Jew and Gentile
127
The Jews had always prided themselves upon their divinely ap-
pointed services, and many of those who had been converted to the
faith of Christ still felt that since God had once clearly outlined the
Hebrew manner of worship, it was improbable that He would ever
authorize a change in any of its specifications. They insisted that the
Jewish laws and ceremonies should be incorporated into the rites of
the Christian religion. They were slow to discern that all the sacrificial
offerings had but prefigured the death of the Son of God, in which type
met antitype, and after which the rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic
dispensation were no longer binding.
[190]
Before his conversion Paul had regarded himself as blameless
“touching the righteousness which is in the law.”
Philippians 3:6
. But
since his change of heart he had gained a clear conception of the mis-
sion of the Saviour as the Redeemer of the entire race, Gentile as well
as Jew, and had learned the difference between a living faith and a dead
formalism. In the light of the gospel the ancient rites and ceremonies
committed to Israel had gained a new and deeper significance. That
which they shadowed forth had come to pass, and those who were
living under the gospel dispensation had been freed from their ob-
servance. God’s unchangeable law of Ten Commandments, however,
Paul still kept in spirit as well as in letter.
In the church at Antioch the consideration of the question of cir-
cumcision resulted in much discussion and contention. Finally, the
members of the church, fearing that a division among them would
be the outcome of continued discussion, decided to send Paul and
Barnabas, with some responsible men from the church, to Jerusalem
to lay the matter before the apostles and elders. There they were to
meet delegates from the different churches and those who had come
to Jerusalem to attend the approaching festivals. Meanwhile all con-
troversy was to cease until a final decision should be given in general
council. This decision was then to be universally accepted by the
different churches throughout the country.
On the way to Jerusalem the apostles visited the believers in the
cities through which they passed, and encouraged them by relating
their experience in the work of God and the conversion of the Gentiles.
[191]
At Jerusalem the delegates from Antioch met the brethren of the
various churches, who had gathered for a general meeting, and to
them they related the success that had attended their ministry among