Why Did Peter and Paul Preach Forgiveness?

Summary

Episode Overview

Podcast: Grace in Focus
Host: Grace Evangelical Society
Episode: Why Did Peter and Paul Preach Forgiveness?
Date: September 25, 2025
Length: 13 minutes

This episode explores the relationship between the forgiveness of sins and the gospel of eternal salvation, specifically examining why Peter and Paul often preached forgiveness. Hosts Bob Wilkin and Ken Yates address a listener's question about whether preaching "forgiveness of sins" constitutes an acceptable gospel presentation, discuss relevant passages from Acts, and clarify the core message (“bullseye”) of eternal life in apostolic preaching. The episode maintains a conversational, reflective tone and draws from both scripture and personal insights.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Listener’s Question: Forgiveness vs. Eternal Life (00:48)

• Chris’s Question: Why did Peter and Paul preach forgiveness of sins to both Jews and Gentiles? Can we present the gospel as “believe in Jesus for forgiveness of sins” since the apostles did?
• Hosts’ Setup: Many argue it's sufficient to say, “Believe Jesus died for your sins,” or “Believe he was raised,” but the focus of today’s question is the role of forgiveness in apostolic preaching.

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2. Acts 13: Paul Preaching in Antioch’s Synagogue (02:23)

• Audience Breakdown: Primarily Jews but includes Gentile "God-fearers."
• Scripture Quoted (Acts 13:38-39):
  • Bob notes that Paul preaches, “‘Through this man [Christ] is preached to you the forgiveness of sins…everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses’” (03:33).
• Distinction Highlighted:
  • Forgiveness ≠ Justification ≠ Eternal Life
    • Ken: “Are those the same thing? And I would say no.” (04:23)
    • Bob: “No. ... None of those are saving [statements].” (04:23)
  • They stress that, although these are results of believing, the “bullseye” Paul aims for is always eternal life (04:23).

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3. The Core Message is Eternal Life (Acts 13:46-48) (05:42)

• Bob Reads: Paul says, “‘You reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life. Behold, we turn to the Gentiles.’” (05:42)
• Ken’s Emphasis:

  “Notice he doesn’t say you judge yourselves unworthy of the forgiveness of sins, … he says … unworthy of eternal life or everlasting life. Why would he say that? Because that’s the bullseye.” (05:47)

• Notable Quote:

  “The bullseye is eternal life.” – Ken Yates (09:18)

• Acts 13:48 Discussion:
  • Phrase “as many as were appointed to eternal life believed” is not a predestinarian term but means “well-positioned” or “open to eternal life” (06:21-06:42).

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4. Forgiveness of Sins and Its Audience Context (08:22)

• Contextual Emphasis: Preaching forgiveness was essential to Jews steeped in Mosaic law and sacrificial systems.

• Bob:

  “You’re not going to find the forgiveness of sins and fellowship with God in the law or in the sacrifices. You’re going to find it in him and … eternal life. You need to believe in him for eternal life.” (09:01)

• Common Misunderstandings: Many believe in forgiveness but not in eternal security.

  • Ken remarks that Catholics, for example, believe in “initial forgiveness” but not in eternal assurance. (09:18)

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5. Acts 10: Peter Preaching to Cornelius and Gentiles (09:41)

• Scripture Quoted (Acts 10:43):
  • Bob: “‘To him all the prophets witness that through his name, whoever believes in him will receive remission of sins.’” (10:05)
• Interpretive Note:
  • Ken proposes that, though forgiveness is mentioned, eternal life is implied or already conveyed (“words of life,” Acts 11).
  • Two options: either Peter already spoke about eternal life (not written here), or the Gentiles understood eternal life from “forgiveness of sins” based on prior expectation. (10:35)

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6. Forgiveness as Equality (11:06)

• Bob’s Clarification:

  “The forgiveness of sins here is not the same thing as receiving eternal life. … Peter was telling them, you’re equal with the Jews.” (11:06)

• Ken’s Follow-up:

  “They have the Spirit. … That’s what’s going on here. So this is something in addition to receiving eternal life.” (11:37)

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7. Consistency of Eternal Life Across Apostolic Teaching (12:00)

• New Testament Cross-References:
  • 1 Peter 1:23: “…having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and abides forever.” (12:12)
  • James 1:18: “...by the word of truth.” (12:22)
• Ken:

  “What you’re going to find is everlasting life is in all of the apostles.” (12:22)

  • The Gospel of John never uses the phrase “Whoever believes has the forgiveness of sins,” but always “has eternal life.” (12:43)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Ken Yates (04:23):

  “Is it inappropriate to say when you believe in Jesus, you get the forgiveness of sins? No. … But none of those are saving. … The point where people mess up … is they don’t keep reading.”

• Ken Yates (05:47):

  “He says, you judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life or everlasting life. Why would he say that? Because that’s the bullseye.”

• Bob Wilkin (09:01):

  “You need to believe in him for eternal life.”

• Ken Yates (12:22):

  “Everlasting life is in all of the apostles. Certainly if you read the Gospel of John, you’re never going to find Jesus saying, whoever believes has the forgiveness of sins.”

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Important Timestamps

• 00:48 — Listener’s question introduced
• 02:23 — Introduction of Acts 13 and discussion of the synagogue audience
• 04:23 — Differentiating forgiveness, justification, and eternal life
• 05:42 — Shift to the “bullseye” of eternal life in Paul’s message
• 06:09 — Examination of “appointed to eternal life” in Acts 13:48
• 08:22 — The relevance of forgiveness for Jewish (law-focused) audiences
• 09:41 — Acts 10: Peter’s message to Gentile Cornelius
• 10:35 — How forgiveness points to equality with the Jews and eternal life for Gentiles
• 12:00 — Eternal life teaching across Peter, James, and John
• 12:43 — Emphasis that John always focuses on “eternal life,” not “forgiveness of sins”

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Conclusion

Wilkin and Yates emphasize that while forgiveness of sins was an important part of the apostles’ message—especially for audiences bound by the Mosaic law—the central offer (the “bullseye”) of the gospel is always eternal life. Forgiveness, justification, and other blessings come with belief, but the core of apostolic evangelism was calling people to believe in Christ for eternal life. This distinction offers clarity to those crafting gospel presentations today, urging them to keep “grace in focus.”

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For more episodes and resources, visit faithalone.org.

Transcript

[A]

The following is a listener supported ministry from the Grace Evangelical Society today, a question about the relation of forgiveness of sins and the gospel of eternal salvation. Why did Peter and Paul preach forgiveness? What is the bull's eye when talking about eternal salvation? Let's talk about it together. This is Grace in Focus. Thank you for joining us. Each weekday here we also produce short videos. YouTube Grace Evangelical Society is our channel. We you can subscribe to that and we hope you enjoy our short videos. YouTube Grace Evangelical Society. Please visit us at our website faithalone.org and now with today's question and answer discussion, here are Bob Wilkin and Ken Yates.

[B]

Bob, we have a question from one of our listeners named Chris. He refers to some things that Hodges wrote in one of his books about the forgiveness of sins.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

His question is why did Peter and Paul both preach on certain occasions in the scriptures the forgiveness of sins? And by the way, he points out it was to Jews and Gentiles both. If that's not an acceptable gospel presentation, and both of us have been in situations where we've talked to people who say that, hey, if you preach, believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, then that's acceptable because of these verses, they'll say, well, didn't Peter do that? And we see people saved. Didn't Paul do that when he was evangelizing saying, believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins? And this is Chris's question here that then why can't we, and sometimes this is expanded to can't we just say believe that he died on the cross? If you believe that he died on the cross for you and usually with the forgiveness of sins, or if you believe he rose from the dead, or if you believe he's coming back again. But here specifically, let's look at. Now Chris does not mention the passages that he's referring to, but we think we know which ones he's referring to.

[C]

Okay. And does he mention the book? Is he talking about did Paul preach eternal life? Should we? That was a booklet that Zane Hodges wrote.

[B]

He doesn't mention.

[C]

I bet that's probably it. And in that he says, sure, Paul preached forgiveness, but the bullseye for Paul was always eternal life.

[B]

Right.

[C]

All right, well, let's look at one of the passages I think that Chris might have in mind. And that's Acts 13, 38, 39. This is where Paul was preaching in Antioch and his first missionary journey. This was in a synagogue. Yes, it's Jewish mostly, but there are plenty of God fearing Gentiles present too.

[B]

And Part of his sermon, in verse 38, he says, Therefore let it be known to you, brethren. Now that makes me think he specifically is talking to the Jews. Here in verse 26, he says, Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham. But then he also adds, and those among you who fear God.

[C]

Now that God fearers are normally Gentiles.

[B]

Yeah, I remember doing some study on this a long time ago that. Does this refer to proselytes or does it refer to just Gentiles who were.

[C]

Thinking about, yeah, they could be Gentiles who were circumcised and had actually become proselytes. But normally, from my reading, God fearers were people like Cornelius or like Lydia in the book of Acts. And they were not proselytes.

[B]

Right.

[C]

They were simply worshiping in the synagogue.

[B]

But certainly we would say the majority of the audience here are Jews. And he says, let's see. Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man Christ is preached to you the forgiveness of sins. And then he adds, and by him, everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Which is another clue that he's talking to Jews here. So Chris's point here is that here Paul is preaching to Jews and we're going to look at a passage where Peter is talking to Gentiles and is talking about the forgiveness of sins. But here Paul is talking to Jews and he goes, in Christ you have the forgiveness of sins and you could be justified. Now even that raises a question. Are those the same thing? And I would say no.

[C]

No. I would say no also. And I was saying, look, is it inappropriate to say when you believe in Jesus, you get the forgiveness of sins? No. Is it inappropriate to say when you believe in Jesus, you're baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ? No. Is it inappropriate to say when you believe in Christ for everlasting life, that the Holy Spirit permanently indwells you? No, but none of those are saving. But here is the point where people mess up when it comes to Acts 13. They don't keep reading. You see, A week later, they wanted to hear. The Gentiles in particular, wanted to hear more. So they came back and they preached again. And notice, what verse is it? Verse 44.

[B]

On the next Sabbath, almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.

[C]

So now we're not just mostly Jews, we've got most of the city.

[B]

Right. And in verse 46, Paul says 45.

[C]

Says the Jews opposed what Paul was saying. Now that Means there were more than Jews present.

[B]

Right. And then it says he's going to refer to the Gentiles here. Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said it was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first. The Jews. Right. But since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life.

[C]

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

[B]

Behold, we turn to the Gentiles.

[C]

Notice he doesn't say you judge yourselves unworthy of the forgiveness of sins, you judge yourselves unworthy of justification. He says, you judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life or everlasting life. Why would he say that? Because that's the bullseye. And then notice verse 48, which a lot of people miss. This is where Calvinists really botched this verse. But could you read 48?

[B]

Sure. Now, when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as been, well then the new King James, many has been appointed to eternal life, believed.

[C]

Yeah. And this is Tetagmanoi from Tasso. And it means to put or place. Often troops were put. It was a military term. Often where they would place troops, get information. Right. Well here it could be many people suggest that what Paul is saying, as many as were well positioned to eternal life, believed or who were open to.

[B]

Eternal life, something like that, or even positioned themselves.

[C]

Right.

[A]

Just jumping in here to make you aware of our magazine Grace in Focus. It is a bi monthly, six issues per year, 48 page magazine, full color, and we want you to subscribe by emailing your name and your snail mail address to gesaithalone.org the subscription is free, it can be accessed electronically or it can be actually physically sent to you if you live in the lower 48 United States. That's our Grace and Focus magazine. Send your name and snail mail address to gesaithalone.org.

[C]

And so the idea here is not that God, this is not one of the election words.

[B]

Exactly.

[C]

It's not a chosen word. This is a word that refers to being positioned. What it's saying is there were people, verse 46, who judged themselves unworthy of eternal, not God judging them unworthy, they judged themselves unworthy.

[B]

And that's what Paul says.

[C]

And so now in verse 48 he said there were people who did judge themselves worthy and they because they were open to eternal life and well positioned concerning eternal life, they believed. And notice verse 49.

[B]

How about this? The way I would say it is they positioned themselves to be willing to believe.

[C]

Absolutely.

[B]

How about verse 49, 49 and the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region. But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from their region.

[C]

But the word spread through the whole region, primarily among the Gentiles. Right, yeah.

[B]

What I would say about this, as far as the. The part about the forgiveness of sins and the justification, he's talking about the law of Moses. So when he's preaching in the synagogue, he's telling Jews who are well steeped in this concept of forgiveness of sins, their whole religious practices. What he's saying is, Jesus has come to do all these things. You couldn't be declared righteous by the law, but in him you can. Right. You're not going to find the forgiveness of sins and fellowship with God in the law or in the sacrifices. You're going to find it in him and you're going to find eternal life in Him. You need to believe in him for eternal life.

[C]

Absolutely.

[B]

And so the forgiveness of sins is very appropriate for a Jewish audience here who was looking to the law of Moses for these things.

[C]

Now, are there people who have believed that by faith in Jesus, they're forgiven and yet they believe they can lose eternal life or lose their salvation? Lots of.

[B]

Oh, lots of people. Every Catholic who goes to Mass.

[C]

Right. Most people would say what I get is initial forgiveness, which actually is our view. Right. You start the Christian life with a clean slate. But the point is, the bullseye is eternal life verses 46 and 48. By the way, we see the same thing in Peter's preaching in Acts 10.

[B]

That's the other one that we think Chris probably has in my Acts 10:43.

[C]

Right.

[B]

In Acts 10:43, in this case, Peter is talking to Gentiles Cornelius and his household.

[C]

He was a lieutenant colonel like you. Right.

[B]

A centurion. Yeah, probably pretty close to that.

[C]

Centurion was somewhere between 100 and 600 men or something.

[B]

Well, normally they say it was about 60 men. So this would be like, for you in the military? This would be like a company commander.

[C]

A company. Is that like a major?

[B]

A captain.

[C]

A captain.

[B]

And it says he preaches to them, to him, Christ. All the prophets witness that through his name, whoever believes in him will receive remission of sins.

[C]

Okay. So he says they're going to receive the remission of sins. And then the next verse says, while Peter was still preaching, Holy Spirit fell on them.

[B]

Right.

[C]

Coming back to Chris, question, how can that be if he didn't mention eternal.

[B]

Life and we would say, of course he did. We know that the angel told Cornelius, go call him, and he will give you words of life.

[C]

In Acts 11, he will tell you how you and your household must be saved, and words of life. And there's two options. One option is he had already talked about eternal life, and we just don't have it written in the transcript. The other option is, as soon as they heard, whoever believes in him receives the forgiveness of sins, since they knew he was coming to tell them the saving message. As soon as they heard this, they realized, aha, when I believe in him, I'm saved forever and I have the forgiveness of sin.

[B]

In my view, this is the issue. The forgiveness of sins here is not the same thing as receiving eternal life. But the forgiveness of sins was. Peter was telling them, you're equal with the Jews.

[C]

Yeah. In fact, that's why he goes on to say, who can forbid water? Who have received the Spirit, just as we have.

[B]

Just as we have we Jews. That's right. Before that, Peter was like, I can't eat with you all. I can't come into this house. And God says, oh, yes, you can.

[C]

In Galatians chapter 2 in Acts 9.

[B]

Because I have forgiven their sins.

[C]

Yes, you're right.

[B]

And that's the point here in Acts chapter 10, that Gentiles are equal members within the body. The disciples knew that Gentiles could receive eternal life, but now they're saying, wow, they're equal with us. They've been forgiven of all their sins, just like we are. They have the Spirit. Yes. That's what's going on here. So this is something in addition to receiving eternal life.

[C]

So Paul and Peter both preached eternal life. If you look in first Peter, chapter one, what is it about verse 24 he talks about? You have been born anew by the word of God. Isn't that what it says in 1st.

[B]

Peter 1:23, having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible through the word of God, which lives and abides forever.

[C]

So there's him talking about the same message as John 3, having been born again by the word of God. And James does the same thing. In James 1:18, he brought us forth by the word of truth. So what you're going to find is everlasting life is in all of the apostles. Certainly if you read the Gospel of John, you're never going to find Jesus saying, whoever believes has the forgiveness of sins.

[B]

He doesn't say it one time. No, that's exactly right. Well, thanks for the question. Chris we hope this helped and remember folks, keep grace in focus.

[A]

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[B]

The proceeding has been a listener supported.

[A]

Ministry from the Grace Evangelical Society.