The church that almost stayed Jewish
The Jerusalem Council
It is approximately twenty years after Pentecost, and the church is facing the most important question it has ever faced: Do Gentiles have to become Jews to become Christians?
Paul and Barnabas have just come back from their first missionary journey with extraordinary news. Gentiles across Asia Minor are believing the gospel. Whole communities are forming. The Spirit is moving among people who have never been circumcised, never kept the Mosaic law, never set foot in a synagogue.
And some believers from Judea are teaching that this is not enough. Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, they say, you cannot be saved.
The argument is not small. It is a question about the nature of salvation itself. Is faith in Jesus sufficient, or does faith in Jesus plus membership in the covenant community of Israel equal salvation? The answer will determine whether Christianity is a Jewish sect or something else entirely.
They bring it to Jerusalem. The apostles and elders meet. There is much debate. Peter stands and reminds them of Cornelius — God gave the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles just as he did to us, he says. He made no distinction between us and them.
Then Paul and Barnabas speak. Then James — the brother of Jesus, the leader of the Jerusalem church — gives his ruling.
We should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.
With those words, the door opens all the way.
“We should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.”
— James, Acts 15:19
“God, who knows the heart, testified about them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just like he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.”
The Jerusalem Council could have gone the other way. There were serious, sincere, scripture-quoting believers on the other side of this argument.
What settled it was not a clever argument. It was testimony. Peter said: here is what God did. Paul said: here is what God did. James said: this is what the prophets said God would do. Evidence and scripture together.
The church has always been tempted to add requirements to grace — to make the door narrower than Jesus made it. James's words are still a useful diagnostic: are we making it difficult for people who are turning to God?
What have we added to the door that wasn't there when Jesus built it?