Remission of Sins to all who Believe

Acts 10:24-48 

Peter Meets Cornelius

24 And the following day they entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them, and had called together his relatives and close friends. 25 As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. 26 But Peter lifted him up, saying, "Stand up; I myself am also a man." 27 And as he talked with him, he went in and found many who had come together. 28 Then he said to them, "You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. 29 Therefore I came without objection as soon as I was sent for. I ask, then, for what reason have you sent for me?"

30 So Cornelius said, "Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, 31 and said, 'Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your alms are remembered in the sight of God. 32 Send therefore to Joppa and call Simon here, whose surname is Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner, by the sea. When he comes, he will speak to you.' 33 So I sent to you immediately, and you have done well to come. Now therefore, we are all present before God, to hear all the things commanded you by God."

Preaching to Cornelius' Household

34 Then Peter opened his mouth and said: "In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. 35 But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. 36 The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all— 37 that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. 39 And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. 40 Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, 41 not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. 42 And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. 43 To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins."

The Holy Spirit Falls on the Gentiles

44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. 45 And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. 46 For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.

Then Peter answered, 47 "Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" 48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then they asked him to stay a few days.

Here we find that the message of the gospel is remission of sins to all who believe, no matter what nation or people group they physically belong to.  As God’s chosen nation to be a channel of His redemption to all nations, the Jews began to imagine that they alone had the right to the promised Christ as if He was only the Messiah of that one nation and people, but events played out beyond that mindset here with Cornelius in Caesarea.  God showed Peter that he should not call any man common or unclean like the food in his vision, but that he should see people as God does in Christ who came to buy back all who are drawn to Him out of all nations through repentance and faith to believe and receive Him as God’s work of righteousness and redemption by grace.  He therefore entered the house of the non-Jew and spoke a conversation leading to conversion as was promised to many through Abraham before the nation of Israel existed through his physical descendants; it was Abraham’s spiritual descendants of the same faith as his own who God had promised the kingdom to, not just that of Jacob’s nation called Israel (Galatians 3:6-7, 8-9).  The entirety of all whom He would call by the faith that looks on that tree of cursing, the cross, was the foundation of the gospel revealed in God’s time (Galatians 4:4-5) to bring redemption through the reconciling work of the only righteous one able to do,the work to earn a place in His grace from here into eternity.  The call of God to Cornelius was answered bungle calling Peter to go and tell him this good news for him as a gentile as much as if he were a Jew.  This was a radical step for Peter to go against his established religious upbringing and the danger it brought to him in opposition to those religious leaders even among those converted of his own people.  God commanded and the apostle was obedient in trusting faith like Abraham against all odds and what appeared to be common sense.  This is trust in Christ, to believe and receive Him above all religious beliefs that contradict God’s word as it is written and revealed by Jesus as He walked this world and the apostles and disciples who He entrusted to carry on the teaching and preaching of this good news for all the world (Matthew 24:14, John 3:16, Romans 9:17-18, 1 Thessalonians 1:8) to hear.  Peter understood this call now and preached salvation from sin’s penalty to this man and all his household to hear and believe to conversion.  He was a witness of all Jesus had said and done and saw Him hung on a cursed tree (Galatians 3:13-14), raised up on the third day, and ascended back to heaven with this commission to all His followers to tell to the world that some might hear and enter that narrow road and only door to heaven (Luke 13:23-24, John 10:9) who is Christ the Lord over all nations of all creation.  Peter preached Jesus as the Judge of the world and its Savior as told in veiled ways from the beginning by the prophets that faith in Him, in God’s work, would bring deliverance from sin and death and the punishment of the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41, Jude 1:6) for their full knowledge in rebelling against God.  We were deceived through Eve and accountable through Adam by that evil one and have the chance given by God for redemption which they do not have, so we should be grateful with godly fear and awe with thanksgiving leading to repentance and willing obedience.  That was the gospel preached to the man of the world in which we all come from that we might enter the next by faith and grace into the very presence of the Almighty and the Lamb of God sacrificed from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34, Ephesians 1:4, 1 Peter 1:20, Revelation 13:8) to redeem us as His own valued people.  Hearing these words and drawn by God, Cornelius and all other who heard and were convicted to faith believed, received, and were sealed with the Holy Spirit of God Himself within them (2 Corinthians 1:22, Ephesians 1:13-14).  This same Spirit is fully in every regenerated believer as the proof of eternal own by God that cannot be lost, forfeited, or taken away.  It is eternal life we have been given and hold to.  Trust Him, only trust Him as Cornelius and the others did.  There is remission of sins to all who so believe and receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  Your eternal existence depend on it!