Acts 11:18

The verdict of Peter’s critics 11:18

Peter’s explanation was satisfactory to his critics. His Jewish brethren agreed that God was saving Gentiles simply by faith in Jesus Christ just as He was saving Jews and that they should no longer regard Gentiles as "unclean." They recognized and yielded to God’s initiative in this event.

"The word ’repentance’ summarizes Cornelius’ conversion in Acts. ’Repentance’ can be a summary term for conversion stressing that a change of orientation has taken place when one believes. Faith stresses what the object of belief is. Faith is directed toward a Person, namely, Jesus. Repentance stresses what belief involves in that it is a change of mind or of orientation from oneself and his own works to a reliance on Jesus to save him. The repentant man of faith recognizes that, as the hymnwriter puts it, his ’hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness’ and that he is to ’wholly lean on Jesus’ name.’ Metanoeo (’to repent’) is used in Acts 2:38; Acts 3:19 to call Jewish audiences to come to Jesus, and it is used in the same way in Acts 17:30; Acts 26:20 to describe the call to or response of Gentiles. Metanoia (’repentance’) is the summary term of the Great Commission in Luke 24:47. It is also used in salvation contexts in Acts 5:31 (to Jews); Acts 11:18 (of Cornelius); Acts 20:21 (of Jews and Gentiles who believe on the Lord Jesus); and Acts 26:20 (in Paul’s message to Jews and Gentiles)." [Note: Bock, "Jesus as . . .," p. 154.]

It is clear, however, that not all of those who accepted Peter’s explanation also understood the larger issue. Probably few of them did. The larger issue was that God had created a new entity, the church, and that He was dealing with humankind on a different basis than He had for centuries. Those whom God accepted by faith in Christ were now under a new covenant, not the old Mosaic Covenant, so they did not need to continue to observe the Mosaic Law. It was no longer necessary for Gentiles to come to God through Judaism or to live within the constraints of Judaism. Opposition to this larger issue, the implications of what happened in Cornelius’ home, cropped up later (Acts 15:1; cf. Gal.). Even today many Christians do not understand the implications of this change and their application in daily life.

"It is clear that Christianity was accepted [by Peter’s critics] as a reformed Judaism, not as Judaism’s successor." [Note: Blaiklock, p. 97.]

Whereas the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem did come to agree with Peter, non-Christian Jews did not. They still regarded Gentiles as outside the pale of God’s favor. The Christian Jews’ new attitude toward Gentiles on the one hand had opened them to the Gentiles. However it also resulted in non-Christian Jews excluding Christian Jews increasingly from the life of Judaism.

"Even though Peter does not convert the first Gentile [in Acts, i.e., the Ethiopian eunuch], the Cornelius episode is a breakthrough for the Gentile mission. The conversion of the Ethiopian was a private and isolated event that had no effect. The conversion of Cornelius has consequences in the following narrative, as the reference back to it in Acts 15 makes clear. It is a breakthrough not simply because Peter and the Jerusalem church now accept Gentiles for baptism but also because they recognize the right of Jewish Christians to freely associate with Gentiles in the course of their mission." [Note: Tannehill, 2:137.]