B | 15: 22-29. Antioch, Syria and Cilicia.

"We gave no such commandment." |

n1 | IT SEEMED GOOD.

o1 | To apostles, elders and whole church.

p1 | Send chosen men.

q1 | Chief men among the brethren.

r1 | Greeting. No such commandment.

n2 | IT SEEMED GOOD.

o2 | Assembled with one accord.

p2 | Send chosen men.

q2 | Men who hazarded their lives.

r2 | Tell you the same things.

n3 | IT SEEMED GOOD.

o3 | To the Holy Spirit and to us.

p3 | Lay no other burden.

q3 | That ye abstain.

r3 | Fare ye well.

Three times the word "It seemed good" occur. First, `it seemed good to the apostles

and elders and the whole church'. Secondly, `it seem good unto us, being assembled with

one accord'. And thirdly, `it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us'. To break this

threefold cord, the whole church, with the apostles and elders, together with Barnabas

and Paul, and Silas and Judas, as well as the Holy Spirit Himself, would have to be

regarded as in the wrong. Any system of interpretation necessitating such an assumption

is self-condemned.

If man failed under the law of Sinai, it is not surprising to find that he fails some times

under grace. The moderate request that the Gentiles should abstain from the `four

necessary things', while the Jewish believers had `Moses preached in the synagogue

every Sabbath day' would lead, in time, wherever the flesh became prominent, to a line

of demarcation between the churches of Judaea and those of the Gentiles that had not

been the intention of those who drew up these decrees. This gradually grew to become `a

middle wall of partition', a division that could not be permitted in the Church of the One

Body. The One Body however was not in view in Acts 15: Only those things known of

the Lord `since the age', only those things that harmonized with the O.T. prophecies were

in operation in Acts 15:, and nowhere throughout the Acts is there a hint that a Jew

ceased from being a Jew when he became a Christian. On the contrary, he became the

better Jew, for he was believing the testimony of the law and the prophets. Even

justification by faith, as preached by Paul, was to be found in the law and the prophets

and was, therefore, not a part of a mystery or secret purpose.

We have, therefore, in Acts 15: two vastly different themes. One is eternally true,

and independent of dispensational changes. The other is relatively true, but to be set

aside when that which is perfect has come. The former is doctrinal truth, the latter the

practical manifestation of graciousness and forbearance.