These “Judaizers” from the Pharisees were pretty sure that they were right. In fact, they were so sure that they went so far as to say that you cannot be saved unless you follow the law of Moses.
Practically speaking, what did that mean? All of these Gentiles that had come to faith, all of these Gentiles that had already received the Holy Spirit, must also be circumcised.
Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.”
Acts 15:1
Ouch.
I say “ouch” in a couple of different ways. There is the physical “ouch” in that the Judaizers were saying that the Gentiles had to complete the physical act of circumcision. I cannot imagine that it would be an act that they would be looking forward to completing!
Then I also say “ouch” because the Judaizers have had the temerity to speak for God. The Gentiles had already received the Holy Spirit. Should these zealous religious men try to add something to the gift of God saying that the Gentiles aren’t really saved until we have also done X, or Y, or Z?
Of course, it was a tricky situation. If someone had converted to Judaism in the past, the first thing that needed to be done was for the person to follow all of the laws of Judaism, and that of course included the act of circumcision. Circumcising a man would show his allegiance to the covenant given by God, first through Abraham and then through subsequent leaders.
But Jesus offered his people, including all of us, a new covenant. The new covenant was given in his blood. Jesus fulfilled the law, meaning that he kept all of the laws. He was the only man ever to have done so, so he did not deserve to be punished. He was the only man to ever not deserve punishment for breaking God’s law, yet he was sent by God specifically to take the punishment for the sins of the people upon himself. It is an incredible gift of God through an amazing display of love and mercy for his people.
This is the offer of the new covenant, that by Jesus’s blood, God will be our God and we will be his people.
Nothing more. Nothing added. Nothing additional needed.
In fact, Peter is very clear about this as he addressed the council that considered this question:
We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.
Acts 15:11
Yet even today, we see the “yoke” of additional rules and regulations of the church put upon people as leaders try to decide themselves who can be saved and who cannot. In fact, I have this same conversation with my Catholic friends on a regular basis. They insist to me that it must be Jesus + X or Jesus + Y. And why? Because they believe that the Catholic church has the right to impose rules from the top-down, from the Pope to all of us.
For some reason, they – and sometimes each of us as well – seem to think that we, as humans, have the right to overrule what God has said.
Of course we do not. Yet we often persist in this line of thinking. We insist that we know better than what Jesus has said. We frequently believe, like the Pharisees who became the Judaizers in the midst of the believing church, that we must add something to Jesus for others to be able to know God.
Let us, instead, simply tell others of the blood of Christ. It is through this blood that God has made his new covenant with us. It is through this blood that we can be made clean before the Lord. It is through this blood that we can be saved.
And as we are saved, we will receive the Holy Spirit, and by walking by the Spirit we will do the things that the law requires. Not because we have become a Jew and followed all of the Jewish laws, but because we have followed Christ, making him king over the entirety of our lives and we now live completely for him.