Acts 15:6-11

Acts 15:6-11
English Standard Version (ESV)

  What if the best thing in your life happened not by your control?
  We don't like to admit that we're not in control.  America was founded on the idea of manifest destiny, that we could wrestle our futures into our hands through our own efforts.  We believe in the idea of independence, that hard work can help you rise above, that we can shape our lives through our hard work.
  And yet the Gospel runs counter to all of that.  In the Gospel, we confront the radical truth that our own efforts cannot save us.  We are not good enough on our own, and we must accept our weakness and confess another as Lord.  True life can come only through admitting that our own choices lead us to sin and death.
  We are saved by grace through faith, not by our own works, but rather by the work of another, by the blood of the Lamb that gave his life on the cross.  He, and he alone, has the power to save, and he gives this to us as a free gift.  It is not ours to earn, but rather ours to accept.  We have life because he gives it to us.
  It runs against how we are trained to think, but only in Christ will we find the freedom our souls were made for.  Our next step is through Him, in Him, and only in Him.