The Apostles Were Human

I’m going back today to Peter, Cornelius, and water baptism, to point out something that a lot of folks need to seriously consider. I’m not going to re-write other posts that have been done on the subject, but in short order this is what we’re looking at: The Lord sent Peter to preach the Gospel to Cornelius the Roman centurion and his household, who just happened to be the first Gentiles to hear the Gospel preached. As Peter had barely begun with his preaching, the holy Ghost fell on these Gentiles, and the Jews with Peter were amazed that God had poured out his Spirit on the Gentiles. And it is needful for me to add that the way they KNEW that these Gentiles received the Spirit is because “they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God” (Acts 10:43-46). Well, up to that moment everyone who had received the Spirit had first been water baptized as Peter prescribed on the day of Pentecost after the Spirit first came: “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38). So the prescribed method was that you first get baptized in water, and AFTER that you should receive the holy Ghost. But in the case of these Gentiles, Jesus beat Peter to the punch and baptized them with the holy Ghost BEFORE Peter had a chance to baptize them in water. Now to any honest heart it is evident that Jesus was making a statement by doing this. Otherwise we would have to charge the Lord with orchestrating confusion in regard to Peter’s instructions on the day of Pentecost. Again, I’ve written a number of articles about this, but the statement that Jesus made by baptizing Cornelius and company with the Spirit by means of faith in him alone, was that he had fulfilled the law, which included water baptism; and that faith in him that produces the SPIRIT baptism is all that is needed and all that is of worth.

To baptize those who believe with the holy Ghost is the entire reason that Jesus came from heaven to fulfill the law, suffer, die, and raise from the dead. That is what the only man sent from God to introduce Jesus and his mission, had to say on the matter; and I think we would be wise to trust his divine message rather than to accept modern Christian tradition (Mk. 1:6-8; Jn. 1:33). Now after Cornelius, etc. received the holy Ghost, Peter asked the now famous question: “Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?” (Acts 2:47) So why was the apostle who instructed all on the day of Pentecost to be water baptized, now ASKING whether he should baptize these Gentiles in water after they had received the holy Ghost? Again I say that to any honest heart it is evident that he was confused and bewildered about what had just happened in front of his eyes. I mean, the scripture DOES say that they were “ASTONISHED… because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.” That is where the gasps come in, that I would have the audacity to say that an apostle of Christ did not understand something that God had done. But I AM saying, and with authority from God, that he did NOT understand the process of what had just taken place; and that is why he was confused on whether to baptize them in water or not. Well, he did go ahead and water baptize these Gentiles, to be on the safe side; but it is certain that it was not needed. According to the apostle that God raised up to teach the Gentiles, we are ‘complete’ simply by being ‘in Christ’ (Col. 2:10). And the same apostle Paul made it clear that it is the baptism of the holy Ghost that puts ANYONE ‘into Christ’ (I Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:27; II Cor. 3:17). So Jesus was SHOWING that spiritual reality at Cornelius’ house that day, but no one understood what had taken place.

The truth is that NOBODY understands ANYTHING about the truth of God unless Jesus REVEALS it to them, including the apostles (Jn. 14:26). Oh, I know I have surely by now appalled some of the fine folks who are reading this article. But bear with me just a moment here and I will let the scriptures confirm this to you. In fact we don’t even need to leave our text chapter to do so. Before Peter came to preach to these first Gentiles, God gave him a vision of animals that were pronounced unclean by the law, and told Peter to “Rise, kill, and eat” (Acts 10:13). What was Peter’s response? “Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean” (Acts 10:14). And what was God’s response to Peter’s response? “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common” (Acts 10:15). Now the scripture says that God repeated this process three times before Peter accepted it. No doubt Peter thought God was testing him to see if he would go against the law and agree to eat these unclean meats. Seriously, you don’t think he was just being defiant and rebellious against God, do you? The point is that the law was fufilled by the coming of the holy Ghost, and Peter did not understand that. But God DID understand it, and he conveyed the same to Peter, letting him know that these animals were no longer unclean to eat. The fulfillment of the law was also what Jesus was showing forth by filling these Gentiles with his Spirit without them being baptized in water. Water baptism was fulfilled by the baptism that Jesus suffered, died, and rose again to establish; and nothing can be added to that experience other than more of the same, meaning the Spirit (Mat. 5:17; Mat. 3:15). What happened at the house of Cornelius is what the apostle Paul eventually came to understand: “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel” (I Cor. 1:17). And that is why the same apostle whom God sent to teach the Gentiles wrote in a later epistle that there is now only “one baptism” (Eph. 4:5). I think that settles the issue. Amen.