Circumcision and salvation
Revised Version, "Except ye be circumcised after the custom of Moses, ye cannot be saved." It was inevitable that the claims of Judaism and of Christianity should presently come into conflict. The conflict, when it came, would be sure to rage round some one particular point of difference; not necessarily the most important point, but the one which would give most prominence to the essential differences. Circumcision was only a formal rite, and its importance might easily be exaggerated; but it sealed the exclusiveness of the Jewish system, and it illustrated its ceremonial character, so it formed a good ground on which to fight. The Jews had this vantage-ground. Circumcision was unquestionably a Divine institution; and the Christian could bring no proof whatever that it had been formally removed. The Christian teachers could only urge that the "life in Christ" no longer needed formal bonds, and that God's grace in Christ Jesus was given to those who were not of the circumcision. St. Paul took very firm ground on the question. While prepared to go to the very limits of charitable concession in dealing with those who felt the helpfulness of rites and ceremonies, he was prepared to resist to the death any tampering with the gospel condition of salvation, or any attempt to declare that saving grace could be found in any formal ordinance or ceremony. "When the very foundations of Christianity were in danger of being undermined, it was not possible for St. Paul to "give place by subjection."
I. MAN'S HIGHEST NEED CONCEIVED AS SALVATION. Not reformation; not religion; not material prosperities; not intellectual attainments; not culture; but distinctly salvation, which is a moral good, bears direct relation to personal sins and to a sinful state, and is conceivable only by some Divine intervention, and on revealed Divine terms. Man's final cry is," What must I do to be saved?" "How can man be just with God?" Salvation, conceived as man's reconciliation with God, was the idea of Judaism, and it was represented by man's being brought into covenant relations, and kept in them by sacrifice and ceremonial. Judaism had a moral life within its ritual, and this finds expression in the Psalms and in the prophets. Salvation, as apprehended by Christianity, is man's reconciliation to God, upon his penitence for sin, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as the all-sufficient Sacrifice for sin and Savior entrusted with authority to forgive. The two systems are related, as a shadow is related to the figure that throws it; but the two cannot be combined; the shadow must pass altogether when the substance has come. The salvation man wants is a soul-salvation, and that no rite, no ceremonial, can touch.
II. THE OLDER IDEA OF THE MEANS OF SALVATION. Salvation was a Divine favor granted to one particular race. The Abrahamic relations, standing, and rights were secured to all who adopted the appointed sign and seal of circumcision. In later years outsiders were admitted to share the "salvation," or '"standing with God," of the Abrahamic race, by submitting to the rite of circumcision. As spirituality faded from the Jewish life, increasing importance became attached to the mere rite, and zealots contended for it as if in it alone lay the hope of salvation. There is an important place for ritual, but it is ever perilous to spiritual truth if it is put out of its place. It is a useful handmaid; it is a tyrannous mistress.
III. THE NEWER IDEA OF THE MEANS OF SALVATION AS REVEALED TO THE APOSTLES. Not works of righteousness, but "faith," which presupposes penitence. How is a sinner saved? Apart from all systems or ceremonies, he must accept the salvation freely offered to him by God in the person of his Son Jesus Christ. The act of acceptance is called "faith." We cannot wonder that this new and most gracious condition of salvation should have pushed the older idea altogether out of the apostles' minds. It seemed new; they would not even try to think how it fitted the old. Conscious of the new life and joy it brought, they would find themselves gradually being weaned from Jewish ceremonial, and the more advanced thinkers, such as St. Paul, would be even in some danger of exaggerating the contrasts between the old and the new.
IV. THE EFFORT TO RESTORE AGAIN THE OLDER IDEA. Truths and practices which have long absorbed the interest of men do not die without a struggle. Some champions linger on, and show fight at every opportunity. A wealth of interests gather round every religious system, and generations must pass before these can be wholly changed. So we cannot wonder that the sterner Judaism showed fight against the apostles, or that paganism again and again made desperate efforts to resist advancing Christianity. The Jewish tethers seem on this occasion to have acted in an underhanded and unworthy way. "The course they adopted, in the first instance, was not that of open antagonism to St. Paul, but rather of clandestine intrigue. They came as 'spies' into an enemy's camp, creeping in unawares, and gradually insinuating or openly inculcating their opinion that the observance of the Jewish Law was necessary to salvation." Two things need to be considered.
1. Why their teaching had to be so vigorously resisted.
2. On what grounds the resistance could be made. These were
The Jerusalem Church.
Christianity started out from Jerusalem. The disciples fulfilled their Lord's command, and "began at Jerusalem." The gospel was first preached at Jerusalem. The Holy Ghost endowed the Christian teachers, and scaled the Christian believers, first at Jerusalem. The Church first took form at Jerusalem. Its officers were first appointed at Jerusalem. And the records intimate that, when the other disciples were scattered abroad, the older and prominent apostles remained behind in the holy city, and exercised a kind of supervision over the work of the various Christian teachers. The constitution of the Jerusalem Church cannot be certainly known; but it is clear that St. Peter had no exclusive authority, and that if disputes and controversies were submitted to an apostolic council, their decision took the form of recommendation and not of Command. As the subject will be treated from several points of view, according to the bias of the preacher, we give only the general outline of the topics that may be usefully considered.
I. JERUSALEM, THE CHRISTIAN STARTING-POINT. The first teachers were Jews; and Christianity is not only the proper outcome and perfection of Judaism, but it bears the Jewish stamp. It links on to the fundamental ideas of God, sin, redemption, which were revealed to the Jews. If it were wholly new, it could not be true.
II. JERUSALEM, THE APOSTOLIC CENTER. A kind of mother Church. Observe how its council of apostles and elders was sought when difficulties of doctrine or practice arose; and how the Gentile Churches sent their charitable gifts to the poor saints at the mother Church.
III. JERUSALEM, THE MODEL CHURCH. How far any Church could present a model may be disputed. Any model would be efficient by reason of its illustrating working principles, not by virtue of its mere form.
IV. JERUSALEM, THE SOURCE OF AUTHORITY. How far apostles claimed authority on the ground of their knowledge of Christ, inspiration, miraculous gifts, and power to give or bring the Holy Ghost, needs to be carefully considered.—R.T.