Believe In Christ And Receive Forgiveness

Sometimes we make grace more complicated than God does.

We wonder who can receive it. Whether we’ve done enough to deserve it. Whether something in our past has put us beyond its reach.

Or sometimes we wonder from the opposite direction.

I’m a good person. I try to do the right thing. Surely that’s enough.

Then Acts 10 introduces us to Cornelius.

By every outward appearance, Cornelius was a good man. He feared God. He prayed continually. He gave generously to people in need.

And Cornelius still needed Jesus.

God was about to make something unmistakably clear:

Our worst failures cannot put salvation beyond our reach.

And our best efforts cannot earn it.

We all come to God the same way.

Through Jesus.

Today’s Saving Grace of God

Acts 10:43 (ESV)

“To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Setting the Scene

Cornelius was a Roman centurion living in Caesarea. He was also a Gentile—a man outside the Jewish covenant community.

But Acts tells us something remarkable about him.

Cornelius feared God. He prayed continually. He gave generously to those in need. An angel even told him that his prayers and gifts had ascended as a memorial before God.

If being a decent, generous, religious person were enough to save someone, Cornelius would seem like an excellent candidate.

But God sent him Peter.

At the same time, God was doing something in Peter.

Peter had been raised with strict Jewish distinctions between clean and unclean, Jew and Gentile. Through a vision, God began preparing Peter to understand that the gospel was going somewhere Peter had not fully expected.

When Peter entered Cornelius’ home, he found not only Cornelius waiting but his relatives and close friends gathered to hear whatever God had commanded Peter to say.

So Peter told them about Jesus.

He told them about His ministry.

His death.

His resurrection.

And then he told them:

“Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Before Peter even finished speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon those listening.

The Jewish believers who had come with Peter were astonished.

God wasn’t merely telling them that Gentiles could hear the gospel.

He was showing them that Jesus came to save them too.

Reflection

There are two lies we can believe about salvation, and somehow they point in completely opposite directions.

One says:

I’ve done too much wrong.

The other says:

I’ve done enough right.

The gospel answers both.

Cornelius was a good man.

That isn’t an insult. Scripture itself tells us about his generosity, his prayers, and his reverence toward God.

But goodness wasn’t his Savior.

Jesus was.

And I think that’s something we desperately need to understand.

We don’t stand before God someday with a scale containing all our good deeds on one side and all our sins on the other, hoping we’ve managed to make the good side heavier.

If that were the plan, I’d have some serious concerns about my scale.

Thankfully, that isn’t the gospel.

Peter doesn’t tell Cornelius:

Keep doing what you’re doing. You’re almost there.

He tells him about Jesus.

And then comes this beautiful word:

Everyone.

“Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

That means the person with a past she desperately wishes she could erase.

The person who wandered.

The person who knew better and did it anyway.

The person carrying guilt nobody else knows about.

Everyone.

But it also means the person who has lived a respectable life.

The person who gives generously.

The person who attends church.

The person who tries hard to be kind and do what is right.

We don’t have two roads to God—one for really messy people who need Jesus and another for good people who did a pretty decent job on their own.

We all need Jesus.

And there’s something wonderfully freeing about that.

I don’t have to convince God that I’m good enough.

And I don’t have to convince Him that I’m not too far gone.

I simply come to Christ.

Forgiveness doesn’t pretend our sin never mattered. The cross tells us exactly how seriously God takes sin.

It cost Jesus His life.

But the cross also tells us how far God’s love was willing to go to rescue us.

Jesus carried what we couldn’t.

Paid what we couldn’t.

And offers what we could never earn.

Forgiveness.

Then, before Peter can even finish his sermon, God gives everyone in that house one more lesson.

The Holy Spirit falls on the Gentiles.

Peter and the Jewish believers are astonished.

God wasn’t reluctantly allowing outsiders into His family.

He was welcoming them.

Maybe you’ve spent years thinking your past makes you an unlikely candidate for grace.

Cornelius’ story reminds us that there are no unlikely candidates.

There are only sinners who need a Savior.

And Jesus came for everyone who believes.

Short Prayer

Dear Jesus, thank You that I don’t have to convince You that I’m good enough to be saved, and I don’t have to fear that I’ve somehow become too broken to be forgiven.

I simply need You.

Thank You for carrying the sin I could never erase and paying the price I could never pay.

When my past makes me question Your grace, remind me of Your promise.

And when I become a little too impressed with my own goodness, remind me that every bit of my salvation still rests in You.

Lord, never let me decide who looks worthy of hearing about Your grace. You welcomed people Peter never expected, and You welcomed me too.

Help me carry that same good news to someone else:

Everyone who believes in Jesus receives forgiveness through His name.

In Your precious name, I pray. Amen.

Reflection Question

Do you find it harder to believe that you are too sinful to be forgiven or that you are good enough without a Savior—and what does Cornelius’ story teach you about both?

Closing Encouragement

You do not have to clean up your past before coming to Jesus.

And you cannot pile up enough good deeds to make Jesus unnecessary.

We all meet God at the same place.

At the cross.

There, the person with the messy past and the person with the respectable one discover exactly the same thing:

We need a Savior.

And Peter gives us the promise:

Everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.

Everyone.

That includes you.

Believe In Christ And Receive Forgiveness In His Name