Reexamining the Law (6 of 9)
Series: Help! I Think I've Committed the Unpardonable Sin Why the Cross Makes This Impossible
Eddie Snipes
Acts 15:10
A theologian on television echoes a commonly taught belief by saying, ''Grace gives you the power to keep the law.''
It's undeniable that the followers of the Old Testament could not keep the law. In John 7:19, Jesus said, ''Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law?''
Think for a moment about the magnitude of that statement. The Jewish culture was built around the Old Testament law. Their government was focused on that law, all of their customs and cultures were built around the law, and the Jewish lifestyle was focused on the law. Yet even with everything focused on trying to keep the Old Testament law, not one of them was able to keep it.
When the New Covenant church was born, it soon spread outside of the Jewish world and Gentile churches were born. A Gentile is anyone who is not a Jew. The non-Jews were never under the law and did not even know the law. But the Jewish Christians had a difficult time accepting that the law was not the focus of the New Covenant. They began to go to Gentile churches and teach them that they could not be accepted by God unless they kept the law.
A dispute rose in the church, and all the early church leaders met to discuss the issue. Again, the Jewish Christian leaders acknowledged that the law was a burden that could not be fulfilled. The Apostle Peter stood up and said in Acts 15:10
Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
God had affirmed that the Gentiles had been accepted into the New Covenant of grace without the law (See Acts chapters 10 and 11). Since God made no distinction between those who came to Christ out of Judaism and those who came to Christ out of the Gentile world, it was a challenge to the work of God when people tried to put ...
Series: Help! I Think I've Committed the Unpardonable Sin Why the Cross Makes This Impossible
Eddie Snipes
Acts 15:10
A theologian on television echoes a commonly taught belief by saying, ''Grace gives you the power to keep the law.''
It's undeniable that the followers of the Old Testament could not keep the law. In John 7:19, Jesus said, ''Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law?''
Think for a moment about the magnitude of that statement. The Jewish culture was built around the Old Testament law. Their government was focused on that law, all of their customs and cultures were built around the law, and the Jewish lifestyle was focused on the law. Yet even with everything focused on trying to keep the Old Testament law, not one of them was able to keep it.
When the New Covenant church was born, it soon spread outside of the Jewish world and Gentile churches were born. A Gentile is anyone who is not a Jew. The non-Jews were never under the law and did not even know the law. But the Jewish Christians had a difficult time accepting that the law was not the focus of the New Covenant. They began to go to Gentile churches and teach them that they could not be accepted by God unless they kept the law.
A dispute rose in the church, and all the early church leaders met to discuss the issue. Again, the Jewish Christian leaders acknowledged that the law was a burden that could not be fulfilled. The Apostle Peter stood up and said in Acts 15:10
Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
God had affirmed that the Gentiles had been accepted into the New Covenant of grace without the law (See Acts chapters 10 and 11). Since God made no distinction between those who came to Christ out of Judaism and those who came to Christ out of the Gentile world, it was a challenge to the work of God when people tried to put ...
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