Jesus' Grace

Acts 15:1-2 Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.
 
PETER had baptized the Gentile Cornelius and his family (Acts 10). Paul and Barnabas had especially ministered to the Gentiles. People from outside Judaism were believing in Jesus! Wasn’t that enough?
   Apparently it was not enough for many. Some Jews who had confessed Jesus as their Savior did not understand Jesus’ grace to redeem all believers. They held fast to God’s covenant of circumcision even though Jesus had commissioned a new covenant for a full relationship with mankind: Matthew 26:28 “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
   Paul would often emphasize this in his later teachings as in Romans 3:25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.     Still, many of Jesus’ Jewish-born disciples wanted to add to Jesus’ grace. There was a problem in the church, and the church leaders needed to confront it.
 
Acts 15:3 The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the brothers very glad.
 
As Paul and Barnabas traveled to Jerusalem, it seems the Lord confirmed that the Gentiles belonged in the church. The Christians from Judaism,  who fully accepted Jesus’ new covenant, rejoiced that God welcomed all people into his kingdom. Luke goes on to say v. 4 when they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.
   This was another way the Holy Spirit enlightened the Jews to the next step in God’s salvation for the world. It was time for the Jews to receive the true Messiah. As they became Christians, they needed to receive the Gentiles in the same way Jesus received them. Ephesians 2:14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility through the confession of their faith.
   God so loved the world he has made a way for all to come to heaven. Confessing Jesus is confessing, “By grace I have been saved through faith. My birth nation does not matter because I am born again in Jesus.”