no Holy Spirit He was the One who brought the gospel of the grace of God to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews, and He was the One who should place His ap proval upon the decision. The Gentiles were absolved forever from keeping the law either as a medium of sal vation or as a rule of conduct. Law and grace were seen to be mutually exclusive. This understanding does not mean that grace sets men free to break the law, but it does mean that grace sets men free to keep the law. To regard grace as though
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
March, 1939
it did away with all restraint is to accept one of Satan’s devices to bring Christians into bondage. To turn to the law as a medium of salvation is to degrade the law; and to turn to the law as a rule of conduct for the Christian is to deny the Christian’s place in Christ. The new nature within the Christian revolts at the idea of breaking the law and rebels at anything that would offend the Lord. The Christian keeps the law as a natural consequence of the salva tion he has received, and not in order to secure that salvation. II. T he D ecision of the L eaders (Gal. 2:1, 2, 9, 10) Although the church at Jerusalem had given its decision, that did not restrain the legalists from pursuing their work of hin dering the Gentile Christians by constant assaults upon the gospel of the grace of God. Paul, with Barnabas and Titus, went up to Jerusalem to consult with the leaders there—men who were apostles before Paul was even converted. He went "by revela tion,” and not as the result of his own per sonal decision. There he was assured that what he preached was indeed the gospel of the grace of God. Having conferred with these leaders, Paul found that so far as the content of their respective messages was concerned, the leaders in Jerusalem had nothing which he did not have, and-he was all the more assured that he had been called to preach the gospel of pure grace to the Gentiles. After this conference, he had the confirma tion of having these leaders, James, Peter, and John, not only recognize his authority as an apostle, but also give to himself and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, thus proclaiming that Paul was on an equality with them, and that the gospel of grace, which he preached, was the correct message for the Gentile world. Points and Problems "Certain . . . have troubled you with words " (Acts 15:24). The church of God has been "troubled” many times in the nine teen centuries of its existence, often with bloody violence, relentless persecution, and death. But these troublings, bad as they were, were never the worst experiences of the church. The continual object of all these attacks, nevertheless the church sur vived easily and multiplied greatly through the history of the first fourteen chapters, of Acts. But in Chapter 15, men stood up inside the professing church and began to trouble the church "with words.” Well, at first sight the “words” look rather simple and harmless. You will find them in verse 1, "Certain men . . . said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.” These were the words that caused all the trouble, that brought the calling of the first church council, that led to the writing of the Book of Galatians, that subsequently opened the door to end less trouble. And what is wrong with “these words”? Certainly there is nothing wrong with the act of circumcision. From the physical standpoint there is much to commend it. Furthermore, it was after all a very small thing, an operation easily performed, and since it had been an age-old tradition with
Çfifts Received during January, 1939 Honor Roll ................... _.......359.65 “Go Forward” Campaign........ 2,046.63 China ............................................. 458.50 General Fund ............ 4,346.84 $7,211.62 The Bible Institute of Los Angeles the Jews, why not agree to it for the sake of peace and harmony? Why should Paul and Barnabas stir up a "dissension and disputation” over the matter? Well, the an swer is that a great and vital Christian principle was at stake. The thing that aroused Paul was not the mere observance of the rite of circumcision itself, but rather the meaning that the Judean teachers at tached to it in their teaching. They said. Without circumcision you cannot be saved. Thus they made it a saving act. And in so doing they added something to the gospel of grace, thus robbing it of its freeness. That this is the right interpretation of Paul’s protest is made clear by Peter’s speech at the council, "W e believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they” (v. 11). Both Peter and Paul agreed therefore that to add even one thing, no matter how small an act on the part of man, to the gospel, meant the destruction of the entire principle of free grace for both Jew and Gentile. And the fact that Peter himself later yield ed for a moment to the same insidious error only emphasizes the need for eternal vigil ance against it (cf. Gal. 2:11-14). 558 South Hope Street Los Angeles, California Charles Haddon Spurgeon told of a man who had two dogs. He liked to let them go in and out of the house freely; therefore he had two holes cut in the door. He was asked the reason for this, and he answered, "The little hole is for the little dog, and the big hole for the great dog.” Then said one, “But the little dog might have gone through the same hole as the big dog, surely!" “There,” said he, “I never thought of that!” The dying thief, a big sinner; and the “good" Nicodemus, a little sinner (as men count); both entered heaven by the same “door” (John 10:9), for “a man is not justi fied by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ” (Gal. 2:16).-—Adapt ed from 1,000 Acts and Facts, by Pickering. Golden Text Illustration G alatians 2:16
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When Paul Went to See Peter A cts 15:1-35; G alatians 2:1-10
Memory Verse: “Be ye kind one to an other, tender-hearted, forgiving one an other” (Eph. 4:32). Approach: Paul and Barnabas were preaching mostly to Gentiles while they were out on their missionary journey.
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