Grace - What must we do to be saved?

This post is based on notes from my BSF study last night.  For a good introduction and historical background read David Heddle’s post on The First Council.  The scriptures that go along with this study are Acts 15 and Galatians 1-2.

The first council in Jerusalem was brought to bear because of a group of people, decribed by various titles:

• some men from Judea (Acts 15:1)
• some belivers that belonged to the party of the Pharisees (Acts 15:5)
• some went out from us (meaning from Jerusalem) (Acts 15:24)

In Galatians, Paul recounts a confrontation with Peter in Antioch over this same question.  It is unclear to me if this is a later time, or if Paul confronted Peter at the same time the first group came to Antioch.  Paul’s description of the peoplethat brought this same question to the churches in Galatia is a little more extreme:

• some people are throwing you into confusion (Gal 1:7)
• some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ (Gal 2:4)
• certain men came from James (Gal 2:12)
• Those people zealous ... for no good… want to alienate you (Gal 4:17)
• those agitators (Gal 5:12)
• those who want to make a good impression outwardly (Gal 6:12)

Not the best of references.  Something to note, they were Paul’s former colleagues, driven as much as he was in persecuting the church prior to him seeing the light on the road to Damascus.  He knew their sin, because he lived their sin.  He was upset by their sin, because he knew that he had done the same thing only worse in earlier days.  The whole question runs across the liberty of belivers in Christ.

What was the contreversy? 

Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom of taught by Moses, you cannot be saved." (Acts 15:1)

At first blush this seems to be a medical procedure of removing the foreskin.  But the problem doesn’t end there, it isn’t just the physical act these men wanted, further in Acts we get the fuller picture.

Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses.“ (Acts 15:5)

These from the ‘party of the Pharisees’ were asking what Pharisees always did, to add something more to what was divinely given.  They took the law of Moses and added fences to keep people from ever getting close to sin, enslaving them not to God’s law but to their interpretation of the law.  Here, we see, they were at it again. 

The question boiled down is: What must we do to be saved?

More below the fold…

Recall back in Acts chapter 10, Peter witnessed a vision and then a physical realization that the Holy Spirit was given to the Gentiles when Cornelius was converted.  The message of the vision was to not call anything unclean that God had declared clean.  The clear interpretation is the presence of the indwelt Holy Spirit declares one clean, not any sacred ritual.  Peter recalls this lesson to the council. 

After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe.  God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.  Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.” (Acts 15:7-11)

The text makes no bones, this added requirement of the Law of Moses to Gentile belivers is the yoke of slavery to the law.  Something that goes against the purpose of the Law (read Romans).  The Pharisees, Leagalists, Judiasers wanted to place another group of people into slavery by adding to the requirements of salvation.  They wanted further outward proof that people were serious about following God, before they’d accept those people as clean.  They wanted to make sure new converts would follow their rules as they set them down.  This isn’t about pleasing God, this was about pleasing people.  The biggest slap in the face was these people were saying that God was wrong.  He had called them clean (giving them the Holy Spirit) now men were rebelling (again...) and saying that they couldn’t be clean until they did one more thing… (which was the beginning of a laundry list of things).

Peter clearly claims tht the only requirement of salvation is outside of people, “through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are“ Equality, through grace.

What is grace?  It is the free expression of God’s loving kindness to men to demonstrate His incomparable chaarcter and intended to meet the needs and the cares of those He loves.  Grace is God’s unearned and unmerited favor to people.  Unearned.  Unmerited.  The balance sheet on our side is Zero.  All of the transactions, all of the costs are on the side of Jesus.  Through his work on the cross, the debt is paid.  Salvation is the unearned, unmerited declaration of a person as righteous based solely on the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.  It lies hand in hand with Justification.  Justification is the soverign act of God, where God declares a believing sinner righteous, while that person is still in a sinning condition.

Simply put, Salvation isn’t a merit badge. 

Some people state that justification, “cleans us of sin, just as if I’d never sinnned at all.” That is misleading, because it implies that justified people are merited a state that they do not yet posses.  A state of believing that we are now in a state where we have committed no sin allows us to be misled into thinking that we merited it.

Grace is about God and not about me.

Salvation is 100% Christ’s work.  Not 99.9, not 99.999, not 99.99999… 100% totally and fully Christ’s work.

The push back of those of James, or those of the parties of the Pharisees, isn’t unexpected.  Such a radical idea of grace is always opposed.  Why?  Because such grace eliminates the possibility of some man made code of conduct. This radical Grace prevents the control of individuals by others.  This simple fact refutes all of the cults and sects.  The gosple of Jamestown Guyana was a false gospel, because it enslaved people.  The gosple of David Koresh was a false gospel because it enslaved people.

Grace is freedom from guilt, and freedom from the ability to be manipulated by guilt.

Grace removes the east evaluation (judgement) tool of unaminity (everyone being the same) and replaces it with unity through variety.  Where trust isn’t placed on a set of guidelines, rules, code of conduct, but on the finished work of Jesus Christ.  Grace releases all control to the Holy Spirit, and trusts that the Holy Spirit will finish the good work that He has started.  Grace allows us to join with the Holy Spirit and administer His work to those in need of it.

Where is the limit?  Isn’t it risky to allow people to have access to this ‘free pass’ called Grace?

Yes.  That is the point.  If grace isn’t risky, if it doesn’t call into question that people might continue to sin, then that grace isn’t true Grace.  The fact that some might take it too far is proof that the true gospel of grace is being taught.  The scandal of grace is that it is security in Christ alone, and absolutely nothing we do.

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• 

  brad  on  11/09  at  12:30 PM

  
  

  Bro,
  I am going to blog roll you.

  Anyway, I have a few posts on Galatians. I am leading studies at my house and a Bible Study at work. I went through the Acts passages and the Galatians passages. Really good for people. Great study.
  brad

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