After the baptism in the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, God
said to Peter, “Rise, kill and eat.” From then on, the grace of God
came upon the unclean Gentiles. Today anyone may be chosen. What
God reckoned as unclean in the Old Testament, He considers clean in
the New Testament. The prohibition of Leviticus 11 is no longer in effect. No longer are only the Israelites God’s people; both the
Gentiles and the Israelites are now the people of God. According to
Ephesians 3, the Jews and the Gentiles are made one, being “fellowheirs, and fellow-members of the body, and fellow partakers of the
promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (v. 6).
God spoke to Peter three times: “What God hath cleansed, make
not thou common.” These words explain the vision. As soon as the
vision ceased, the men from the house of Cornelius the Gentile
knocked at the door. As he went down to meet them, Peter began to
understand that what he had seen on the housetop meant that God
was going to give grace to the Gentiles. So, without hesitation, he
took some brothers with him to the house of a Gentile. Later, he
testified that God manifestly gave grace to the Gentiles even as He
had to the Jews.