But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.
Acts 15:11
As a church, we've been meandering through the book of Acts, considering how the beginnings of the earliest church helps us understand what we are doing as the church today. Acts 15:11 is sticking with me.
The occasion for this simple, bold, peaceful, confident assertion is a significant question - how Christian is Christian enough? Some way-outsiders were accepting the good news about Jesus and believing it for themselves. They had neither heritage nor awareness to connect their dot to the original inside-and-included believers. But they did have faith. Remarkably similar faith in Jesus as the only One who matters most. And, the original believers concluded this kind of faith is faith enough.
Every American believer has to, at some point, ask the question What do I make of all the different denominational, non-denominational, spinoff, and they're-not-Christian-enough voices dotting the landscape? I think the right posture is modeled in Acts 15:11. We will choose to celebrate faith where it pops up. Will we have kind, generous disagreements and points of view for sure. But in all ways, we will assert Jesus matters most.
That's the kind of church the world needed way back when, and that the kind of church the world needs today.