Acts 10:44-48
44 While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 45 And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, 47 “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days.
Reflection
The Jewish believers with Peter are shocked that the Holy Spirit is poured out even on the Gentiles (Acts 10:45). They probably thought that Gentiles should become Jewish converts first, but they knew the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles when they began speaking in tongues and praising God (v. 46). Peter later uses this incident to answer the challenge of the Jerusalem church that a believer in Jesus had to first be a Jewish convert (11:15–17). Therefore, there was nothing to prevent the Gentiles from being baptized as Christians.
Peter says that the Gentiles “have received the Holy Spirit just as we have” (10:47), referring to the outpouring of the Spirit in Acts 2. The same Holy Spirit who had been poured out on Jews had also been poured out on Gentiles. God can make all things clean. The conclusion embraced by Peter and by the Jerusalem church was that these Gentiles were fellow believers. Repentance and salvation had been granted even to those who had not been under the national contract established at Mount Sinai (the Mosaic covenant).
Jude 1-4
1: Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James,To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:
2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Reflection
Jude urges believers to resist those who pervert the promises of grace into an excuse for feeding their sinful desires (Jude 4; cf. Titus 2:11–12). Rather than embracing this false teaching, Jude urges believers to make every effort to defend the true teachings of the Christian faith that had been delivered to them by the apostles (v. 3). The true gospel teaches us that God’s grace does not lead us away from our Master and Lord (v. 4). Grace liberates us by forgiving us and freeing us from our bondage to sin —by planting a loyal desire for Christ in our hearts. Because he has given himself for us, we give ourselves to him. The gospel transforms our desires from the inside out so that those who know the grace of God bear the fruit of godly action.
Psalm 84:11
11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.
The gospel offers us a certain type of freedom, but not freedom from the rule of Jesus. Pray that you and others in your church family would be protected from the lie that God’s grace gives us permission to live a life of sin.