God's Story Is Our Story: From Acts to New CreationSample

As we talked about yesterday, God's story went into a new phase as Gentiles (non-Jews) began to put their faith in the Jewish messiah, Jesus. Not only did this create some tension with Jews who did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah, it also created some confusion of how Gentiles were to be incorporated into the church. Were they to become Jews? Were they to keep the Old Testament law with its priestly system and sacrifices? Were they to be circumcised? Some Gentile Christians were even falling under the sway of false teachers who were teaching that we are saved by faith in Jesus and by keeping the law.

The church would hold a meeting to answer the question of whether Gentiles needed to become Jewish as described in Acts 15. But, Paul addresses the issue in his letter to the churches in the Galatian region.

His answer is that keeping the law can't save us. The law was a tutor teaching us that we are sinful and in need of a savior. Now that Christ has come, salvation comes by faith in what he has done for us in his grace. One doesn't need to become Jewish in the church era in order to be right with God. Those parts of the law pointed us to Jesus. Now Jews and Gentiles are united into one people by faith. We are brought into Abraham's family only by faith, not by birth.

The church has always been tempted to add some set of works for the reason that we are saved or made right with God whether it be going to church, praying, trying to be a good person. But, while faith in Jesus will stir a desire to do those things and result in some of those things, those are not why God accepts us or blesses us. We are only accepted by faith in Jesus because he fulfilled the law for us. This is good news for us in our own stories.