Wednesday 18 May 2022

May 18: Acts 15:1-6

Key Verse: Acts 15:5
Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, ‘The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.’

Devotion:
I wonder, have you ever been in a religious organisation which said you have had to do something physical in order to be saved or forgiven? Maybe you have been told you had to go to a priest and ask to be forgiven? Maybe you have been told you had to be baptised before you could get to heaven. Maybe you have been told you had to change your life before God would forgive you...

If any of the above have ever been told to you, then I would question the motives of the people telling you these things. God does not require any physical thing or event in order for you to be forgiven. I am not talking about you physically asking Christ to forgive you, but rather any third party having to be involved in order for it to be valid. Jesus did not require this; His requirement for us is to believe in what He has done for us – as long as we mean it in our hearts, God will hear us and forgive us.

The Pharisees had a whole string of laws which had to be followed in order for men to be forgiven. This was set down by God to show mankind we would never be able to keep to those laws, we would break one or some of them at some stage. Christ came to set us free from the physical laws; although He would rather we do keep His commandments, we all fall short of the mark.

When the Pharisees came to the apostles and laid down the requirement the Gentiles would have to be circumcised just as the Jews were, they went away to think about it. They did not flatly reject the idea and did what they could to break down the rift which was being built up here. God does not want us to rebel against everything but to listen and discuss things; opening up God’s Word and allowing people to make the choice as to what they want to do is what Jesus was promoting. Jesus did not promote breaking the laws – He kept them!

Points to Ponder:
Do you feel like you are not worthy because you have done something wrong?

Will you simply ask Christ to forgive you in your heart?