“But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”
(Acts 15:11)
Before his conversion on the road to Damascus, there was never one more zealous for Judaism and the Mosaic Law than the devout Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus. What a statement of grace was it then, that when God converted him and changed his name to Paul, He also commissioned him to take the gospel of Christ to the Gentiles.
In the early days of Paul’s ministry, many Gentiles were being converted to Christianity. But instead of rejoicing in the work God was doing among the Gentiles, some Jewish Christians began raising questions as to the validity of the Gentiles’ conversion experience. These Jews believed Gentiles must also be subject to the Law of Moses and become Jewish proselytes in order to truly be saved.
Paul’s response to their concerns in Acts 15:10-11 is perfectly clear, however. “Now therefore why do you tempt God, that you should put a yoke [the Law] on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” In other words, not one of us – Jew nor Gentile – is sufficient to keep the Law. So why do you try to impose it as an aspect of salvation?
Paul goes on to say that not only are Gentiles saved without keeping the law, Jews are too! That is, both are saved in the same manner – by grace through faith in the Lord’s Christ. This is the only way. “But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, just as they are,” (Acts 15:10-11).
Our Creator God established two primary covenants with mankind – the covenant of works and the covenant of grace – that He might bring eternal life to man. The first covenant would have accomplished that for Adam and Eve had they obeyed God’s law perfectly. But Adam failed. And his disobedience introduced sin and death where there had been righteousness and the prospect of life eternal.
The result was the need for a new covenant – the covenant of grace. Christ, as the second Adam, fulfilled the Law of God perfectly, thereby sanctioning that covenant of grace which stretches from Genesis 3:15 to the end of Revelation. And as a result, every man, woman, and child who comes to know Christ as Savior – whether Jew or Gentile, Old Testament saint or New Testament believer – receives salvation in exactly the same fashion: by grace through faith, not by works (Eph. 2:8-9).
Speaking of the Old Testament saints, the writer of Hebrews explains, “They received Jesus Christ by faith…” (Heb. 11:26). Further, “By faith they became heirs of His righteousness,” (Heb. 11:7). In other words, because of the covenant of grace that God put in place in the Garden of Eden, “We [also] believe to be saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, even as they.”
George Walker said, “The covenant made with the Old Testament fathers agree with the covenant now under the Gospel, in one and the same condition of man’s behalf. In other words, it demonstrates the perfect righteousness of the Law, and perfect obedience to the whole revealed will of God, performed by the Mediator Jesus Christ, God and man, in man’s nature.”
The truth of the Gospel has never changed. Both the righteousness of God, and the means by which it is applied to the believer’s account, are free gifts and graces of God.
But God’s justice demanded that Christ accomplish for us what we cannot accomplish for ourselves through His death and resurrection. The gift of His Son is God’s testament to His covenant of grace which He established before the foundation of the world. Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift of grace – the ONLY way by which any one of us can be saved.
- Lord, I know that Abraham, Samson, Noah, Moses and all the Old Testament saints looked forward by faith to the coming of the Messiah. And since the cross, we look back to the covenant You made, to Christ who came and fulfilled the Law. Help me see Him more clearly as I read and study Your word. Help me divide the Scriptures faithfully that I might understand Abraham as the father of like faith, and Christ the foundation of the faith that both Abraham and I share.
- Lord, may I respond to the good news of the gospel of grace in the same way that Zaccheus did in Luke 19:6, “he made haste” to come down from his hiding place up in the tree to receive Your Son joyfully. In the same way that everyone is converted – by faith in the Word of the Son of God – Zaccheus became a Christian that day, embracing Christ as his all.
- Lord, You justified all believers throughout history in the same manner as You did me – by Christ’s grace and merit through faith. “Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith,” (Rom. 3:30). You justify the Jews as well as the Gentiles by faith. For since all are liable to sin and condemnation, and they are destitute of the glory of God, there is no other way of justification than by faith. It is only through the grace of Christ that any of us are saved. Christ is the only Way to You. He is the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except by Him (John. 14:6).
Further References for Acts 15:11
Rom. 3:24; Eph. 2:5; Gal. 2:16; Titus 2:11; Acts 16:31; 2 Cor. 13:14
