10:45,46
The action of God, of the Holy Spirit, amazed the circumcised believers. The Holy Spirit came both as a benefit to Cornelius and his friends, but also to the Jewish disciples. Note that the presence of the Holy Spirit had a tangible effect, it was not just a theological truth, but the new believers spoke in tongues and praised God. Notice also that they have not made a declaration of faith. Now, there is nothing wrong with making a declaration of faith, or saying a “salvation prayer”, but it is the heart that counts. God knew they believed, so the Holy Spirit fell upon them.
10:47
Now this is interesting. The people have received baptism in the Holy Spirit, obviously administered by the Spirit Himself. Now the church, in the form of Peter and his fellow disciples, decide to administer water baptism. So we see the Spirit and the church working together (as of course we should!). The Holy Spirit does things, and we do things. Water baptism is an essential part of becoming part of the church. It is also worth noting that the order in this incident is Spirit baptism then water baptism, in other cases the order is reversed. So we should not get hung up on the order of these things.
10:48
So Cornelius and his fellow believers were baptised. Note that it says Peter “commanded” them to be baptised. It is not clear whether the command was directed at Cornelius and co (ie you must be baptised) or to Peter’s fellow disciples (ie you must baptise them). In Matthew 28:19,20 Jesus tell us to baptise people in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Here it just says “in the name of Jesus Christ”. It would be a big mistake (and one made by some!) to take this as grounds for saying we should only baptise in the name of Jesus. The reason only Jesus Christ is mentioned here may just be for reasons of “economy”, or it may be because Luke wants to put the emphasis on how Jesus Christ brings God’s salvation to all peoples. Indeed this latter point is the emphasis of the following chapters.
No comments:
Post a Comment