Cut to the Heart

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

CUT TO THE HEART

Acts 2:36-41

36 "Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." 37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" 38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off — for all whom the Lord our God will call." 40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." 41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

NIV

It is interesting that although Jesus is one of the persons of the triune God, that Peter makes this statement, of course under the inspiration of the Spirit, that God made Jesus Lord and Savior. We know that all authority has been given to Jesus and we have to believe this authority was given to him by the Father, who in all practical sense is the one whom we call God. However, we also know in a theological sense the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the three in one Godhead, therefore each one is God, but each one is not the other. Nevertheless, Peter indicated that it was God who made Jesus Lord and Savior, and it was the Jews who Peter was talking to who had handed Jesus over to Pilate to be crucified. However, Peter does not say they handed him over, as he blames them for crucifying Jesus. Although it was mainly the chief priests, teachers of the law, elders and Pharisees that had conspired to kill Jesus, there were hundreds, even thousands of normal Jews, many from nations that surrounded Israel who were listening to Peter. These, as well as the Jews who lived in Jerusalem and nearby villages in Israel who were the ones that were insighted by the chief priests to yell, “Crucify him”, were the ones who responded to Peter's message. These were the ones who were cut to the heart. What we must also realize is that we too have been guilty of this same act of crucifying Jesus, because of our sin. This is the reason Jesus went to the cross, for the sin of the whole world, which included us and all those who were before and after us, until the Last Day. Once we became aware of our guilt, just as those people had, we repented of our sin and accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. This is what happened to those people as they asked, “Brothers, what shall we do?”, they knew some change had to occur, that they needed to do something because they now felt the guilt and shame of their sin. Here is where we get this theological position of the need to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sin. It is true that all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. That would carry the meaning that all we need to do is call on Jesus and that has the implication that we are accepting him as Lord and Savior. Here, it indicates that for the complete forgiveness of sin a person needs to follow through with accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, by repenting, changing the way they live, the way they think, and the what or who they believe in, by being baptized, being submerged under the water, being buried in a sense and then rising from the water a new, resurrected person, in a fashion, being born again. We can see this scene that happened, and how glorious it must have been to watch three thousand or so people being baptized, accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior. The key to all that happened that day was the fact the truth cut their hearts to the core. We too have had our heart cut by the truth, and we need to always remember and not allow our hearts to become dull to that cut, but to leave our hearts wounded, although at the same time realizing that our hearts have also been healed through Jesus and the power of the Spirit. Still, our hearts need to remain soft and supple, and always open to the truth. Yet, everything, all that we are, all that we believe, and all that we do is a result that we were cut to the heart.