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Rules and regulations will not save you. Obedience to the law alone will not save you. Being born into the right family will not save you. What then must I do to be saved?

In Acts 15, Peter is with the apostles and elders trying to decide what is necessary for Gentiles specifically to be accepted and saved. Peter, who had been preaching the Good News to the Gentiles, and watching them not only hear but believe spoke to the room. “God know people’s hearts, and He confirmed that He accepts Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for He cleansed their hearts through faith. So why are you now challenging God by burdening the Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear? We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the LORD Jesus.” (v. 8-11)

Prior to Jesus’ coming, the followers of God were mainly Jewish. Not only were they expected to follow the 10 Commandments, they were expected to practice the multitude of other rules and regulations that they had come up with. The result was that even the most devout Jew’s struggled to keep them all. They fell short.

We fall short.

Yet, even while God had chosen the decendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to be His chosen people, God was less concerned about the blood lineage and more concerned about the heart. God decided that His chosen people would be those whose minds believed in Him, whose lives were lived for Him, whose hearts loved Him, and whose souls were passionate for Him.  Jew or Gentile. Male or female. Free or slave. Young or old. The criteria now based on faith.

Prophets had predicted it. God had shared that this change was going to happen, even before He sent His Son to earth. “Afterward I will return and restore the fallen house of David. I will rebuild its ruins and restore it, so that the rest of humanity might seek the LORD, including the Gentiles – all those I have called to be mine. The LORD has spoken- He who made these things known so long ago.” (Acts 15:16-18, Amos 9:11-12, Isaiah 45:21)

If God has called us to be His, and if God has called humanity to seek Him, we should not make it difficult for those who are turning to God. Rather than place a list of rules and regulations onto them before allowing them to come to know God, we should allow them to come to God, just as they are, and allow God to mold and make them into the people He wants them to be. God following is a process. The more time we spend with God – the closer we are to Him – the more we are ready and willing to have Him purify us, sharpen us, and make us new.

Our job is to come. Come and believe.

Blessings!