Acts 21:15-22

Things are about to get very sticky for Paul. Back on his home turf, with much history at play, rumors have circulated that this once staunch defender of the Law of Moses in his former role as a Pharisee was now teaching the opposite and telling people that circumcision was no longer necessary. There was a hotbed of misinformation flying around, with bits and pieces of truth often taken out of context.

What this passage of Scripture also gives us insight into is that there were many Jewish believers in Jerusalem—which was a great thing—but they were still strong adherents to the Law of Moses. That was, and continued to be, a sticking point because they were attempting to blend elements of the Old Covenant with the New. The Old Covenant required obedience to the Law, while the New Covenant rests upon what Christ accomplished for us and is received by grace through faith.

Consider what Paul told the Galatians in Galatians 2:16 NLT, referencing his encounter with Peter when he came to Antioch. Paul had to call Peter out for his hypocrisy because he had been freely eating with the Gentiles, but when some friends of James arrived, Peter pulled away from them for fear of criticism from those who still insisted upon circumcision:

“Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.””

You can see how this would have been a problem for many of the believing Jews. It was already a tremendous step for them to believe in Jesus—an admission that may have ostracized them from their families, friends, and synagogue communities. They believed in Jesus, yet many were still trying to hold on to the religious system they had known their entire lives. In a sense, they were trying to keep a foot on both sides of the fence.

But true faith in Jesus requires us to understand that He did what we were unable to do for ourselves. Jesus fulfilled the Law perfectly. He was sinless and therefore qualified to become the ultimate and final sacrifice for our sins. The price was paid by Him, so why continue trying to pay a debt that has already been paid? Why return to a system of sacrifices and religious observances as a means of being made right with God when Jesus had already declared from the cross, “It is finished”?

That did not mean the Jewish believers suddenly had to abandon every Jewish custom or tradition. Paul himself continued to observe certain Jewish practices when they did not compromise the Gospel. The problem came when those practices became requirements for righteousness—when something was added to faith in Christ as though His sacrifice were somehow insufficient.

And perhaps there is a lesson here for us as well. We may not be tempted to return to circumcision or animal sacrifices, but we can still fall into the trap of trying to earn what God has freely given us. We can begin measuring our standing with God by our performance rather than Christ’s finished work. Good works should certainly flow from our salvation, but they can never become the means of our salvation.

These were pretty heady thoughts, and they were going to be difficult for many of the believers in Jerusalem to hear, let alone accept. Paul was walking straight into the center of a controversy that had been brewing for years. The rumors surrounding him, the tension between Law and grace, and his own history as a Pharisee were all converging at once.

The stage was being set for Paul’s arrest and the trials that would eventually carry him all the way to Rome.