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.