The Pharisees state in v.5 that in order to be saved by God, "The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses."
Barnabus and Paul responds in v.19 "It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath."
People try to look the part or fit the mold in order to feel like they belong in a certain group or status. There are specific criteria that one must follow in order to belong. In the case of this passage, in order to be saved according to the Pharisees you must be circumcised and obey the law of Moses. Because of these criteria, it ruled out the opportunity of the Gentiles being saved since they were not circumcised. I believe in this passage it is an important reminder for us to never determine who should/can be saved or the type of people who should/can be saved. We are not in any position to make God's kingdom exclusive to certain people. May we feel the urgency to further God's kingdom and open our arms to all those that do not know the Gospel.
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4 comments:
Thanks esther :)
I went to UofI for a couple of days this past week, and word "urgency" hit me. Even though i've gone there for all four years, every year i'm amazed at the large number of lost souls on campus.
One thing I regret during my stay there: not reaching out. I wish I could have done so much more!
Even though a lot of us are at home/work, there is ALWAYS someone. Even a friendly hello or a smile can make a difference. So like what esther said, "May we feel the urgency to further God's kingdom and open our arms to all those that do not know the Gospel." !!! =)
Verse 11 says it all," ..it is through grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are." God doesn't care whether you are a jew or gentile. We stand in front of my God as sinners. God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, the sinless one to die on the cross so that we may set free from the bondage of enternal condemnation and accepted by God as His precious children. Have you known any grace amazing than this?
thanks esther for your reflection. from the beginning of the early church, the devil has tried to deceive very well-meaning and sincere christians into believing that Jesus's sacrifice on the cross for our sins was INSUFFICIENT by itself to forgive us and reconcile us to God. we feel we need to ADD something to His work on the cross or DO something in addition to His work on the cross.
all of this is a lie. we are saved, as kwijung points out, by grace alone--undeserved, unmerited, freely poured out on wretched sinners. Christ Jesus's work on the cross was a perfect, finished, and completed work of atonement for our sins. what could we possibly do to "add" to such a wondrous work of grace and mercy and love--surely not our feeble obedience or our half-hearted good works?
and thank God a thousand times over that our salvation is based on Christ Jesus's work alone and not on ANYTHING to do with us!!! that is our ONLY HOPE for salvation. i am absolutely certain that if salvation were based on our obedience in addition to faith in Christ, that NOT ONE person would be saved.
Thank you, Esther!
I totally agree with all of you.
It's easy to try to fit into a certain mold that makes you into a certain type of Christian. There's always rules and regulations and pressure to be a certain way in order to like you belong and if you're not like certain way, then you're shunned or looked down upon because you're different. It's disturbing that we, as brothers and sisters in Christ, do that to one another when Christ didn't discriminate once. We all the same in God's eyes, so we should do the same thing.
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