A group of Jewish believers trying to impose Jewish customs on Gentile converts, undermining Paul's teachings.
They were promoting a false gospel that mixed God's grace with human effort, distorting the true message of salvation by faith alone.
By recounting his past as a zealous Jew persecuting Christians, his divine calling, and his independent study of the Scriptures before consulting with the apostles.
It demonstrated that the Jerusalem council did not require Gentile converts to be circumcised, reinforcing the message of salvation by faith, not by works.
Peter stopped eating with Gentile believers out of fear, leading others astray and contradicting the message of unity in Christ.
Salvation is a gift from God, received by faith in Christ alone, not through adherence to Jewish laws or customs.
By stating that there is no distinction between Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, all are one in Christ, ensuring their inclusion in God's family.
Hey, bible readers, i'm tardy couple and i'm your host for the bible recap.
Who are regulations? In short, there are a group of people from the gentle region paulin barnabas visited on their first missionary journey. We read about this in x thirteen to fourteen.
As we know what's been going on with this influx of gentile believers is that some of the jewish believer s have been trying to force their culture on them, the laws of circumstance and what not. Paul has already addressed this at least twice, and they attempted to resolve things at the jerusalem council. But some of the jews didn't get the memo either that or they're intentionally rebelling against the spirit LED decision from the jury slum council.
They started going around to all the places paul preaches and undermining his teaching by telling the people they have to convert to the duty ism first. The general term for people who do this is judy izz, people who combine goddam Grace with human effort. We will learn to an article with more info on the judie zs in the show notes.
This general idea is still alive and well in religion today, but it's not usually koba that name. We usually refer to IT as legalism or moralism. Paul is furious with these other miners, and at some points even seems to be furious with the church for believing them.
But he opens his letter with Grace and peace to regulation churches before making a quick segway into his rebuke. By the way, pulse intros are not fluff. Their dense with theology try not to rush over them.
Power points out that this distortion of the gas will that their believing is a false gospel. And he pronounced god judgement on anyone who preaches IT. Then paul launches into his own story to give him some credibility for making this argument.
He was a zero due, eager to live out the traditions of his fathers, even to the point of violent persecuting those who disagreed. But he said, god chose him before he was born. And at the right time, god graciously called him and revealed the Christ and pulsate three years being taught the scriptures, apparently by the spirit in the word before he ever consulted with the apostles in jerusalem.
Then god directed his steps to preach the gospel to the gentiles. He went to a jurassic with barnabas and titus to submit his doctor and his efforts to the church to make sure he was aligned with them. And the truth, he mentioned title here, because titles was a greek gentile with no jewish ties, and he wasn't circumcised.
So if the jews in jerusalem didn't insist on circumcising title at that point, the jerusalem obviously wasn't requiring IT. But even then, paul said some people were suspicious that his message was too easy and they tried to undermine IT. They didn't like all of freedom minute IT needed more laws.
Regardless, the puzzles of the early church were happy to direct paul in administration, the gentiles and Peter in the ministry to the jews. They only ask paul not to forget the poor. And they were probably referring specifically to the persecuted jews in jerusalem, even though his ministry was to the gentiles.
Poll tells regulations about a time when he had to call Peter out, Peter had been pretty great about eating with just any believer, jews and gentle alike. But when James, since some people to visit him, Peter suddenly started eating only with the juice because of his fear of men. And then other people started following Peter's lead because Peter was misleading people, leading them poorly, leading them away from the truth.
Paul had to publicly correctives so that they would all be corrected in their thinking too. Pl says, look, i'm a do not a gentile, and even I know that your actions not save you only bath in Christ's saves a person. Furthermore, if I were to even attempt to earn my own righteous ness, i'd be vetoing his death on the cross.
Because why would he even need to die? If I could just do this on my own? I could just get circumstance and avoid a few foods and rest on saturdays if I could earn my own.
He died for nothing. In chapter three, he goes on to say, you have the spirit too. So let's talk about this.
How did that happen? How did you get the spirit? Did you do some kind of action and that sum him to come to you? Or did he just come to you through the faith guard? Granted you.
And now that you've got the spirit, you're trying to start doing some kind of work to gain god's approval as though the spirit himself isn't god's. Very seal on you. Stop IT.
That's not goes. Salvation is by faith, and scientifically is by faith. They're both guards doing then pulses something revolutionary in a very simply way. Twice this message shows up without scripture.
But here's where it's distil a nately package for us in three seven he says no, then that IT is those updates who are the sons of over him? He repeat ths the idea again later in three twenty nine, which says, if you are Christ, that you are able hemis offspring air according to the promise. And remember, he's writing the sledding to regulations who are gentle.
Do you know what all this means? That means that even though god has a unique, irreplaceable relationship with ethnic israel, that genes can still be counted among the dissidence of over him. That relationship isn't contingent on ethnicity or circumcision, is contingent on faith in Christ available to anyone of any ethnicity, jew or gentile.
God made that promised to over him four hundred and thirty years before god gave the automatic, promising abm that all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him if abiding by the law is how we obtain salvation, then what happened to all those people who lived in the four hundred and thirty years between Abraham and mosses before the law was given? Salvation has always been about bathin away and has always been available to anyone who has that. Paul has been hammering this one point home for three chapters.
He's approaching IT from every angle, trying to dismantle any potential counter arguments before they even come up. He's pointing to his own story, the story of Abraham, the guidance of scripture in the spirit, along with the decisions of the apostles, all to drive home one point. Salvation is the gift of god by Grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
What was your guard chat today? Something we don't discuss margin. All this circumcision talk is that if that's the way they had to enter the kingdom, and only men were circumcised, more about women, how would women enter the kingdom a bit?
These new female gentle converts may have wondered the same thing in, maybe even felt hopeless or overlooked. Paul leans into that question in three twenty eight. He says, there is neither jew nor greek.
There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ. This has to be so encouraging for his audience.
If the only people who could do what I took to know god were male jews, that that would be tragic, that would eliminate so many people. But because of Christ, the door is open to everyone in in god's family. We're united, even across our differences and distinctions because of the spirit. He's where the joy is.
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