Teaching Good Unsaved People

DAY 303
8-3-10
ACTS 9-10


Good Morning!

I love the story of Cornelius! It’s an excellent example of the importance of teaching good religious people the simple gospel of salvation.

In verse 22 we see the character of Cornelius – “He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people." In verse 30 we find that he is also a man of prayer. Verse 33 shows he is a man who wants to hear the word of God. He must have had something going for himself since God sends an angel; and sends a preacher to give him a special message; and use him and his family as teaching example for all of us today.

Most people would look at Cornelius and say he is saved already. Why bother him? After all, he acts like a saved person. He prays; he’s God-fearing; he has inspired dreams; and angels talk to him. He wasn’t a saved man; he was a good, religious man who needed the truth about Jesus. All that genuine goodness and acts of religion did not save him. One thing for sure, if we let people tell us we’re being judgmental if we care enough to give good people like him a better understanding of gospel, then we will miss many opportunities to save good, religious people.

One of the fallacies of the popular understanding of this story is that when God gave Cornelius the power of the spirit and the ability to speak in tongues that he was saved at that point. The text doesn’t teach that. God gave him and those in his house the Spirit to teach Peter and the Jewish Christians that the goodnews message that Jesus saves is for all people – Jews and Gentiles alike. They were saved just like the 3000 at Pentecost and just like the man from Ethiopia – they heard the message; and by faith they believed the message about Christ; and were baptized for the forgiveness of their sins.

Never fear teaching good people the simple truth about salvation. Always speak the truth in love; and never be ashamed of the gospel.

Barry