Grace Brings Truth

When they arrived in Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church, the apostles, and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. But some of the believers from the party of the Pharisee's stood up and said, "it is necessary to circumcise them and command them to keep the law of Moses."
Then the apostles and elders assembled to consider the matter. After there had been much debate, Peter stood and said to them, "Brothers, you are aware that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the gospel message and believe. And God, who knows the heart, testified to them by giving the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Now then, why are you testing God by putting a yoke on the disciples necks that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe we are saved through grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way we are." Acts 15:6-11

I remember as a youth in our youth group, some of the boys wanted to press us girls to wear hats. Being a new Christian I was wanting to please my Lord and didn't know what to do. Fortunately the pastor and elders found out and brought in the boys creating the new doctrine and sorted them out.

I am sure that grace was abundant, just like it is here. Peter, gently but firmly states the truth and order resumes. Laying law upon people new to faith is erroneous and shows we have a problem with accepting grace ourselves.

God's grace leads us to all truth, we don't plow through law to find truth. Amen!

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