Recounting - Act 11:1-18

Word of Cornelius’s baptism got back to Christ’s disciples in Jerusalem, who were all Jews at this point. The Hebrew Christians are referred to here as “they that were of the circumcision,” because they had been circumcised. This brings up an interesting point, circumcision was required for Jews, even those who converted to the religion, and because it’s such an important part of the Jewish religion and culture, they were probably wondering what was going to be done about that. Peter rehearsed to the other believers what had happened to him, the vision from God, the visitors from Cornelius, and his experience teaching gentiles the gospel. When Peter recounted that the gentiles had received the Holy Ghost, just like the rest of the believers, he adds, “Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?”

The Jewish believers accepted the new principle and “they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.” Here they are also demonstrating their understanding of Christian principles because they know that “life” requires repentance, not simply being born as a “seed of Abraham.” The IM makes a very important point about Cornelius’ baptism that I had never considered before, but makes complete sense. It says, “When Cornelius was baptized, it was the first time in the early Church that an uncircumcised Gentile was baptized into the Church. This event added a new dimension to the preaching of the gospel.
Allowing Gentile converts to join the Church without prior conversion to Judaism was difficult for many of the members of the Church to accept; it signified a major shift in how the gospel was to be shared with God’s children. When the Lord had made His covenant with Abraham (which was signified by the rite of circumcision), the Lord had called it an ‘everlasting’ covenant. What the early Christians came to understand was the difference between the covenant of Abraham and the rite of circumcision. Although the covenant was everlasting, the ordinance by which one entered the covenant was not longer circumcision, but baptism. After Peter rehearsed to the Saints in Jerusalem all that had occurred in Caesarea, the members of the Church had a change of heart and declared, ‘Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.’”
This makes a lot of sense to me because the ordinance is the way of entering, or finalizing, the covenant, the covenant isn’t the thing that changes, but the way that it is presented to and accepted by God can. For instance, ancient Hebrew animal sacrifice was replaced with the sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Temple covenants were opened to all members instead of just the class of priests and Levites. Incense offering was replaced by prayers ascending to God, the Holy of Holies was replaced by the Celestial room, Passover was replaced by the sacrament, etc. All these covenants remained the same, the purpose and end result being salvation, but the way that we entered into these covenants has changed over time. This makes a lot more sense to me now.