Matins Devotion: June 29, 2026

Acts 15:1-12

When certain Jews and Pharisees demand that the gentile converts must be circumcised in order to be saved, this is an enormous demand. Circumcision is painful enough for children, but for adult men, it’s utterly agonizing. This is why Peter tells those insisting upon this that this is a burden neither they nor their fathers had to bear. It will most certainly keep the gentiles from coming to Christ if they insist upon it. And there’s no reason to insist upon it. God has already made clear that He accepts the gentiles through faith. Likewise, it should be clear to these men that circumcision was never a stern command but ultimately a promise. The Jews were circumcised to show that the Savior of the world would come from their loins. And now He has, so the sign of this promise is no longer necessary. Why would they force this painful sign upon those who want to know the salvation of Christ? In the end, it’s simply because self-righteousness doesn’t die easily. You can hear and rejoice that Jesus is the Son of God who has taken away your sins and given you free and full salvation. But your sinful nature is desperate to believe that God is still impressed with something in you, that you bear some sort of mark that earned His favor. And if someone else doesn’t bear that mark, well, he’d better tattoo it upon himself if he wants to be as worthy of the kingdom as you are. Through this self-righteousness, the Jewish Christians demanding circumcision of the gentiles saw circumcision not as a promise, but as a sign that they had committed their lives to following the Law of Moses and impressing God with their righteousness. We see the same things when Baptists insist that your baptism “doesn’t count” if you didn’t “make a decision for Jesus” first and if you weren’t immersed under water like they were. We see the same thing when legalistic Lutherans take the great and glorious gift of the liturgy and turn it into a law with complex mini-rules you must follow in order to be faithful as they are. All of this is driven by the same self-righteous impulse: I did a thing that impressed God, and to be impressive to Him, you have to do it too. No, what impressed God, what won His love was not your sacrifice, but the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It wasn’t your blood or sweat that won the favor of your Father in heaven. It was the blood, the sweat, the agony, the perfect obedience and perfect love that Jesus Christ offered up at Calvary. It’s because of that righteous act that you possess the love of God, that you belong to Him, that you are a part of His kingdom, that you have the right to call Him “Father.” When Jesus died, He dragged every one of your transgressions into the tomb with Him and left them all behind when He rose again on the third day. Your self-righteousness was one of those sins. Leave it in the tomb where it belongs.