Please read the passage before the commentary.
It is Easter. The Lord has risen from the dead. Peter is un the house of a Roman centurion, a pagan soldier. Peter and his companions had eater and drank with Jesus after his death and resurrection. The Jesus who had died was alive again. Therefore, Jesus could pardon all the sinners of the world.
What is the significance of the death and resurrection? Death is the end of life; resurrection is the beginning of life. We are born in order to live; we die because of our sins. We have a fear of dying because of our sins; we live in order to enjoy good things. Jesus died because of sins, ours not his. Jesus rose from the dead so that we can enjoy the good things of life from him, not from ourselves.
The death of Jesus is our death by means of our baptism into the dying of Jesus; we really, but sacramentally, died in baptism. The resurrection of Jesus is our living by means of our baptism into the dying and living of Jesus; we came to life again really, but sacramentally, by baptism. All who believe in the dying and the living of Jesus have received through Jesus the forgiveness of sins.
Our sins are our death. The forgiveness of our sins is the life of the resurrection of Jesus. By destroying our death, Jesus has destroyed our sins and by destroying our sins Jesus has destroyed our dying; therefore, we have already started eternally living in baptism.
To be alive is to enjoy the good, not the bad. The life of Jesus is the abundance of good and the absence of the bad. By means of our baptism, we have received the abundance of good and the absence of death.
Peter explained Jesus and his significance to the family of the Roman centurion, and he and all his family came to believe in Jesus and received baptism into the dying and rising of Jesus with the forgiveness of their sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit with all the good of God.
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