Gut Check

Galatians 2:1-2

Have you ever done a “gut check,” most of us have, and they come at all stages of life.  The first one I remember was as a twelve year old trying out for the football team at Robert Driscill Jr. High School.  I was 4’10” and tipped the scales at 67 lbs, it was “gut check” time; I did not meet the requirements to play football.  Many come to my mind, after I was out of high school and driving a delivery truck for Cameron Mfg., I began to realize that my choices would be limited if I did not get more education.  But one of the hardest “gut checks” was in my spiritual life.  Jan and I had found a church home after moving to Houston and it became a very large part of our life, our friends were there, our ministry of working with and teaching young couples for many of the twenty-two years was in that church, and yet it seemed that God was trying to move us.  We did not go back to Jerusalem after fourteen years as the apostle did, but we did go to the Cove for a seminar to hear Howard Hendricks and God sent a message to us through my cousin’s husband.  We were totally surprised that Libby and Walt were at the seminar, and Walt, a retired pastor and a godly man, asked me this question: how is your ministry?  After sharing with him the short view of what was going on in my heart, he walked away and after about five minutes came back and said, you need to leave that Church, but do not run to another until God opens the door.  We did leave and God was faithful and our last eighteen months in the Houston area were filled with God’s blessings, both in a new church family and in a totally new understanding of kingdom ministry.

Paul and Barnabas were being used of God to bring salvation to the Gentile world and Satan, who loves religion, saw an opportunity to use some men who had come into the church, but did not leave the traditions or customs of their life in Judaism.  In fact, they were teaching “Grace plus” in order to be a Christian.  This is what they taught; “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” (Acts 15:1) It has been fourteen years since Paul has been in Jerusalem, and these false teachers have come from Judea and they have the same zeal in their teaching, as the apostle Paul.  So Paul does a “gut check” and returns to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus, and he met privately with the other apostles so as not to cause trouble in the Church.  It is referred to as the Jerusalem Conference and the main subject for discussion is; was circumcision necessary for salvation?  Galatians 2:4-20 gives insight into the meeting and how these false brothers had slipped in to spy on our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus and to put us back under rules of slavery.  It is very clear that they were not brothers in Christ, and Paul refers to them as “false brothers.”

This is what came out of the Conference; it is decided that Gentiles need not be circumcised (Acts 15:19). The final action taken by the group is sending a letter regarding this decision.  A group composed of Paul, Barnabas, Silas and others delivers the letter to the Gentile Christians in Antioch.  (Acts 15:22-31). 

False brothers are still coming with a teaching of Jesus plus, it may be baptism, it may be church attendance, it could be the giving of tithes, or even being in prayer service on the scheduled days.  It is Christ plus nothing!   It was God’s love for you that gave you the faith to believe and it is His grace that called you to Himself, never forget Romans 10:9, “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”  When you enter into Christ, you enter into a Covent relationship, not a religion.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice