Paul had returned to Antioch. His first journey
to preach the gospel of grace had ended. The gathering of the believers in
Antioch were rejoicing that the gospel had been accepted by the Gentiles.
The liberty of the message that had set them free to enjoy the life of
Christ was being experienced. Jesus was being manifested among them. The
believers were full of joy and unspeakably full of gory.
Trouble, however, was on the horizon. Paul had already faced much
tribulation and persecution in his travel. The trouble he had encountered
before was from the self-righteous Jews who saw his message as a threat to
their position of power and influence among the people. The trouble that was
coming would be from within the ranks of the believers themselves.
As Paul and the gathered disciples rejoiced over the message of grace,
certain men from Judaea came among them saying, "Except ye were
circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved" (Acts of the
Apostles 15:1). These teachers were addressing the believers in Antioch.
They were in effect saying that although the gathered disciples had believed
in Jesus Christ as Lord they must do something else to experience salvation.
They must become circumcised and keep the law. Jesus was not totally
sufficient for their salvation.
Their message must have torn apart the heart of Paul. In a later letter,
when he found out other believers were falling into the same trap, he cried
"O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey
the truth . . ." (Galatians 3:1). Paul was astonished that they
"were so soon removed from him that called [them] into the grace of
Christ unto another gospel" (Galatians 1:6).
He could not believe they
did not know that what they were now accepting as the gospel was not the gospel of Jesus Christ.
He uncompromising proclaimed there is only one message of grace. There is
only one way to salvation, Jesus Christ.
After much disputing in Antioch over the controversy raised by the teachers
from Judaea, it was determined that certain of the believers should go to
Jerusalem to inquire of the apostles. Paul and his companions started toward
Jerusalem passing through Phenice and Samaria on the way. They declared to
the churches, as they passed through, the good news that the Gentiles were
being saved. It brought great joy to the churches.
Upon arriving in Jerusalem, they also declared unto the apostles and elders
what God had done with them in reaching the Gentiles. Their testimony
brought an immediate response from certain of the sect of the Pharisees
which believed. They declared that the new converts must be circumcised and
they must keep the laws of Moses. Upon the confrontation of beliefs, a
general meeting was held to consider the controversy.
After much debate over the issue, Peter stood up telling how God had opened
the door to the Gentiles through his preaching. He stated that God knowing
the hearts of men saved them by His Spirit just as He had done to the Jews.
God did not make a difference between the Jews and the Gentiles. He purified
both of them as they came to believe on Jesus as the Christ.
He then raised the question why the Gentiles should be put into a position
of servitude "which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear"
(Acts of the Apostles 15:10). Peter closed his speech boldly declaring the
power of salvation for both the Jews and the Gentiles. He said, "we
believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved,
even as they" (Acts of the Apostle 15:11). Salvation would come to all
through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Peter’s speech calmed the noise of the dispute and prepared the multitude
for Barnabas and Paul. They again told how God had worked among the Gentiles
as they preached the gospel of grace, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Just as it
was in preaching to the Jews, God had done many mighty miracles and wonders
in the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles. Their lives had been
transformed by the same message.
When Barnabas and Paul finished their testimony, James who was probably the
senior apostle and elder of the believers in Jerusalem rose to speak. Using
an Old Testament prophecy predicting that the Gentiles would come to the
Lord, he confirmed the testimony of Peter. God had opened the door to the
Gentiles. They, too, were becoming the people of God.
James decided, like Barnabas and Paul, that for the Gentiles their belief in
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ was sufficient for their salvation. He
urged the brethren to not trouble the Gentiles by requiring them to be
circumcised. God was only doing what He had declared from the beginning,
making available the opportunity for all men to seek Him (Acts of the
Apostles 15:17,18).
James suggested that the apostles and elders in Jerusalem draft a letter to
be sent to the Gentiles believers. They were to be informed of their freedom
in Christ. In the letter, they would also be asked, as Peter would write
several years later, not to "use [their] liberty for a cloak of
maliciousness, but as servants of God" (1 Peter 2:16).
The Gentiles were not to be restrained by circumcision and other Jewish
practices. They would be encouraged, however, not to use their liberty as a
covering to cause trouble among the Jews. Since the Jewish believer had for
many years heard the reading of Moses in the synagogues, the Gentiles should
respect and understand the feelings of the Jewish believers (Acts of the
Apostles 15:21). They should take great care not to be offensive to the Jews
in how they enjoyed their freedom in Christ.
In the early days of the church, each gathering of believers were primarily
Jewish in their customs and practices of every day life. With an ever
increasing population of Gentiles being added to the church, the Jewish
faction would quite naturally be concerned with the customs and practices of
the Gentiles believers. In an attempt to illustrate how the Gentiles were
not to offend their Jewish brethren, the gathering in Jerusalem suggested
four things the new Gentiles believers should observe. They should
"abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood and from things
strangled, and from fornication" (Acts of the Apostles 15:29).
Evidently, these were major areas of concern for the Jewish believers.
Although the assembly of believers in Jerusalem came to the conclusion that
nothing else but the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ was necessary for
salvation, the problem would not go away. Paul spent the rest of his life
defending that Jesus and Jesus alone was sufficient for the salvation of
man. Everywhere he preached, he met opposition. He was not only verbally
harassed, he was often physically abused
He met resistance, first, by those outside of the church who saw their
position of power and influence being threatened. Then, he was opposed by
believers within the church who evidently was motivated by the same desire
to be influential and prominent. Regardless of the particular ideology that
people may believe, the message of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ will
always be challenged by those who trust in their own capability.
Perhaps, Paul’s letter to the Galatians best illustrates the opposition
that Paul faced throughout his life. When he came to the churches of Galatia
the first time, he preached unto them the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
made a point to them that the gospel he preached was "not after
man." He added, he neither "received it of man, neither was [he]
taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ" (Galatians 1: 11,12).
Paul made this point for two reasons. First, he revealed that the message he
preached came from God. He is doing so because his apostleship is being
challenged by the teachers who came into Galatia after Paul. They were
telling the believers that Paul was not one sent by James or the elders in
Jerusalem.
Or, if he was, he was of a lesser apostleship. His apostleship was not one
of the original apostles and therefore was lacking in its completeness.
Because Paul was a lesser apostle, what he preached could be questioned as
to it legality.
Paul began his defense of his apostleship by referring to a trip he had
taken to Jerusalem. After several years of preaching the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ in Greece, Macedonia, and parts of Asia, Paul stated he
returned to the city where it all began. There he communicated with James,
Peter, and John the gospel he had preached to the Gentiles. He declared that
the same grace which was effective "in Peter to the apostleship of the
circumcision, the same was mighty in [him] toward the Gentiles"
(Galatians 2:8).
He closed his defense of his apostleship by stating that "when James,
Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was
given unto [him], they gave to [him] and Barnabas the right hands of
fellowship . . ." (Galatians 2:9). The elders of the church in
Jerusalem had accepted his apostleship. He stood on the same ground, the
same level, as did the other apostles.
The teachers, who were challenging Paul’s apostleship, were claiming they
were representing James to give more weight to what they were saying. Paul
declared that he did not come to the churches of Galatia as a representative
of James. He was coming to them as an equal of James. Paul was coming as a
representative of God Himself who had revealed His Son Jesus Christ to Paul
personally.
Paul also told the believers at Galatia that he did not receive the gospel
he preached from man for another reason. He informed them that the gospel he
preached came by the revelation of Jesus Christ to reveal that the methods
of the false teachers were also erroneous. They had come into Galatia using
a persuasive message to stir them away from the true gospel of Christ.
Instead of allowing Jesus Christ to be revealed in the Galatians’ hearts,
as he had done, the methods of the false teachers involved the exercise of
the mind (Galatians 5:7-10). They persuaded the believers away from the
truth by persuasive words of man’s reasoning power.
Paul said to the Galatians, "O foolish Galatians . . ." (Galatians
3:1). They had been moved from the gospel of grace by their sensual
emotions. Paul’s question to them was, "who hath bewitched you?"
They had become fascinated by the challenge being presented to them. They
could live for God by being circumcised and keeping the laws of Moses.
Their eyes were being taken off of Jesus Christ and being put upon their own
effort. Although Christ crucified signified the end of the effort of man for
salvation, they were being stirred into action, into their effort, as being
necessary for their salvation.
Paul further inquired of them, "Received ye the Spirit by the works of
the law, or by the hearing of faith?" (Galatians 3:2). Evidently, he
knew that they knew the answer to this probe. For he immediately raised a
second question, "Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye
now made perfect by the flesh?" (Galatians 3:3). It seems that man has
always struggled to believe that the Christ, and the Christ alone, is
sufficient for his life.
Although many people came to know Jesus of Nazareth as God coming to the
earth in the likeness of a man by the preaching of Paul, there were many who
openly opposed his message of grace. Paul found himself in constant trouble
and consequential persecutions from those who desired a place of prominence
and of power based upon their achievements. He became the object of their
scorn and ridicule as they attempted to protect their sphere of influence
and leadership.
Although he faced opposition his entire life over his belief that Jesus was
the Christ, he never faltered in his message of grace. His cry was,
O the depth of the riches both of the
wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his
ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who
hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be
recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him,
are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen. (Romans 11:33-36)
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