And much discussion having taken place, Peter, standing up, said to them, Brethren, *ye* know that from the earliest days God amongst you chose that the nations by my mouth should hear the word of the glad tidings and believe.
The church leaders met in Jerusalem over one burning question. Did Gentile believers have to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses before God would save them? Peter answers with no opinion of his own, but with something God had already done through him.
Peter stood up only after a long argument. One writer draws a lesson from the fact that the Holy Spirit recorded that argument at all.
Verse 7 tells us there was much debate or questioning. No doubt it was sad and humbling that they argued like this, even in front of the apostles. But the fact is plain, and the Holy Spirit records it calmly. That should convince quite a few people how far their idea of church order differs from the earliest history. Even in the apostles' days we see how liberty prevailed, though the flesh took advantage of it. Destroying that liberty because people abuse it would be a cure worse than the disease.
Peter dates God's choice to a time already well past. One writer pins the phrase to a definite moment.
In Acts 15:7 Peter speaks of God choosing him to preach the gospel to the nations from the earliest (or ancient) days. He no doubt means the beginning of the church at Pentecost.
Peter held keys, and keys are for opening. One writer counts two doors that Peter opened with them.
The main use of keys is to open doors. So in Acts 2 God chose Peter to preach the first sermon after the Holy Spirit came down from heaven. Three thousand people were brought to repentance, and baptised at once in the Saviour's name. But these were Jews only. In Acts 10 the same apostle preached Christ for the first time to a Gentile gathering. The happy result: everyone gathered in Cornelius' house believed.
Peter reminds them of what they already knew. He was the apostle sent to the Jews, yet the first Gentiles heard the gospel from him. One writer reads that as honour God placed on Peter.
That gives us the particular work of Peter. My aim has been to show how God put honour on that blessed servant of His. It was by his mouth that the Jews, as a whole, heard the gospel in its fullness and received the Holy Spirit... Peter was used to preach to the Gentiles first of all; and Paul, I would note, was used to write to the Jews last of all. Both came at just the right time. This shuts out all thought of independence, since some might have thought Peter was out of his place. He was the apostle of the circumcision. Yes, but for all that, it was by his mouth that the Gentiles first heard the gospel.
Peter argues from history, not theory. One writer explains why Acts keeps returning to one Gentile household.
The fact was that God had already decided the point in principle by what He did in the case of Cornelius. We can now understand why so much space is given to that case in the Acts; for this is the third time it is brought before us.
The strict party in the church expected Paul to defend the Gentiles. They did not expect Peter to do it.
How sweet is the grace of God, and what an unexpected blow to the claims of the Pharisees who believed! And this from Peter! If Paul had said it, there would have been less to wonder at. The apostle of the Gentiles (so they were inclined to think) would of course speak up for the Gentiles. But what about Peter? What led the great apostle of the circumcision to speak like this? And to say it in front of the twelve apostles, in Jerusalem itself?
- Chosen — Peter traces the Gentile mission to God's choice, not to any plan or preference of his own.
- Sent — God sent Peter to the Jews, yet his mouth opened the door to the nations too. Acts 2 and Acts 10 are the two openings.
- Heard — the Gentiles heard the word of the gospel from him, and they believed.
- Settled — God had already decided the question in Cornelius' house. That is why Acts tells the story three times.
- Free — the truth came out through open debate; people may abuse that liberty, but destroying it is a cure worse than the disease.
And the heart-knowing God bore them witness, giving [them] the Holy Spirit as to us also,
A dispute had broken out. Did Gentile believers have to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses? Peter answered with a fact, not an argument: God Himself had already spoken. The verse turns on what God knows (the heart) and what God gave (the Holy Spirit). Then comes the short phrase that levels everything — "just as He did to us."
Peter did not open a new debate. He pointed back to the house of Cornelius, where Gentiles had received the Spirit years before.
There was much "disputing," or "discussion," and then Peter made a decisive pronouncement, by referring to the case of Cornelius, in which he had himself been involved. He pointed out that the heart-knowing God had borne witness to these Gentile converts by giving them the Holy Spirit — the same gift He had given to the Jewish believers on the Day of Pentecost. God had cleansed these Gentiles, as Peter's vision of the great sheet showed. He purified their hearts by faith, not by any ceremonial washing. In fact God had already settled the point in principle by what He did with Cornelius. We can now see why Acts gives so much space to that case; this is the third time it comes before us.
The title Peter uses for God is the hinge of his case. Men could only judge by what they saw. God knew what was inside these Gentiles, and He said so.
Ordinarily the Spirit came after faith. It was God who knew the faith of their hearts, bearing witness to them as His by the outward sign. They occupied the same level with the apostles and the saints of Judea.
That title carried weight in an argument about freedom, and the following verse names what God had seen there.
Our apostle claimed the same grace for the believing Gentiles when he pleaded the cause of their liberty against those who sought to put them under law: "And the heart-knowing God bore them witness, giving the Holy Spirit just as to us also, and made no difference between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith."
"Bore witness" is the language of evidence. Peter names what God put on record.
Here again the gift of the Holy Spirit is quoted as the voucher upon which the Jewish Christians acted in their first reception of their Gentile brothers to a recognised position in the new community.
The witness was not given to good intentions in the abstract. Cornelius was already a God-fearing man, yet something had to be heard and believed before the Spirit came.
He needed to hear the word of truth, the gospel of his salvation; and that gospel went out once Christ had finished His work. Without this, as the fruit of Christ's work, the Holy Spirit could not be given. But as Cornelius and the rest listened, the heart-knowing God bore them witness; and they received the Holy Spirit as the Jewish saints did at Pentecost.
The event did not reveal every truth about the church. It did settle one thing beyond argument.
Peter's vision and the admission of Cornelius only showed that in every nation the one who feared God was acceptable to Him. In a word, the favour of God was not limited to the Jews. There was no need to become a Jew to share the salvation that is in Christ… The Holy Spirit — the seal of Christian blessing among the Jews, the fruit of redemption accomplished by Jesus — was given to Gentiles as to Jews. The Jews might be astonished at it; but there was no resisting God.
Peter stated this truth himself. Later he acted as though the old line still stood.
It might seem a small matter for Peter to treat the Jewish believers as Jews and the Gentile believers as Gentiles. That was the practice of his nation in past centuries. But in doing so, Peter was actually denying what he himself had established in preaching the gospel — that God now put no difference between Jews and Gentiles.
- Witness. God did not send an opinion into the debate. He had already given His verdict at Cornelius's house, and Peter only reported it.
- Heart. Peter calls Him the God who knows the heart: He read faith where men saw only an uncircumcised Gentile.
- Gift. The proof He chose was the Holy Spirit Himself — the voucher the first believers acted on when receiving Gentiles.
- Ground. The gift rested on Christ's finished work and on the gospel heard and believed. Without that, God could not give the Spirit.
- Equality. "Just as He did to us" removes the difference — Peter's own later conduct denied the truth he had established.