Day 26 - Good ≠ Saved

The Spirit sets us free from our sins. We can’t do that on our own.

Read Acts 8:26-40.

When my children were young, I taught them how to score a baseball game. We used scorebook forms, I taught them the positions and their numbers and the designations for scoring. We would practice scoring while we watched baseball games on television. We would challenge each other by describing difficult plays and asking how to score them. My kids are still very good at it and even beginning to teach their own kids how to score a game. But even though they’ve been scoring games for years, and they’re good at it, they’re still just spectators…active ones, but spectators all the same.

The Ethiopian eunuch was a good man. He was a scholarly kind of guy. He read in his spare time. He even read the Scriptures in his spare time. But that didn’t make him a follower of Christ. It didn’t forgive his sins.

It took the Holy Spirit to do something in his life that no amount of effort or interest on his part could accomplish. Let’s join the Spirit as He moves in the Eunuch’s life like a wind filling his sail. The Spirit sent Philip to where the eunuch was riding in his chariot and reading the Scriptures. The Spirit led Philip to strike up a conversation with the eunuch to ask him what he was reading...and if he understood it. The eunuch was a good guy. He invited Philip to ride in the chariot with him so they could discuss the Scriptures.

The Spirit led Philip to tell the eunuch all about Jesus Christ and how He could save him. And when the eunuch saw water, he asked Philip if he could be baptized. Philip went into the water with him and baptized the eunuch. At that point freed from his sins, he goes on his way rejoicing! He is moved to salvation and then filled with great joy! It took obedience and willingness on the part of the eunuch for that to happen. In our metaphor, this is how he raised his sail to catch the wind!

Getting into a sailboat, even casting off and moving in the water, doesn’t make me a sailor. I can only do so much for myself. And without the wind, even a great sailor goes nowhere.

It can be a difficult thing to accept that a person is a good person...and also accept that, good as they are, it doesn’t mean their sins have been forgiven or that they are saved. No one can do that for themselves. No one. Only the Holy Spirit can do that.