Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for July 31, 2011

Guest speaker: Kevin Dodge

“Unity in the Church” – Acts 15:2-21

According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, there are about 34,000 Christian denominations in the United States.

Kevin suggests that the Jews who were insisting on circumcision of gentile Christians in Antioch weren’t quite the bad guys they seemed to be but were acting according to the only scriptures they had at the time – the Hebrew scriptures.

Genesis 17:9-14

Salvation in the Old Testament was the same as in the New Testament – by grace through faith.
But the Jews understood that the covenant relationship had to be maintained by certain actions in the flesh.

Peter makes an experiential argument in favor of not requiring the gentiles to be circumcised or keep the rest of the law.

Editor’s note:

Jesus laid the foundation for the decision at Jerusalem in Acts 15 when He said, “No man puts new cloth into an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up takes from the garment and the tear is made worse. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles; otherwise the bottles will break and the wine runs out and the bottles perish; but they put new wine into new bottles and both are preserved.” (Matthew 9:16-17) Jesus is the fulfillment of the law. (Matthew 5:17) Every jot and tittle of the law is fulfilled in Him. We keep the law by trusting in Jesus and adhering to His word. “What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Romans 8:3-4)