(Acts 10:9-16)
9 About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. 13 Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
14 “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
15 The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
16 This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.
At first glance, this account by Peter seems quite understandable. Here is a hungry man dreaming about food. I do it all the time. However, this is not a normal dream about food. The animals presented before him are animals he is forbidden to eat. Why does God do this and what is the significance?
Let’s take a step back from this for a moment and reflect upon the context of other events that are occurring around Peter. God has revealed his Son, Jesus, to the world through his earthly ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection. The disciples of Jesus, Peter included, have witnessed all of these events and are now tasked with spreading the Good News of Jesus as His Apostles. Just prior to this event (verses 1-8), God spoke to an Italian Centurion named Cornelius and instructed him to find Peter at Simon’s house.
(Acts 10: 19) 19 And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. 20 Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.”
Here we have Peter, having just had a vision, and a group of men sent by Cornelius, a Roman Centurion, meeting at Simon’s door. Consider that Israel is currently under Roman occupation and Roman Centurions are people whom Jews should fear. These are trained warriors for the most powerful empire in the world. However, here we find them humbly seeking out Peter and requesting him to come to see Cornelius.
Peter travels to meet with Cornelius and upon arriving hears Cornelius’ account of God speaking to him to seek Peter. It is at this moment that Peter understands what God was instructing when he gave him the trance of unclean animals.
Under the Law of God, only certain animals were kosher and to eat of any animal that was not kosher means that you have been defiled and are no longer clean in the sight of God. Jews were also set apart from other men because of the practice of circumcision that all descendants of Abraham had been instructed to do as an outward symbol of their belonging to Yahweh.
Why is this significant? A Roman Centurion neither ate Kosher food nor was circumcised. Under Judaism this meant that men like this were unclean in the sight of God and did not belong to Him. These people were defiled and enemies of God. How could God come and speak to a man like this?
15b …“Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
God has made clean the unclean through Christ. God’s promise is not restricted to those that outwardly follow the law, but through the circumcision of the heart and the washing by the blood of Jesus for our uncleanliness.
Takeaway
If you’ve accepted Christ, you have been made clean! When you are tempted to consider yourself or other believers as unclean for this or that reason, remember that what God has declared as clean is clean. This does not mean we should not hold each other accountable, nor does it mean that we should “sin that grace may abound.” As Paul says, “By no means!”
(Romans 6:1-4)
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
However, we should take great care in what we declare about others. In a society that is divided and completely lacks grace, mercy and forgiveness, we must not also fall into this same pattern of behavior that could be directly in opposition to God. Not only that, but God has eliminated the dividing line between us as followers of Christ.
(Galatians 3:28)
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
We have been baptized into his death and have been raised into newness of life. God has made us clean.