirit and with power; who went through [all quarters] doing good, and healing all that were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.
Peter is in the home of Cornelius, a Gentile, telling the people there what Jesus did in Judea. He sums up a whole public life in one line: God anointed Him, He went through the land doing good, and He broke the devil's hold on people.
The audience matters here. Peter is speaking to non-Jews, and the love he describes did more than speak:
Peter carefully adds that Jesus is Lord not of the Jews only but of all. Jesus of Nazareth is the object of faith, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit and power. He had come — the One that everyone anointed by God in figure had pointed to. The love of God to sinful man was clear in Him, and that love worked real deliverance; for He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with Him.
What did the anointing do for a Person who was already perfect?
The Holy Spirit's coming down on the Lord Jesus did not in any sense add to His perfection. He was as perfect before as afterwards; but it was in connection with His service on earth. It was God, as it were, setting His mark upon Him, and sealing Him for His work.
There is a reason He waited for it:
It was not that anything was lacking in Jesus. In the first place, as God, He could have done all things, but He had humbled Himself, and had come to obey. So only when called and anointed does He present Himself in public.
One writer looks closely at the word Peter uses for "power":
Here we have a definite, official designation of our Lord, and more is added: "with power." Could the horn of oil used to anoint David be what suggested the power? The word for power here is not the one usually translated "authority." It is the ordinary word for strength or might. So our Lord was not only designated for His work, but also qualified for it.
Put His course beside every other man's:
Others "loved the darkness" (John 3:19); He "loved righteousness" (Hebrews 1:9). Scripture says of men, "no one does good, not even one" (Rom. 3:12); but He "went about doing good" (Acts 10:38). Men were marked by "following their own sinful desires" (Jude 16, Eph. 2). He came for one thing: to do the will of God (Heb. 10:9).
The healings measure how far His power reached — and how man answered it:
Here was One, a man, wielding power enough to deliver man from all the effects of sin. The sick He healed — healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him — power working in goodness. And what was the effect? They would not have Him. On earth the Lord had power to remove the effects of Satan's power. But behind those effects was man's heart, and it could ask Him to depart.
This last clause guards against a false picture of God — as if the Son were kind and the Father were not:
Some people have the idea that Jesus came into the world to do a work that would turn God's heart towards man. They link goodness, grace, kindness and love with Jesus, while they see God as hard and demanding. That thought needs to go, for it is neither the gospel nor the truth of God. Jesus was here, but God sent Him... He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, but it was because God was with Him.
The verse is not only a record. It is also a shape for Christian life:
The Holy Spirit has joined us who are Christians to Christ. We are made and shaped for this: to be down here in this world reproducing what Christ is... I once heard a complaint from one dear sister. The Christians she knew, she said, seemed to think of nothing but going to meetings, and never seemed to have time to do any good works. I wonder if we are like that? How many poor do you care for and visit?
- Anointed — God marked and sealed Jesus for His work. The anointing added nothing to His perfection; it fit the servant's place He had taken.
- Empowered — "With power" means strength for the task, not just a title. He was designated, and He was also qualified.
- Good — In a world where no one does good, His whole course was doing good. That is love that acts, not love that only speaks.
- Delivering — His power reached every effect of sin and the devil's oppression. Yet the very people He healed could still ask Him to leave.
- Sent — "God was with Him" tells us the kindness was God's own. He was not a Son softening a hard Father. And that life is now the pattern we are left here to reproduce.
*We* also [are] witnesses of all things which he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem; whom they also slew, having hanged him on a cross.
Peter is standing in a Gentile home — a house of people outside Israel. He tells them the story of Jesus. They had heard the reports from a distance, but no one had ever offered them a share in Him. His summary of that life ends on a tree.
Peter is not passing on a rumour. He is telling what he saw. Everyone in the region could have seen the same things. So he can appeal to what his hearers already know.
He went about doing good, and Peter and his companions were witnesses of it; yet He was killed, hanged on a tree. All of this was public, well-known fact — he could say to his audience, "You know." But Cornelius and his relatives and close friends had never before heard that they had any interest in that blessed One. They knew His path among the Jews, and how He was presented to them; but they were Gentiles!
The evidence was open and public. So no one could plead ignorance for the rejection that followed.
The love of God for sinful man was clear in Him, and that love brought real deliverance. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with Him. He was the true Messiah. But in Himself and in His work He was more than that beyond all measure, and His rejection showed it most clearly. Yet there was ample testimony to Him before that rejection, so that man was without excuse.
One writer hears in Peter's summary the name Matthew opens his gospel with. He reads the whole sermon as three steps.
In the space of one short verse (Acts 10:38) Peter brings out the truth that Matthew opens with and unfolds in his gospel: "They shall call his name Immanuel (which means, God with us)." The preaching in the house of Cornelius brings three great truths before us: first, "God with us"; then "God for us"; and third, "God in us." God with us was the whole life of Jesus... Peter does not accuse his hearers of any share in the crime of killing Jesus. Even so, he states the truth.
The verse puts kindness and killing side by side without explaining the jump. Commentators locate the reason not in Jesus but in the human heart.
Why did man reject Christ, except that man hated God? That was the only reason men killed Christ in this world. They hated God, and therefore they hated Him. They hated the light... And this is their sin, that they have put the Light out of the world... Even Pilate said, "I find no guilt in him." The world has sinned against God in crucifying and killing Jesus. They hated God. So when God sent His Son into the world in love, they turned Him out.
Peter does not just say that Jesus died. He says how: on a tree. That way of dying carried a specific meaning in the law of Moses.
The curse the law pronounced was a perfectly just sentence... In the days of Moses, the curse belonged in a special way to the one who died as a lawbreaker by hanging on a tree. Many a person in ancient times read Deuteronomy 21:23 and may have wondered why the curse went with death on a tree, and not with death by any other means, such as stoning or the sword. Now we know. In due time the Redeemer was to bear the curse for others, honouring the law by hanging on a tree.
Peter's wording changes with his hearers. To Israel he presses home their guilt. To scattered believers he points to the same tree where Jesus bore their sins.
Peter brings home to Israel their guilt in crucifying the One whom God has made both Lord and Christ... When speaking to Cornelius, Peter referred to the Jews hanging Jesus on a tree. But when writing to the Jews scattered abroad he said, "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree." Israel was guilty. Yet there was also "the definite plan and foreknowledge of God," and the wonderful grace that dealt with the question of our sins so that we might be forgiven.
- Seen — Peter preaches as an eyewitness. His hearers already knew the facts, so no one could call the rejection ignorance.
- Good — the life summed up here is "God with us": going about doing good, healing all oppressed by the devil.
- Hated — men met that good with death. The reason lies in man, not in Christ: they hated the light and put it out of the world.
- Cursed — "on a tree" is not a small detail. Deuteronomy 21:23 marked that death as the place of the curse, and there the Redeemer bore it.
- Purposed — the same cross exposes human guilt and carries out God's definite plan, so that God could forgive our sins.
This [man] God raised up the third day and gave him to be openly seen,
Peter is standing in a Roman officer's house in Caesarea. He is speaking to Gentiles about a Jewish Messiah they knew only from a distance. His summary turns on one line. Men killed Jesus; God raised Him and let Him be seen — but only by a small circle.
The verse follows Peter's words about men killing Jesus and hanging Him on a tree. Two opposite acts stand side by side. The second is God's reply to the first.
Here we get the second wonderful truth, that is, God for us. The One whom man refused, God raised up, and put into glory.
Peter had just told this household that they already knew the public facts about Jesus. The resurrection was different. People at the time denied it.
The death of Jesus had been a public spectacle, and everybody knew about it. Only a few had seen His resurrection. Common report denied it, and the religious authorities backed that denial, as we learn from Matthew 28:11-15. So Peter now announced the astonishing news. God had raised the crucified Jesus from the dead. He and his fellow apostles had seen Him themselves, eaten with Him, and received from Him a command about what they were to preach to others.
The word "people" here is not humanity in general. In Peter's speech it means one nation. That limit points to something God was starting.
"Not to all the people" — notice that "the people" here always means the Jewish people only. God was now forming a new people altogether.
The list of those who met the risen Christ is worth reading against the list of those who condemned Him. The two lists do not overlap.
The risen Lord showed Himself to certain of His disciples (John 21:1), but not to any of His enemies. He appeared to men like Peter and John, Thomas and Cleopas. He did not appear to Annas and Caiaphas, Pilate and Herod, or to any of their followers.
The risen Christ ate and drank with His followers. Those meals met a need — but not His own.
He whom they killed on a tree ate and drank with His own after He rose from the dead. He did not need the food. They needed the testimony that He was alive from the dead — a truly risen Man, who had loved His own in the world, and loved them to the utmost.
If this one fact fails, nothing else in the message stands.
The resurrection is what the gospel turns on and what clinches it. If unbelief still holds out against its testimony, what could be clearer? Man hates both the love and the truth of God, and will not be saved at any price.
The resurrection is not only a wonder in itself. Read backwards, it tells you what God thought of the death that came three days earlier.
At the moment of His death Christ accomplished atonement. He bore the sinner's sins, and was made sin so that we might escape its consequences. He sacrificed Himself, and so infinitely glorified God. What was the result? God raised Him up. So I can tell you of a risen, triumphant, victorious Saviour. That is the Saviour I know. He triumphed over sin, Satan, death, the grave, and the power of darkness; and as the risen man He lives before God.
- Man's verdict — men killed Him and hanged Him on a tree. That is where Peter's account starts.
- God's reversal — the One man refused, God raised up and put into glory.
- God's proof — the raising shows that the atoning death satisfied God. The Saviour Peter preaches is alive and victorious.
- God's witnesses — He appeared to a chosen few: His own, not His judges. They ate and drank with Him because they needed the certainty.
- God's new people — "the people" means the Jewish nation. That limit shows God was forming a new people, which is why a Roman household is hearing this at all.
not of all the people, but of witnesses who were chosen before of God, *us* who have eaten and drunk with him after he arose from among [the] dead.
Peter is in the home of Cornelius, a man who is not Jewish, telling him what God did with the Jesus that men had killed. One detail stands out: God did not show the risen Christ to everyone, but only to a few chosen men who ate with Him after He rose.
The word "people" here does not mean everyone. Peter uses it in one narrow sense, and that sense points to something new God was doing.
"The people" here always means the Jewish people only. So the risen Christ appeared "not to all the people" — because God was now forming a new people altogether.
Before the cross, everyone saw Jesus. After it, no enemy did. The reason was mercy, not fear.
If our Lord had publicly appeared to His enemies, it would have meant destruction to them. Instead of confronting them with their evil deeds, to their utter confusion and destruction, He commissioned His disciples to preach the gospel, beginning at Jerusalem, the very city of His murderers.
That silence toward His adversaries is not permanent. One writer names the men on both sides of the line and points to the day when the second group will see Him too.
The risen Lord showed Himself to some of His disciples, but not to any of His enemies. He appeared to men like Peter and John, Thomas and Cleopas, but not to Annas and Caiaphas, Pilate and Herod, or any of their followers. His enemies judged Him unjustly, and He humbly submitted to that judgment. Yet by His own word before the Jewish council (Matthew 26:64), they will still "see the Son of Man" on the day He appears, when He comes with clouds of glory and majesty to judge all evildoers.
The verse says God chose these witnesses. One writer asks what that word can mean once God is the one choosing.
Does not the use of the word here prove its meaning? Used in connection with God, it is impossible to attach any idea to it beyond that of selection or appointment.
The choice was also practical. Proof of a resurrection needs witnesses who knew the man before he died.
There were good and necessary reasons why outsiders could not see or confirm His resurrection. In the main it called for chosen witnesses who knew Him well... How could any reasonable person expect unbelieving Jews or Gentiles to record such a wonder, to His glory and to their own certain condemnation? Yet thousands of unbelievers were brought to believe, and suffered for their faith without flinching.
A ghost story collapses at a shared meal. And the point of those meals was not His hunger.
The One they killed on a tree ate and drank with His own people after He rose from the dead. He did not need the food. They needed the proof that He was alive from the dead — a real, risen Man, who had loved His own who were in the world, and loved them to the very end.
The meals narrow the circle further. They tell us who these witnesses were, and why no one could join them later.
The only people who ate and drank with Jesus after His resurrection were the apostles. Others saw Him, but these were the chosen witnesses of the resurrection... The apostles, then, were to be eyewitnesses of Christ's resurrection. That is an important fact, because it shows the office was temporary in character, and could not be revived in later times.
Peter spoke as a man who was there. From that one fact he drew the heart of the gospel.
There was no doubt about His resurrection; the preacher himself had seen Him, and had eaten and drunk with Him... His death met the claims of God, while His resurrection displayed His absolute victory over death, and sin, and all the power of Satan.
- Chosen. "Chosen by God" can only mean God's own selection and appointment. The witnesses did not volunteer.
- Spared. Mercy kept the risen Christ from His enemies. A public appearance would have destroyed them, so He sent preachers to them instead.
- Certified. He ate and drank, not because He needed food, but because they needed proof. A real Man stood before them, alive.
- Commissioned. The men at those meals were the apostles, and that eyewitness office could never be repeated.
- Sent. A private appearing produced a public message. God showed the risen Christ to a few so that everyone could hear about Him.
And he commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that *he* it is who was determinately appointed of God [to be] judge of living and dead.
Peter is preaching in a Roman officer's house, speaking to Gentiles for the first time. God has appointed the crucified Jesus as Judge of the living and the dead — so why does the first sermon to Gentiles open with a courtroom?
Peter's word for his audience, "the people," has a narrow meaning. The next line breaks it open.
"God raised Him up the third day and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen of God, even to us." You see, "the people" is used here throughout for the Jewish people only. For now God was forming a completely new people. But was it only to the people? He commanded us to preach to the people. What does he mean by that? The Jew, of course. Not so. "To Him all the prophets bear witness, that through His name whoever believes in Him…" So we find light beginning to dawn on this going out of the gospel to every creature — to the Gentile as much as to the Jew.
The announcement lands hard because of who this Judge is.
First, the Jesus whom men crucified is appointed by God to be the Judge both of the living and the dead. His crucifixion was the act of both Jew and Gentile. Cornelius must have been familiar with the details. He must have known some who took part in it, and he may even have been involved himself. He knew about His shame, His dishonour, and His apparent failure. Well, the despised Jesus is to come forth in due time as the universal Judge. The destinies of all men rest in His hands. What an astounding declaration! It is enough to overwhelm every enemy with terror!
Peter is not the only preacher who starts here. Paul does the same at Athens, and one writer explains why.
It is striking that Peter names this office of the Lord first, and Paul names it second at Athens — the office He holds after death and resurrection, of being the appointed Judge of all men. In both cases they were giving testimony to Gentiles… With the Jew there were other and greater and nearer glories in the Messiah. The Jews had neglected and despised the responsibilities of those glories, and so those glories were taken up with them. On the Gentiles no such deposit as the law or the oracles of God rested. So in the first chapter of Romans we find creation and its testimony. Here we find the office of Judge of living and dead, together with the power of pardon in the Lord's name when it is received.
What gives this Man the right to judge? And what comes before the day He judges?
It is His victory, as Man, over death that gives Him the title to judge (see John 5:21-27). But before the day when He will judge comes the day in which He saves.
The verse names two groups. Writers here read them as two judgments at two different times.
He shall come to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42; 2 Tim. 4:1) — not the living and the dead at the same time, but the living first, the dead afterwards. The judgment of the living stretches over a considerable span of time. The judgment of the dead comes at the close of all, before the eternal scene where all judgment ends.
The next verse turns this sentence of judgment into an offer. Everything rests on who makes it.
But second, before this Judge takes His seat on the judgment throne, all the prophets bear witness that there is forgiveness offered in His name. That forgiveness is received by "whoever believes in Him." Forgiveness through the name of the Judge! Could anything be more stable and satisfying than that? The Judge has become the guarantor for sinful men, so the believer in Him receives forgiveness of sins before the day dawns when the great court for the living and the dead will sit.
The offer reaches every kind of person, and what it gives lasts for ever.
Peter's "whoever" is universal. It goes out to men without distinction of class or colour. He who forgives their sins is the appointed universal Judge, so they are clear of condemnation for ever. If the Judge justifies, who is he that condemns? He must have the last word about every man.
- Commanded — the apostles did not invent this message. God ordered them to announce that the crucified Jesus now holds every human destiny in His hands.
- Appointed — His right to judge rests on His resurrection, the victory over death He won as Man.
- Living and dead — commentators read this as two judgments, not one: the living first, the dead at the close.
- Whoever — "the people" meant the Jews. The next line widens the offer to anyone who believes, Gentile as much as Jew.
- Forgiven — the Judge offers pardon in His own name before the court sits. If the Judge justifies you, no one can condemn you.
To him all the prophets bear witness that every one that believes on him will receive through his name remission of sins.
Peter is preaching in the house of Cornelius, a Roman officer. His closing sentence gathers up everything before it: every prophet points to one Man, and forgiveness through His name is open to anyone who believes.
Peter does not offer a new idea. He points his hearers back to the prophets.
Peter's last words to Cornelius and those gathered in his house appeal to the united witness of all the Old Testament prophets. Christ Jesus, the blessed Man, clearly fulfilled their prophecies about the Messiah of Israel. Yet they did not only prove that He is Judge. They also showed that whoever truly believed in Him, Jew or Gentile, would receive forgiveness of sins. Marvellous message of grace!
Peter had only just learned this himself, and it changed how he read the prophets.
With this new-born conviction in his soul, Peter now reads the prophets in fresh light and with other eyes. He is full of the truth himself, and he speaks with the utmost simplicity to Cornelius. Cornelius and his household hear the blessed word. "To him all the prophets bear witness." It was one concurrent evidence... There is no question of a Jew, but "everyone who believes in Him." Sadly, the Jews did not believe in Him. But whoever did believe, Jew or Gentile, "receives forgiveness of sins." Cornelius had not known this, and no one could have known it until the work of redemption was done. Believers who lived before Christ were just as safe before His work as they were afterwards, but that work put them on the ground of conscious salvation before God.
One word in the verse rules out every exception. Older translations render it "whosoever."
Peter's "whosoever" is universal. It goes out to people of every class and colour. The One who forgives their sins is the same One appointed to be Judge of all, so they are clear of condemnation for ever. If the Judge justifies, who is there to condemn? He must have the last word about every man.
One writer traces this width back to the resurrection.
Jesus, risen from the dead, is Lord of all, not merely of the Jews... Jesus, walking through this world, was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But risen from the dead, the Saviour has no national limits. There is no Gentile or Jew beyond the grave. Here on earth, geography marks people off from one another. Beyond the grave there are no such lines, and that is where the Lord of glory is.
Peter says forgiveness comes "through his name." One writer explains what that phrase rules out.
As believers, we are not forgiven because of anything that we are, or because of any experience, however real. That would be for our own sakes. We are forgiven because of what God has found in Christ and His work — "for His Name's sake"... Peter carried out the Lord's commission. He told the Gentiles that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins. So forgiveness of sins is nothing we achieve. God proclaims it to us through the Lord Jesus, and we receive it by faith in Christ.
Peter gives an anxious man no ritual and no programme. He points him to a Person.
When the messenger reaches the troubled soul, this is what he says: Believe in God's Son. Believe in the One whom the world has refused, and whom God has taken into glory. He tells him that all the prophets bear witness to this blessed truth: from Christ he will receive forgiveness of his sins. All he has "to do" is believe in Him.
God answered before Peter had finished the sentence. The Spirit came at the very words that promised forgiveness.
"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." What! Without baptism? Without laying on of hands? Without prayer for them? Yes — without any of these things, and without more delay. Even while the apostle Peter is still preaching those very words, God gives them all the Holy Spirit.
- Witness — every prophet points one way. Peter's message is not an invention but "one concurrent evidence" that meets in Christ.
- Name — forgiveness rests on the worth of His name, never on what the believer is or feels.
- Everyone — the promise crosses class, colour and nation, because the risen Lord has no national limits.
- Believe — the only thing asked of the troubled soul is to trust the One God has glorified.
- Receive — Cornelius simply believed, and received forgiveness. The Spirit fell while Peter was still speaking, before any ritual.