October 8

Day 208: What We Otherwise Could Not Conjure Up Ourselves

Acts 11 is the story of how Peter, after being accused of not acting like a good Jew, recounts to the church in Jerusalem what Jesus did for the centurion Cornelius and his household.

Salvation had come to a Gentile household. The floodgates of gospel expansion had now been released

As the prophets of old had foretold, Gentiles would also be included in the family of God. The gospel would not, nor was it ever intended to be limited only to those with Jewish blood and Jewish history.

Jesus gave this household forgiveness. He gave them faith. He gave them salvation. No stretching the limits of Jewish sensibilities a little bit. This was the first recorded time a complete non-Jew, and others with him, came to share in the life changing gospel. Like any of the Jewish Christians. The leaders of the Jerusalem church were not quite ready for this!

As I read this and the previous chapter, I wonder - how did this Gentile household even know they "needed saving?" Saving from what?

Most people today look for salvation from their problems; not their sin. This is why a "therapeutic gospel" is appealing to far more people than is the gospel itself.

We know the answer - salvation from our own sins, and the death sentence, the eternal isolation from God that sin deserves. But how did these first believing Gentiles know that? Or care?

Because God gave them that awareness, a new found awareness of their sin, and the unquenchable desire to seek and secure salvation in Jesus. God gave them not just the results of salvation, but even the desire that led to their salvation.

And God proved His approval of them by giving them the tangible presence of the Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit presence already shared by those who stood by, much to their own shock, and watched this all happen.

Because God in Christ had first given them the desire to know God and be in the center of His pleasure.

I don't think any of us are born with a natural desire to recognize our own sin, or to seek out any relief. It's my conclusion that God gives this awareness, this desire to any of us, all of us who believe and are saved. On our own, we bring nothing to the equation but our own depravity.

If we are "dead in our trespasses and sins," then we are dead. Dead people don't do things. They don't generate thoughts or intentions.

Dead people are dead. If while someone may continue physically alive, our Bible says that spiritually they can be thoroughly dead, all at the same time.

God's grace to us is not limited to one ethnicity. It isn't even limited to the fruits (benefits, results) of gospel transformation. I think the grace of God even includes the initial starting point desire to gain and enjoy God's grace to us in Jesus.

He gives us the desire to want it in the first place. Praise Him for graciously giving believers what we otherwise could not conjure up ourselves.

-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church | Juneau