Acts 13
This is a most instructive chapter in many ways. How distinctly the Holy Ghost is seen acting in the assembly! “The Holy Ghost said. Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” Here, then, we have the two first missionaries sent out by God the Holy Ghost, and commended to their work by the prayers of their brethren.
In their travels they came to Antioch, in Pisidia. It is deeply interesting thus to be able to go back to the beginning of Christianity; but how difficult to disabuse our minds of the accumulated errors of eighteen centuries! As far as possible, let us so go into the synagogue with them, and hear, as the Jews, and then afterward the Gentiles, the glad tidings, as they preached it in the synagogue at Antioch. After the usual reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue invite them to address the people. (Ver. 15.) Now one of these missionaries—Paul—stands up. He speaks first on that with which they were familiar—God’s dealings with their fathers, their redemption from Egypt, and history unto David. He then announces the startling fact, that, according to the promise to David, God had raised up to Israel a Savior—Jesus. He reminds them that John had been witness to this Savior; but the rulers in Jerusalem had slain, and fulfilled all that was written of Him. Yes, every type of the sacrifices for sins, every prophecy, how He should be wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities. Yes, deeper still; forsaken of God, as foretold in the Psalms. Every jot and tittle written of Him had been fulfilled; and they had taken Him down from the tree, and laid Him in the sepulcher. But was He still there? Was there no assured proof that God was glorified by His death on the cross? Was He still a sacrifice; that is, forsaken of God? Far from this, the preacher—Paul—declared that “God had raised him from the dead.” Nothing could be more certain, for He had been seen many days by those who are His witnesses unto the people. The preacher then announces glad tidings to all present. The promise made to the fathers God hath fulfilled; David, having served his generation by the ΛνίΙΙ of God, had fallen asleep, and seen corruption. But God had shown His acceptance of Christ by raising Him from the dead, and He saw no corruption. A living Savior—Jesus—is at the right hand of God, raised again from the dead. What a proof that His work is finished!
Now listen to the message of God proclaimed through the risen Christ: “Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” What an astounding message was this to men under the bondage of the law which was the ministration of death! It was all or God. God had sent His Son, God had raised Him from the dead; God proclaimed forgiveness of sins; God declared that all who believed were justified from all things. It was the very opposite of the law, and yet the fulfillment of it. It was opposite in this way: the law demanded what they had no power in the flesh to do or give. This wondrous message made known what God had done for them. Such grace—free favor to men—had never been preached in Antioch before. What a message to a sin-burdened soul! Through Jesus, the Savior, forgiveness of sins.
Generations of legalism since then have sadly clouded this wondrous glad tidings of grace. It was preached to all alike; and God declares to all, that all who believe are justified from all things. No doubt such in the synagogue as were seeking to work out a righteousness of their own by works of law, would be greatly shocked at these strange preachers. We read of them afterward contra-dieting and blaspheming. What should we have thought, if we had heard them say, “It will be great presumption to believe God, and thus know that your sins are forgiven. We doubt, indeed we do not believe what God says; and it will be great humility if you doubt with us what God says: no one in this world can know that his sins are forgiven, he must serve God diligently firsthand then hope at last, either on his dying bed, or at the day of judgment, to be forgiven?”
Certainly it was a marvelous thing for two strangers, sent by the Holy Ghost, to come into the city, and announce the forgiveness of sins, and justification of all who believed the message. But now, what could be so worthy of Christ, who had brought in eternal redemption for all who believe? What so glorious for God, in perfect righteousness, to be just, through that redemption, in proclaiming a free forgiveness to guilty men? And what so suited to guilty sinners? They were all guilty. Nothing but pure grace could meet them. Law still left them guilty. In their sins they never could be fit for the presence of the most holy, holy God. The sacrifices of the law could never take away their sins. Here was the very Savior—Jesus—received back from the dead, and through Him was preached the glad tidings they most needed—the forgiveness of sins; and that most blessed assurance from God, that all who believed were justified from all things. Well might the poor Gentile idolaters earnestly desire these wondrous words to be preached to them. The more we study this discourse, the more gloriously free grace shines out. All is absolutely of God. All that man had done was to crucify the Lord, not knowing who He was. No sacraments proposed, or works of any kind. No conditions whatever, but the guilty conscience is met, first with a free pardon, and the certainty of justification, and therefore perfect peace with God, through Jesus Christ, as is more fully shown in Rom. 5:1.
And “when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.” Thus the true gospel brings the believer into a new position and relationship with God. They had passed from law to grace, from darkness to light. God was for them, in infinite grace; He had forgiven their sins. They were accounted righteous before Him. They were introduced into the full, free, everlasting favor of God. They knew God had now no charge to make against them, and, on the authority of His own word, they were justified. And they are exhorted to continue in this free grace. Men cannot see this, will not believe it. No, they must serve God first, and to the end, and then hope to be saved. Now the first thing, according to God, is a purged conscience, and this, as cause and effect, leads to acceptable service. “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Heb. 9:14.). Do not forget this, that all works are dead in God’s sight that do not flow from a purged conscience by the blood of Jesus.
After such an announcement of free forgiveness through the Savior, Jesus, would not Jewish works of law be simply rejecting this free grace of God? Yea, they were solemnly warned on this very point. “Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken in the prophets: Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in nowise believe, though a man declare it unto you.” These religious Jews and proselytes were in great danger; yea, many of them did so despise and reject the grace of God. They stumbled at this stumbling-stone, the free grace of God—forgiveness of sins through the Savior—Jesus.
But what about the poor Gentiles, the degraded worshippers of demons? The same glorious message was preached to them. “For so hath the Lord commanded them, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.” This filled the Gentiles with gladness, “and they glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.” “And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost.”
Here, then, we have the gospel preached; free, immediate forgiveness of sins, through the Savior, Jesus—all that believe declared justified from all things, and preached to a whole city, certainly to those who had no claim on God by works. Jews and Gentiles, all alike guilty before God, justified now freely through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And what was the effect of this true gospel of God? A gloomy uncertainty? No, they were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost. Is the same gospel preached now? Are the same effects produced? We shall all do well to ponder this question. The reader may say, Yes, that is all well, but do not you read, “as many as were ordained to eternal life believed?” How am I to know that I am ordained to eternal life? Why, just as they did, just as Paul knew. Believing God was the proof of it. Forgiveness of sins is preached to you just as you are, guilty, and under judgment. You may have learned in the Old Testament that no sins were forgiven, except through or by the death of a substitute. Through Jesus, crucified and risen, is preached forgiveness to you. It is the most welcome news possible to you—gladly you believe God. He declares you are justified, accounted righteous from all things; your sins and iniquities He will remember no more. You have perfect peace with God—not a sin, not a charge, remains. This fills you with calm and heavenly joy. You are in a new creation—nay, you are a new creation, born wholly anew, a child of God, filled with the Holy Ghost. You have the witness in yourself that you were ordained unto eternal life, and therefore you believed, just as the disciples did at Antioch.
Have you no joy? Is all still gloom and doubt? Are you still harassed with the thought that your dreadful sins will all be brought up against you at the clay of judgment? Then it is most certain you have not believed the free forgiveness preached to you through the Savior, Jesus. And if you die thus, rejecting God’s free forgiveness, no doubt every sin you have committed will be brought against you from the books before the white throne, and then there is no escape from the lake of fire. Oh, beware lest any man deceive you! We have seen and heard the gospel as preached by the men sent by God the Holy Ghost, and you may depend on this, that if any man preach any other, he is not sent of God, but may be a minister of Satan to deceive you (2 Cor. 11:13-15): your eternal salvation is at stake. God has been glorified by the death of Christ. God hath raised Him from the dead. God proclaims to you forgiveness of sins. All that believe Him are justified from all things. God says it, why should you doubt?
C. S.
The only thing which produces truthfulness of heart—truth in the inward parts—is knowing the love that gives us confidence in God.