Is it Law or Grace?

 Read Acts 15.

Indeed, Acts is a record of transitions.  This council meeting in chapter 15 underscores, perhaps, the greatest of those changes.
 
Approximately a decade had passed since Peter took the Gospel to the Gentile home of Cornelius in chapter 10.  Paul and Barnabas expanded the ministry of Jesus as far as Galatia in chapters 13 and 14.  The question being debated here is completely understandable.  If the Old Testament Law is all one has, and it is the word of God, then how does it fit with this new faith in Jesus?  The protesters wanted these Gentile believers to not just have respect for the roots of their faith but to obey the Old Testament Law also.  The issue included much more than circumcision, as Peter indicates in verse 10 and as Paul wrote to the Galatians in order to clarify the debate in Galatians 5:3.

The question at hand has to do with the true definition of legalism; keeping the Old Testament law in conjunction with salvation.  The term has often been misused to apply to any expectation of Christian living one does not particularly like.  Notice the key phrases Peter uses to articulate salvation and to clarify the truth.

1. "...having cleansed their hearts by faith." (v.9)
That is the assurance or confidence in the message that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and paid the debt we owed in full.  The proof is in His resurrection from the dead.  And, that simple, personal, child-like belief alone results in the cleansing of all our sin.

2. "...saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus..." (v.11)
There is nothing one can do to earn grace.  Grace is a gift.  If there was anything we must do for our salvation, then it is no longer a gift and, therefore, no longer grace.

The Apostle Paul later wrote to the Ephesians believers, "For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

But freedom from the demands of the Law is not a license to sin and live in an undisciplined manner.  The New Testament is filled with do's and don'ts for the believer in Christ.  James included three that seemed to be priorities that arose from the debates.  Again, it is not legalism to hold each other accountable for holy and obedient living.  Much of the first half of the book of Romans addresses this very issue.

"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.  Do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness.  For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace." (Romans 6:12-14)