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.
While Peter was yet speaking these words the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were hearing the word.
The scene is Caesarea, in the house of Cornelius, a Roman officer — a Gentile, an outsider to Israel. Peter is still speaking when God acts. The Spirit comes on people who had not been baptised, prayed over, or made Jews first.
Peter never finished. The moment his hearers took in the word about forgiveness, God answered it.
Whatever more Peter meant to say was never spoken, for the Holy Spirit at once fell on all who heard the word. A blessed interruption! How I wish we knew more of this in our preaching today. The truth is that Peter's audience drank in his testimony word by word as he gave it. So they received divine forgiveness on the spot. So comes the gift of the Spirit, whom God gives to all forgiven ones, and to them only. This is God's order for Christianity until the end: first, the forgiveness of sins; second, the gift of the Holy Spirit; and third, baptism.
His last words had been about forgiveness for anyone who believes in Jesus.
This was his last word to the assembled company. It is the first time we find the word "whoever" in this book. He had nothing to say to this Gentile company about repentance and baptism. His message was interrupted. They believed and the Holy Spirit fell on them.
Everything that had accompanied earlier gifts of the Spirit is missing here.
Nowhere in the ways of God with man does His grace sparkle with greater brilliance than in this scene. The Gentile had no claim on Him and no link with Him. Yet he hears the gospel in all its fullness, and the Holy Spirit falls on the believer. There was no baptism first, as in the case of the Jew (Acts 2:38). There was no prayer, as in the case of the Samaritans (Acts 8:15). There was no laying on of hands, as in the case of the converts to Judaism at Ephesus (Acts 19:6). The hearing of faith secured the blessing as the words Peter spoke fell from his lips.
Three things happened at once.
There was no interval, no waiting, no laying on of hands. Hearing, believing and receiving the Holy Spirit all went together.
At Pentecost the order was baptism first, then the gift. Here God reversed it — and commentators trace the wisdom in that.
This is very different from what we saw on the day of Pentecost, for there they were baptised first. Every one of them was baptised. They believed on Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, and then they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. But here the Spirit came while Peter spoke the word, and these were Gentiles. No doubt there was great wisdom in it. Who would have been bold enough? Perhaps Peter. But there were Jewish believers there too. What would they have thought?
Another writer sees a further reason in the different histories of the two groups.
They were not called on to be baptized first, as Jews had been (ch. 2:38). Instead God here showed His full acceptance of Gentiles in a public way that could not be mistaken. Gentiles had not been guilty of openly rejecting the Messiah, as Israel had been. That is why Israel was required to reverse that stand against Christ openly, by baptism, before God could accept them openly.
Two words in the verse carry weight. The first is all.
Here, in the case of Cornelius the Roman centurion and his friends, there was again no distinction between believer and believer. Notice the word, ALL!
The second is heard. It means more than sitting in the room.
Some present may have been gazing about the room at Cornelius' fine furniture and the pictures on the wall. Some may have been studying the fashion of some lady's latest hat. Others may have been lost in thought about their business or their pleasures. Only those who heard the Word were blessed.
What fell on that room was a baptism of the Holy Spirit, and it had happened once before.
This baptism of the Holy Spirit took place with Jewish believers at Pentecost (see Acts 1:5; Acts 2:1-4). It took place with Gentile believers at the call of Cornelius and his friends (Acts 10:44; Acts 11:15-17). The baptism of the Spirit sets aside everything that belongs to the flesh. Natural distinctions, such as Jew or Gentile, and social positions, such as slave or free, have no place in the one Body.
- Word. Peter was speaking about forgiveness for whoever believes. God used that word, not a ritual.
- Faith. They took the word in as Peter spoke it. Hearing, believing and receiving the Spirit all happened at once.
- Gift. The Spirit was given without baptism, without prayer over them, without any hand laid on them — grace with nothing added.
- Order. At Pentecost baptism came first. Here God gave the Spirit first, showing His acceptance of Gentiles in a way no one could mistake.
- Reach. God included all who heard. In the one Body, the difference between Jew and Gentile no longer counts.