God had a surprise ready for Peter in the house of Cornelius.
He had prepared the apostle for the conversion of this man by a carefully designed vision at Simon the tanner’s house in Joppa. Peter learned through the age-old allegory of animals not to count any man unclean.
Peter was impressed by the characters of Cornelius and his friends: they were real seekers after truth. There were six Jewish Christian brethren from Jerusalem with Peter, and they could not doubt the sincere desire of these Romans to become true believers.
However, to baptize them, and so make them equal members of the Christian community, was a tremendous decision. As Jews, they had been schooled and indoctrinated to preserve racial purity and religious exclusiveness. The legal formula of divorce current in Israel was: “I release and divorce you my wife this day, that you be enabled to be wife to any Jewish man.” Even to eat with other people was to be defiled — their food was not properly prepared, their whole way of life was considered unacceptable to the holy God of Israel.
The supreme privilege of anyone who belonged to God’s chosen people was to go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem and worship in the sanctuary — in this life and the next. The Spirit in Psalm 15 had laid down the terms a thousand years before:
Lord, who shall sojourn in Thy tabernacle?
Who shall dwell in Thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly,
And worketh righteousness,
And speaketh the truth in his heart . . .
(And) honoureth them that that fear the Lord.
The Jewish Christians, including Peter, had always assumed that this applied only to the circumcised seed of Abraham, the nation of Israel. Romans were pagans, other nations were goiim, the heathen.
Now before them in Cesearea was this Roman Cornelius. He is described as upright and devout, righteous, fearing God, of good report, and generous. He desired the truth in his heart. He wanted to dwell in God’s holy hill.
As we said, God had a big surprise in store. Jesus had said: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved . . . and these signs shall follow . . . they shall speak with new ‘tongues” (Mark 16:16-17).
But something quite different happened in Cornelius’ house. As Peter said afterwards: “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them” (Acts 11:15). These devout Romans burst into new tongues, magnifying God, before anyone had thought of baptism.
Peter and the Jerusalem brethren had no alternative but to accept God’s leading, “command them to be baptized” and accept the principle as stated by an inspired Peter, echoing Psalm 15.
“In every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is acceptable to Him” (10:35).
Cornelius was well qualified to dwell in God’s holy hill.
We always do well to remind ourselves of this divine principle. In an age of ever-hardening self-centered nationalism and (despite protestations) evident racism; the consequences of Christian truth are unpopular. God’s principle runs totally counter to human practice.
Cornelius is not only a Roman, he is a Mexican, a Filipino, an Englishman, a Negro, an Eskimo. We are emphatically told that God is no respecter of persons, as we are.
Those Christian Jews from Jerusalem went to Caesarea prejudiced men full of racial pride. They threw all that nonsense away and went home convinced that Jesus, when he told his disciples to make converts from all nations, he really meant it. Do we acknowledge the same truth ?
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One