Jul 11
15
And who set these men to keep to themselves teachers is also as great a mystery. I know Paul bids Timothy commit his doctrine to faithful men, that they might be able to teach others; but to turn infidels into faithful men and divines is another thing. Paul speaks of some in his days that acted as the Hebrew masters did by their servants, who proclaimed liberty to them, and subjected them to servitude again; and calls them “false brethren, unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage to whom we gave place by subjection, no not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel, (or the freedom that Christ has promised to them that receive the truth (Jn. 8:32); might continue with you.” (Gal. 2:4, 5). And what was the bondage that these spies, who came in privily, brought in unexpectedly, wanted to bring in? Why they wanted to subject them to the command of the law, which genders to bondage, by telling them that they were under the law as a rule of life. “There rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, that it was needful to circumcise them, (the believing Gentiles), and to command them to keep the law of Moses.” (Act.15:15)
Here is the command to the believers, they were to keep the law of Moses; to which Peter answers, “God which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” The liberty which Peter here alludes to is the liberty of the Holy Ghost, which God had given them, which Paul calls the law of the Spirit of life, which made him free from the law of sin and death; and “where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty,” 2 Cor. 3:17, for, as David says, the Spirit of God is a free Spirit, Psa. 51:12. The rule that Peter gives them is faith, which purifies the heart.