This Thursday, January 18, marks the Confession of Peter Feast in many standard church calendars. It’s a time of remembering the confession that Peter made of Jesus being the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and in turn, Jesus’ promise to build his church upon this common confession. But we need to understand that when Jesus made this statement, Peter still had a lot of learning to do about what that actually meant.

In fact, it was old Cornelius, one of the unsung heroes of the book of Acts and church history, who taught Peter (and all who will listen) the wideness of Jesus’ promise. But let’s face it, most Christians probably wouldn’t rank Cornelius as one of the great men of faith in the Bible. So, who in the world was this guy, and why should we care?

The Spiritual State of Cornelius  

There has been ongoing discussion over whether Cornelius was saved before Peter came to speak to him. Some have questioned Cornelius’s spiritual state prior to Peter’s arrival, citing Peter’s recap in Chapter 11. In this account, the angel informed Cornelius that he would hear a message through which he and his household would be saved (11:14b). The response in Jerusalem after hearing this was, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life” (11:18b). Reading Chapter 11 alone might lead one to the conclusion that Cornelius was not saved before meeting Peter. However, when considering the broader context of Cornelius’s story and comparing Scripture with Scripture, a strong argument can be made that Cornelius was indeed saved prior to Peter’s arrival.

The Fear of God

In fact, you might say that Luke went out of his way to describe the sound spiritual state of Cornelius before hearing Peter’s message. Three times Cornelius is described as a man who feared God (Ch.10:2; 22; 35), and the Bible is clear that unregenerate people do not fear God (Ps.55:19; 103:13, Rom.3:18). The fear of God was sort of an Old Testament way of describing saving faith.

Furthermore, Cornelius is described as a righteous man whose generous giving and continual prayers were pleasing before God (10:2-4; 35), and again, the Bible is clear that this is not possible in the case of the unsaved (Ps.14:1-3, Pr.15:8;29, Heb.11:6). This is why Peter himself perceived and acknowledged the true state of Cornelius even before he preached to him (10:34-35).

So, how do we reconcile what’s said in Chapter 11 and what’s described of Cornelius in Chapter 10?

The Transitional Period

Cornelius lived in what’s known as the inter-testament transitional period as a Gentile convert who had now heard that the promised Christ he had greeted by faith from afar had finally come to earth in the person of Jesus. So, what must he do to be saved? In the words of Mathew Henry,

“He that believed the promise of the Messiah, must now believe the performance of that promise.”

John Calvin concurs:

“Cornelius must be put in the catalogue of the old fathers, who hoped for salvation of the Redeemer before he was revealed.”

In other words, Cornelius believed in the coming Christ, and he demonstrated the genuineness of that faith by believing in the revelation that Jesus is the Christ. You could say that Cornelius’ profession of faith before Peter’s arrival would have been, “I believe that the Lord will send the Christ to take away my sins.” And after hearing Peter it would have been, “I believe that Jesus is the Lord and Christ who has taken away my sins.” Cornelius wasn’t going from a state of damnation to salvation but rather from faith in the promise of salvation to faith in its fulfillment. 

The Spiritual Significance of Cornelius

Cornelius is a brother in Christ, but he is much more than that. If Cornelius was already a believer before he met Peter, why would Luke take so much precious space to record the case of Cornelius? Well, clearly the meaning of Peter’s vision of God instructing him to eat (personally take in) the unclean animals represented how God wanted him to personally welcome Cornelius and his household (10:17; 28) into the kingdom. Peter is told, “What God has made clean, do not call common” (10:15; 11:9). Notice the past tense. God had already made Cornelius clean through his faith in the coming Christ; it was now up to Peter to proclaim the good news that Christ had finally come and for Peter and the church to fully embrace Cornelius (aka – all future Gentile believers).

No Such Thing as “Second-Class Citizens”

In the case of Cornelius, God was showing the Jewish church once and for all that Gentile believers were not “second-class citizens” to be sort of tolerated, but rather fellow citizens to be fully accepted. Full salvation and inclusion in the church was not just for Jews or those who “become Jews” through receiving circumcision and following the feasts, dietary laws, etc.. No, in Jesus Christ, God had created “one new man in place of the two” (Eph.2:15) and had given water baptism as the new sign of belonging for all believers and their household (Ch.10:47-48; 16:14-15, 1 Cor.7:14).

• Cornelius is a powerful reminder that the Bible tells a cohesive story that links the Old Testament church to the New Testament church.
• Cornelius exemplifies unwavering faith in Christ and marks a crucial juncture in the history of redemption, signifying the Lord’s intention to reach every nation with the gospel through his church.
• Cornelius encourages us to warmly welcome all who have faith in Jesus, including those whom we may have previously been taught to look down upon.

His story prompts us to learn afresh the wideness of Jesus’ welcome and to consider: who are the Cornelius types in our lives that we need to wholeheartedly take in and no longer regard as unclean?