Acts 10 - Cornelius (pt.2)

Acts 10:1-8 

Cornelius was no "run-of-the-mill" idol worshipping Gentile. He was not a proselyte (a Gentile that submitted to circumcision and kept the law, Acts 2:10) because he was uncircumcised (Acts 11:3). But he was:

• devout (religious- he was fasting, v.30)

• feared God with all his house (implies he taught his house about the God of Israel)

• gave alms to the Jews (v.22)

• prayed to God alway (observed the Jewish hours of prayer, Acts 3:1)

He is the same kind of Gentile that the Lord Jesus was willing to minister to during His earthly ministry even though He was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Rom. 15:8; Lk. 7:1-10; Gen. 12:1-3). Under the kingdom program of Israel, no Gentiles could be blessed without Israel (Mk. 7:24-30). 

Cornelius was sincerely religious, but lost (Acts 11:14). Why would God hear this lost man's prayers, take knowledge of his good deeds towards the Jews, and send an apostle to preach to him about salvation? The salvation of Cornelius is an example of how God will save Gentiles in the tribulation period and Kingdom Age (Matt. 8:5-13; 25:31-46).

Acts 10:9-33

The vessel contained unclean animals. According to the law of Moses there were certain meats that God pronounced as unclean and that the Israelites were forbidden to eat (Lev. 11; 20:25-26). In spite of being very hungry Peter does not want to obey the voice and eat of the unclean animals because he still under the law. In light of what Paul wrote to the Body of Christ, we now know that Christ took the law out of the way for us by nailing it to His cross (Col. 2:14). But there is no record that at this point God had revealed to the believing Jews that they did not have to observe the law. In Acts we see that they obeyed the law for years after the cross (Acts 21:20). Many do not understand how Peter could say, "Not so, Lord". I think that Peter said that in confusion, not rebellion. That was his initial reaction, but he did follow through and obey the Lord. 

What did this vision mean? We need to be careful not to read more into the vision than what the scripture reveals. Many claim that unclean and clean animals in one vessel was a revelation of the Body of Christ (the text does not actually say there were clean animals in the vessel). At first, Peter is doubtful about what the vision meant, but after talking to the men sent from Cornelius and then seeing many Gentiles gathered in the house of Cornelius,  he understood that the unclean animals were symbolic of uncircumcised Gentiles. 

The uncircumcised were considered unclean (Isa. 52:1). As a law-abiding Jew, Peter would not have gone into the house of an uncircumcised Gentile without this special revelation from God. Peter also learned from the vision that he could now eat what had been called unclean without becoming defiled because God now pronounced it as clean. This was a singular issue and we should not take this to mean that God revealed to Peter that the believing Jews were to no longer keep the law. The law has been taken out of the way for the Body of Christ, but not for the nation of Israel (Isa. 2:1-5; Jer. 31:31-34). 

The main purpose of the vision was to reveal that God would now accept as clean those that had been previously called unclean. In other words, uncircumcision would no longer keep a Gentile separated from God and His people. That is not the same thing as believing Jews and Gentiles being spiritually baptized into one body (which was the revelation that Christ gave through the apostle Paul).