From Jim McGuiggan... Was Cornelius saved before Peter came?

Was Cornelius saved before Peter came?

Some readers wonder about my claim that Cornelius was “saved” before baptism in the name of Jesus Christ and before God sent the Spirit on him.  It seems to me that we need to make up our minds about Gentiles (and Jews) in pre-Christ days. I believe that Gentiles in those days—those who patiently continued in doing what was right, who had the things of the Jewish Torah written on their hearts and were seeking a higher life—I believe that they were right with God (“saved”) and in the Final Judgement will receive glory, honour and immortality (see Romans 2:6-16).  God didn’t enter a special covenant with Gentiles (as he did with Jews) but we’re not to suppose as some hyper-Calvinists do that that automatically damned them. The holy grace of God that was extended to them was brought to them (however we wish to express it in atonement theory) in the Lord Jesus Christ. This was true also of Jews who lived in pre-Christ days (compare Hebrews 9:15).  For obvious reasons these pre-Christ Gentiles (and Jews) were not required to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be “saved”. He hadn’t yet arrived and the gospel about him was not being proclaimed. Life with God (salvation) was possible only through Jesus Christ but it wasn’t essential that these people know about it. If it had been essential for everyone to hear and know of Jesus Christ and commit to him in faith then, obviously, no one prior to his coming could have been “saved”.  Express it as we will, but God extended holy grace to pre-Christ people prior to but always in view of the coming of Jesus Christ. Compare Romans 3:24-26. The saving “gospel of Jesus Christ” did not exist among men until Jesus Christ lived, died, was exalted and made Lord of all and sent the Holy Spirit as the proof of his Lordship. See Acts 2:33-36. So, of course one did not have to believe it to be right with God (“saved”)—see the important John 15:22-24 text for the obvious principle at work here.  Could any Gentile be saved prior to the coming of the gospel of Jesus Christ? If the answer’s yes, then people like Cornelius were surely of that category. If the answer’s no, we need to be prepared for what that means. (I won’t pursue some hyper-Calvinistic responses here but their God is not the God I read of in scripture or see in Jesus Christ.)   If the answer’s yes, providing he became a Jew this would be precisely the kind of national righteousness that Paul scathed in Galatians and in Romans. (“Christ is only for Jews or those who will become Jews,” some said back then. “God was only for the Jews in pre-Christ times,” some would say today.)   But what has all this to do with Cornelius who lived after the coming and glorification of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord?   Cornelius was still a pre-Christ person. He now lived in the Christian Era but he had not yet been offered the gospel. And it was the will of God that he had not yet been offered the gospel because it was God’s purpose that the gospel would go Jews first and then to all the world (Acts 1:8; 3:26; Acts 13:46 and Peter’s own claim in 15:7 that Cornelius was the first case of a “raw” Gentile hearting the gospel offer).  You understand, it doesn’t matter how much he heard about Jesus and what he had done among the Jews and what some Jewish preachers were saying to other Jews about him (Acts 10:36-38)—uncircumcised Cornelius wasn’t offered salvation "in Jesus the Messiah", wasn’t thought to be included in the offer. He was never offered the gospel until now!  Salvation “in Jesus Christ” was more than forgiveness, it was to be part of the New Covenant people, it was to be part of the new work of God in the world, it was to be part of “the body of Christ” (Ephesians 5:22). An ancient Jew like Isaiah would have been right with God (“saved”) but he wasn’t a part of the body of Christ; he could not be! Cornelius was right with God but now he was being called into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ in whom all that “salvation” means is found. What Cornelius was offered was salvation in relationship to Jesus Christ, which is precisely what many (most?) Jews of that time would have said he couldn’t have! They clung to a national righteousness and Cornelius’ being received into Jesus Christ exposed that.  We would say the same of Jews like Mary, Joseph, Anna, Elizabeth and so on. Before Pentecost they would have been right with God and after Pentecost they would have been right with God but under the terms of a new covenant and in relationship with Jesus Christ. There’s nothing difficult about this concept.  It’s as if God said to faithful Jews, “You have had life and salvation with me under an arrangement that I am about to end. If you want to be saved you must now come to me on the basis of a new covenant centred in the person of Jesus Christ.”  Had the devoted Anna (see Luke 2:36-38) later refused to be baptized “believing on him who was to come” (Acts 19:4) she would have been cut off from among the people (Acts 3:22-23). But presuming she submitted to John’s baptism she would have been no more forgiven than she was before she was baptized. Now her relationship with the God of forgiveness would have altered in terms of covenant—she would be confessing that her relationship with God was in and by Jesus who brought salvation to his people (Matthew 1:21) and to everyone else.   All that had gone before Jesus was preparatory, covenant structures and sacrifice and such. We’re not to think that in the preparatory stage no one was “saved” but we’re not to mistake the paradigm shift in covenant. Cornelius, I believe, was saved before he was offered the privilege and the divine call to submit to Jesus Christ. The difference between the two saved states is the difference between day and night.  Many of us have reduced the meaning of Jesus Christ and reduced what he has brought to nothing but remission of sins and a passport to heaven. This is a terrible reduction. What a righteous Jew or Gentile had before entering Jesus and what he/she had on taking Jesus as their Lord is not at all the same, though there were elements of sameness. (See what you make of Hebrews 11:39-40 with 12:23.)  I believe Cornelius was saved in pre-Christ terms by the generous grace of God just as Jews were. I believe that his salvation “in Christ” was a shift of faith in content. He was now being called to take the name of Jesus on him as Saviour and Lord just as Jews had been called to do.       

©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.

Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.