⁹ “. . . Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out as well.” ¹⁰And immediately she fell at his feet and breathed her last, and the young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. ¹¹And great fear came over the whole church, and over all who heard of these things. ¹²At the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s portico. ¹³But none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem.

Shock and awe fell upon the people of Jerusalem. This new community of Jews who claimed allegiance to Jesus Christ, the one they claimed that, though He was crucified, was miraculously raised from the dead—this community was not to be trifled with! Joining required genuine change of character, a transparency that was taken seriously. Ignoring this requirement could mean instant death, which Ananias and Sapphira found out! The effect on the church was “great fear,” which extended to all outsiders who were aware of what happened.

God was not afraid of using fear; He did not soften the impact of His expectations. It is not really the church that is not to be trifled with, but God! All through Scripture, we are told to fear God (Rom. 3:8, 2 Cor. 7:1, 1 Peter 2:17, Rev. 14:7). We need to take God seriously, for our lives are in His sovereign hands, and at any time He can justly deal with us.

Yet to some, this punishment may seem unjustly harsh, to kill two people for the “small” sin of lying. We are often guilty of the same sin today, in our distorting the truth or misrepresenting the facts in our favor. The greater question is why does God not deal with us all as harshly as He did Ananias and Sapphira? Indeed, James tells us that “whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all” (James 2:10). Yes, we deserve the same as that couple. But we cannot presume upon God’s grace—and that is the point of the story. We should be humbled by what happened to them, and join in the refrain, “But for the grace of God, there go I.”

God is not unjust to withhold grace, is He? If that were the case, then grace would mean nothing. But God’s grace is His to give freely; He is under no obligation to give grace equally to everyone. We should rightly fear God so that we do not ever stop being profoundly grateful for His freely forgiving us for our deceptions in life, knowing that at any time He could call our sin out.

This story is simply one example of the “signs and wonders” that the apostles were performing. Very understandably, they were held in high esteem!

Lord, I am completely undeserving of Your grace. Thank You so, so much!