Job 29:1, 31:1-23
Acts 15:1-11
John 11:17-29
There is a fascinating change in perspective that we can trace through our readings for today. It begins with Job who offers an extensive list of all the sins he has not committed and his willingness to suffer certain calamities if he has. Job is making a further case for his righteousness before God. Has he not been above reproach? If he has somehow failed may he suffer the consequences. But things change by the time we reach our reading from Acts. There the understanding of salvation has been completely redefined. In his comments before the gathering of believers in Jerusalem Peter reminds his listeners that they themselves were unable to bear the yoke of the law. Why should they expect gentile converts to bear that same yoke? “We (Jewish Christians) will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,” he says, “just as they (gentile Christians) will” (Acts 15:11).
The point is driven home by Jesus’ very familiar—and comforting—words to Martha in John’s gospel. “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25-26). Jesus, then, is the change in perspective, the new way of seeing things that allows us to live in the light of grace. We are still expected to live in faithful obedience, but now we are guided by the love of God in Jesus Christ, the one who was willing to die for our sins that we might be saved from them. Thanks be to God.
Prayer: O God, help us to live in faithfulness to you that we may share the light of truth and grace to the world. Amen.
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