This verse
is sometimes misunderstood as that the Sabbath in no longer applicable in our
age:
“For it seemed good to the
Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary
things; 29That ye abstain from meats
offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from
fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.” Acts 15:28, 29.
The
background and purpose of this verse must be considered. When the Christian
Church was first forming, some of the ex-Jews newly converted to Christianity
did not understand that the ceremonial laws pointing to Messiah were fulfilled
in Jesus, and that the ethnic symbols characterizing the Jews as God’s people
(such as circumcision) were likewise no longer meaningful. For years after
Christ’s resurrection some the Jewish Christians, continued to practice and
even identify themselves with temple rituals. Even Paul, contrary to God’s will
on one occasion (Acts 20:16; 21:18-26; Ch. 18:19) joined them in this.
There was
good reason for not requiring the burden of observing of the Mosaic laws and
practices. These laws were “a shadow” pointing to Christ and His mission as the
Messiah; once the real events were fulfilled, the shadows were pointless (Colossians
2:11-20; Hebrews 9:1-12).
Now all men
could equally find salvation through Jesus Christ without becoming Jewish (Romans
10:11, 12; Colossians 3:10, 11). Paul saw clearly that the spirit of legalism
that encouraged these rituals had become a barrier between Jewish Christian and
Gentile Christian. This spirit of legalism is to have no place among people who
are united as one in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:13-16).
