NOTES ON THE LESSON

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 12, 1892

NOTES ON THE LESSON.

1. God did visit the Gentiles.—The facts concerning the Gentiles were arguments that could not be overcome. God had abundantly blessed the labor that had been done among them, as shown by Peter and Paul and Barnabas. This showed that God was not only willing to save the Gentiles, but that he would save them by simple faith. When God poured out his Spirit upon them, so that they spoke with tongues, no one who reverenced the Lord could say that there was something still lacking that the Gentiles must do before they could be saved. That the salvation of the Gentiles was not a new thing in God's plan is shown by the promises to Abraham, by the prophecy of Amos, which James quoted, by Joel 2: 28, by Isa. 45: 22, 23; 49: 6; 60: 1-5, etc.

2. That they abstain from, etc.—The four things specified in the letter to the brethren are declared by the Spirit to be "necessary things." They are as necessary now as they were when written, and had been necessary from the beginning. The blood is the life (Gen. 9: 4, 5), and therefore the prohibition against it comes under the sixth commandment. The prohibition against things strangled comes in the same list. The relation of the other things to the law of God is obvious. These things, being forbidden by the law of God, are consequently inconsistent with the life of Christ, for his life is the law in its perfection.

3. For Moses from generation of old hath, etc.—It should be understood that the apostles did not lay these four necessary things upon the disciples in addition to their faith in Christ. These things were specified only because they were things that people from among the heathen would not so readily perceive as necessarily embraced in the Christian life. Fornication was among the heathen a commonplace affair, and even required by their religion. The eating of blood was a common thing. Everything in ordinary life was so immediately connected with idolatry that it was necessary for the converts from among the heathen to be especially on their guard to avoid pollution of idols. These things, in which the Gentile converts might sin without realizing it, so common were they, were especially noted; but it was necessary for the apostles to go further into particulars concerning the Christian life, for the disciples had constant access to the writings of Moses, in which the Christian life is set forth, for he wrote of Christ. John 5: 46, 47. One point may be referred to as showing that, in setting forth the law, Moses was describing Christ, through whom alone the righteousness of the law is fulfilled. In Deut. 30: 11-14 Moses, after having set forth the law, says: "For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it." But in Rom. 10: 5-9 Paul tells us that this refers to Christ. This was not left obscure by Moses, so that the Jews would think that the commandment must be kept by them apart from Christ, for just before the verses quoted Moses tells them that God would circumcise their heart to keep his law (Deut. 30: 6, 8), and just afterward he said: "That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him; for he is thy life, and the length of thy days." Deut. 30: 20.