Law vs. Grace: Which Will Win?
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Then an interesting thing happened: Saul was on his way to Damascus to arrest more Jewish believers in Jesus the Messiah when he was knocked off his high horse and struck blind by a vision of the resurrected Messiah (Acts ch 9). He was told to go to a certain Ananias in "Straight Street" to get his head straightened out about Jesus and get his sight back. In Acts ch. 10, we read about St. Peter seeing another vision and being commanded to go with some Roman soldiers to preach to Cornelius, a captain of a company of Roman soldiers; thus a whole bunch of Roman soldiers and their households were converted: the Gospel is beginning to leak out of the Jewish religion!
Next, some of those Jews who were "scattered abroad" by the persecution arising after Stephen's getting stoned to death went as far away as Antioch in Syria (today it's just over the border in Turkey) and began preaching not just to Jews, but also to the Gentiles (Acts 11:20-26). This passage ends with the words - "The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch." Church historians tell us that it was a good while later that Euodias, the second bishop of Antioch, came up with the term "Christian," so the author Luke stuck this little gem of a fact in his book of Acts when he was writing it decades later. By the way, the Church of Antioch still exists today: it's the oldest continually existing Christian Church and has its headquarters on "Straight Street" in Damascus!
The question arises: "What were those believers called before they were called Christians?" Simple! All those believers in Jesus as the Messiah first were called disciples! Every last one of them was a disciple. If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, you're a disciple! Nowadays many people think that you first become a Christian when you believe in Jesus Christ, and then if you want to really "get into the deep end" you start learning how to become a disciple. No! The terms "Christian" and "disciple" are synonyms in Acts 11:26. If you're a Christian, you are a disciple. And if you're not a disciple, you are not a Christian. Either jump into the deep end or stay out of the pool!
That "interesting thing" that happened starting in Acts 9 with Peter, Cornelius and his household by now has spread to Antioch and beyond: this "sect of Judaism" is spreading to the Gentiles... Barnabas and Saul (soon renamed Paul) started out on their "First Missionary Journey" in Acts 13, still preaching to Jews and Gentile proselytes in the synagogues on the Sabbath (vv. 5, 14, 42 & 44). But the Jews became jealous and rejected the Gospel, so -
"Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, and said, 'It was necessary that God's word should be spoken to you first. Since indeed you thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so has the Lord commanded us, saying, "I have set you as a light for the Gentiles, That you should bring salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth."' As the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of God. As many as were appointed to eternal life believed" (Acts 13:46-48).
This is "really yuge!" (as some would say these days): Paul and Barnabas get run out of town on a rail, and in the next town, Lystra, they preach in the synagogue to Jews and Gentile proselytes again... and again get run out of town, so they go back to Antioch where they had started. By now, they've learned their lesson: "When they had arrived, and had gathered the church together, they reported all the things that God had done with them, and that He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles" (Acts 14:27).
This all comes to a head in Acts ch. 15. Some Jews came from Jerusalem to Antioch insisting that the new Gentile converts must be circumcised and obey the ritual "Law of Moses" (sacrifices, dietary rules, Jewish religious holidays, etc.), that is, become proselytes to Judaism before they could believe in Jesus as the Messiah. So the Church of Antioch sent a delegation consisting of Paul, Barnabas and others back to Jerusalem to straighten things out, and they related how the Gentiles believed in Jesus as the Messiah ("Christ" - meaning "Anointed One" in Greek) without becoming Jews first. But it was Peter, not Paul or Barnabas, who summed it up -
"Brothers, you know that a good while ago God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. God, Who knows the heart, testified about them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just like He did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Now therefore why do you tempt God, that you should put a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?" (Acts 15:7-10).
This "First Church Council in Jerusalem" set the tone for the entire future of Christianity: it would no longer be just a sect of Judaism, observing all the rules, holidays and dietary regulations of the Old Testament. It was a huge turning point in history! Shortly afterward, when the Roman armies attacked Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and burned down the Temple, the Christians did not defend Jerusalem, but fled the city; thus the few surviving Jews rejected the Christians as being part of Judaism. So the Christians lost their protected status as being part of the Jewish religion and were persecuted by the Greco-Roman Empire for the next 260 years.
In Romans 4:3, St. Paul writes - "For what does the Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.'" Paul goes on to explain that Abraham believed God while he was still uncircumcised (not yet "a Jew") and was counted as righteous before God. So Abraham became the father of both the Gentiles who would believe in Jesus as the Messiah, as well as the father of the Jews who would believe. God told Abraham - "I have made you a father of many nations" (v. 17) - Paul quoting God's promise in the Book of Genesis.
But the Judaizers just would not give up! They kept snipping and yipping at Paul's heels, insisting that Gentiles observe the Law of Moses. In Galatians 1:6-9, St. Paul writes -
"I marvel that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel; and there is no other gospel. Only there are some who trouble you, and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you any other gospel than that which we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so I now say again: if any man preaches to you any other gospel than that which you received, let him be accursed."
In Galatians ch. 2, Paul retells the story of how at the First Church Council in Jerusalem Peter, John and James, the "brother" of the Lord Jesus, all acknowledged that Paul's preaching the Gospel of faith in Christ without the need to observe the Law of Moses was the true Gospel. In Galatians 5:4 he wrote - "You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace." Those are pretty strong words! Over and over in St. Paul's epistles he keeps coming back to this central point of salvation by faith in Christ, not by observing the Law of Moses. But the above quotes from his letter to the Galatians are the strongest: those who preach "another Gospel" are accursed - anathema. Judaizing is heresy. There is no other Gospel than faith in Jesus Christ without keeping the Law of Moses. Period.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!
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