Thursday, April 11, 2013 - 4:45 pm

Yesterday I caught up on my sleep by napping instead of writing, but I'm back to it today, and looking through Acts 15-18. In Acts 15, certain Jewish believers were trying to add the law of Moses to the requirements for salvation. The problem with that is that no one could keep the law without fault before, as Peter points out. He also cites precedent, how God had already given the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles without making a distinction between them and those who were following Moses' law. In verse 11, Peter comes to his conclusion: "No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are." Jesus fulfills the law on our behalf, He becomes our righteousness, and so we are saved. When we accept Him as Saviour, however, we must also accept Him as Lord. The argument the Jews gave would have viewed Him as Lord, but not quite as Saviour. Nowadays, there are plenty of people who would love to see Him as their Saviour, as long as they don't have to call Him Lord. If we're honest with ourselves, sometimes we all want Jesus to forgive us, pay for our sin and give us a free pass to eternity, and then leave us alone to do as we see fit without His meddling. That view misses the heart of God just as surely as the addition of the law as a requirement does. You can't pick and choose which parts of God you like, what parts of His character you'd like to do without. When you accept God's grace, you accept the whole package. His grace both saves us, and gives us the power to accomplish His will for our lives. Here's a challenging question: If we don't accept Jesus as both Lord and Saviour, can we truly accept Him as either of the two? It seems to me that both aspects of who He is are bound up in His nature, and we can't separate them. It would be like trying to drink only the hydrogen, or only the oxygen, in water. The attempt is futile. Gratitude, love, obedience - all are appropriate responses to God's grace. Let us accept Jesus for who He is - for all of who He is.