The Word This Week
Acts 15:1…
When you’ve entered God’s kingdom through the gateway of grace, you must be very protective of the concept.
There will always be those who come along and attempt to add something to it.
Usually, they will be those who thought the approach to God came by the keeping of sacraments and by good works. And so, for years they have been attempting good works and the keeping of sacraments because they genuinely DO desire God’s favor.
It is a mistaken apprehension of God’s desire, but they have so much invested in their efforts it is very difficult to conceive of someone who has not done any good works or kept any of God’s sacraments coming along and receiving God’s favor the same as you.
This describes many of those Jews who came to Christ in the earliest days of the Church. Prior to Jesus appearing on the scene, ritual practices and good works were the rule for how to have favor with God, which they believed the Jewish people uniquely had. No Gentiles were allowed into God’s favor unless they were first converted into Judaism. This would have included circumcision.
The most pronounced in this lack of understanding of the gift of grace provided to the Church founded by Jesus most often seemed to be those who had placed their faith in Jesus after being raised in the Jewish sect of the Pharisees. The Pharisees were known to be stern rule-keepers and prided themselves on keeping the commands in Law of Moses. All 613 of them.
Of course Jesus came along and addressed how flawed this reasoning was when He spiritualized the Law in His teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. For those who had never committed murder – Jesus taught murder begins in the heart, and you are guilty before God when your heart even conceives of it. Jesus taught adultery begins in the heart, and you are guilty before God when your heart lusts for it.
The truth is no one has ever kept the whole Law but Jesus. The Bible says to be guilty of the breaking even one of the Laws means you are guilty of breaking the whole Law.
In other words, the Pharisees who came to Christ needed God’s grace as much as the heathen Gentiles did. When spiritual pride is added to the equation – perhaps even more.
Pastor Bill
When you’ve entered God’s kingdom through the gateway of grace, you must be very protective of the concept.
There will always be those who come along and attempt to add something to it.
Usually, they will be those who thought the approach to God came by the keeping of sacraments and by good works. And so, for years they have been attempting good works and the keeping of sacraments because they genuinely DO desire God’s favor.
It is a mistaken apprehension of God’s desire, but they have so much invested in their efforts it is very difficult to conceive of someone who has not done any good works or kept any of God’s sacraments coming along and receiving God’s favor the same as you.
This describes many of those Jews who came to Christ in the earliest days of the Church. Prior to Jesus appearing on the scene, ritual practices and good works were the rule for how to have favor with God, which they believed the Jewish people uniquely had. No Gentiles were allowed into God’s favor unless they were first converted into Judaism. This would have included circumcision.
The most pronounced in this lack of understanding of the gift of grace provided to the Church founded by Jesus most often seemed to be those who had placed their faith in Jesus after being raised in the Jewish sect of the Pharisees. The Pharisees were known to be stern rule-keepers and prided themselves on keeping the commands in Law of Moses. All 613 of them.
Of course Jesus came along and addressed how flawed this reasoning was when He spiritualized the Law in His teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. For those who had never committed murder – Jesus taught murder begins in the heart, and you are guilty before God when your heart even conceives of it. Jesus taught adultery begins in the heart, and you are guilty before God when your heart lusts for it.
The truth is no one has ever kept the whole Law but Jesus. The Bible says to be guilty of the breaking even one of the Laws means you are guilty of breaking the whole Law.
In other words, the Pharisees who came to Christ needed God’s grace as much as the heathen Gentiles did. When spiritual pride is added to the equation – perhaps even more.
Pastor Bill