After returning to Antioch, Paul and Barnabas spent some time in a state of tranquility in Antioch … but it would not last. In Acts 15:1, some men came down from Judea to Syrian Antioch and were beginning to instruct the uncircumcised Gentile Christians with teaching that differed from that of Paul and Barnabas. Specifically, they told these new converts that unless they were circumcised in accordance with the custom of Moses that they could not be saved! Paul and Barnabas engaged in heated theological discussion with these men as they did not agree: the purity and truth of the gospel is worth contending for! This teaching from these visitors from Judea had corrupted the gospel of Jesus Christ into “another gospel.” The Antioch church sharply disagreed with this “other gospel”, but they wanted the argument to be heard by their mother church, and so they sent Paul and Barnabas and a few other men to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders to hear this matter.
On the way, these delegates traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, telling the converts there about the conversion of the Gentiles. The churches there received this news with great joy. When they reached Jerusalem, having traveled 300+ miles, they were hospitably received by the church and the apostles and the elders, again relaying the message of all that God had done with them and through them. But not everyone embraced their report. Some believers within the Jerusalem church who had been converted as Pharisees stood to their feet to oppose this good news. They called for all Gentile believers to follow the full Mosaic legal requirement of circumcision AND to command them to obey the full law of Moses in order for them to believe these Gentiles had been saved. With this same contention now in Jerusalem, a council of sorts was convened presided over by the apostles and elders to fully consider this theological controversy.
After extensive debate among the men who were present, the apostle Peter, one of “Jerusalem’s own,” stood up, demonstrating apostolic vocal leadership again. He first appealed to the council’s common knowledge of how they already knew that he had been divinely appointed from among them to take the gospel to Cornelius, a Gentile in Caesarea. Preaching to a Gentile audience, God (the knower of all hearts), sovereignly revealed the gospel of Jesus Christ to these listeners, giving them the Holy Spirit in the exact same way (and measure) as Jewish, circumcised converts! Furthermore, God had made ZERO distinction between (Gentiles) and “us” (the Jews) … for He also purified the Gentile hearts through the instrument of faith alone in Jesus Christ.
Thus, Peter argued, given the clear revelation of God’s will in His saving of these Gentiles and giving them the Holy Spirit in the same way, how could these legal objectors test God by pushing beyond the boundaries of what He required of Gentile believers? How? By adding a yoke of legal bondage around their necks as a condition to their salvation … this being a burden that none of the Jewish believers could bear, nor had they found their freedom in Christ through the addition of such a yoke. Finally, Peter concluded in Acts 1:11 that “we” (the circumcised Jewish believers) are saved/preserved through the grace of Jesus Christ alone, just as “they” (the uncircumcised Gentile believers) are saved/preserved. For as Paul declared, “Circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter” (Romans 2:29).
Peter’s words provided a foundational understanding of God’s disposition about Gentile conversions, but what about the law? Were the Gentiles to completely discard it altogether? In our next teaching, one of Jerusalem’s elders, James, will also speak out, giving further spiritual wisdom regarding this matter. This Jerusalem Council was dealing with a true theological crisis. Ultimately, they wouldn’t be needed to make a decision (per se), but rather to emphatically affirm, guided by the Holy Spirit), what had already been determined and revealed by God.
You can listen to this teaching on Acts 15:1-11 by clicking on the following link: Theological Crisis: Pure Grace or Grace Plus … ?
