Acts 3:1 - 5:11: Predestination

Okay, so "predestination" isn't the main subject in these chapters, certainly not as it pertains to God's election and human willing. Still, I cite Acts 4:28 in order to highlight a central theme of these chapters. Luke wants to testify that the spread of the gospel from Jerusalem to Judea and the ends of the earth fit into God's plan. We do him a disservice to discount any elements of this narrative.

So, for instance, we cannot ignore that Jesus is Israel's Messiah. We can't, as the first heretic (Marcion) did, hit the "delete" button on those portions of the Bible that testify to Jesus' Jewish roots. Jesus makes sense as Savior of the world only insofar as he is Israel's Messiah.  We understand salvation only as we understand the Jewish roots of the gospel.

Also, we cannot ignore that there was real conflict among the Jews when it came to Jesus. Just as in years past, when prophets cut the hearts of the people, so the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus created a crisis in Israel. The disciples of Jesus were drawn into this crisis.

The early church was powerfully endowed to declare what God had done in Jesus. They were given power "to speak [God's] word with boldness." This was not simply a new religion that began;  it was not a human movement.  Luke testifies that it was an action of God through humble men and women.

The early church was inspired to share generously;  some in the church resisted that inspiration and were severely punished. The gospel creates a crisis of faith and obedience wherever it is spoken.  It is a call to repentance (3:19) and an offer of blessing (3:26).

Acts: Luke's Story Continues

We read Acts immediately following Luke in order to make clear that the two constitute a pair.

In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.

You can expect, then, a consistency in language, style, and themes from Luke to Acts. You can expect not pure "history," but a continued theological narrative that testifies to the author's conviction that Jesus is Israel's Messiah, crucified and raised, sent to fulfill God's promises not only to Israel, but to the whole world through Israel. Acts shows absolute confidence in the reliability of God's word, and in the power of the Holy Spirit at work in the church. When speaking of the author, we say "Luke," though we cannot prove that it was Luke.  We will trust early tradition.

An interesting aspect of chapters 1-2 is the form of promise and fulfillment (see Harper's Study Bible/NRSV).

Acts 1:8 offers a promise with four parts:

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you
See 2:1-13: The Holy Spirit is poured out on the disciples

You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem
See 2:14-8:3: The disciples preach in Jerusalem

in all Judea and Samaria
See 8:4-25: Persecution drives the disciples outward to Judea and Samaria

and to the ends of the earth.
See 8:26-40 (the Ethiopian eunoch), 10:1 - 11:18 (Cornelius, the Italian centurion), 28:14 (Paul arrives in Rome).

So, Luke structures his narrative to demonstrate that the events occurring in the early church fulfilled God's plans - to bless the whole earth through Israel's Messiah, Jesus.

Jesus with His Own People

Chapters 11-12 of Luke offer prime opportunity to read Jesus through the lens of his own family history. We can see the gospel through new lenses this way, as an alternative to approaching it from our own perspective.  I see several clues in these two chapters that point toward a Jewish family dynamic.

11:27-28 seems to be a rather odd addition to the Gospel, an insignificant comment about Jesus' mother, Mary:  "Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!" Jesus replies, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!" Given that Mary is presented in Luke as a woman of great faith, the contrast cannot be between Mary's unfaith and someone else's faith. I have a hunch that the reference of womb and breasts isn't to Mary, but to Jesus' religious family, the people of Israel. The contrast, then, is between a natural birth into Jewishness and another birth, by faith, into the universal people of God.

See, then, the words of condemnation that fall upon "this generation," because this generation did not repent. See the words of woe pronounced on Pharisees (11:37-44, 12:1-3) and lawyers (11:45-52). Note the references to pending danger for his followers at the hands of "synagogues, rulers and authorities" (12:11).

This theme even suggests that the parable of the rich fool and the counsel not to worry (12:13-34) may have a meaning beyond concerns about wealth. Perhaps the rich fool might be understood as a careless Israelite of Jesus' day, being a very poor steward of the rich inheritance he has received as a Son of the Covenant. Maybe the counsel to "sell your possessions" (12:33) is a call to Jesus' followers to be single-minded in their stewardship of the Gospel, more faithful than "this generation" that has not repented, but squandered its inheritance.

Luke 5: Who Can Forgive Sins?

Chapter five of Luke reintroduces a central theme of the whole Gospel:

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

to give knowledge of salvation to his people

by the forgiveness of their sins

(1.76-77).

When Jesus amazes Simon by a miraculous supply of fish, from waters that were empty the night before, the disciple responds, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" It reminds us of Isaiah's cry (Isaiah 6)when he sees the Lord's glory and becomes actutely aware of his own sin. Jesus is holy.

When Jesus encounters a paralyzed man (5:17-26), his first act is not to heal the man, but to say, "Your sins are forgiven." Of course the authorities should reply, "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" They're right.

When Jesus accepts table fellowship from Levi, the tax collector, the Pharisees are offended.  Jesus replies, "I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance" (5:32).

The theme of forgiveness began at 1:77 and concludes at the very end of Luke, in 24:47:

repentance and the forgiveness of sins

is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations.

Keep an eye open for this message about the person of Jesus, his authority, and his gracious will.  You cannot understand Luke's Gospel without noting the mission of Jesus to forgive sins.

The Holy Spirit in Luke

We begin Luke's Gospel, which we cannot read from the beginning without noticing the key role of the Holy Spirit. Before that, do note a literary aspect of the first chapters:  Luke's use of the convention of "pairs."  John the Baptist's story is told in parallel to Jesus' story; Zechariah and Elizabeth receive early prominence; Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth; Simeon and Anna the prophets conclude the infancy narrative, and serve as bookends to Zechariah and Elizabeth, who opened the narrative.

But I want to highlight the Holy Spirit, because the Spirit is a prominent actor in the story of Jesus.
1:15:  Speaking of John, the angel tells Zechariah "he will be filled with the Holy Spirit.  He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God."
1:35: Speaking to Mary, Gabriel says "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore, the child to be born will be holy;  he will be called Son of God."
1:41: Elizabeth, greeting Mary, "was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, 'Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb."
1:67: "Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy."
2:25-27: The righteous and devout man Simeon, was "looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him.  It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple . . ."
3:16-17: John the Baptist declares of Jesus, "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."
3:22: When Jesus was baptized, "the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove."
4:1: "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness. . ."

It cannot be denied that Luke follows literary conventions of his day, writing a kind of history, albeit one with a clear theological intent.  He's not writing what modern historians would write, but it is a kind of history appropriate to his day. Moreover, he is writing about the action of God in human affairs, about the power of God at work in ordinary lives. You simply cannot ignore the central role of the Holy Spirit in defining what is going on in the story of Jesus.

We will see this emphasis repeated in book two of Luke's work, the Book of Acts. An emphasis on the Holy Spirit is a clear marker that Luke is writing holy history.

Galatians 6: New Creation

Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything!

Galatians 6:15

Paul is an apocalyptic Jew.  He believes that with the resurrection of Jesus, God has initiated a new age. With the gift of the Spirit, God is busy transforming the world. He finds it silly, then, to discuss circumcision.  It's quite irrelevant, like discussing wax-cylinder recordings in the age of media downloads.

Christians are called not to the old ways, but to die to themselves with Jesus and live to God. They are called to crucify the flesh and its desires (all those transitory things) and live by the Spirit of God. He really believes that persons are given new birth by the Holy Spirit.

It's important to note, though, that this death and new life are not so much commands as descriptions. When Paul describes life in the Spirit, he calls it fruit. He doesn't say, "do this, do that." He says, "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace," etc. Clearly, there is some interaction of the Spirit at work in us and our working it out. We just do well not to think in terms of "what I do and what God does." We do well to think in terms of "what God has done in Jesus and by the Holy Spirit."

It's not about greater insight that we can use; it's not about new rituals we can perform; it's about the Holy Spirit transforming us into the image of our Savior, day by day. Our focus is on Christ in his death and resurrection; not on ourselves. Frequently, Jesus in the Gospels calls those who would follow him to deny themselves and take up their crosses. He shockingly calls those who would follow to deny their own families. We can trust that Jesus is not advocating for divorce and child neglect. He is declaring that life in the Spirit of God breaks our attachments to the transitory things of this world, of which family relationships are one (there is no marriage in heaven). He shows the propensity to give these things back to us, in their proper order; but until we relinquish them for the sake of the kingdom, they will be our idols.

Galatians 5: Circumcision?

For Paul, the issue was this: "If you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you." Since circumcision is not an issue for us, what are we to make of Paul's counsel? He seems to indicate that the challenge to a person is not the rituals of the faith, but the struggle between the flesh and Spirit.

When Paul uses the term "flesh," sometimes he simply means the human body.  When Paul uses the terms "flesh" and "Spirit" together, he typically is contrasting them as different forces at work in a person. The Spirit is God's Holy Spirit, poured out on believers to sanctify them. The flesh is "creatureliness, transitoriness" (Leander Keck) at work in the human creature. Paul understands flesh in the light of the gift of the Spirit. "In short, because the Spirit is the power-sphere of the new age, flesh is the power-sphere of the old age. The struggle between Spirit and flesh is not a battle between [a person's] higher and lower nature, between our bodily drives and our minds or spirits. Rather, the struggle is between the power of the eschatological future and the power of the empirical present" (Paul and His Letters, 102).

In the Galatian churches, "Judaizing" missionaries were urging the Gentile Christians to be circumcised and observe the rituals of Jewish separation. Paul considers such a suggestion to be idiotic, because the new age of the Spirit has dawned.  "Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh" (3:4)? He has argued that they are free in Christ now; to be circumcised is to return to their prison cell.

So, given that we're not arguing such particulars these days, is there a real analogy? Are there ways in which the church is tempted to "end with the flesh?" I certainly won't try to declare for a certainty, but some things need to be pondered. I'm concerned with the church's emphasis on technique in this day and age. Whereas Paul (and the rest of the Bible) is remarkably quiet about such matters, our churches have become supposed experts on marriage and parenting.  Our educational programs arguably cover more advice on marriage and parenting than they do on the Bible and the church's faith. They do so because that is what people want. They do so in such a way as to imply Christian formation.

I would argue that such programs promise expertise to improve our techniques and to improve our relationships. I would also argue that they do nothing to right our relationship to God and other people, and they ultimately cannot, because they are subject to the flesh. If sin is the problem, and the struggle is between the Spirit at work and the flesh at work, then all the techniques in the world, and all the information, are helpless. Paul offers very little advice other than "love your neighbor as yourself" (5:14).

Is Paul right? Am I at all accurate in interpreting him this way? We'll have to test the claims. We do well to ask ourselves, though, "What are we doing by studying marriage and parenting?" Are we growing up in the freedom of Christ? Are we being sanctified?