Today’s reading is Acts 15: 1-21

Today’s passage is one of the great debates in church history.  In fact, all of chapter 15 is about debate, discerning, and understanding.  We see here the debate play out fully about what should happen to those Gentile believers. Should they first completely convert to Judaism?  Are they to keep the law?  What does it look like for these Gentile believers to become Christian?

Tomorrow we’ll read the letter that was written, but it was decided by all that they did not have to become Jewish to first become Christian.  Why?  Well, first the spirit was available to them.  The spirit is the evidence, the sign of the faith. The fact that it was apparent to all that these believers had the spirit meant that they didn’t have to “do” anything. Their belief was enough.

Second, no one, in history (except for Jesus) perfect kept the law. How could it be expected that they would keep the law in a way that the Jewish ancestors could not?  It just isn’t possible.

It is belief in Jesus that makes us Christian.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.

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