Acts 10:35

Acts 10:35. In every nation. The stress is on this part of the sentence. Nationality, even a divinely-appointed nationality, like the Jewish, constitutes, in the sight of God, no essential mark of difference between one man and another.

Accepted with him. The true distinction between one man and another, as before God, is moral. It is absurd to gather from this passage that all religions are equally good, if those who profess them are equally sincere, or, in the words of our eighteenth article, ‘that every man shall be saved by the law or sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that law, and the light of nature.' If this theory were true, why should such elaborate pains have been taken to bring Peter to Cornelius, so that the latter might become acquainted with Christ? On this theory Christian missions are an absurdity. The history of Cornelius is itself a proof that, in the words of the same article, ‘Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved.' The meaning of this passage is, that all the blessings of Christianity are freely offered to every human hand that is stretched out to receive them. The language of St. Peter himself at the Apostolic Council (Acts 15:9; Acts 15:11) was as follows: ‘God put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith: we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.'