Acts 10:15
“And a voice spoke to him again the second time, ‘What God has cleansed you must not call common.’”
This heavenly voice was part of a heavenly vision that Peter was having while he was waiting for supper to be done. The day before a Gentile named Cornelius had prayed to God in order to receive salvation, being a Gentile, of course he did not know how. However, an angel was sent to Cornelius in order to instruct him to send emissaries to Joppa where Peter was in order to bring Peter to Cornelius that he might teach them how to receive salvation. As well, in our study verse, Peter was instructed not to call things common that God had already cleansed. This term “common” means ritualistically unclean. It is a term that the Jews use to refer to certain animals they were forbidden to eat or things they were forbidden to touch. The voice that instructed Peter was preparing Peter’s heart with the truth that God had already cleansed all of the animals in the vision and thus made all of them “kosher” to eat and touch. Fast forward a bit in the story and we see that the men sent by Cornelius brought Peter back to Caesarea and in verse 28 b, Peter explains that he came to Cornelius because God showed him in the vision that he {Peter} was not to call things common {unclean} that God had already cleansed and Peter had connected the dots as it were of what God was trying to teach him. You see it was not legal for Jews to eat with Gentiles or enter their homes and Peter, although saved, was still set in the legalistic mindset that he couldn’t go into a Gentile’s home. I have stated all of this to establish a little context.
The main point, however, is this; God used the animals that Peter would not eat to teach him that God had fulfilled all of the law of Moses and that just as God had cleansed all animals, God had also cleansed all people!
Just about all of humanity believes that only people who are saved have their sins forgiven- or are clean. Jesus said when He was washing the disciples feet “You are clean, but not all of you (referring to Judas) ” {John 13:10} and this, in large part has promulgated the theory that only those who have been washed by the blood are actually clean and therefore “kosher” for Christians to associate with. That is not what God said. God, in Acts 10:15 made it clear that, even though someone was not who we would normally speak to because of their obvious disregard for Jesus and current state of un- regeneration, that God had already cleansed everybody. So what about Judas, and what about what Jesus said, “but not all of you?” Well, you see, God has already wiped out all sin for all mankind, for all time {Romans 6:10}, however, if someone refuses to accept this free gift of God the essentially decide that they want to atone for their own sin, and this makes them unclean.
There is only one way for mankind to receive the washing already provided and that is through acceptance of Jesus Christ as their savior and lord. When a person decides not to accept salvation they are saying “no I want to take care of what I have done wrong myself.” This is exactly what Judas did. Judas was not unclean because he betrayed Jesus, he was unclean because instead of receiving forgiveness from Jesus, he allowed guilt and shame to cause him to attempt to “atone” for the sin by committing suicide. There is only one way to be saved and to have your sin paid for- the person of Jesus Christ, so if a person refuses to accept the sacrifice of Jesus’ atoning blood then they have to “pay” for their own sin, but that does not change the fact that God already cleansed them before they made that choice. Let this be a lesson to you, just because someone that you meet is not saved, that does not mean that God has not cleansed them of their sin. Your job is just to let them know that He has and speak to them about accepting that cleansing.
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