Acts 10

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How true it is.

Peter realized how true it is. This is a very interesting aspect of our spiritual life. Peter knew the truth, but then he needed to not just know it, but realize “how true it is.” It has always been a part of the Jewish vision that the Gentiles would be blessed. Jesus spoke of the gospel going forward to all nations on many occasions (Luke 24:46-49, Mt 28:18-20, Acts 1:8). Surely those are facts that Peter knew. Yet, Peter was hindered by the views of God that had been stamped in him and his culture.

It took a shocking experience for God to break Peter from his misperceptions of who God is. After the dream, the visitors, the journey to Caesarea, and Cornelius’s corresponding story, Peter “realized” the truth that he had already knew. “Realization” is much of what our spiritual growth is all about. After a while, we will obtain the facts of our faith. Yet, to realize it means that it becomes “real” to us in such a way that it affects how we live.

Paul used the same word in Ephesians 3 when he speaks about realizing God’s love for us:
“I pray that you may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,” Ephesians 3:19

The NIV translates the word “Grasp” this time. The context helps us understand the original Greek word. Paul sees the truths of God, particularly his love as something that we need power in order to grasp. It is a real struggle to understand the truths of God. We need a Spiritual power and we need the community of the other saints to enable us to get our hands around that which is true and make it our own.

And when it becomes our own what a difference it makes. Luke gives so much detail to Peter’s experience because Peter’s experience was the crack in the door. For the most part, the light of God had been blocked from the Gentiles. Now, in Peter’s realization, the door cracks and a light beams through. In a few short chapters, that door will get blown off of its hinges as God’s vision to see his Jesus praised in every nation explodes through the Roman Empire in the first century.

So much was at stake with Peter realizing how true the gospel is. So much is at stake for us in realizing how true the gospel is for ourselves. Do you struggle to grasp the love of God for yourself? Do you seek the power of the Spirit to grow? Is God provoking you to struggle so you may have the kind of shocking experience that will open up new doors in your life? What would God have YOU realize about who he is?