15:18 “Known to God
from eternity are all His works. 19 Therefore I judge that we should not trouble
those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, 20 but that we write to
them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from
things strangled, and from blood. 21 For Moses has had throughout many
generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues
every Sabbath.”
Do you remember the verse in John 1:17 that changed
everything? "The law came through Moses but grace and truth came through
Jesus."
Until Jesus came the law of Moses was everything but the
reality is that the law of Moses without Jesus was less than ideal. If you need
glasses you can appreciate the reality that there are things you can see
without your glasses that only become clear when you put them on. Jesus is the
"glasses" that make the words of Moses have their proper meaning.
Jesus clarifies the intent. He takes what I'd blurry and confusing and makes it
obvious.
Without Jesus Judaism appeared to be another religious system
like all the other pagan religions where you followed a list of requirements in
order to gain the favour of an angry distant God. Chief among those
requirements was circumcision. What the Jews missed was that multiple times
Moses spoke of a circumcision of the heart. They were so focused on doing the
"right things" to gain God's favour that they missed the gems of
grace and truth scattered throughout the writings of Moses. Not until Jesus
came was the "veil" removed and "blind eyes" were opened.
The entire controversy described here in Acts 15 was between
religion the old way and the grace and truth revealed in Christ. Many of the
Jews became followers of Jesus because they sensed His greatness and that His
death and resurrection was important but they were still reading the Story
without their glasses. In sincerity they thought Paul was cheating the Gentiles
and leaving out a critical component. They saw salvation as Jesus + Judaism.
Jesus saves me partially and I do the rest.
This teaching is still rampant today. So many Christians
believe some kind of hybrid gospel where Jesus does some and we do the rest.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Anything we try and add is like the
man who brought his own sports jacket to the wedding feast. Nothing needs to be
or can be added to what Jesus did. He died once for all. He is the Lamb that
took away the sin of the whole world. In fact the few "rules" James
outlined for the Gentiles to "keep" were things that in the end would
destroy the powerful liberating truth that our hope is: Jesus. Alone.
Nothing more and nothing less.
He is our everything and we'll talk about the
"rules" tomorrow.
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