““Brothers—you sons of Abraham, and also you God-fearing Gentiles—this message of salvation has been sent to us!”
Acts 13:26 (NLT)
This verse is a reminder that the message of salvation has been sent to both the Jews and Gentiles. The good news has arrived for all people then. Jesus has come. The Messiah was here. The inheritance we were promised showed up as a gift, and now the question is simple: will we receive it?
But the warning in the story is sobering. The ones who had studied, read, and waited for Jesus still did not recognize Jesus. They condemned Jesus and, in doing so, fulfilled prophecies they did not understand. It reminds me that proximity to truth is not the same as receiving it. You can know the language, live around the people, and still miss Jesus.
So today I’m reminded again: Jesus is a gift we must receive. Like an inheritance, we do not get to dictate what the gift looks like. We can reject the gift and say we’re fine on our own. Or we can accept the gift, then leave it on the shelf and never live from it. Or we can accept the gift and use it for purposes less than what the gift was intended for.
The deeper I sit with the gospel, the more I realize how wide, how long, how high, and how deep God’s love is, like Ephesians 3:18–19 says. God sent His Son to die on a cross for our sins, and Jesus was crucified then resurrected from the grave because they both loved us. When we truly receive God’s love, we become better receivers of the gift of salvation. Then we become better givers of that gift, sharing Jesus out of genuine gratitude and desire for others to hear the truth and be changed too.