August, 1936
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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
any departure from this principle results in confusion. It was forever settled by this council that law and grace are mutu ally exclusive, essentially different, and that they cannot be combined. When any combination is attempted, the result is a lowering of the just and holy demands of the law, and a laying aside entirely of the gospel of grace. The law has one purpose and the gospel another. The law reveals the need of something which can give life —and that something is» the gospel of grace. II. T he R eason for the C ouncil (Gal. 2:1, 2). The preaching of the gospel at Antioch had resulted in the salvation o f many souls, through simple faith in Jesus Christ. The law was not preached to these people. They were saved apart from the law alto gether. They were not told that, in order to make their salvation sure, they needed circumcision. They were told simply to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, being as sured that if they did so they would be saved. Many, believing this, had accepted Christ as their Saviour and were joyously going on in their newly found salvation. Into this happy scene there came certain legalists from the Jewish Christians who taught that while it was good and neces sary to believe in Christ, yet faith in Him alone was not sufficient. They believed that unless they were circumcised and kept the law o f Moses, they could not be saved. This teaching at oiice stole away the joy in believing that had been the: portion of these Gentile Christians; it hindered them in their growth in grace, and it put an end to all progress. Paul and Barnabas at once took issue with these legalists, and soon, the contention between them became so sharp that they decided to appoint a com mittee to lay the matter before the elders and apostles at Jerusalem. The question was whether or not it was necessary to keep the law if one wished to be saved. This question was the one that was so definitely and finally settled by the council at Jerusalem, as the passage in the Acts reveals. III. T he A cknowledgment of the C ouncil . (Gal. 2:9, 10). At the time o f the council meeting at Jerusalem, the whole church, represented by the leaders, James, Cephas, and John, had given the right hand of fellowship to both Paul and Barnabas, thus acknowledg ing that the gospel o f grace as preached by Paul was wholly sufficient and needed no addition from the law. Thus what Paul preached was nothing strange, but was fa miliar to the leaders of Jerusalem. We should note in this lesson that the question then, as it is today, was not about the facts of the gospel, but about the inter pretation of the facts. Every one knew that Christ had lived and died, but there was disagreement concerning why He lived and died, and just what was accomplished when He died. Likewise today modernists and fundamentalists disagree about the in terpretation or meaning of the facts. But we can be assured that Christ hot only died, but that He died fo r our sins; He came into the world, and He came to save sinners. Hence, His death is sufficient for the question of sin, and His risen life is: sufficient for saints. In both cases the ben efits are gained apart altogether from any works o f the law.
three great moral' and religious prohibit, tions which are of permanent value. The; Christian is to shun idolatry, murder, ,and immorality. And .these were precisely the great sins of the Gentile world. (For the textual evidence and argument see Appen dix V in David Smith’s Life and Letters o f St. Paul.) Golden Text Illustration A Sunday-school missionary, while ad dressing a Sunday-school, noticed a little girl shabbily dressed and barefoot, shrink ing in the- corner, her little sunburned face buried in her hand as she sobbed as if her heart would break. Soon, however/ an other little girl, about eleven years of age, got up and went to her. Taking her by the hand, she led her out to a brook, where she seated the little one on a log. Then kneeling beside her, this good Samaritan took off the ragged sunbonnet, and dipping her hand in the water, she bathed the little girl’s hot .eyes and tear-stained face, and smoothed her tangled hair, talking cheerily all the while. The little one brightened up, the tears vanished, and smiles came creeping around the rosy mouth. The missionary, who had followed the, two, stepped; forward and asked, “ Is that your sister, my dear?”. “ No, sir,” answered the child, with ten der earnest eyes; “ I have no sister.” “Oh, one of the neighbor’s children!” replied the missionary. L“A little school mate, perhaps ?’’ A “No, sir; she is a,.stranger. I never saw her before.” “ Then how .came you to take her .oqt and have such care,for her?” , - “Because she was a stranger, sir, and seemed all alone, arid needed somebody to be kind to her.” The child had learned that those who love the Lord Jesus must “serve one an other” in a spirit of love.—S elected .
Points and P roblem s The central problem before the first church conference at Jerusalem, and the occasion of its being called, was whether salvation is all o f grace or whether it is partly o f grace and partly -of works. The Judaizers had thrown down the gaunflet at Antioch by declaring bluntly, “ Except ye* be circumcised . . . ye cannot be saved” (Acts IS :1). The rite of circumcision itself was only incidental, but its introduction as an essential of salvation raised a prin ciple which involved the very existence of Christianity. For if obedience to a single command of divine law be added to grace as an essential o f salvation, the sinner be comes automatically under a solemn obli gation to keep “ the whole law" (Gal. 5 :3.). And this, no man has ever done, nor can do. That Peter understood this fact clearly is plain from his words in Acts 15:10, 11. He protests against the proposal to bang the “yoke” of the law on the heck of the new believers, and concludes that “through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they” (v. 11)1 Further more, in the face Of this dangerous attack upon grace, the Jerusalem council ren dered its wise decision in unmistakable words, and put them in writing: “Foras much as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law ; to whom we gave no such commandment” (v. 24). Thus the legalists were defeated and grace was enthroned. But the battle has to be fought over again in every gen eration. The above sweeping decision should be kept firmly in mind in dealing with the problem of verses 28 and 29. In this final decree of the Jerusalem council it would appear at first glance that the members of this body are fastening certain ceremonial elements of the Mosaic Law upon the church in direct opposition to “their gen eral decision on this point. Some have sought to solve the problem by regarding these four prohibitions as merely tempo rary concessions to Jewish believers. But why make such concessions after ruling out the important rite o f circumcision?/ Furthermore, the inclusion of* “ fornica tion” in the list is strange if these prohi bitions are merely “temporary conces sions.” I feel that the explanation should be sought in another direction entirely. It is impossible to believe that this council, after making such a sweeping decision against the legalistic idea, should at once violate their own rule' .by putting the church under such precepts as not eating “blood” and “things strangled.” It is high ly significant that in the Western Greek Text the words “ and from things stran gled" do not appear in the decree. Fufr thermore, the words, “from blood" may. mean “blood-shedding" rather than “blood- eating" (cf. Lev. 17:4;.Num. 35:27; Matt. 23:30, etc.). With these changes, it will be noticed that we have now in the decree BLACKBOARD LESSON
How to Settle a Quarrel A cts 15 :l-35
Memory Verse: “Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it” (Psa. 34:14). Approach: Last week we left Paul and Barnabas in the midst of their first mis sionary journey. You remember that they
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were preaching now to the Gentiles. A f ter they-left the city of Lystra, they went to s e v e r a l other p l a c e s , preaching and, teaching a n d forming chu rch es, and finally they re turned to Antioch. L e s s o n S t o r y : Now it happened in those days that be
fore the gospel messengers got back .to Antioch, word had reached the disciples there about the work which Paul and Bar nabas had been doing. The word even got as far as Jerusalem. And every one was talking about how Paul and Barnabas had been preaching to the Gentiles, and how many had believed and become Christians. Then came some of the Christian Jews and said something like this: “This prac tice won’t do. These Gentiles must become Jews first and obey the Jewish laws before they may become Christians.” Some said, “Yes, the Gentiles must become Jews first,” and others said, “ It isn’t necessary.” How sad Paul arid Barnabas must have fe lt! They had been so glad that the Gen tiles had understood the gospel story and
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