Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
CHAPTER X.
SANCTIFICATION OF CORNELIUS.
1-48. Cornelius was a noted Roman officer living at Cæsarea, the seat of the imperial government
in Judea. The Holy Ghost pronounces him Eusebees, i.e., godly, and certifies that he “feared God
with all his house, doing much alms to the people, and praying to God always.” The application of
these inspired adjectives to a sinner is an irreconcilable contradiction. Of course, he was a Gentile
Roman, having never been proselyted to Judaism; but he was not simply a pious heathen, like
multiplied thousands who are now in heaven, but he knew and worshipped the God of Israel, having
lived many years in that country. Meanwhile, since the revival at Pentecost, eight or ten years, the
whole country had been overrun by blood-washed and fire-baptized Pentecostal evangelists,
preaching from house to house, on every hill-top and under every green tree, till he had actually
become familiar with the gospel of Christ. As Peter certifies (v.37), “This word you have known, and
know yet better than ever, which was throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism
which John preached:
38. “Jesus who is from Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Ghost and power, who
went about doing good and healing all those who were oppressed by the devil, because God was
with him.” You see from these Scriptures that Cornelius was by no means a novice in the gospel, but
had enjoyed the ample Opportunities of that wonderful Pentecostal age, I trow having frequently
heard Peter and the other apostles. His justification is abundantly confirmed in vs. 34, 35: “ . . .Of
a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth him and
worketh righteousness is accepted of him.” It is only Satan’s counterfeit religion that tells a man he
can work righteousness, before he gets it from God in his heart. A man must have a farm in order
to work it. Put a farmer on a naked rock in mid ocean, and he will never work a farm. John says: “He
that worketh righteousness has been born of God.” Hence we see Cornelius was accepted of God
and had been born of God. He was a very enthusiastic leader of a holiness band, not in the experience
of sanctification, but gloriously justified and earnestly seeking it. Peter was not sent to get him
converted, for he was not only a devout servant of the Lord, but a Gentile disciple of Christ,
vigorously pressing on to entire sanctification. Peter’s mission was to preach the gospel of holiness,
get him and all of his people sanctified, and admit them into the gospel church, conferring on them
all rights and privileges of bona fide membership. Eliminating the cumbrous routine and superfluous
ceremonies of Gentile proselytism, an institution recognized and honored fifteen hundred years ago,
the Christian Church began all Jews, soon receiving an influx from the Gentile world, destined to
increase simultaneously with the depletion of the Jewish element, thus working out a radical
revolution and becoming a Gentile organization in a century. As Peter had preached the inauguratory
sermon of the gospel dispensation to the Jews, it was equally pertinent that he should do the same
to the Gentiles. Hence his revival at Cæsarea was the Gentile Pentecost, lifting the flood-gate of
entire sanctification and bona fide membership in the gospel church to the Gentile world.