sound of a soft breath

Listen to Acts Chapter 15
or read "The Council at Jerusalem"

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. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 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? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are."

Is it that simple? God purifies people's hearts by faith and through grace? Are we really purified by God through grace when we believe? Belief in Christ cleans our hearts through his grace? God cleans our heart through grace when we believe in Christ! Here is how Paul puts it in his letter to the Romans.

... since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. ... (Romans 5:1-2a)

There were those not long after Jesus came who wanted to attach rules and requirements to his message. Humans love to set up hoops for others to jump through. God has made it too simple so we must make it more complex to make it into 'something'.


Here we see Peter remind the others to keep it simple. Keep it Jesus. Since this point in history people have continued to complicate the message of Jesus. Humans over the past 2000 years have attached customs, traditions, rules, wars, denominations, nations, discrimination, doctrines, and politics to the message Jesus brought to us. I know even today there are things I have attached to the message. I pray that God would help me to strip my faith down to drop the religious baggage. Keep it simple.