Commentary - Acts 15:1-12

Bird's-eye view

Acts 15 records the first great theological crisis of the Christian church, what we might call the first general assembly. The central issue was nothing less than the gospel itself. Following the astounding success of the first missionary journey, a conservative faction from the mother church in Jerusalem came to Antioch insisting that Gentile converts must be circumcised and keep the Mosaic law in order to be saved. This was an attempt to make Christianity a sect within Judaism, a gospel of grace-plus-works. Paul and Barnabas rightly saw this as a mortal threat to the faith and refused to give ground. The matter was escalated to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, who convened to settle the issue. Peter's testimony, recounting the conversion of Cornelius, established the definitive principle: God Himself had authenticated the Gentiles' faith by giving them the Holy Spirit apart from any works of the law. He makes no distinction, cleansing hearts by faith alone. To demand more is to test God and to place an unbearable yoke on believers. The conclusion is glorious and foundational: all believers, Jew and Gentile alike, are saved in the exact same way, through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This chapter is therefore a linchpin in the book of Acts. It provides the authoritative, apostolic confirmation for the Gentile mission that dominates the rest of the book. It is the Magna Carta of Christian liberty, formally severing the church from the old covenant shadows and establishing it on the bedrock of justification by faith alone.

Outline

Context In Acts

The Jerusalem Council of Acts 15 is the theological climax that the narrative of Acts has been building towards. From the beginning, the gospel has been systematically pushing past ethnic and ceremonial boundaries. We saw it with the Samaritans in chapter 8, the Ethiopian eunuch later in that chapter, and most significantly, with the conversion of the Roman centurion Cornelius in chapter 10. That event required a special vision for Peter and resulted in some initial pushback from the "circumcision party" in Jerusalem (Acts 11:2-3). But Peter's explanation was accepted for the time being. However, the first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas (Acts 13-14) blew the doors wide open. Entire churches, composed primarily of raw pagans, were planted across Asia Minor. The trickle of Gentile converts had become a flood, and this forced the underlying theological question to the surface. The council was necessary to formally address and settle the terms of Gentile inclusion into the covenant people of God, thus providing the doctrinal foundation for Paul's subsequent ministry and the global expansion of the church.

Key Issues

Grace Unshackled

Whenever the gospel of God's free grace breaks out in power, you can set your watch by the fact that a reaction is coming. True revival is always followed by a theological counter-attack. The devil is not particularly creative, and his favorite strategy has always been to pollute the pure grace of God by adding human works as a necessary condition for salvation. He knows that if he can just add a "plus" to the gospel, he has nullified it entirely. Grace plus anything is no longer grace.

This is precisely what we see happening in Antioch. The church there was vibrant, multi-ethnic, and Spirit-filled, the beachhead for the mission to the entire Gentile world. And so, predictably, the enemy sends in his agents, not from the outside pagan world, but from the inside, from the mother church in Jerusalem. These men, whom Paul would later call "false brothers" (Gal. 2:4), came with a message that sounded pious and conservative, but was in fact a damnable heresy. They came to put shackles on the gospel, and the battle that ensued was for the very soul of the Christian faith.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”

Here is the poison in its purest form. Notice the structure of the lie: "Unless you do X, you cannot be saved." This is the template for every false gospel. The "X" can be anything: circumcision, baptism, speaking in tongues, political activism, dietary laws, or a particular standard of dress. The moment a human performance is made a prerequisite for salvation, the gospel of grace is overturned. These men, coming "from Judea," carried an air of authority from the Jerusalem church, though we later learn they were not sent with this message (Acts 15:24). They were demanding that to become a Christian, a Gentile must first effectively become a Jew.

2 And when Paul and Barnabas had not a little dissension and debate with them, the brothers determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue.

Paul and Barnabas did not shrug this off as a minor disagreement. Luke's phrase "not a little dissension" is a wonderful understatement. This was a theological brawl. There can be no compromise with a false gospel. To give an inch here would be to surrender the whole citadel. The church in Antioch showed great wisdom. Recognizing the gravity of the situation and the claims of the Judaizers to represent Jerusalem, they decided to seek a definitive ruling from the highest authority in the church, the apostles and elders in the city from which the controversy originated.

3 Therefore, being sent on their way by the church, they were passing through both Phoenicia and Samaria, recounting in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and were bringing great joy to all the brothers.

As the delegation travels south, they are effectively missionaries of grace. They stop and tell the churches along the way what God has been doing among the Gentiles. The response is not suspicion or alarm, but "great joy." This shows us that the legalistic spirit of the Judaizers was a factional problem, not the sentiment of the church at large. Ordinary believers, unencumbered by theological party spirit, rejoiced whenever they heard that sinners were being saved.

4 When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them.

Upon arrival, they are given a formal and welcoming reception. Notice the emphasis in their report. They declared "all that God had done with them." They did not present their missionary work as their own achievement, but as the work of God. This is crucial. The Gentile mission was not their idea or their project; it was a sovereign act of God, and the evidence was the fruit of converted lives.

5 But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the Law of Moses.”

Here the opposition party identifies itself. It is made up of believers who had come out of the sect of the Pharisees. This is significant. The Pharisees were the strictest and most zealous keepers of the law and the traditions. Though they had come to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, they had not yet shed their legalistic framework. They wanted to fit Jesus into their old system, to make Him the fulfiller of their brand of Judaism. They saw Christianity not as a new creation, but as a reformed Judaism, and so they insisted that Gentile converts must take on the whole package of the Mosaic covenant.

6 Both the apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter.

This is the formal convening of the council. This was not a chaotic free-for-all, but an orderly gathering of the recognized leadership of the church to deliberate on a matter of doctrine. This serves as a vital precedent for how the church is to handle serious theological controversy.

7 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe.

The issue was not rubber-stamped. There was "much debate," which tells us the Pharisaic party was vocal and insistent. Finally, Peter, the apostle to the Jews, stands to speak. He doesn't begin with abstract theology but with redemptive history. He reminds them of what God had already done through him years before in the house of Cornelius (Acts 10). God Himself had made the choice and had used Peter's own mouth to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. This was not Paul's maverick innovation; it was God's established plan.

8-9 And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.

This is the heart of Peter's argument, and it is unanswerable. He makes three key points. First, God, the ultimate judge who sees past all externals into the heart, bore witness to the Gentiles' salvation. How? By giving them the Holy Spirit. This was the divine exclamation point, the same sign given to the Jews on the day of Pentecost. Second, in doing this, God "made no distinction" between Jewish and Gentile believers. The ground at the foot of the cross is level. Third, God accomplished this cleansing of their hearts not by the knife of circumcision or the rituals of the law, but "by faith." God's verdict was already in. He had declared them clean on the basis of faith alone.

10 Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?

Peter now turns the tables and issues a sharp challenge. To demand circumcision and law-keeping is to "put God to the test." It is to question God's judgment, to imply that the gift of the Spirit was insufficient, to demand that God conform to their theological system. He describes the law, when viewed as a means of earning salvation, as a "yoke." It is an oppressive, crushing burden that no one, not even the Jews who had been raised under it, had ever been able to bear successfully. Why would they want to impose this impossible burden on new Gentile believers?

11 But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.”

This is the glorious conclusion, the gospel in its purest form. Peter does not say that the Gentiles are saved by grace like the Jews are saved by law-keeping. He says the exact opposite. He says that "we", the Jewish apostles, the circumcision party, all of us, are saved through grace, in the very same way that the Gentiles are. Grace is not the back-up plan for failed legalists. Grace is the only plan for everyone. There is one way of salvation for all humanity, and it is through the unmerited, unearned, undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

12 And all the multitude kept silent, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.

Peter's argument, grounded in Scripture and experience, is devastatingly effective. It silences the opposition. The theological foundation has been laid. Now the floor is given to Paul and Barnabas, not to argue theology, but to provide the supporting evidence. They recount the "signs and wonders" God had performed through them. These miracles were God's attestation to their ministry, the divine seal on the truth of the gospel of grace they were preaching among the Gentiles.

Application

The heresy of the Judaizers is alive and well. It is the default religion of the fallen human heart. We are all born legalists, wanting to believe that we can contribute something to our salvation, that we can make God indebted to us through our performance. The Judaizing spirit can creep into the church in a thousand different forms. It shows up whenever we say, "To be a really good Christian, you have to vote this way, or school your children that way, or adopt this particular cultural practice." It shows up whenever we look down on other believers because their walk with God doesn't look exactly like ours.

The message of the Jerusalem Council is the only antidote. We must be ruthless in defending the truth that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Our standing before God depends entirely on the finished work of Jesus, not on our fluctuating performance. This truth does not lead to lawlessness; it is the only possible foundation for true obedience. We do not keep the law in order to be saved; we seek to obey God out of gratitude because we are saved. The yoke of the law as a means of salvation is an unbearable burden, but the yoke of Christ is easy, and His burden is light. Our freedom was purchased at a great price, and we must never allow anyone to put us back into the shackles of legalism.