GRACE BLOGS COLLECTION
Things haven’t changed much in the past 2,000 years. Although the rules and regulations are tweaked based upon religious brands and cultural changes, the Christian religious system often weakens the message by emphasizing a works-based message while putting grace on the shelf. Grace may be used as a selling point, but watch out for the fine print.
That is contrasted with righteousness which is based upon faith, not works—confessing a word of faith by mouthing Jesus as Lord and believing with the heart God raised Him from the dead, resulting in righteousness (or justification) and salvation. And over and over again, Paul reveals it works the same for both Jew and Greek: Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Be aware of a works-based message being thrown into the mix with requirements which are made to put the responsibility upon you regarding salvation or God’s acceptance.
And yet, many Jewish believers struggled with grasping these truths, wrestling with letting go of a law which couldn’t bring life or righteousness, tempted to pursue the fleshly way of works through a stone tablet ministry which left them in condemnation. And what about Gentiles? How would these (formerly) unclean people fit into the message of Jesus … and would they be required to apply the law? Paul explains the Gentiles would receive righteousness without even pursuing it—because of faith. Whereas the Jews would fall short of righteousness because they were seeking it not by faith, but by works.
We’ve recently spent many weeks in a series about Paul and James, highlighting the struggles in the early church and how Paul was battling to free people from a perverted gospel being communicated to both Jew and Gentile. Now we’ll be looking at some of Paul’s letters and passages which specifically make the case for salvation and right standing with God, received as a gift, apart from the works of the law inside of a new and better covenant. The “work” was performed by Jesus and His blood sealed the deal.
During the early decades after the resurrection, when the church was still growing in their knowledge of the truth, even the apostles didn’t completely understand the fullness of the gospel, although God’s Spirit would reveal things to them … often from what we call the Old Testament—the only Scriptures they could reference. Paul and some of his companions were a major force in sharing the more complete truth of what was accomplished through the blood of the cross—for both Jew and Gentile.
The church today continues to struggle with a mixed message of faith and religious rules, while trying to establish theology and doctrine based upon their own assumptions about the Bible writings. Just as in the early years of the church, we’re not growing in the knowledge of “the Bible,” but we’re all growing in the knowledge of the truth found in the Person of Jesus Christ, as we receive it from the Holy Spirit.
We also take a look at more evidence where James and the elders in Jerusalem convince Paul to participate in an old covenant exercise where ceremony and sacrifice would occur in order to show the Jews that Paul was also a law keeper and had not forsaken Moses. This event from Acts 21 would have been nearly 3 decades after the cross, and about 20 years after James wrote his Bible letter. More to come!
Things like food and Gentiles, which had been considered unclean or unacceptable under law, God now had declared to be clean. But imagine if Peter had written letters to believers and church folks which ended up in the Bible before he had this revelation about freedom from law. Undoubtedly, his writings would have looked much different and inconsistent with what the Apostle Paul was communicating in his letters. The book of James is considered to likely be the oldest New Testament writing (or the first) after Jesus rose. Like most Jews, James had a similar assumption about the law when he wrote his letter – much like Peter did. And this continues our series about the subject of Paul, James and justification.
