Salvation by Grace
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2017 · 8 January 2017
We are continuing our study of Acts 15 as we look at what happened at the council of Jerusalem. The church faced its first crisis regarding the doctrine of salvation. Some were trying to teach that a man was saved by grace plus works. Others believed that a man is saved by grace alone. And so the conflict was resolved in the council of Jerusalem.
Now as we study Acts 15, we learn about the concept of grace. Now grace is a word that is essential in Christianity. All other religious systems in the world approach God, whoever God may be in their own system, based upon deeds or works of men. There are certain things that a man does and because he does those things God approves of him and he can approach God.
Only Christianity offers salvation which absolutely has nothing to do with what you do, or what you have done, or what you will do. The salvation that is in Christianity stands apart from every other religious system, as grace salvation. And that grace is God's free salvation, offered to men on the basis of what Christ did, and apart from what men might do.
I am saved not because of anything I deserved, not because of anything that I did, not because of I am a good person, but because of all that Christ is, and all that He did, which I only believed and God accounted to me His salvation. Now grace then, is the free effort on God's part to save men. God did not just offer grace to save you, but God wants to make you like His Son. He wants to conform you to Jesus Christ.
Now when you experience the grace of salvation, that is only the beginning, then you move secondly to what Paul describes in Romans 5 as the grace in which we stand. Having been saved by grace I live in grace, and then that grace is expanded to conform me to Christ. The ultimate end of my salvation is that I will be like Jesus Christ. And I have done nothing to deserve it, not before, not during and not after.
But you know that even within the confines of Christianity people misunderstand grace. They misrepresent grace and even fight grace. Men always want to tack works on to free grace. That is what happened in the early church. God was offering free salvation to Gentiles, and the Jews were saying, no, you must be circumcised and you must obey the law and all the ceremony. So the basic issue is, how does a man get saved?
Now, Acts 15 is divided into four parts. We saw last week the first part which was the dissension. The Jews and the Gentiles were arguing about whether you had to be circumcised. Well, the argument got hot in verse 5, they even came to Jerusalem and the Pharisee Christians got up, and said, Gentiles have to be circumcised and they have to keep the Law of Moses.
Well the dissension led secondly to the discussion. Here are three men that dominate the discussion, namely Peter, Paul and James. Look at verse 11, "But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.” That is the statement of the Apostles, because they had a pre-council session, and they all agreed already. They simply stated their faith, that it is grace plus nothing is all that is needed to be saved.
Peter supports it with four points, he said salvation by grace is evidence by past revelation. In verse 7, he says, it happened like that ten years ago, God was saving Gentiles by faith alone. Secondly, the gift of the Holy Spirit. Verse 8, “So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us.” In other words, only saved people get the Holy Spirit. Now if God gave them the Spirit that means they were truly saved, without circumcision.
Third thing, God forgave and purified them. Verse 9, “and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.” God cleansed them of all their sins. Then Peter adds to that the inability of the Law of Moses to save anyone. Verse 10 says, “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?” Look he says, why put legalism on them, it didn't even work for us?
And then Paul declared what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles. When Paul preached a grace message, God confirmed it with miracles. God has already attested to the validity of the grace salvation by the miracles He gave. And then verse 12 says, "And after they had held their peace."
Now we come to James, who adds the sixth proof of salvation by grace. It is called the prophetic promise which goes from verse 13 to 18. Verse 13-14 says, “And after they had become silent, James answered, saying, “Men and brethren, listen to me: 14 Simon (Peter) has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name.”
James says, Peter just told you that God first visited other nations. Now he says in verse 15, “And with this the words of the prophets agree.” God was going to save Gentiles through the church, without having them become Jews first. James reiterates this at the end of verse 15, "Just as it is written." And he quotes Amos 9: 11-12, using the Greek version of it, the Septuagint, in the next verses.
Verses 16-18, “After this I will return, build again the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down: and I will rebuild its ruins, and I will set it up. 17 So that the rest of mankind (the Gentiles) may seek after the Lord, even all the Gentiles, who are called by My name, says the Lord, who does all these things. 18 “Known to God from eternity are all His works.”
This means that whenever salvation comes, that it will be coming from all the nations, all the Gentiles. And this means that Gentiles are saved as Gentiles. They don't have to become Jews first. God says, I call them directly to myself. There is nothing about circumcision and keeping the law and becoming a Jew first.
Verse 16 says that Israel will be reestablished, verse 17 says the nations will also be saved, as nations. This is a millennial prophecy. And there are two parts to the thousand year kingdom, Israel's restoration in verse 16, but also Gentiles are going to be saved as Gentiles directly by God in verse 17.
So how do Gentiles get in the millennial kingdom? Well, remember the judgment where Jesus will separate the sheep from the goats in Matthew 25? When Christ returns He is going to judge the Gentiles. And the goat Gentiles who have mistreated Israel, and given evidence of not believing in Christ, are going to be cast into the lake of fire. But the sheep Gentiles, who have believed in the Messiah are going to inherit the kingdom.
Now those Gentiles are going to have many generations of children in the kingdom, and their offspring of millions of Gentiles are going to get saved just like everybody else, by believing in Jesus Christ. But not all of them will be saved, and there will be a worldwide rebellion at the end of the thousand years, led by Satan when he is loosed from prison. But the point of Amos is this, they will be saved as Gentiles.
Everything that is going to happen in the future kingdom has a limited fulfillment in this age of the church. For example, in the millennial kingdom Christ is going to reign, but now He reigns in the hearts of believers. In the kingdom there is going to be peace, but now there is peace in our hearts. In the kingdom He will pour out His Holy Spirit on all people, in the church age the Holy Spirit indwells the believer. The full character of the kingdom is in a limited sense seen in the church now.
Verse 16 is in there because those Jews needed to know they were not being replaced by Gentiles. That is God's promise that in the midst of the Gentile salvation. In the midst of the history of the church, God has not forgotten Israel. Peter said in his sermon in Acts 3:15, “you killed the Prince of life,” but he turned right around and said in Acts 3:25, “You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
God is not finished with Israel. You can study the Old Testament and the New Testament and you will find that the promises of Gentile salvation are all the while connected to the restoration of Israel. James quoted those verses just so they would know God had not changed His plans and that God never forgets or changes His promises.
Now there is a second reason. The Jews felt strongly that Zechariah 8, explained why the Gentiles had to become Jews first to be saved. Zechariah 8:20-22 says, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Peoples shall yet come, inhabitants of many cities; 21 the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, “Let us continue to go and pray before the Lord, and seek the Lord of hosts. I myself will go also.” 22 Yes, many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord.” This is speaking about Gentiles.
And then Zechariah 8:23 says, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” At the end there are going to be ten Gentiles hanging on the sleeve of every Jew.
Now the Judaizers interpreted that passage that you have to become a Jew to get to God. But it did not mean that at all. What it meant was the Jews were simply the messengers. In the tribulation period God seals a hundred and forty four thousand Jews out of Israel, to be His witnesses. In the early church who carried the gospel to Israel? The Jews. Who was it that carried the gospel to Samaritans? The Jews. Who brought the gospel to the Gentiles? Paul and Barnabas. Jews. God has always chosen, chosen Jewish servants.
Here is also the chronology of God's history. Verse 14, God is going to visit the nations and take out of them a people that believe His name, that's the calling of the church, right? What follows the calling out of the church? The return of Christ. What follows the return of Christ? The restoration of Israel, “I will build again the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down.” And what follows all of that? Gentile world salvation, verse 17.
There you have eschatology, the order of events in the future. Notice the return of Christ follows the calling out of the church. And this is our faith. So there's the dissension followed by the discussion, and what a powerful weight of evidence. And now here is the decision. In verse 19 James says, “Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God.”
But James is wise, and he knows that Gentiles who have lived such a free life could take this principle of grace plus nothing and just run wild. And so James comes back with some principles that have to do with fellowship. There are some things that I’m free to do them in grace, but I don't do them, because I would offend some of you and therefore cut off my ministry to you.
Now you see this is where fellowship comes up, so immediately and just to introduce it in verse 20-21, James says, “but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood. 21 For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”
Now we know salvation is by grace but fellowship has some basic features that need to be considered. Abstain from four things: pollution of idols, fornication, things strangled, and from blood. Why? Because there are still Jews in every town who follow the Law of Moses. And if you Christians live in violation of this blatantly and overtly, you are going to cause all kinds of problems in Jewish evangelism, you are going to offend young Jewish Christians who don't yet understand their liberty.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8:9, “But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak.” Okay, if meat causes my brother to be offended, I will not eat meat. That is spiritual maturity. People say to me sometimes, Stan do you drink? And I say, no. I basically don't do it because I feel there would be some believers offended by it, and I desire to do those things which shall build up the believer, not cause him to stumble.
The second thing James gave them as a principle, is not only to abstain from pollutions of idols, but also from fornication. You know the whole of Gentile worship was involved with sex. Prostitute priestesses, the whole thing was just one big orgy. And he says to them, you know that you Gentile Christians are going to have to absolutely stay away from everything that relates to sexual idolatry that you used to do originally.
Real fellowship is brought about by self-sacrificing love that says, what I do, I do with you in mind. We are saved by grace unto good works. Listen beloved, works have nothing to do with being saved, but salvation has everything to do with the work of fellowship. Let us learn more of that next week. Let us pray.