Ep. 282. Acts 15 | Questions
EPISODE 282
QUESTIONS: ACTS 15
One of the things I hope you have realized by this point in the journey is how interconnected the Bible is. So many themes and phrases pop up again and again. When reading the New Testament all the way through, and particularly highlighted for us in the letters of Paul, we see that, from the beginning of the dissemination of the Gospel, there were Law-loving Jews who did their best to make sure that the Gentile converts to Christianity were also observing the Jewish Law. That is what the entire chapter from today's video is about.
Paul, having heard the false teachers from Jerusalem trying to sway the Gentile converts in Antioch to obedience to the Mosaic Law and things pertaining to the Aaronic priesthood, traveled with Barnabas and a couple of others to Jerusalem to inquire from the Apostles if he was preaching "in vain " or, as he suspected if the proclamation of the Law to the Gentile converts was contrary to the Gospel.
Now, it is very important to note that these false teachers were saying you "could not be saved" unless you were circumcised according to the Law of Moses. It wasn't, from their perspective, just a good idea. They believed that salvation was about Jesus "and" circumcision. Jesus "and" is always a false gospel and, therefore, always detrimental.
Paul addresses and rebukes this desire to adhere to the Law in the entire book of Galatians and it is also a theme throughout the first eight chapters of Romans. In Galatians, Paul says anyone who teaches such a thing should be "accursed." Paul alludes to it in several other of his books as well. It is Paul's "becoming all things to all men" that ultimately gets him in trouble in Jerusalem and leads to his arrest and eventual (four years or so later) murder.
We are still fighting this battle today. Many believers still teach adherence to the Law for righteousness' sake, but Paul, in 2 Corinthians, denounces that idea, as does the author of Hebrews, particularly in chapters 7-9. I don't think these false teachers are quite as divisive as they used to be; they are perhaps more subtle, but at the end of the day, they are still teaching a version of Jesus "and." Paul certainly would have had some choice words reserved for them.
ADDITIONAL READING: Deuteronomy 10:16; Deuteronomy 30:6; Matthew 11:28-30; Amos 9: 11-12
