So if God gave them the same gift He gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to hinder the work of God?”
Parallel translations
- WEB If then God gave to them the same gift as us, when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I, that I could withstand God?”
- KJV Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?
- NKJV If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?”
- NASB Therefore, if God gave them the same gift as He also gave to us after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”
- NLT And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to stand in God’s way?”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Since God gave Gentiles the same gift He gave believing Jews, Peter asks who he was to stand in God's way. To resist Gentile inclusion would be to oppose God.
Overview
Peter's clinching argument is that God Himself granted the Gentiles the identical gift, given to those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. For Peter to refuse them would be to resist God's clear action. The verse places the final authority for Gentile inclusion where it belongs, in God's sovereign grace.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Acts 10:47“Can anyone withhold the water to baptize these people? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have!”
- Rom 9:20–26But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?”
- Acts 15:8–9And God, who knows the heart, showed His approval by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as He did to us.
- Rom 11:34–36“Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?”
- Dan 4:35All the peoples of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does as He pleases with the army of heaven and the peoples of the earth. There is no one who can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”
- Rom 9:15–16For He says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
- Job 33:13Why do you complain to Him that He answers nothing a man asks?
- Job 9:12–14If He takes away, who can stop Him? Who dares to ask Him, ‘What are You doing?’
- Matt 20:14–15Take your pay and go. I want to give this last man the same as I gave you.
- Acts 10:45All the circumcised believers who had accompanied Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.
- Job 40:2“Will the faultfinder contend with the Almighty? Let him who argues with God give an answer.”
- Acts 5:39But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God.”
- Job 40:8–9Would you really annul My justice? Would you condemn Me to justify yourself?
- Acts 11:15As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, just as He had fallen upon us at the beginning.
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Christ at the center
Acts is the risen Christ continuing his work by the Spirit through the church, as the apostles preach that there is salvation in no other name under heaven.
How Acts 11:17 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.