Peter’s words in Acts 10:43 land like a wide-open door: the whole story of Scripture has been leaning toward Jesus, and the promise is not reserved for the “right kind” of people. Forgiveness is offered freely—and it comes through a Name we can actually trust, speak, and cling to.

Bold Forgiveness, Not Borrowed Hope

Peter doesn’t present forgiveness as a vague optimism; he anchors it in Jesus Himself: “All the prophets testify about Him that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.” (Acts 10:43). That means your forgiveness isn’t propped up by your mood, your recent track record, or your ability to “do better this time.” It stands on Christ—objective, finished, and personal.

And notice the word everyone. The gospel doesn’t ask you to clean up so you can come in; it invites you to come in so you can be cleansed. “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7). Grace has riches—enough for your stubborn sin, your repeated failure, your secret shame, and your weary heart.

A Faith That Receives, Not Achieves

Acts 10:43 puts the weight on believing, not performing. Faith is not pretending you’re strong; it’s admitting you’re not—and reaching for the One who is. When the enemy whispers that you’ve used up your chances, answer with God’s own promise: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9).

This is the difference between religious striving and gospel rest. You don’t earn forgiveness; you receive it. “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). Peace with God isn’t a prize for the impressive—it’s the settled reality for those who come to Jesus empty-handed.

Living in the Power of His Name

Forgiveness is not only a cancelled debt; it’s a new way to walk. When God forgives, He doesn’t merely tolerate you—He brings you close. “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus… let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:19, 22). His name doesn’t just open the courtroom door; it opens the living room door.

So today, don’t just remember forgiveness—practice it. Bring sin into the light quickly. Speak Jesus’s name over your fears. Extend grace where you’d rather hold a grudge. And when you feel disqualified, remember: “To all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). Children don’t beg for a place; they live from a place.

Lord Jesus, thank You for the riches of Your grace and the forgiveness found in Your name; help me believe, confess quickly, and walk today in confident obedience and mercy toward others. Amen.

Our Lord said, I am the Truth, and again He said, The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Truth therefore is not hard to find for the very reason that it is seeking us. Truth is not a thing for which we must search, but a Person to whom we must hearken. This is taught or taken for granted in the record of Gods dealings with men throughout the Sacred Scriptures. After the sin in Eden it was not Adam who cried O God, where art Thou? but God who cried Where art thou? as He sought for Adam among the trees of the Garden. Abraham heard God speak and responded, but it was God who was the aggressor. God appeared unto Jacob before Jacob came to appear before God. And in the burning bush God revealed Himself to Moses. Again and again did God take the initiative. He sought for Gideon and found him on the threshing floor of Ophrah. He showed Himself to Isaiah when there is no evidence that Isaiah was seeking Him. Before Jeremiah was born God laid His hand upon him, and He opened heaven to let the discouraged priest Ezekiel see a vision and hear a voice. Amos said he was not a prophet neither a prophets son, but the Lord took him as he followed the flock. Again God was the aggressor. In the New Testament things are not otherwise. True, multitudes came to Christ for physical help, but only rarely did one seek Him out to learn the truth; and even that rare one usually turned away when the truth was told him. The whole picture in the Gospels is one of a seeking Savior, not one of seeking men. The truth was hunting for those who would receive it, and relatively few did. Many are called, but few are chosen.

He hath sent me , . . to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. - Isaiah 61:1

Many of us know not the bondage in which we are held. We are held in it all the more really and sadly because we conceit ourselves to be free. Those poor, light-hearted people, in the dreadful days of the French Revolution, used to keep up some ghastly mockery of society and cheerfulness in their prisons; and festooned the bars with flowers, and made believe to be carrying on their life freely, as they used to do; but for all that, day after day the tumbrils came to the gates, and morning after morning the jailer stood at the door of the dungeons with the fatal list in his hand, and one after another of the triflers were dragged away to death.

And so men and women are living a life which they fancy is free, and all the while they are in bondage, held in a prison-house. You, my brother, are chained by guilt; you are chained by sin, you are chained by the habit of evil with a strength of which you never know till you try to shake it off.

And there comes to each of us a mighty Deliverer, who breaks the gates of brass, and who cuts the bars of iron in sunder. Christ comes to us. By His death He has borne away the guilt; by His living Spirit He will bear away the dominion of sin from our hearts; and if the Son will make us free, we shall be free indeed. Oh! ponder that deep truth, I pray you, which the Lord Christ has spoken in words that carry conviction in their very simplicity to every conscience. "He that committeth sin is the slave of sin." And as you feel sometimes - and you all feel sometimes - the catch of the fetter on your wrists when you would fain stretch out your hands to good, listen as to a true Gospel to this old word which, in its picturesque imagery, carries a truth that should be life. To us all "the breaker is gone up before us, the prison gates are open." Follow His steps, and take the freedom which He gives; and beware that you "stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free, and be not entangled again with any yoke of bondage."

Some of you are the slaves of your own lusts. Some of you are the slaves of the world’s maxims. Some of you are held in bondage by some habit that you abominate, but cannot get away from. Here is freedom for you. The dark walls of the prison are round us all. "The Scripture hath shut up all in sin, that He might have mercy upon all." Blessed be His Name! As the angel came to the sleeping Apostle, and to his light touch the iron gates swung obedient on their hinges, and Roman soldiers who ought to have watched their prey were lulled to sleep, and fetters that held the limbs dropped as if melted; so, silently, in His meek and merciful strength, the Christ comes to us all, and the iron gate which leadeth out into freedom opens of its own accord at His touch, and the fetters fall from our limbs, and we go forth free men.