Jesus Came to Die to Abolish Circumcision and All Rituals as the Basis of Salvation

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Jesus Came to Die to Abolish Circumcision and All Rituals as the Basis of Salvation

2 November 2009 No Comment

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Chapter 13 of John Piper’s book, “50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die” talks about how the death of Jesus abolished the rituals of the law as a basis for salvation.

Circumcision was a part of Jewish law and custom, but once the gospel was spread to the Gentiles, some Jews were telling the Gentiles that they had to be circumcised as well in order to be saved. In other words it was the gospel + circumcision, or the gospel + rituals. Paul told them in Galatians 5 that they had “fallen from grace” because they were seeking to be justified by the law.

In Acts 15 men were preaching that unless they were circumcised they could not be saved. The elders of the church consulted on this issue and stated:

Acts 15:6-11

The apostles and elders met to consider this question. After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. ⁹He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

The apostles then stated in verses 19-21, “”It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”

It’s clear that they were preserving the simplicity of the gospel, which is that we are saved through faith, and not through works of the law.

John Piper writes, “Nobody saw to the bottom of the issue more clearly than the apostle Paul. The very meaning of the suffering and death of Christ was at stake. Was faith in Christ enough to put us right with God? Or was circumcision necessary too? The answer was clear. If Paul preached circumcision, ‘the offense of the cross has been removed’ (Galatians 5:11). “