Lesson 5 - Confronting Peter
10. When Paul speaks here of being “justified,” what is he talking about? We have a tendency to throw around biblical terms (sanctification, glorification, adoption, redemption, etc.), sometimes with very little precision. Using any resources at your disposal, as a group, provide a robust definition for biblical justification.
The word we translate as “justify” is the Greek verb “dikaioō.” Similarly, the noun “dikaiōsis” translates to “justification.” The verb and noun are closely related. Justification is the process of being justified. So, let’s ask what it means to be justified.
According to the BDAG (a gold standard Greek-English lexicon), to be justified is to “be found (by God) in the right, (and) free of charges” (Danker, F. W. A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature, 2000, 249). It is to be judged by God and acquitted of all charges, pronounced and treated as righteous.
Hopefully you can see that this term is best understood as a legal, judicial term. It would be at home in a courtroom.
A person is “justified” when criminal charges are levied against, and they are found perfectly innocent. Or, when the perfect innocence of Another is attributed to them. Justification lies at the core of the gospel.
The sinner, when examined would be found guilty. However, when the innocence of Christ is applied to that sinner, they are declared righteous by God. They are justified. When the righteous Judge of heaven and earth declares that someone is “not guilty,” they are justified in His sight. This is good news for the guilty sinner who confesses their need for a Savior and puts their trust in Jesus.
Going Deeper
4. Why do you think it was decided to tell the Gentile churches to “abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication” (Acts 15:29)? Isn’t this just re-instituting the Law for Gentile believers? Is this about earning righteousness, or about something else?
All throughout the New Testament, we see a host of instructions regarding things that are or are not proper for a Christian. A prime example of this can be found later in the Book of Galatians where Paul says they are to not walk according to the deeds of the flesh. Deeds that included things not limited to sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, “and things like these” (5:19–21).
Similarly, when the first Church council met in Jerusalem, they provided a general list of things which were improper for a Christian to engage in. The list in Act 15 has a great deal of overlap with what Paul wrote in Galatians 5; consuming blood being the one standout.
The great difference between the restriction imposed by Jerusalem Council (and Paul) and that of the Judaizers is, the Judaizers were using the Law to exclude Gentiles (Galatians 4:17), preventing them from enjoying their status as children of God. Whereas, what the Council and Paul were doing was bringing previously ignorant Gentiles into the household of faith, teaching them how to behave appropriately as children of God.
5. Does this admonition still apply to believers today? Acts 15:28 called these items “essentials.” What does this phrase mean and how do you understand it in the context of the Jerusalem council?
As long as these things are being governed by all of Scripture, we have no reason to believe that these “essentials” for 1st century, New Testament, Gentile believers aren’t essential for 21st century, New Testament, Gentile believers today.
7. What observations can you make about how the early Church functioned in regards to leadership?
Nowhere in the New Testament do we see a detailed explanation of precisely how church leadership functioned. Paul provides detailed lists of the requirements in 1st Timothy and Titus. But, to discover how it worked, we need to look at examples such as Acts 15. From this text (and others) we’d be hard-pressed to come up with the top-down, hierarchal structure that’s so common in churches today. It would be equally difficult to arrive at the democratically-driven, congregationally-led leadership models that many of us just assume to be correct.
Instead, all throughout the text, we see a qualified body of elders leading local churches in cooperation with other local bodies. These men are also referred to as overseers and shepherds. The most direct listing of categories of leaders is outlined in Ephesians 4:11. As a group, they are called upon to guard and guide the church (Acts 20:17–18, 25–32), equip the saints for service (Ephesians 4:12), labor to bring them to maturity (Ephesians 4:13), rule them well (1st Timothy 5:17–22), provide the church with spiritual oversight (Hebrews 13:17), praying regularly for those under their care (James 5:14–16), and silencing any who are teaching error (Titus 1:10–16).
For a much more in depth look at biblical leadership, check out our book: The Forgotten Officer: Restoring the Fullness of God’s Design.