Paul's Gospel and the Apostles' Doctrine

God gave a promise to the forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The promise was that a seed would come, and that in Him all nations of the world would be blessed.

Later God made a temporary Covenant with Jacob and his descendants, and gave them a Law which was associated with that Covenant.

They were unable to keep that Covenant, despite God sending them Prophets to warn them. The Prophets also spoke about the coming of the promised Seed Who would save the world and spoke about a New Covenant.

One such Prophet was David. And God promised David that the promised Seed would descend from him.

The Jewish people were great fans of the Promise, the Covenant, the Law and the Prophets - and they were looking forward to this Seed Who was to come and save them.

In the fullness of time God sent forth His Son, born of a virgin, in the line of David and Abraham, whom they named Jesus, which means Saviour.

During His ministry which was exclusively to the Jews while they were still under the Old Covenant and its Law, Jesus Himself kept the Law and the Old Covenant. He didn't despise the Law. He told the Jews of that time that none of them should despise it. He said He came to fulfil it.

Jesus also spoke of a day when the Gospel would be for Gentiles too, and that there would be a change of the Law.

Jesus also fulfilled everything that was spoken by the Prophets.

He was the fulfilment of the Promise made to the forefathers.

On the cross He perfectly fulfilled it all. On the cross He also inaugurated the New Covenant. God vindicated Him by raising Him from the dead. And God stated that all who believe in Him would be justified from all things from which they could not be justified by Moses' Law.

This good news began to be preached and believed on among the Jews. Soon Gentiles began believing too.

Many of the believers in Jerusalem were zealous for the Old Covenant Law. But the Apostles did not expect the Gentile believers to begin observing the Old Covenant Law.

A group of men from Jerusalem visited the Gentile churches and started demanding that the Gentile believers keep the Law. But these men were not authorised by the Church at Jerusalem to demand such a thing.

Paul's dispute with them was so strong that it was decided that he should visit Jerusalem to discuss the issue with the Apostles and elders in the Church in Jerusalem.

So Paul went. While Paul was there, some believers who had previously been Pharisees brought up the dispute with Paul again. The dispute did not come from the leaders of the Church in Jerusalem, nor from the congregation generally - but specifically from some former Pharisees.

So the matter was discussed. And the verdict was that the Gentile believers should not be required to begin observing Moses' Law. Furthermore it was decided that a letter be written to the Gentile churches, confirming this verdict.

When the Gentiles heard the letter, they rejoiced for the consolation.

Paul taught that the observance of the Old Covenant Law was passing away even for Jews.

And that came to pass with the destruction of the Temple and City of Jerusalem around AD70. From that point on it forever became impossible to observe Moses' Law in the way which Moses' Law demanded. Moses' Law forbade any other way of keeping it.

Believers understood that the promised New Covenant - which incorporated both Gentile and Jewish believers - was now in effect.

The Law and the Prophets had already foreseen this outcome.

But for unbelieving Jews, the forced removal of any possibility of obeying Moses' Law represented a real crisis. New models of keeping the Law, which Moses knew nothing of, and which His Law forbade, were invented. These have come to be known as modern Judaism.

But the Promise - the New Covenant - had already come, in Jesus, in the Gospel.

It's the good news that anyone - whether Jew or Gentile - can be saved by God's love, simply by believing in Jesus, without needing to observe the works of the Law.