Acts: A Theological Commentary on the Bible (Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible)

by Willie James Jennings

This moment schools us in divine transgression. God brings Peter to one outside of the covenant, transgressing God’s own established boundary and border. We must not weaken the radical implications of this epic meeting. This meeting has yet to gain its proper place in the historical consciousness of the church because the actions of God here are taken for granted. God’s actions here have been imagined by so many Christians through a mangled vision of providence that conceals the real God behind a strange universal god. That universal god in this line of thinking has always been poised to render Israel inconsequential and now was moving on past covenant with Israel and finally overcoming their religious ethnocentrism. The universal god was fulfilling a hidden wish to make Israel a doorstop put in place to grant the world access to salvation. This line of thinking imagines God’s life with Israel as simply a dress rehearsal for the real play. The universal god of this distorted providence had all of us, the Gentiles, the rest of the world in mind all along, even as Israel was turned inward toward its own struggles with covenant faithfulness. This sick providence falsely reads Israel’s history as their many failures to get beyond themselves and their petty religious or nationalist interests. That false history interprets God’s actions toward Israel as so many attempts to break out beyond them. It therefore ultimately suggests a clear division of operations: Boundaries and bord...