Having cleansed their hearts by faith.

Romans 15:5-11, But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.” The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

Naturally we want to find some way to prove ourselves, to climb some sort of ladder to heaven. Paul puts an end to that thinking over the issue of that day, which was whether or not the uncircumcised pagan could be saved. Today it may well be another form of self-righteous thinking that deceives people, but the issue is the same. For it is by faith that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, not by works of righteousness that we have done. Without Him and His amazing grace, we are completely, totally, absolutely without hope. With Him and in Him our hope is fulfilled!

We look to You to be saved by Your amazing grace; cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by faith, O Lord!

ESV Lectionary