God's Hands on Both Sides: Peter and Cornelius

The epoch-making moment when the Church crossed from Jewish particularity into Gentile universality demanded divine intervention on both sides. Maclaren captures this with penetrating imagery: "God, as it ere, lays His right hand on Cornelius, and His left on Peter, and impels them towards each other." The magnitude of this transformation cannot be overstated. Peter's recognition of Gentile Christians carried apostolic authority—it was not merely one man's conviction but the act of the whole community.…