Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 10:47

"Can any man forbid the water, that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit as well as we?" — Acts 10:47 (ASV)

Can any man forbid water . . .—The question was an appeal to the voice of reason. Could the outward sign be refused, when the inward and spiritual grace had thus been so manifestly bestowed? Ordinarily, as in the case of the Samaritans (Acts 8:15–17), the gift of spiritual powers followed the grace given in baptism, through the subsequent act of laying on of hands.

Now even that gift had been anticipated, and all that remained was the outward act of incorporation into the society that acknowledged Christ as its Head. While the history thus bore its witness that the gifts of God may flow through other channels than the outward forms that Christ had appointed, it testified no less clearly that no spiritual gifts, however marvelous, superseded the necessity of obedience to the law of Christ that had appointed those outward forms. This exceptional gift was bestowed, in this instance, to remove the scruples that “those of the circumcision” might otherwise have felt about admitting Gentiles, as such, to baptism; and having served that purpose, as a crucial instance, was never afterwards, as far as we know, repeated under similar conditions.