Text: Acts 15:1-35 | Listen to Message

What must I do to be saved?

 

It was a controversy that threatened to divide and even kill the Early Church. Was salvation by the free grace of God or by grace plus works? Was faith in the Gospel sufficient or did you also need to keep the Law of Moses?

Picture a long metal suspension bridge spanning across a canyon with a river snaking through the valley 1,000 feet below. Legalists would have you believe that Jesus built 99% of that bridge out of high-strength steel, but left 1% of it for you to construct by your own best efforts.

Now imagine that one day you’re out sightseeing when, suddenly, a wildfire breaks out on one side of the canyon. You and a few dozen other people flee for your lives across this bridge. But then you come to 1% that was never built. The gap is much too wide to jump and the fire is racing toward you. Suddenly you remember the tissue paper and balsa wood in your backpack that you bought to make a model airplane. They’ll do in a pinch…right? Besides, you have 100 sheets of paper and the guy next to you only has 10.

This scenario is absurd. Obviously the bridge is going to fail at its weakest point, which is your 1%, and you’re going to plunge to your death. In the same way, if your salvation is even 1% dependent upon you – and your tissue paper righteousness – you will not be saved.

Every religion promises you some kind of bridge, but only Christianity gives you a bridge where 100% of it is built with the high-strength, flameproof steel of God’s own love and justice and mercy! Just run from your brokenness, run from your sins, run from destruction, and find life through the grace of God plus nothing!