Lecture 12 - The Acts, Part 1

I started reading but I just got lost in all the genealogy you know who was Malky Zadok where do you come from the book of Revelation just scares me does anybody really understand all those symbols the judges like do they really matter I've never understood which book came first [Music] is there a way to read the Bible so makes sense [Music] [Music] welcome to our Father's plan it's good to have you with us again I'm Jeff Cavins along with dr. Scott Hahn we're studying the Bible and we are having a real good time studying it we have an awful lot to cover on this particular show this program we're looking now into the book of Acts and we're gonna take a look at it in just a few minutes but what do you have planned for this show well I think we're gonna have a three full presentation first I'd like to see you present the book of Acts as the introduction of the church as the fulfillment of salvation history setting the program agenda for how the gospel goes from Jerusalem to Judea Samaria and the outermost parts of the world then we're going to come back and discuss how the book of Acts reinforces certain Catholic perspectives such as the Episcopal succession that is the basis of the church and it's government then also how Peters primacy was exercised in the early church in the opening chapters of Acts and then also how the early church dispensed Christians from certain ceremonial laws that were a part of the Torah the law of Moses and then finally we're gonna come back and address the question of Paul's teachings what does Paul really believe and what does he assert about Scripture about faith about justification about salvation and how all of it fits into our Father's plan so this is going to be a full show and I think it's going to be exciting and filled with important content and we urge you to get a pad and a pencil and a Bible and join us for our father's plan and we'll see it back in just a minute [Music] welcome back to our Father's plan well we're entering the last stage of salvation history and that is the stage of the church and that will involve the book of Acts the last of our 14 historical books over my shoulder here the 14 chronological books of Bible history specifically we're in book number 14 right now and it is within the book of Acts that you can really understand the rest of the New Testament as I shared with you in our last segment there are 27 books in the New Testament and the book that gives us the history or the growth of the church after Jesus was living in earth is the book of Acts and it's an exciting book what I want to do is kind of break the book down for you so you can read through the New Testament a little bit more effectively at the end of Jesus life we pick up with the book of Acts and I want to read a couple of scriptures from chapter one to sort of set the stage it says in Acts chapter 1 starting in verse 4 and gathering them together Jesus commanded them not to leave jerusalem but to wait for what the father had promised which he had said you heard of from me for John baptized with water but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now and so when they had come together they were asking him saying Lord is it at this time that you are restoring the kingdom to Israel and he said to them it is not for you to know times or epochs which the father has fixed by his own authority from adverse 8.now but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest parts of the earth so Jesus tells the early followers to wait in Jerusalem and they're going to receive power now the Greek word for power is Dunamis it's where we get our word dynamite from and so this is an exciting time Jesus is saying I want you to wait in Jerusalem and you're gonna receive dynamite you're gonna receive power for a purpose and that purpose is to go out and evangelize evangelization to reach the world for Jesus Christ you know this is really a fulfillment of what we talked about clear back in Genesis chapter 12 there were three promises to Abraham and the third of those promises was that through Abraham's seed there would be a worldwide blessing well here we are we're experiencing the beginnings of this worldwide blessing now as Jesus has given commands to his disciples to go out into all of the world and preach the gospel that's exciting now the book of Acts is divided up really like the key to dividing up the book of Acts the key to reading the book of Acts is found right there in verse 8 of Acts 1 let me read it again but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem in Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest parts of the earth now Acts chapter 1 in verse 8 gives us really three different locales locations one is Jerusalem where the disciples are at you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and then he says you're gonna be witnesses in Judea and Samaria not Judea and Samaria that's the region Judea is the region around Jerusalem and Samaria is a little bit further out you may remember the hated Samaritans dr. Hahn spoke about them a little bit on our last program Jerusalem Judea Samaria and to the remotest parts of the earth this is the fulfillment this is the time this is exciting now the book of Acts is divided up according to those three segments Jerusalem Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth let's divide it up like this three parts a witness in Jerusalem chapters 1 verse 1 through 8 5 that's the first segment of the of the book of Acts chapter 1 through chapter 8 and verse 5 and that covers roughly a two-year period 33 82 35 ad and the second the second division of the book of Acts starts in chapter 8 verse 5 and goes to 13 chapter 13 and verse 1 that's the second section and that's Judea and Samaria so we start with Jerusalem chapter 1 through 8 5 and then we pick up with 8 5 - chapter 13 and verse 1 with Judea and Samaria that's the second aspect or the second portion of the book of Acts the third is the witness to the end of the earth and that is chapter 13 1 all the way through to the end of chapter 28 in the book of Acts now the first period covered as I said a period of about two years the second period Judea and Samaria is about 10 years and the third section covers a time period of about 17 years so we have a total thereof about 29 years the expansion of the church now it's in this third section that the Apostle Paul really comes on the scene and he goes out and he has three missionary journeys these three missionary journeys are important to get a hold of in the second missionary journey of Paul he writes first and second Thessalonians but most of Paul's epistles were written all third but most of the 13 were written in this third missionary journey now after Paul's second missionary journey Paul started to have an awful lot of success with the Gentiles as you remember just a moment ago the book of Acts and this explosion that takes places in fulfillment of the of the covenant with abram worldwide blessing well Paul starts to reach many Gentiles up until this point we're dealing primarily with Jewish people but as you know God's family plan includes all of the nations but many of the Gentiles are being reached with the gospel Cornelius was the first to be reached well Paul started to receive a little opposition from his Jewish friends what are we going to do with all these Gentiles coming into the church we've had the law we've had the temple we've got the sacrifices we got the law of Moses and now we have all these Gentiles coming in what are we going to do well that brought about the first council in Acts chapter 15 the Council of Jerusalem and the leaders got together and they decided on what they were going to do with the new believers you can read about it in Acts chapter 15 well Peter presided and he finally made a decision that the the Gentiles could come in there were certain provisions but here for the first time now we have Gentiles being introduced into the family of God on a large scale well eventually the message got out to you and the message got out to me and we accepted the message and we have become a part of the Father's plan it's exciting let's take one more look at our Bible timeline chart behind us before we talk to dr. Scott Hahn we started out in the history of the early world we moved on through the patriarchal period Israel in Egypt conquest of Canaan the period of the judges the United Kingdom the divided Kingdom the Exile the return and the Maccabee in Revolt this took us through 12 of our historical books and then we came to the New Testament we have the Gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John and now our last section the book of Acts I like to think of the whole timeline as being sort of a rifle barrel God has had a focused plan all this time very very focused it's like he shot the bullet through the rifle barrel clear back there with Adam the protoevangelium the first pronouncement of the gospel and the bullet went forth and suddenly we come here to the book of Acts and it's like a shotgun blast scattering at the end of the barrel it's been moving along swiftly all this time and suddenly wow the message goes out into all of the world it's an exciting period we're going to return in just a moment and we're going to talk with dr. Scott Hahn about a couple of concepts from the New Testament period I think you're going to be challenged we'll be back right after this on our Father's plan [Music] welcome back to our Father's plan well we just took sort of a little journey through the book of Acts and saw the three divisions of the book of Acts it is the fourteenth of our fourteen chronological books we're reading through the Bible in chronological order together and we're here with dr. Scott Hahn in the middle of a conversation about the book of Acts last program we talked a little bit about the New Testament we want to continue that this week you know throughout this series I have not said a word about your Bible timeline man and I'd like to I'd like to speak to it just a minute because I've seen my kids learn salvation history through this particular tool I've also had you speak now to my graduate students about this chronological approach the Bible I've had several students approach me and say you know I wish I had had this course before I delved in more deeply to the theology the chronological and the theological really dovetail perfectly well I remember coming away from a few conversations and talking to one of my colleagues and saying you know I'd almost prefer not to teach Bible to people who have not been exposed to the chronological over you you that Jeff Cavins offers so I really mean it when I say this this approach this tool is extremely useful and I know many thousands of people are going to find it indispensable to coming to better understanding in the Bible thanks for doing it good now I would like to begin in the book of Acts to taking the theological approach so that we can dovetail the chronological and the theological once again today one thing that stands out in my mind as I read through the opening chapter of Acts is the way in which Peter addresses the problem created by Judas's suicide by the fact that Judas is no longer one of the twelve there aren't 12 anymore there's 11 and in acts 1 verse 15 we read in those days Peter stood up among the Brethren the company of persons wasn't all about a hundred and twenty and he said brethren the scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas who was guide to those who arrested Jesus and it goes on talking about his his demise but now Peter quotes from the Old Testament there in acts 1 verses 19 and 20 and we read it was written in the Book of Psalms let his habitation become desolate let there be no one to live in it and his office let another take now there he's quoting from the Psalms and he sang let his off at his office let another take it's interesting the Greek word for office is a Pisgah pay in fact the King James Version reads his bishopric let another take in other words when one of the Twelve Apostles died he didn't just die he left a vacant office Peter stands up uses the Old Testament to explain ever so briefly what should be clear to all of the others and why it is then you define a successor no dispute ation they understand Peter's statement they understand the Old Testament background they draw Lots they choose Matthias as Judas a successor now Matthias is not one of the Twelve Apostles so when we speak of apostolic succession we're not talking about the successors to the Apostles being the same as the apostles that's why sometimes it clarifies things to speak of Episcopal succession that is there is an Episcopal office founded by Christ through the Twelve Apostles and when those Twelve Apostles die they're replaced there is succession and that isn't that isn't argued it's simply assumed and asserted and then they get on with business that one fact did a lot for me in dislodging and disabusing me of many misconceptions about the Catholic Church's hierarchy because in fact the Bible shows us how the hierarchy of the church from the Pope on down the Pope as the successor to the Apostle Peter and on down all of that is really based upon the biblical institution of this office this episcopate a second thing that I also thought of in close connection with this is how in Acts chapter 1 Peter exercises his primacy not in a tyrannical sort of way but also not in a controversial way it isn't as though Peter just stood up and expressed his opinion and then all the other ten apostle stood up and expressed their own as well know when Peter speaks there's something definitive about his declaration they simply act upon it that isn't just true here in acts one you discover in acts two that there's another way he exercises his office his primacy when all of the Apostles in the upper room have begun speaking in tongues and the the devout men and Jews and Jerusalem begin to question you know what is the sound what is this gibberish or whatever in verse 14 Peter's the one standing with the eleven who lifted up his voice and addressed all the men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem and he addresses some pretty strong words to everybody he says in verse 36 as the climax let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified I mean here is Peter preaching the gospel with authority that he is wielding over all of Jerusalem not just over the church and when they heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles what shall we do brethren and Peter said to them repent and be baptized every one of you you can already see the the the sacraments incorporated into the very essence of the gospel in our response to it be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit so in Chapter 1 and here again in chapter 2 and once more in chapter 3 here is Peter and John going up to the temple at the ninth hour for prayer and they come across a man who is asking for alms a beggar and Peter directs his gaze at him along with John and what does Peter say in verse 6 I have no silver and gold but I give you what I have in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk and so Peter again exercises the apostolic authority that is given to him not only in healing this man this lame man but then in addressing all of the people who gather around these apostles in the second half of chapter three he preaches a second sermon not just in Jerusalem not just in the upper room but this time in the very central precincts of the temple itself and once again we see in Chapter four Peter exercising a sort of authority that is a cowardly fisherman a few weeks back he never could have dreamt of exercising here they are speaking to the people and the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them annoyed because they're teaching the people and proclaiming Jesus and here they are in the temple and so they're drawn before they're dragged before the Sanhedrin the Jewish senators verse five on the morrow their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem and aniseh high priest and Caiaphas john and alexander all of the real authorities in the jerusalem establishment put peter and john on trial in effect saying by what name did you do this and you and you might expect peter at this point to begin defending himself well look you know what I did is reasonable because of the following reasons but he doesn't he doesn't even recognize the fact that they are putting him on trial instead he verse 8 then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them rulers of the people and elders if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a by what means this man has been healed be it known to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified ouch that would have been hard when whom God raised from the dead by him this man is standing before you well this is the stone which was rejected by you builders and he adds and there is salvation and no one else for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved here they see the boldness of Peter and John and they hear the authority of Peter and it's amazing because instead of defending himself on trial in effect he turns the tables right around and puts these rulers chief priests on trial he puts the whole Sanhedrin on trial in effect saying have Christ's own Authority and as his vicar and spokesman I am telling you you've got a turn for the leave for the sake of our viewers who perhaps didn't hear the earlier programs where does Peter get this authority yeah if you go back to Matthew 16 when Jesus renamed Simon Peter he's renaming him Rock and says and on this rock I will build my church and even more he invests Peter with the keys of the kingdom in Matthew 16:19 okay and he says whatever you buy and that earth will have been bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven so the choosing of Peter Peters authority isn't a matter of Peters charisma or the fact that he was very popular with the other disciples or that he was one of the first but it has to do with Christ's appointment exactly it's not Peters interior fortitude it isn't a strength of character either because you can see just a few verses later in Matthew 16 Jesus turning around and saying get thee behind me Satan you know you're a stumbling stone alright so in himself Peters a stumbling stone but United to Christ the rock Peter takes on Christ rock likeness so Christ can pledge himself to Peter and to all of us saying on this rock I will build my church you looked at Peter and say good luck Jesus then you look at Jesus and you say he can do it anyone can do it Almighty Christ can't and he has for 2,000 years and in acts 1 2 3 4 and even 5 we see Peter exercising his primacy as prime minister over the other ministers in chapter 1 over Jerusalem in chapter 2 over illness and disease in chapter 3 over the Sanhedrin and the chief priests and rulers in Jerusalem and four and then he exercised this authority within the church in acts 5 Ananias and Sapphira sells some of their land they hold back some of the proceeds and they lie to Peter and the Apostles through their teeth about what their contribution to the church really consists of and Peter says Ananias why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit now where does Peter get off saying that Ananias has lied to Holy Spirit and I as could have said hey Peter with all due respect I didn't lie to the spirit I simply lied to you you know but Peters saying why has Satan filled your heart to the Holy Spirit it's a lot like the meekness of Moses in numbers 12 13 and 14 where Moses is accused of monopolizing Authority and Moses Falls in his face he's like you're not attacking me you're attacking the God who is within me the God who gave me this position I didn't ask for it I didn't seek it it's mine but it's mine as a sacred trust so you're not attacking me you're attacking he who sent me so Peter realizes that the authority you're questioning the the the power that you're actually undermining is not mine it's the Holy Spirit's and so what happens when Ananias lies to Peter and thus the Holy Spirit verse 5 what Anne and I has heard these words he fell down and died and then a few verses later the same thing happens to Sapphira and in verse 11 we read in great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things why us because they recognized that Jesus didn't just leave behind a gospel to be preached sacraments to be administered like baptism he left behind an institution a hierarchy an apostolic organism that he invested with his own divine authority and wasn't it's not something you want to play games with you remember when Jesus said that he had to leave but he was going to send the Paraclete to help her in a sense this is this is kind of like that Jesus has given the church leadership and these individuals in Acts chapter 5 recognize that Jesus hasn't left them alone he's here exact through the leadership as well as in the Holy Spirit moving through the leaders that's right and if we understand the leadership as covenant - we'll see that it really is a kind of family hierarchy it comes from the Father in heaven and it established his spiritual fatherhood on earth I'm reminded of Ephesians 3:14 where st. Paul says I bow my knees before the Father in heaven from whom all fatherhood in heaven and an earth is named or derived so we don't have fatherhood except that God the Father enables us to share in his own authority his own love his compassion his pity and his authority so there we see how Christ establishes the Kingdom of Israel in the church the new Israel of the new covenant a new kingdom and he invests it as king with the authority of the Prime Minister and then under Peter the other apostles and under the apostles we discover in chapter 6 the Deacons are appointed so you have Christ his prime minister the Apostles and then under the Apostles you have the diakonos and you're off and running through the book of Acts as the early church spreads out and formed churches and other regions they're all going to be organically united to Jesus through Peter and the Apostles the Deacons and the principle of succession is well maintaining this down through the centuries so the book of Acts starts off in chapter 1 verse 6 they asked the question Lord is it at this time that you are restoring the kingdom to Israel right you're answering some of this exactly and it's it's important to realize too that an answer to that question is given later on in acts 15 if you if you turn with me to the Jerusalem Council in acts 15 you see something very important you remember that when the gospel began to reach Gentiles for the first time and they were baptized and incorporated to the church you know grave potential for sysm and division arose because here are Jewish Christians who after 2,000 years of exclusion from Gentiles are now seeing Gentiles being included with equality in the church now how does that work that doesn't seem to be a natural thing and so there were all kinds of controversies in acts 15 verse 5 we read some believers who belong in the party of the Pharisees rose up and said it is necessary to circumcise them and to charge them to keep the law of Moses the Apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter and after there had been much debate Peter rose and spoke notice that in verse 7 there was much debate but after verse 7 once Peter stands and speaks not one not one word of debate it sounded again Peter's definitive pronouncement resolves the matter now someone may say that in verse 13 James James does stand up after this and says brethren listen to me that's right let's take a look at that in context because Peter stands up and speaks saying brethren you know that in the early days God made choice among you that by my mouth the Gentile should hear the word of the gospel believe in other words it is in some second lieutenant who went out and brought the Gentiles in it's the Vicar of Christ it's the one through whom Christ has been exercising a certain kind of primacy you know you want to mess with me think about Anna's Ananias and Sapphira you know it was through me that God it wasn't me it was God through me bringing these Gentiles in giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us and God made no distinction between us and them but cleanse their hearts by faith you see the close link between faith and baptism and interior cleansing in Peters theology verse 10 now therefore why do you put God to the test by putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear what's the yoke that's the question you know some people would say well it's the law of Moses yeah but you can't say it's the law of Moses without distinction because Peter is not saying look we have not been able to resist the temptation of murder or to lie or to commit adultery or to covet and now we're finally free from all those commandments hardly we are not allowed to lie or steal or commit adultery or murder so what laws then are you know what laws does Peter speak of when he says this yoke that was upon the neck of our fathers which they weren't able to bear we have not been able to bear if you go back several sessions well you can remember that we focus focus on the Deuteronomic covenant and all of the additional ceremonies all the different the additional ceremonial laws that God imposed upon Israel after the golden calf because of their idolatry as a sort of penitential discipline that was to last until their hearts were cleansed by faith these are the unique laws in Deuteronomy that's right the unique laws first added in Leviticus during the 40 years of wilderness then they became a permanent institution after the second generations rebellion at baile peor numbers 25 from then on in addition to the ten commandments the simple law that had been given at Sinai before the Golden Calf in addition to the Ten Commandments there are all these additional penitential ceremonies added to Israel these constituted a sort of ceremonial yoke that really isolated and quarantined Israel from the nations because their holiness was much weaker than the sinfulness of the Gentiles now that's no longer true can be dispensed with right the coming of the holy spirit has changed all that in the Old Testament if I touched a leper I was unclean the Old Testament if I touch the corpses I was unclean in the Old Testament if I touched a menstruating woman I was unclean Jesus comes along a leper touches him he's not defiled the leper is cleansed Jesus touches a corpse he's not defiled the corpse is raised to life Jesus is touched by a menstruating woman a hemorrhaging woman he isn't defiled her blood flow stops the New Covenant has come with Christ and now the power of holiness greatly exceeds the power of sinfulness so all of the walls of isolation and Quarantine are torn down and so Peter is saying in effect listen to me these laws are no longer needed because the Holy Spirit has cleansed our hearts by faith and the Gentiles as well so God has lifted this yoke from us which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear and all the assembly kept silence they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done among them through them I mean among the Gentiles now James stands up and replies he does not debate Peter's point he just simply says brethren listen to me Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name and with this the words of the prophets agree and now he quotes Amos 911 and saying God will return I will return and rebuild the dwelling of David which has fallen what is the dwelling of David the house of David what is the house of David the kingdom of David what is the Davidic Kingdom but the kingdom of God established with Israel through the Davidic dynasty which had fallen into ruins for 500 years but Amos said a time will come when God will rebuild the house of David and James is saying it's now and we it the church is the rebuilt Davidic King dungeon how exciting this must have been for the Jewish Christians who've been waiting centuries they must have I mean they must have really been excited so James is not contradicting Peter he's just saying look as the one who was really tuned in to the needs of the Jewish Christian believers I want to give some suggestions as to the pastoral application of Peters decree because he was the pastor in Jerusalem it's right he was the Bishop of Jerusalem and so he had that pastoral charge to maintain and so he is the one who gives his judgment in verse 19 a pastoral judgment about how we ought to announce this with certain pastor provisions to accommodate the people who are going to hear this message in verses 19 20 and 21 we we can't get into all of this but it is enough to set the stage for something very important namely the theology of Paul because when Paul proclaims the gospel the decree of the Jerusalem Council is the foundational support for why Paul can go around saying much to the you know much the chagrin of the Judaizers he is saying now God through the spirit in the New Covenant by means the sacraments is bringing together Jews and Gentiles alike in the Covenant family of God you know what would be interesting to talk about in our next segment is to talk a little bit about a Sola fidei and Sola scriptura these are two hotly contested the two principles that split Catholics from so many of the people who are you know Protestants and fundamentalists for the last 400 years we'll come back in just a minute and address this question was Paul a Catholic and do his epistles really support the Catholic Church's teachings about salvation and justification we'll be back with you in just a minute [Music] welcome back to our Father's plan I'm Jeff Cavins along with dr. Scott Hahn and we're in the middle of a conversation right now dealing with Paul's theology two of the words that people batter around banter back and forth about our Sola scriptura and Sola fede dr. Han is going to be addressing these two issues in the context of Paul's theology when dr. Hahn refers to Sola scriptura that simply means scripture alone and when he's talking about Sola fidei that's faith alone and these were two of the the really hotly contested items in the Reformation that's right these are protestant slogans that were used to justify the split from rome that goes back to the sixteenth century you know and now almost five centuries and twenty thousand denominations later we have to look at them in the light of Paul's teaching and see whether or not they're really justifiable from a scriptural standpoint Sola scriptura the Bible alone oddly enough I used to teach it emphatically until I was asked by a student in a graduate seminar where does the Bible teach it and I looked and I looked but I looked in vain never does the Bible say the Bible alone the bible does not teach the Bible alone if you look at second Timothy 3:16 it says all Scripture is inspired of God and its profitable to equip the man of God for every good work sure but it doesn't teach that the Bible itself is the sole authority in matters of faith and morals I do believe that for me the Bible was practically sufficient but it was practically sufficient like the yellow pages are sufficient you know if you need a plumber you look up the you look it up in the yellow pages but you don't say well I found the plumbers number in the yellow pages I don't need to call them I got the yellow pages they're sufficient well the Bible is practically sufficient to put you in touch with other sources of divine authority because st. Paul says in first timothy 3:15 that the church is the pillar and foundation of truth now i can speak from you know personal experience if any texts of the New Testament stated that the Bible is the pillar and foundation of truth I would use that text more than all the others combined to have argued for Sola scriptura the Bible alone but the Bible doesn't say the Bible is the is the the foundation and pillar of truth the church is as the family of God the household of faith furthermore Paul states in 2nd Thessalonians 2:15 that these Thessalonians are obligated to hold fast to the traditions that they received from Paul either in writing or by word of mouth so the inscripturated teaching of Paul bound them but so did the oral tradition that Jesus had passed down through the Apostles that also bound the Thessalonians and Paul nowhere hints that there will come a time when the oral tradition subsides and vanishes but the written scripture abides alone no of course not the scripture bears witness to the divine authority that Christ invested with the church and the equal authority of sacred tradition along with sacred scripture so the scripture was sufficient for me practically speaking to point me to the church now the second slogan the second battle cry of Luther's Reformation was Sola fidei that is you're justified by faith alone something he felt so strongly about faith apart from works you know he once said from his pulpit in a sermon I could commit adultery a hundred times in a day and it wouldn't affect my justification before God now obviously he was given over to exaggeration and hyperbole but that indicates you know a troublesome perspective and it raised the question did Luther get Paul right for many many years I thought so but then I dug much deeper in the Paul especially Romans and Galatians and most particularly into the Old Testament background of Paul's teaching because that's what Paul appeals to to justify - to defend to explain his own teaching about justification by faith first of all I should say nowhere does the Bible say that we are justified by faith alone in fact Luther had to insert the word they're in de Romans 3:28 where Paul says a man is justified by faith apart from works the law Luther out of the German word alone so it would read a man is justified by faith alone apart from works the law and Luther assumed that works the law meant keeping the commandments doing good deeds and so a man is justified by faith alone apart from the Commandments being are you saying that this idea of faith alone was Luther actually interjected oh yeah yeah he had to insert that word into his German translation there in Romans 3:28 it's not there on the Greek and nobody disputes that point but even though he later later was taken out is that is that right well it's still in some translations to this day in fact the only time the phrase faith alone is used in the entire New Testament is when the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle James to write James 2:24 that a man is not justified by faith alone but by works as well as faith now somebody would say wait a second James has something different in mind when he says justification I don't think so I think James has something different in mind when he speaks of works because in James chapter 2 what James is talking about is a faith that is dead that is a faith without works James 2:14 what does it profit my brother if a man says he has faith but has not works can his faith save him if a brother of sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food and one of you says to them go and peace be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body what does it profit so faith by itself if it has no works is dead the works that James is speaking of the corporal works of mercy doing good to express love and keeping the commandments that's what James has in mind so he is saying that a faith apart from works is dead and justifies no one I don't believe that James has in mind a different meaning behind the word justified then I think he has a different meaning behind the use of the word works you go back to Romans chapter 2 you discover that when Paul is talking about works he's using the phrase works of the law and he is using it in connection with circumcision what verse you announ well in Romans two verses all the way from verse 25 to 3 verse 1 and Paul is talking about circumcision over and over again and what it means and what it doesn't mean contrary to the Jewish outlook of his day then again in Romans 4 verses 9 10 11 and 12 he returns to circumcision he never talks about feeding the hungry or clothing the naked those aren't the works he has in mind the works that Paul is preoccupied with are the ceremonial laws that the Jerusalem councils dispensed Christians from specifically Gentiles and most especially circumcision because circumcision was sort of like the the right of entrance into the whole ceremonial system circumcision was to the Old Testament ceremonies what baptism is in the New Covenant you can't receive the Eucharist if you're not baptized but once you're baptized you're obligated to confess your sins to receive Communion yearly and so on and so forth so circumcision is not only what initiated you into the Old Covenant it's what obligated you to keep all of the Old Covenant ceremonies such as the seventh-day Sabbath the animal sacrifice of the temple priesthood the dietary laws and so on and so forth all of which we're dispensed and freed from by the Jerusalem Council by the design of Christ the authority of Peter so Paul is talking about circumcision here now in between Romans 2 in Romans 4 were talking all about circumcision and the works of the law that flow from it he uses Abraham to prove his point for instance in Romans 4 verse 1 what then shall we say about Abraham our forefather according to the flesh for if Abraham was justified by works he is something to boast about but not before God for what does the scripture say abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness abraham had faith and he was justified that's verse 3 of chapter 4 now to one who works his wages are not reckoned as a gift but as is due and a one who does not work but trust him who justifies the ungodly his faith is reckoned as righteousness now antique let's use these verses to argue that Paul uses Abraham to prove that you're justified by faith alone apart from works obeying the commandments that can't possibly be what Paul is arguing why is that if Paul's arguing from Abraham for justification by faith apart from any obedience he has to wrench scripture out of context he has to misinterpret scripture blatantly to do so because he quotes scripture there in verse 3 abraham believed God and he was justified that scriptures taken from Genesis 15 verse 6 Abraham believes God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness now if Paul is arguing that this is the moment that Abraham was justified that is this is the moment Abraham became saved this is the moment when he began walking with God this is the beginning of his salvation because that's how the Protestants conceived justification they've got them they've got a major problem because it didn't all start in Genesis 15 in fact didn't even start in Genesis 14 or 13 you could go all the way back to Genesis 12 to discover when Abraham first began exercising a saving faith hebrews 11:8 says by faith Abraham obeyed when God called him when did God call Abraham back in Genesis 12 when did Abraham first have faith in back in Genesis 12 so how can you say that Abraham isn't justified until Genesis 15 unless Abraham's justification is not what these anti Catholics are saying Abraham's justification in Genesis 15 could only be the moment of his salvation the beginning of his salvation if Paul is wrenching scripture out of content in a way that would have been completely unconvincing to the Jews who would have known the original context she would have said Paul there's no way Abraham's had faith since Genesis 12 Abraham is justified in Genesis 15 your wrench in scripture out of context so how would a Catholic explain use of the Old Testament very simply if Paul is arguing that Abraham was justified by faith prior to being circumcised then Abraham is an example for all of us to show that Gentiles don't need to be circumcised in order to be justified why because Abraham the spiritual father of the Jews and the Gentiles experienced the same thing he is declared justified in Genesis 15 but he wasn't circumcised until Genesis 17 hmm and so Paul is arguing from the original context of Genesis not to argue that Abraham was saved by faith alone apart from obedience but to argue that Abraham was saved by faith apart from circumcision and all the other ceremonial works that flow from it if that's Paul's point then a he's respecting the original context be he is drawing proper conclusions and see he is supporting the Catholic Church's teachings because at the Council of Trent session 6 chapter 4 this is exactly how the Catholic Bishops interpreted Paul Paul is not arguing that Abraham was justified by faith apart from obedience he was justified by faith apart from the Old Covenant ceremonies such as circumcision that did not really bring grace now somebody could say wait a second later on in Romans Paul talks about covetousness for instance in Romans 7 he's speaking about the 10 commandments thou shalt not covet you know and so Paul is thinking of more than just the ceremonial law when he speaks of the law but notice what Paul doesn't do in Romans 7 he doesn't say because we have problems with coveting were dispensed from the prohibition against coveting he never dispenses his readers from the prohibition against coveting what belong to your neighbor but he does dispense Christians from circumcision and from animal sacrifice and the dietary laws and the temple sacrifices and all of the rest why those are the Old Covenant works the lawn in fact just recently among the Dead Sea Scrolls we found this document MMT just in the last five or six years a rebel lucien has begun because all of a sudden we discovered that works of the law was a stock formula or phrase commonly used back in the first century by the jews to refer to the temple sacrifices to circumcision and to the other ceremonial laws that were identified with Israel as a ethnic nation but all of that has been transcended by the new covenant now we've in effect been raised beyond that to a truly Catholic Kingdom and this is Paul's point then and I want to emphasize this because there are people out there I mean brilliant and sincerely godly men who are preaching on the radio and the television that Catholics are not saved because they don't believe in justification by faith alone what do we say we have to say the Bible doesn't teach it no where is the phrase used were justified by faith alone the only time the Holy Spirit inspired a New Testament writer to use the phrase faith alone is James 2:24 when he says we're justified but not by faith alone a man is not justified by faith alone so why would people define justification so narrowly as to exclude what James means by the word justification as the Holy Spirit led him to use that word we should be able to stand up and say just with the Holy Spirit and the Apostle James a man is justified by faith and works and in fact that's exactly what Paul says in Galatians 5 verses 1 through 7 he's talking about how we're saved by faith working in love you know and this all fits with our program the Father's plan because the primary model of the Covenant is not the courtroom where God is a judge issuing judicial decrees you know regarding guilty defendants who are set free because of Christ you know there are partial truths in those phrases but it's misleading without the whole truth the whole truth is found in Paul and the Catholic Church the whole truth is this the Covenant needs to be understood primarily as a family model God's judgments are fatherly judgments now that doesn't imply a lesser or lower standard of Justice because a father requires more from a son than a judge does from a defendant or a lawgiver from citizens so when God justifies us when he declares us to be just that judgment is a fatherly act and so when he justifies the ungodly he doesn't leave us ungodly God couldn't do that when God says something when God declares it he does it by declaring it God can't say something and then have that not be true you know we think that that God wouldn't lie because it's the wrong thing to do that's true but God couldn't lie if God said Jeff Cavins you're a cat you'd all the sudden begin to meow God's Word is what brought the world into being out of nothing so when God speaks his word and declares us just and righteous when he justifies the ungodly were not left ungodly some people say well he justifies the ungodly so we're still in godly know it sort of like a minister who marries a bachelor well once the bachelors married he's no longer a bachelor once the ungodly is justified he is transformed by the the powerful word of God's judicial declaration that comes from the father who says you are just with the righteousness of Christ my son you are now my child we're sons in the eternal son in a reality that's right it sounds like the difference between a cover-up versus an inside job yeah kind of legal fiction on the one hand now God says I'll pretend you're just even though you're ungodly against a reality you know first John 3 verses 1 and 2 see what love God has shown us that we should be called children of God and so we are now I couldn't adopt my dog and say this is my son because to father means to communicate your nature so if God is justifying us and making us his children he regenerates us in the power of the Holy Spirit he communicates to us his own nature 2nd Peter 1:4 we have been made partakers of the divine nature we share in the divine life of Christ's sonship that's how session six of the Council of Trent to find justification and st. Paul would have said yeah and amen preach it Catholic Bishops because that is what echoes the truth and in the truth is the truth of the Covenant you know we go back to the foundational principles of this whole thirteen week long series that God is our Father that salvation is the gift of Christ's own divine sonship that the Covenant is what binds us as God's family and that the church is God's new covenant family not simply an earthly or human family the church is what enables us to share in the life of the eternal Trinity if we could grasp the significance and truth of that it would transform our lives not only our prayer and study but the way we work the way we get along and our families because in the home we're called upon to image God who is an eternal family so I want to leave you with this thought turn to God in prayer and open up the scriptures and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you our father's plan and then celebrate what it means to be a part of the Catholic family of God and share it with as many people as you came in thank you for joining us for our Father's plan we're going to come back next week for our last installment in the series pray that the Lord opens up the treasures of what it means to be his family god bless you [Music] Oh [Music] [Music]

Channel: Our Father's Plan

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Length: 53min 23sec (3203 seconds)

Published: Sun May 17 2020