#the struggle is real, Day 2

Tuesday, May 17th - A Gospel for the Gentiles

Over the next six weeks, Toni Ruth and I will be preaching a series based on Paul's letter to the Galatians (called #thestruggleisreal).  During this series, I'm going to make every effort to post every day with some brief thoughts on various passages from Galatians.  I hope that you follow along as we look for God's grace in the midst of some very real struggles!

Acts 10 tells us the story of Cephas (Peter) and Cornelius.  The climax of this story occurs in verses 44-48.  I'll quote it in full here:

44While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. 45The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, 46for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter said, 47‘Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?’ 48So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they invited him to stay for several days.

Peter seems to have made the leap that Paul had also made when it comes to God including the Gentiles in the Way of Jesus.  The big, burning, controversial question that the early church grappled with (well, one of the questions they grappled with) was about who exactly could be a rescued/redeemed/saved follower of Jesus.  The assumption by most Jewish Christians was that any Gentile who wished to become a Christian must first become a Jew and accepting all that came with that.  This included circumcision, which became something of a flash point for the early church. 

After his conversion and period of several years, presumably spend in preparation for ministry, Paul emerges proclaiming a Gospel of grace, teaching that Christians were no longer under the Law.  In other words, Paul taught that salvation did not come from following the Torah, but through the death and resurrection of Jesus.  This was a major shift for the earliest Christians, many of whom saw the Way of Jesus as a fulfillment (and continuation) of God's covenant relationship with Israel, not a departure from it.  In their understanding, there was no salvation apart from becoming a Jew and accepting the way of life God had revealed through the Law.

The church agrees (eventually) to allow Paul to journey into Gentile territory and proclaim a Law-free gospel, albeit with certain stipulations: "…abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication." (Acts 15:29)  Otherwise, Paul and his co-workers are granted the freedom to proclaim the Gospel to Gentiles without requiring circumcision, dietary restrictions concerning Jews and Gentiles sharing table fellowship, along with the other Jewish laws.  This doesn't stop Paul's opponents from stirring up trouble related to this controversy, but it does mean that Paul hits the road with passion and an unshakable sense of mission. 

While we don't argue over whether or not Christians have to follow the Torah in order to receive God's saving grace, 2,000 years later, we are still grappling with rules and requirements.  It's not about circumcision and dietary laws in our time, but we have our own issues to contend with and we still find ourselves struggling with boundaries, lines, and limits of inclusion/exclusion.  

Today, I challenge you to pray for those Christians who you would be tempted to put on the other side of the "fence" - people you disagree with, people who have fundamentally different theological convictions, people who you might be tempted to judge or dismiss.  Pray for God to shape and even transform your understanding, your imagination, and your heart like He did with Peter in Acts 10.  

Tomorrow, we'll see why it's possible that Peter didn't fully make that leap...