Acts 15:1-11
Peter Talks About Being Saved by Grace
1 Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. 3 The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them. 5 Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”
6 The apostles and elders met to consider this question. 7 After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe.8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
Acts 4:12
Saved by Jesus
12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.
Ephesians 2:1-10
Saved by Grace
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Mark 2:13-17
Jesus Came for Sinners
13 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.
15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Luke 19:1-10
Zacchaeus the Tax Collector
1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
John 17:3
Now This is Eternal Life
3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
Jesus saved us...Jesus also saves us...Because He lives today, we shall live eternally...Peter says that he believes that we are saved through the grace of our LORD Jesus...And Paul says that is by grace that we have been saved through our personal faith—and that grace is not from our own selves but from God and is the gift of God...So it is not by the things that we do in life and not by our works in life that we gain salvation...And because of being saved by Jesus through our belief in Him and His death on the cross we cannot boast...For we are all God’s handiwork, created in Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do...
As we look around the world, one can believe by the shape it is in that mankind needs saving...And let us not forget that Jesus is the One who saves us...Salvation is found in no other man...When Jesus said I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life -I think He could also have said, and does say (in that statement) that I AM the One who saves you...He is the Way to God, when we are saved and believe in Him and His Father...We also know that He is the One who God sent to save us...Jesus tells us that the Son of Man came to not only seek the lost but to save those who are lost...And so these things that Jesus said and did are why we believe that the world is in a situation where it needs saving...As as sinner we need Someone who can take our sins away...We need Someone who can remove the guilt of our sins from our lives...God sent Jesus to do that...And Jesus is thus the foundation to Christianity...Without Jesus there would be no one saved...He is the Christian religion...No matter how weak or even how strong one's faith is, without Jesus no one is saved or can be saved...
Jesus came to earth to save us...When He died on the cross, it was such a sad moment, and yet, it was the greatest moment for mankind...Jesus dying on the cross has made us right with God...At that moment, we no longer have to fear judgment day, if we believe in the One True God and the One He sent...This is how we obtain Eternal Life...This is the Good News, this is the Gospel of Jesus...
Let us always remember that our salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved...So let us know and not forget we are saved by the grace of God and His Son...Let us confess that we know we are sinners and that Jesus came for us sinners and to save us...This type of prayer and confession helps us to remember and not forget that we are sinners saved by grace...