Luke When the centurion saw what had happened, he gave glory to God, saying, "Surely this was a righteous man. Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers. Context The Death of Jesus … 38 And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Matthew And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, … Acts There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band , he said. Scholars debate what the centurion means by calling Jesus "the Son of God.
In Roman culture, the emperor is considered the son of the gods, and the centurion may be saying Jesus is more divine than the emperor. Or, as a polytheistic Roman, he may believe Jesus is the literal son of one of the many gods. In whatever way the centurion means his statement, he echoes Pilate's inadvertent validation of Jesus' identity in the form of the sign on the cross. What we do know is exactly when He knew with full certainty. At that same moment a violent earthquake shook the land with such ferocity that rocks were split.
God was willing and eager to save one of those primarily responsible for the murder of His Son. A man who watched Jesus be scourged, who watched his soldiers mock and abuse Him and who probably enjoyed every minute of it, suddenly cries out in terror, realizing that He has killed an innocent man.
His cry of terror is also an expression of faith as he confesses his new-found knowledge that Jesus was the Son of God. I am certain that this story served as a great encouragement to many people in the early church. Though many of them carried the guilt for having killed the Lord, the realization that God could save even those who held the nails, would have proven that He is a God of love and forgiveness.
In lieu of a comments section, I accept and encourage letters to the editor. If you would like to write a letter to the editor, you can do so here. How otherwise will you be recognised? This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
Are you acknowledging him as the Son of God? They refused to hide their light under a bushel. He was an old man, and in his earlier days he had known the Apostle John. The Romans threatened him telling him that they would throw him to the wild beasts or burn him at the stake.
They did everything they could to try to get him to deny his Lord. All this was done in an arena before a large crowd. How can we who have been redeemed by the cross not speak of the one who died there on the cross? He is not ashamed to call us his brethren Heb.
How can we be ashamed to call him our God and Saviour? If we confess him before men, he will confess us before his Father in heaven, but if we deny Christ before men, he will deny us before the Father. I never knew him. There are the wonderful promises to those who make a confession that he is God — like this centurion.
According to Luke , if we gladly own Christ before men, Christ will gladly own us before the angels of God. But then there are the solemn warnings, that if we deny him before men Luke , he will deny us before the host of heaven. A student once came to know Jesus Christ as his Saviour, but he was a secret disciple. Such a state of affairs cannot last because either the secrecy is going to kill the discipleship or the discipleship will kill the secrecy.
One day he was standing in line in one of the university dining rooms and he noticed a girl whose husband was a student holding a handful of tracts and wearing badges saying that she was a Christian.
She was slowly working her way down the line offering a leaflet to everyone. She got nearer and nearer to him, and finally she offered him a tract. That is all, but he experienced the welling up of true joy within him as he confessed to someone for the first time that he belonged to the Saviour. Have you shared this with your friends and loved ones? Do they know that you are a believer in Christ?
What about the people that you work with or study with? Do they know about your relationship to Christ and what he means to you? Have you ever confessed Christ to another person.
Have you been baptized? The duty of confessing Christ is incumbent on all Christians in every age of the church. Let us never forget that. It is not for martyrs only, but for all believers in every rank of life. It is not for great occasions only, but for our daily walk through an evil world. The rich man among the rich, the labourer among labourers, the young among the young, the servant among servants — each and all must be prepared, if they are true Christians, to confess their Master.
It needs no blowing of trumpets. It requires no noisy boasting. It needs nothing more than using the daily opportunity. But one thing is certain — if a man loves Jesus, he ought not to be ashamed to let people know it.
Whether we like it or not, whether it be hard or easy, our course is perfectly clear. In one way or another Christ must be confessed. Let me end with some words of Fred Leahy. Listen to him. In the mysterious providence of God, he is pointing us to Christ. He did not have the Bible: you have one.
He did not, so far as we know, hear the gospel preached: you have heard it, perhaps often. He came from a background of paganism: you may have had many spiritual privileges and opportunities. The task of executing the three men completed, the centurion marches his men back to barracks. If he survived military service, and returned to civilian life at home, he would often have reflected on that unforgettable day at Calvary and that Man on the centre cross.
God had granted him a measure of light then that those around him did not have. Did God in the course of time grant him further light? Who knows?
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