WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16
We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus.
Acts 15:11 (NLT)
FREE: WE ALL REQUIRE GRACE
The movie “Saving Private Ryan” ends with Captain Miller (Tom Hanks’ character) sitting near a bridge after an attack by German forces. His life is ebbing away as he pulls Ryan (Matt Damon) down toward him. Struggling for breath he whispers, “Earn this, earn this.” As Ryan stands his face morphs back into the present as a senior adult searching for Miller’s cross in the cemetery. Crying he turns to his wife and says, “Tell me I’m a good man.” Many people may believe that Christ died for them, but they have an attitude that Christ told them, “Earn this.” They spend their lives through religion trying to receive validation so that people will tell them, “You are a good man or a good woman.”
Jesus didn’t die for our sins and then expect us to earn our salvation. In Acts 15:11, the Apostle Peter told the religious leaders that we all need the grace of Jesus to get to be saved. A.T. Robertson says, “Peter speaks as the spiritual emancipator. He takes his stand boldly with Paul and Barnabas for Gentile freedom….His doctrine of grace is as clear as a bell. He has lifted his voice against salvation by ceremony and ritualism. It was a great deliverance.”
Reflection
How is living with the motto “earn this” a type of spiritual bondage? How does knowing God gives us grace a type of spiritual “emancipation?”
Praise/Prayer
Reread Ephesians 2:8-9. Praise God for the promises found in those verses.
