Repentance unto Life

Facing questions from Jewish Christians as to how Peter, a Jew, could fellowship with gentiles, the Apostle responded by recounting how God had sent him to Cornelius’ home to preach the gospel (Acts 11:1–17; see ch. 10). Peter and Cornelius’ corresponding visions and the descent of the Holy Spirit on Cornelius and his friends and family definitively proved that God was incorporating the gentiles into His covenant people. Long-standing Jewish customs of not fellowshipping too closely with the gentiles would cause further strife as the Apostles and other leaders came to a deeper understanding of what full gentile inclusion would mean for the church. Thus, it would take some time before God’s people comprehended that Jews did not have to become gentiles and gentiles did not have to become Jews to be one body in Christ. Eventually, the church would appreciate that each group can keep its customs and traditions as long as those things do not violate the gospel and as long as they are not imposed on others. The Apostles formalized this decision at the Jerusalem council, which we read about in Acts 15.

Although many of these details had not yet been worked out when Peter told the story of Cornelius’ conversion, we see in today’s passage that the Jews were being prepared to receive the Apostolic decision at the council. Once the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem heard Peter’s report about Cornelius, they rejoiced that God had given the gentiles the “repentance that leads to life” (11:18). The salvation of the gentiles provided an occasion for celebration, not mourning.

Westminster Shorter Catechism 87 defines the repentance that leads to life as “saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience.” True repentance is a gift of God’s grace, which the Jewish Christians recognize in Acts 11:18. The catechism also notes that repentance unto eternal life understands that our sin is first and foremost an offense against God. Repentance requires a “true sense of sin” and “grief and hatred” of it. David shows such repentance in Psalm 51. Mere sorrow over sin’s con­sequences is not enough. We dare not be like Cain, who mourned only over what might happen to him because of his sin and not over how it had offended God and hurt others (see Gen. 4:1–13).