The Council accepts James’ and Paul’s advice and removes the requirement of circumcision and adherence to the entire Mosaic Law from the requirements for joining the church.  And that a marker in history...the moment the church ‘got it’.  Faith was officially by Grace alone, adopted as part of the church’s operating system.  This really was a huge moment.

This idea penetrates the rest of Paul’s letters, and it is all over James’ letter as well.  It is this idea that the way we live is a response to the Grace we’ve received.  It is a monumental shift from the faith that preceded it.  Instead of living according to God’s Law in order that God would extend us His Grace, the church has now been taught by Jesus that the new deal, the New Testament, is that we would receive Grace and that we would live according to God’s will in response to that Grace.  We are to abstain from sacrificing to idols because that kind of sacrifice points people away from God.  We are to avoid eating from what the Old Testament calls unclean animals, not necessarily because this will keep God from accepting you, but because there are plenty that hold to this practice still and our goal is to gain influence over them and to bring them into relationship with God, and eating unclean animals takes that possibility off of the table.  We are to remain sexually pure not because God can’t forgive it, but because sexual sin has a direct physical impact on another person, it is a sin of two.  It also breaks our ability to experience desire for the right person, our spouse (or future spouse).  It hinders our ability to feel loved as well.  Sexual sin is a particularly insidious sin.

From this point on, when we are taught about how to behave as Christians, it isn’t about the relationship with God as much as it is about our relationship with others.  Now, for sure, sin typically hurts our ability to feel worthy of God’s love, and it hinders our ability to experience God’s Grace.  But, the real focus of the majority of the teaching from here on out in scripture relates to how sin breaks relationship, and most often it is relationship with others.

Let me say it this way - before this point in time, the purpose of our spiritual discipline was to gain God’s favor.  From this point forward, the point of our spiritual discipline is to experience a deeper relationship with God and with the people in our lives.

This is a very exciting moment for the church.  Today I am praying that I would be motivated by this idea, that I would be encouraged to love as a response to being truly set free.  For me, since I am typically harder on myself than I ever am on others, I really pray that I would begin to learn to see myself as God sees me; that I would forgive myself as God forgives me; that I would love myself as God loves me.