Acts 10-11

Opening his mouth, Peter said: "I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him... (for) through [Jesus'] name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins." (Acts 10:34-35, 43b)

God's call is to the entire world! Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved! The Gospel's message is not limited by nationality, wealth, power, gender, or caste; it is the free gift of God to all the world. There is no partiality with God.

But it is by the shear grace of God that the Gospel is for all people, because God's righteous standard has always been for all people. It is appointed for all men to die and afterwards face His judgment. Whether they hear of the Gospel or not, the entire world is accountable to God. And though God has graciously provided a means of salvation, even if He had chosen not to or had chosen never to reveal it to us, we would still be accountable to Him and be worthy of eternal punishment.

That is the stark reality of Scripture. All have sinned and fall short. We deserve no second chance. We are entitled to no act of grace. We all like sheep have gone astray and deserve the just condemnation of our Creator. Salvation was never required or demanded of God. He freely chose not to leave us to our just punishment.

In our society today we are so often convinced of an entitlement mentality. To be fair, God must accept us or give us a way to be reconciled. But God could have chosen to save the Jews only... and in that, He still would have been immeasurably gracious.

But God's grace was and is not confined by nationality. Praise the Lord! For His grace and mercy are so abundant that while we all were yet sinners Christ died for all of us. That "through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins." Wow!

Thanksgiving is upon us and stopping to reflect on the the grace of our Creator and Sovereign Lord reminds us how thankful we as a rebellious race must be. We have received what was never necessary. We have been given that which we were never entitled.

It was all by grace. The missions emphasis of the Gospel is clear, go to all nations... why, because God has decided that His grace be freely given to whosoever will come. We are not special, just blessed to have heard and been called by our Lord. We must never forget it was all by His doing, we deserved hell, we were granted heaven instead.