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Oct 09, 2024 06:00am

Faith Alone

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“You can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl.”

This has been said about me on many occasions, especially as I began my career in broadcast journalism.

“Ben was a General from Tennessee.”

This was a phrase on a cassette tape I listened to and practiced time and time again. I didn’t know there was a proper way to pronounce these syllables and words. The “e” sound where I grew up sounded quite different than this tape.

Ben was pronounced “Been” or “bin” in the country. “Ben has been to the store.” Or “Ben got stuck in the grain bin.”

Do you see how my “e”s sounded?

So, here I am, trying to relearn my English. But my southern draw made it a little difficult. Even today, years later, I’ll slip back into that comfortable, drawn-out, country voice and not even realize it.

Change is hard, isn’t it?

Acts 15:1

“Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.”

Who were these certain people who were teaching this?

You can take the Pharisee out of the law, but you can’t take the law out of the Pharisee.

These men were Pharisees, part of the Jewish religious leaders; however, they had been converted to Christianity. They believed in Jesus to save them. But the problem was that they wanted to believe Jesus + the law saved them.

Their whole life, that’s all they had ever known. They were raised and taught from birth that the law brought righteousness. Even though they believed Jesus was the Son of God and that He rose from the dead and His salvation was for them, they still couldn’t let go of the law.

They felt it was their duty to teach the believers that it was good they trusted in Jesus to save them, but that wasn’t enough. That wasn’t all there was to it. There was something they had to do in order to be saved.

They had to be circumcised as the law commanded.

When Paul and Barnabas heard this, they were quick to dispute it. They heard from the Jewish Christians. They were worried that if the gentile Christians didn’t follow the law of Moses beginning with circumcision, then the weak morals would overtake the church. Paul and Barnabas knew this issue needed to be handled carefully and quickly. They gathered the people to meet with the church council in Jerusalem.

7-11

“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 did not discriminate 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 Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors 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.”

Faith alone; not faith plus this or that, but faith alone saves.

That is what grace is, my friend. It is unearned, undeserved, and free. If we could do anything to earn our salvation, then Jesus died for nothing.

Faith alone.

Just as it was hard for the Pharisees to forget about tradition and what they had always known and done, it’s the same way today.

Many people want to believe that to be saved and live eternally, you have to do something in addition to believing.

But this was made clear from the beginning with the early church. They knew it was important then, and it’s important now.

Faith alone saves you.

Are you trusting in anything else? Don’t be fooled. Search the Scriptures. The truth is here. Let me show you.

Go to follow.lifeword.org.