Friday 6 Mar 2020

March 6: Acts 3:11-16

Key Verse: Acts 3:14
You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you.

Devotion:
People often ask what the difference is between being religious, going to church and this relationship we say we have with Christ. This was prophesied before Jesus came to live amongst man as a human, was lived out when He did come and continues to be a reminder of how mankind turned their back on Him despite seeing what happened in front of their eyes! Jesus wanted people to focus more on having a healthy relationship with God through Him rather than continuing to focus on the religious acts they were used to doing.

Once again the disciples honed in on the fact the people of Israel were more concerned with following the Torah than following the will of God. They had focused too much on doing the acts rather than maintaining their relationship with God. Once Jesus paid the ultimate price on the cross, all the sacrificing and acts of man became useless in comparison to what Christ did! Why then did they continue to focus on their acts? The answer is surprisingly simple in my view – we like to keep things the same and not introduce too much change into our lives… and something like this is a big change for us to cater with!

Imagine being reminded about how you, as a society or personally, contributed to the horrible death faced by Jesus on the cross! Imagine being blamed for someone else’s death in such a terrible way! That is exactly what Peter and John were reminding the people about – how their acts had contributed to the death of an innocent man on the cross!

But the amazing thing they closed off this bit of the passage with was the fact Jesus is willing to give us eternal life after forgiving us – even though we contributed to that death on the cross! It is because of His faith this is possible. It is through your faith you can depend on this being so. It is no longer a requirement to do all the religious acts people have done in the past because Jesus paid for everything with His death on the cross. Have faith He will deliver you from the punishment you deserve...

Points to Ponder:
Do you go to church to prove something?

Or do you go to church to expand your relationship with God?