“A Spirit-Filled Cleansing"
Acts 10:1-23
But Peter said, “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.” – Acts 10:14-15
These precious words are for all who have called upon the name of Jesus. The Bible teaches that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. “All” means all, both Jew and Gentile. God has made a way for all to become clean, to be cleansed from all unrighteousness.
In the Old Covenant sin was only covered by the blood of animals. But in the New it is removed by the blood of Jesus. Through Jesus comes the better blood that “takes away the sin of the world.” [John 1:29]
This world certainly needs cleansing. There is none righteous, no, not one. Jews and Gentiles alike are under sin. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
No one has lived a sinless life except Jesus, who knew no sin. He therefore became that perfect unblemished Lamb that was slain for the sins of the world.
The thing, sin itself, was placed upon Jesus at the Cross, and then He became our “sin offering.” Our part is to repent and believe in that finished work on the Cross.
Acts 10 is the record of the Gospel of Jesus going out to the Gentiles. The Holy Spirit came upon the house of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, and began to unite Jews and Gentiles in Christ, a separation that was a “mystery” until Christ [ref. Ephesians 3].
Christ died for all, not just a select few. The qualifier is believing on the name of Jesus and what He completed on the Cross, the forgiveness of sin.
In Christ there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all in all [ref. Col 3:11].
God has cleansed those in Christ, and “what God has cleansed you must not call common.”
