At the beginning of Acts 12 three men are named and each had taken a major part in the early years of testimony at Jerusalem. Herod was allowed by God to remove James, the brother of John, by death and Peter was also removed, first through imprisonment and later when, after release, he departed to another place for a period. John has no further mention in the book although we know, from Galatians 2, he was at Jerusalem at the time of Acts 15. But above all, God was raising up James to be a pillar in the church, Gal. 2. 9; he had made spiritual progress.
Circumcision. James next appears in Acts chapter 15 when doctrinal problems, inspired by Satan to destroy the work of God, had arisen. ‘Certain men’ had gone to Antioch and taught, ‘Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved’. This was part of a teaching which required that those saved from a Gentile background should live like Jews; it came from Judaea. Paul and Barnabas immediately refuted it, and it was decided that the matter should be discussed in Jerusalem. Many have taught that this was to get a dictum from Jerusalem, the ‘mother church’, but this is not so. They went there because the difficulty came from there. This was later acknowledged by the brethren in Jerusalem in their letter, Acts 15. 24.
Confrontation. The matter in question is very important, doctrinally, to the truth of justification by faith alone. Paul, Barnabas and others from Antioch first met with the apostles and elders and then with the whole assembly. Peter spoke first and made clear that God had used him to open the door of faith to Gentiles. His words were weighty and were directed against such wrong teaching. After this, Barnabas and Saul told of the great miracles which God had been doing, through them, among the Gentiles. James spoke last, giving a summary of Peter’s contribution, skilfully showing it was in perfect accord with the Word of God. He then gave support to the preaching of the gospel to both Jew and Gentile. Some prohibitions were stated and agreed. The reasons were stated in verse 21, to prevent Jews refusing to listen to the preaching.
