HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN

  There are several key points about regeneration in the final verses of the Book of Acts chapter 13. One is on regeneration and the other is faith. 

Background: 

  Paul spoke to the Jews in the synagogues at Antioch in Pisidia, at that time on the outskirts of Galatia. Worship there was not in temples but synagogues because the Temple was in Jerusalem. Galatia was mainly occupied by Gentiles but with a heavy contingent of Jews because of the diaspora.

  Synagogues in Antioch would have faced Mount Gerizim, not Mount Moriah because of a centuries old fracture. The Israelites at that time made peace offerings on it, and the law of Moses was written onto the stones at Mount Gerizim. The synagogue at Antioch would face Mount Gerizim because the Law was written in stone there and it was the mountain of blessings in contrast to Mount Ebal was the mountain of curses. The Law of Moses was quite important to the Jews at Antioch.

  That contrasts with the holiness of Mount Moriah for Judah’s Jews. It was there that Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son as the Father would His son. Whereas Gerizim would be considered the mountain of legalism, Mount Moriah would be the mountain of grace. Jews were chosen people because of the Law, and Gentiles because of grace.

  Jews always misunderstood the Law. They thought it was things they must do, rather than things righteous people are willing to do. The Law never changed; it was only misinterpreted by most of the Jews. Abraham and Moses knew the Law and they knew Jesus who wrote the Law. Yes indeed… the Law existed before Moses time. They were the conditions of the Abrahamic Covenant. That Covenant seems unconditional but has one condition as always:

²⁷ And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. ²⁸ And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. (Ezek 36:27-28)

  That prophecy is about the destruction of Israel and Judah and specifically the future and the hope of the Hebrew people. It has three likely meanings: (1) A return from the diaspora, (2) the new nation of Israel in 1948, and (3) The return to the Garden Paradise. Note that dwelling in the land that God gave their fathers and that He would be their God are parts of the Abrahamic Covenant. The conditions of that Covenant were certainly the “causes” that God provided.

  He did not demand that His people walk in his “commands” but cause them to. In other words, their new countenances would mean that they would be pleased to walk in His statutes. Luke wrote about the Holy Ghost, “Whom God hath given to them that obey him” (Acts 5:32). Which came first in the lives of Christians, the Holy Ghost or obedience? Perhaps those who were willing to walk in God’s statutes were given the Holy Ghost. Think on that… Why would God give the Holy Ghost to those unwilling to follow Him?

  Now back to Antioch: The Jews there walked in God’s statutes quite well and even faced them in their worship. Not only that, but within each synagogue is an Eternal Light which is never to be dimmed and was there to honor the Divine Presence. In the Old Testament is written, “I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles” which Paul quoted to the Jews at Antioch.  The Jews there had the light, kept it lit, faced it in prayer, but failed to understand that the “Light” is Jesus Christ! They should have understood the Divine Presence of Jesus and set the example for the Gentiles, but instead, the Gentiles saw the True Light in Jesus as it was reflected from Paul.

  Synagogues as mini-temples remote from the Temple were still much like Temples. Women were separated from men during worship by walls, thus mimicking Temple worship. Generally speaking, “unclean” Gentiles would not be allowed in Temples but could stand outside in the outer court. Surely at Antioch, the Gentiles stood without but could hear the proceedings inside. The Jews were fulfilling an obligation to hear the Words of Moses, but the Gentiles were more enthusiastic. They came to hear the message that Paul brought about Jesus, to wit:

And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath. (Acts 13:42)

  The Jews did not “buy-in” to Jesus because they were hindered by the Law. They knew the Law so well that they failed to understand that the Law was not legalism, but the Law of Love, and who better to love than Jesus and the Gentiles? They did neither. They left Paul and the others and went about their business of keeping the Law, but the Gentiles hung around to hear more about Jesus. They queried the apostles about whether the Word (Jesus) would be preached again next Sabbath.

  Jesus had “knocked,” and the Gentiles wanted to come in just as Jesus said, “Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Mat 7:7). Jesus had knocked but the Gentiles could not come in, so they were content with staying outside and coming back to hear more Words about Jesus. That eagerness to have hope is the beginning of regeneration. God calls sinners to Jesus: “No man can come to Me (Jesus), except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:44).

  The Law of Moses and the Word of God drew the Gentiles to the synagogue. God did His part in getting them there. The first step was completed. God chose the Jews by grace. It could have been any other race that was chosen and peculiarly righteous. It turned out that even Gentiles are the rest of the story; any Jew or Gentile are God’s “chosen” and “peculiar” people (1 Pet 2:1). Everyone was “elected” in the beginning, but the Jews thought it was only themselves. Right now, if you have not answered the call, you too are elected. God desires that “whosoever” never perishes (John 3:16). Calvinists are not the only elect, even those who resist have been elected just as the Jews who left before learning more about Jesus. They missed the point: that Gentiles had been elected as well, and at Antioch God called them to be Christians. 

(To be continued tomorrow)

(Picture credit: "Ancient Synagogue of the Diaspora;" Ancient History Encyclopedia)