Mike Walsh

In the first century, after Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead, the early church got its start, according to the book of Acts.

It must have been a really challenging time for those who were standing against the traditions of men and the religion that had been there for centuries before, Judaism. The gospel of Jesus seemed to go against everything that the people of Israel had always been taught and believed. This new teaching, the gospel, taught that regardless of what we’ve done, God will forgive us through Jesus and we can be a brand new creation.

Before God sent his son to the earth, the message of Judaism was a message of salvation through good works and living up to God’s standard through the flesh. God knew that man could never attain salvation by being good enough, but that man’s sin was separating us from him. That’s why he sent his son into the world to be the atoning sacrifice for us.

God said in Ezekiel 18:20, “The soul who sins shall die.” And in Romans 6:23 the apostle Paul wrote, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The problem is that good works will never be enough for us to be good enough to go to heaven, God does not grade on the curve.  

Saul, who later became the apostle Paul, was on his way to Damascus, Syria, to arrest, imprison and even kill Christians. Acts 9:3-4 tells us that a light shone around him and a voice spoke to him and said, “Saul, Saul why do you persecute me?”

It was the risen Jesus speaking to him. He temporarily lost his eyesight and over the next few days realized that he needed Jesus as his savior and that salvation comes through faith in him alone. He became an apostle to the gentiles. Paul had been a very important part of the Jewish religion and they looked to him.  Now, all of a sudden he is preaching for Jesus and faith in him and his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead as being all we need to go to heaven. 

The message was not well received by his peers and those in Judaism. In his later letter to the Corinthians, Paul said, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

When God said that the wages of sin is death, he knew that someone would have to pay for our sin, either us, by spending eternity in a real hell, or we could accept the free gift of God’s grace in sending his son to suffer and die for our sin in our place.

Romans 5:8 tells us, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” In order to receive his grace and forgiveness we must surrender our lives to him and ask him to forgive us and cleanse us of our sins and be willing to turn from sin and live for God. And the only one who can do that, Jesus, will gladly forgive us. 

Romans 10:10-11 reads “For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” As the scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame,” and John 1:12-13 says “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”

I pray that if you have never made a profession of faith in Jesus, that you would talk to God through prayer and ask him to cleanse you and forgive you and he will bring a new peace and joy to your life. You can be a brand new creation.

(Mike Walsh is the pastor of Glad Tidings Assembly of God.)