What role does Acts 15:7 play in the debate over faith versus works? Canonical Text “After much discussion, Peter got up and said to them, ‘Brothers, you know that in the early days God chose among you that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe.’ ” (Acts 15:7) Immediate Literary Setting Acts 15:1-35 records the Jerusalem Council, convened because certain men from Judea insisted, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved” (15:1). Two competing soteriological claims collide: salvation contingent on Mosaic works versus salvation through faith in Christ alone. Verse 7 is the decisive turning point: Peter’s testimony reframes the debate from human obligation to divine initiative—God “chose,” God gave the “word,” and the Gentiles simply “believe.” Historical-Contextual Background • Date: ca. AD 49, corroborated by the Gallio inscription (Delphi, Greece) that synchronizes Paul’s Corinthian ministry (Acts 18:12-17) to 51/52 AD, placing the council a few years earlier. • Location: Jerusalem, center of Jewish Christianity. The issue at stake is covenantal identity markers—circumcision, food laws, ritual purity. • Primary witnesses: Peter (Acts 10–11 precedent), Paul & Barnabas (missionary reports), James (OT-prophetic confirmation). Narrative Argument Flow 1. Divine initiative (v. 7) 2. Divine attestation—Spirit given “just as He did to us” (v. 8) 3. Divine verdict—He “made no distinction” (v. 9) 4. Human inability—“yoke … neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear” (v. 10) 5. Salvific conclusion—“we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are” (v. 11) Verse 7 launches this five-step progression; without it, the council’s logic collapses. Intertextual Dialogue with Paul Galatians 2:1-10 (an autobiographical account of the same council) rehearses how the apostles “added nothing” to Paul’s gospel. Acts 15:7 thus anchors Paul’s later doctrinal exposition: “a man is not justified by works of the Law but through faith in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16). Harmonization with James 2 Critics juxtapose Acts 15 (faith alone) with James 2 (faith without works is dead). However, Peter speaks of the basis of justification; James addresses the evidence of justification. Works are fruit, not root. Acts 15:7 precedes any ethical exhortation (cf. 15:20), setting the order: saving faith first, covenantal ethics second. Old Testament Continuity Genesis 15:6—“Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Peter’s argument mirrors this Abrahamic pattern: belief accredited before circumcision (Genesis 17). Thus Acts 15:7 reasserts the original covenantal economy of grace. Patristic Witness • Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.12.14—cites Peter’s speech to assert Gentile inclusion “apart from the law.” • Augustine, On the Spirit and the Letter 25—appeals to Acts 15 to prove grace precedes works in regeneration. Archaeological Corroboration The inscription of Sergius Paulus (Pisidian Antioch) and the Lystra Iconium milestones verify the Gentile mission setting that precipitated the council’s controversy, matching Luke’s geographic reportage and strengthening historical credibility. Contemporary Apologetic Use When legalists or secular moralists argue that Christianity is merely another rule-keeping system, Acts 15:7 allows a concise rejoinder: God initiates, we trust, and transformative works follow. This sequence undermines performance-based worldviews and invites a grace-centered response. Practical Exhortation Proclaim the gospel unencumbered by man-made prerequisites. Encourage believers that their assurance rests on God’s choosing and Christ’s accomplishment, evidenced by the Spirit, not on fluctuating human performance. Summary Acts 15:7 functions as the linchpin in the apostolic affirmation of justification by faith apart from works. It preserves the unity of Scripture—from Abraham through the prophets, from Peter to Paul—showing that salvation has always been by grace through faith, producing works as its inevitable fruit, never as its foundation. |
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