Purified

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

PURIFIED

Acts 15:5-11

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 obey the law of Moses." 6 The apostles and elders met to consider this question. 7 After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: "Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are."

NIV

Here it is, the answer to all the questions, all the discussion. It is a little puzzling as to why there is so much discussion when the truth is so simple. Peter lays it out plain and simply. We are all saved by grace, and not by works, or trying to live by some law, or rules and regulations that we simply cannot bear, or do successfully. If we have any pride in ourselves that we are actually successfully living by the complete code of conduct of the scripture or of some denominational statements we are simply fooling ourselves. Peter makes that abundantly clear. But it still is puzzling about all the discussion. The fact that all the believers had such differing views of what was the right way to proceed consider the Gentiles becoming believers. It has not changed much since then, as we believers still are having much discussion about how people are saved and what we believe. But the truth of the matter is that God makes no distinction between any of us as he purifies all our hearts by faith. When anyone puts their faith in God for their salvation, he purifies their heart. It does not matter what party, what nation, what country, what ethnic background, what cultural setting, or what denomination or religion they are. When anyone turns to God, he purifies their heart. It does not matter how bad we were or how good we were, we still need to turn to God in faith and he will purify our hearts. It does not even matter if we can be abide by ever rule and regulation, although it is a very good thing to make every effort to live in a manner that pleases God. We simply cannot abide by all the rules all the time as if we did we would be perfect, but our hearts are still purified because it is not dependent on us, but on God. It is our faith in him, not in our ability to be holy and righteous that purifies our heart. Yes, we need to try our very best to please him, but that is not going to purify our hearts. We live as we do because we love him and because of a heart of gratitude for saving us. Yes, we fail, but we keep on making the effort, but still all our effort is not about making our heart pure, for it is only purified by God.