“15 After these days we got ready and went up to Jerusalem. 16 Some of the disciples from Caesarea also went with us and brought us to Mnason, a Cypriot and an early disciple, with whom we were to stay.

17 When we reached Jerusalem, the brothers welcomed us gladly. 18 The following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present. 19 After greeting them, he related in detail what God did among the Gentiles through his ministry.

20 When they heard it, they glorified God and said, ‘You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law. 21 But they have been told about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to abandon Moses, by telling them not to circumcise their children or to walk in our customs. 22 So what is to be done? They will certainly hear that you’ve come. 23 Therefore do what we tell you: We have four men who have obligated themselves with a vow. 24 Take these men, purify yourself along with them, and pay for them to get their heads shaved. Then everyone will know that what they were told about you amounts to nothing, but that you yourself are also careful about observing the law. 25 With regard to the Gentiles who have believed, we have written a letter containing our decision that they should keep themselves from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from what is strangled, and from sexual immorality.'”

Acts 21:15-25

==

The struggle is real. It’s a lie to say we don’t deal with it. We struggle with this compulsion to earn our salvation, to say that justification by faith is not enough. We try to earn it, little by little. We like the feeling that we have been ‘good enough’ or or to give the impression that we have passed some religious bar by our own efforts. This compulsion is strong. We like to feel self-made, proud of our own achievements. But this is works, not faith.

Yes. There is an expectation for the life we live in Christ. It is very defined, but also very free. And people who are comfortable with their legalism don’t like to see people being free. It seems wrong, it seems out of place. And in these moments, that desire to self-justify feels threatened and the hackles on the back of their necks go up, and they get ready to bite. 

That’s why Paul was constantly accosted by the Jews who chased him from town to town. That’s why the Judiazers came in behind him to the churches in Galatia and caused such a stir. This God-forbidden, sin-filled compulsion to put ourselves in His place. Legalism is nothing more than an idolatry of self, and the reward it brings is still just as deadly as it was before, but with the added twist of a self-indiced blindness. 

Yes, James & the brothers were right to lay out some standards for Gentile believers. They weren’t accustomed with the things of God or with what that life lived in Him would entail. This was a discipling process. But for all those who were so bent out of shape and worried about Paul honoring Moses and the Law? Their focus was on the wrong points. Justification & sancitification are two very different things. One begets the other, but only one is a daily process. Being justified by Christ is something that happens to us, not because of us. Sanctification happens to us, but with our participation, as well. We must live it out in our choices. 

Paul was fine in making the vow and showing himself to be pure, Christ had already done the work. But to do it to appease men? That is totally unnecessary. Societal pressure is strong. Peer pressure, moreso. But Paul knew that he had been justified by faith in Jesus Christ, not by anything he had done, or could do on his own. His example reminds us that God is sovereign over self, and that the glory needs to go to Him, and never to us on our own. As we GoLove people in Jesus’ Name, we need to remember to point them toward grace, faith and a humbly thankful life of obedience. But we must also, always, remember that we have been saved only by the blood of Christ, and it is He who maintains us through His Holy Spirit.

Galatians 2:15-16

“We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ. And we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.”