"Now therefore, since God has owned them for his, why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, of the believing Gentiles and their children;" (for circumcision was a yoke upon their infant seed, who are here reckoned among the disciples;) "a yoke which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?" Here he shews that in this attempt, (1.) They offered a very great affront to God; "You tempt him, by calling that in question which he has already settled and determined by no less an indication than that of the gift of the Holy Ghost; you do, in effect, ask, 'Did he know what he did? Or was he in earnest in it? Or will he abide by his own act?' Will you try whether God, who designed the ceremonial law for the people of the Jews only, will now, in its last ages, bring the Gentiles too under the obligation of it; to gratify you?" Those tempt God, who prescribe to him, and say that people cannot be saved but upon such and such terms, which God never appointed; as if the God of salvation must come into their measures. (2.) They offered a very great wrong to the disciples; Christ came to proclaim liberty to the captives, and they go about to enslave those whom he has made free. See Neh. 5. 8. The ceremonial law was a heavy yoke; they and their fathers found it difficult to be borne, so numerous, so various, so pompous, were the institutions of it! The distinction of meats was a heavy yoke, not only as it rendered conversation less pleasant, but as it embarrassed conscience with endless scruples. The ado that was made about even the unavoidable touch of a grave or a dead body, the pollution contracted by it, and the many rules about purifying from that pollution, were a heavy burthen. This yoke Christ came to ease us of, and called those that were weary and heavy laden under it, to come and take his yoke upon them, his easy yoke. Now for these teachers to go about to lay that yoke upon the neck of the Gentiles, which he came to free even the Jews from, was the greatest injury imaginable to them.
4. Whereas the Jewish teachers had urged that circumcision was necessary to salvation, Peter shews it was so far from being so, that both Jews and Gentiles were to be saved purely through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and no other way; (v. 11.) We believe to be saved through that grace only; πιστεύομεν σωθῆναι—We hope to be saved; or, We believe unto salvation in the same manner as they—καθ᾽ ὃν τρόπον κᾀκεῖνοι. "We that are circumcised, believe to salvation, and so do they that are uncircumcised; and as our circumcision will be no advantage to us, so their uncircumcision will be no disadvantage to them; for we must depend upon the grace of Christ for salvation, and must apply that grace by faith, as well as they. There is not one way of salvation for the Jews and another for the Gentiles; neither circumcision avails any thing, nor uncircumcision, (that is neither here nor there,) but faith which works by love, Gal. 5. 6. Why should we burthen them with the law of Moses, as necessary to their salvation, when it is not that, but the gospel of Christ, that is necessary both to our salvation and their's?"
II. An account of what Barnabas and Paul said in this synod, which did not need to be related, for they only gave in a narrative of what was recorded in the foregoing chapters, what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them, v. 12. This they had given in to the church at Antioch, (ch. 14. 27.) to their brethren by the way, (ch. 15. 3.) and now again to the synod; and it was very proper to be given in here: that which was contended for, was, that the Gentiles ought to submit to the law of Moses; now, in opposition to this, Paul and Barnabas undertake to shew, by a plain relation of matters of fact, that God owned the preaching of the pure gospel to them without the law, and therefore to press the law upon them now was to undo what God had done. Observe,
1. What account they gave; they declared, or opened in order, and with all the magnifying and affecting circumstances, what glorious miracles, what signs and wonders, God had wrought among the Gentiles by them; what confirmation he had given to their preaching by miracles wrought in the kingdom of nature, and what success he had given to it by miracles wrought in the kingdom of grace. Thus God had honoured these apostles whom the Jewish teachers condemned, and had thus honoured the Gentiles whom they contemned. What need had they of any other advocate, when God himself pleaded their cause? The conversion of the Gentiles was itself a wonder, all things considered, no less than a miracle. Now if they received the Holy Ghost by the hearing of faith, why should they be embarrassed with the works of the law? See Gal. 3. 2.
2. What attention was given to them; All the multitude (who, though they had not votes, yet came together to hear what was said) kept silence, and gave audience to Paul and Barnabas; it should seem, they took more notice of their narrative than they did of all the arguments that were offered. As in natural philosophy and medicine nothing is so satisfactory as experiments, and in law nothing is so satisfactory as cases adjudged, so in the things of God the best explication of the word of grace, is, the accounts given of the operations of the Spirit of grace; these the multitude will with silence give audience to. They that fear God, will most readily hear them that can tell them what God has done for their souls, or by their means, Ps. 66. 16.
III. The speech which James made to the synod. He did not interrupt Paul and Barnabas, though, it is likely, he had before heard their narrative, but let them go on with it, for the edification of the company, and that they might have it from the first and best hand; but after they had held their peace, then James stood up. Ye may all prophesy one by one, 1 Cor. 14. 31. God is the God of order. He let Paul and Barnabas say what they had to say, and then he made the application of it. The hearing of variety of ministers may be of use when one truth does not drive out, but clench, another.
1. He addresses himself respectfully to those present; "Men and brethren, hearken unto me. You are men, and therefore, it is to be hoped, will hear reason; you are my brethren, and therefore will hear me with candour." We are all brethren, and equally concerned in this cause, that nothing be done to the dishonour of Christ, and the uneasiness of christians.
2. He refers himself to what Peter had said concerning the conversion of the Gentiles; (v. 14.) "Simeon" (Simon Peter) "hath declared, and opened the matter to you how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, in Cornelius and his friends, who were the first-fruits of the Gentiles; how, when the gospel began first to spread, presently the Gentiles were invited to come and take the benefit of it;" and James observes here, (l.) That the grace of God was the rise of it; it was God that visited the Gentiles; and it was a kind visit; had they been left to themselves, they would never have visited him, but the acquaintance began on his part; he not only visited and redeemed his people, but visited and redeemed those that were lo ammi—not a people. (2.) That the glory of God was the end of it; it was to take out of them a people for his name, who should glorify him, and in whom he would be glorified. As of old he took the Jews, so now the Gentiles, to be to him for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory, Jer. 13. 11. Let all the people of God remember, that therefore they are thus dignified in God, that God may be glorified in them.
