The life and work of St. Paul

238 THE LIFE AND WORK OB 1
ST. PAUL.
imperfections. Those who supported the cause of Paul rendered themselves
liable to those charges, so terrible to a Jew, of laxness, of irreligion, of apostasy,
of unpatriotism, of not being believers in revealed truth. Was not Moses
inspired P Was the Sacred Pentateuch to be reduced to a dead letter ?
Were all the curses of Ebal to be braved ? Were the Thorah-rolls to be flung
contemptuously into the Dead Sea ? On the other hand, those who maintained
the necessity of circumcision and of obedience to the Law, laid them-
selves open to the
"
fatal question, If the Law is essential to salvation, what,
then, has been the work of Christ ? "
But when the subject had been amply discussed, Peter arose. 1 Which
side he would take could be hardly doubtful. He had, in fact, already braved
and overborne the brunt of a similar opposition. But an exceptional instance
was felt to be a very different thing from a universal rule. It was true that
Peter did not now stand alone, but found the moral support, which was so
necessary to him, in the calm dignity of Barnabas and the fervid genius of
Paul. But in all other respects his task was even more difficult than it had
been before, and, rising to the occasion, he spoke with corresponding boldness
and force. 2 His speech was in accordance with the practical, forthright, non-
argumentative turn of his mind. Filled with energetic conviction by the
logic of facts, he reminded them how, long ago, 3 the question had been practically
settled. God had selected him to win over the first little body of
converts from the Gentile world ; and the gift of the Spirit to them had
showed that they were cleansed by faith. To lay on them the burden of the
Law a burden to the daily life which it surrounded with unpractical and
often all but impracticable observances a burden to the conscience because
it created a sense of obligation of which it could neither inspire the
fulfilment nor remedy the shortcoming a burden which had therefore been
found intolerable both by their fathers and themselves 4 was simply to
tempt God by hindering His manifest purposes, and resisting His manifest
will. In one doctrine all present were agreed ;
6 it was that alike the Jews
and the Gentile converts should be saved only by the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The inference then was obvious, that they were not and could
not be saved by the works of the Law. In the observance of those works the
Jews, on whom they were originally enjoined, might naturally persevere till
fresh light came ; but these hereditary customs had never been addressed to
the Gentiles, and, since they were unnecessary to salvation, they must
1 On the views of St. John, see Excursus XVII., " St. John and St. Paul."
2 Acts xv. 7 11. Again we have to notice the interesting circumstance that in this
brief speech the language is distinctly Petrine. Such minute marks of authenticity are
wholly beyond the reach of a forger.
3 The expression o' i\^tpS>v