Paul The Apostle:
Part 6.
At this point it is important to understand what the matter at stake between the contending parties concerning circumcision (Christian Jews) and uncircumcision. The case stood as such; Circumcision and the ordinances of the Law were witnesses of a separation of the chosen race (the Jews) from other nations.
The Jews were proud of that separation. But the gospel of the Son of man proclaimed that the time had come in which the separation was to be done away with, and God’s good will manifested to all nations alike. It spoke of a union with God, through trust, which gave hope of righteousness that the Law had been powerless to produce. Therefore to insist upon Gentiles being circumcised would have been to deny the gospel of Christ.
If there was to be simple or enlarging of the separated nation by the receiving of individuals into it, then the other nations of the world remained as much on the outside of God’s covenant as ever. Then there was no gospel to mankind; no justification given to men.
The loss, in such a case would have been as much to the Jew as to the Gentiles. Paul felt strongly about this; but Peter also saw that if the Jewish believers were thrown back on the Jewish Law, and gave up the free and absolute grace of God, the Law became a burden, just as heavy to the Jew as it would be to the Gentiles.
The only hope for the Jew was in a Savior, one who must be Savior of all mankind. It implied therefore no difference of belief when it was agreed that Paul and Barnabas should go to the heathen, while James and Cephas and John undertook to be the apostles of the circumcision. The judgment of the Church was immediately recorded in a letter addressed to the Gentile brethren in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia.
We may connect this period of the history the rebuke of Peter which Paul records in Galatians 2:11-14. The connection of the subject makes it convenient to record the incident in this place although it is possible that it took place before the meeting at Jerusalem, and perhaps most probable that did not occur till later, when Paul returned from his long tour in Greece to Antioch, Acts 18:22-23. The next part will cover Paul’s second missionary journey.
Phillip Laspino www.seekfirstwisdom.com