Sunday, October 05, 2008

Free for Everyone

Acts 11:15-18 ESV
(15) As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning.
(16) And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'
(17) If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?"
(18) When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, "Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life."


I think it is hard for American Christians to get our minds around this. The offer of the gospel to the Gentiles was completely mind-boggling to the early church. How could God save anyone besides a Jew? Yet that is what we see in Acts 10 and 11. Peter fought it at first, but God compelled him. Here we see his testimony of what happened after the Gentiles believed.

I do believe in the doctrine of limited atonement. However, I also recognize that it is not limited by people groups. Christ's death tore the curtain in two so that people from every tribe, tongue, and nation might have access to the holy of holies.

This is something I want to meditate on as I worship this morning.

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