In Acts 10:42 Peter goes on to say, “And He charged us to proclaim to the people and solemnly testify that this is the One who was designated by God to be the Judge of the living and the dead.” Here we see that Christ has been designated the Judge of all mankind. He will judge both the living and the dead. The resurrected Christ at His coming back will be the Judge of the living before the millennium on His throne of glory (Matt. 25:31-46). This is related to His second coming (2 Tim. 4:1). He will also be the Judge of the dead after the millennium on the great white throne (Rev. 20:11-15).
In 10:43 Peter continues, “To this One all the prophets testify that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.” This proves that even though Cornelius feared God and worked righteousness and his prayers and alms had been accepted by God, he still needed God’s forgiveness of his sins through believing in Christ the Redeemer. Cornelius was a devout man, but he still needed the forgiveness of sins. Although he was devout, he could not say that he had not sinned. Hence, he was devout yet still sinful. Therefore, he needed redemption and forgiveness.
Acts 10:44 says, “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those hearing the word.” In this verse hearing includes believing in the Lord (v. 43; John 5:24; Rom. 10:14; Eph. 1:13).
While Peter was speaking the Spirit fell upon those in the house of Cornelius. No doubt, the Spirit here is the all-inclusive Spirit. After the all-inclusive Spirit fell upon the house of Cornelius, they began to speak in tongues and magnify God (v. 46). Here to magnify God is to praise Him. When Peter and those with him saw what happened, they knew that those in the house of Cornelius should not be prohibited from being baptized in water (v. 47).
The Holy Spirit fell upon those who heard the word in the house of Cornelius outwardly and economically. In the case of the house of Cornelius, the Holy Spirit’s entering into the believers essentially for life and falling upon them economically for power took place simultaneously when they believed in the Lord. However, only His falling upon them economically is noted in verse 44, because it was outward and could be realized by others by their speaking in tongues and praising God, whereas His entering into them took place silently and invisibly. They received both aspects of the Holy Spirit directly from Christ the Head of the Body, without any mediatorial channel, before they were baptized in water by other members of the Body of Christ. This indicates emphatically that the spreading of the gospel of the kingdom of God to the Gentiles was of the Lord, and that the Head of the Body baptized the Gentile believers into His Body directly, without the laying on of hands of any member of His Body, as in the cases of the Samaritan believers and Saul of Tarsus (8:17; 9:17).
Acts 10:45 says, “And the believers of the circumcision, as many as accompanied Peter, were amazed, because on the Gentiles also the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out.” Here the gift of the Holy Spirit refers to the Holy Spirit Himself, not something of the Holy Spirit given to the believers as a gift. They did not receive any gift distributed by the Spirit, as mentioned in Romans 12:6; 1 Corinthians 12:4; and 1 Peter 4:10. Rather, they received the gift which is the Holy Spirit Himself, given by God to the believers in Christ as the unique gift that produces all the gifts mentioned in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and 1 Peter 4.
Acts 10:45 speaks of the outpouring of the gift of the Holy Spirit. This gift was poured out by God from the all-inclusive, resurrected, and ascended Christ. The pouring out of the Spirit after Christ’s ascension was the descending of the resurrected and ascended Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit to carry out His heavenly ministry on the earth to build up His church (Matt. 16:18) as His Body (Eph. 1:23) for God’s New Testament economy.