Acts 15:7-12 meaning

Acts 15:7-12 contains Peter’s rebuke to the Pharisees who wish to circumcise Gentile believers.

The gospel has spread beyond Judea, Samaria, and Syria. Paul and Barnabas, led by the Holy Spirit, went on a successful missionary journey to the island of Cyprus and the region of Galatia (a part of modern-day Turkey). On this mission, many Jews and proselyte Jews believed in Jesus as the Messiah, but additionally many pagan Gentiles turned from their idols and believed in Jesus Christ. 

This is a cause for celebration for some, but for others, it has provoked the false idea that these new Gentile believers ought to convert to Judaism in order to be saved. Some are teaching that the Gentiles are not truly saved until they practice Jewish laws. This idea has apparently originated from within believing Pharisees in the Jerusalem church. Their claim is that: 

“Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved” and

“It is necessary to circumcise the Gentile believers and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses.”
(Acts 15:2, 5)

Paul, Barnabas, and a few other representatives from the church of Syrian Antioch have come up to Jerusalem to discuss this claim. Standing before the believing leaders of the church in Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas described their successful missionary journey into the western Roman Empire to the council gathered. This Jerusalem Council was convened to resolve the disputed claim regarding Gentiles and circumcision.

The believing Pharisees present stood up and said, “We need to circumcise these Gentiles.” 

At that, the Council of Jerusalem begins: 

“The apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter” (Acts 15:6).

Luke, the author of Acts, describes that both sides argue with one another for a while:

After there had been much debate (v. 7).

Despite the previous few chapters focusing solely on Paul, and the remainder of Acts also focusing on Paul’s ministry, we are not given any direct quotes of Paul’s arguments at the Council of Jerusalem. Luke told us earlier that in Antioch, both he “and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with” the idea that Gentiles should become Jewish in order to be truly saved (Acts 15:2). 

It is likely that Paul was actively a part of this initial debate, just as he had been in Antioch, but what helps settle the matter are Peter and James. Peter is an apostle, arguably the head apostle. James is an elder of the Jerusalem church and Jesus’s half-brother—James is likely the leading elder as he appears to be the primary spokesman. 

Luke may be highlighting what Peter and James say so as to summarize the general arguments made against this teaching that circumcision is a necessity for salvation from sin. However, given that Luke was Paul’s traveling companion and a fellow minister in the gospel, it is more likely that Luke’s rationale for quoting Peter and James was to demonstrate that the leading authorities of the church validated Paul’s argument that being justified in God’s sight was solely a matter of God’s grace being received by faith (John 3:14-15). 

Peter and James are both highly authoritative and influential leaders of the early church. Paul does not consider one man any better than another, nor does God (Galatians 2:6), but it seems very possible that Luke emphasizes what Peter and James say to show to his reader that they are in line with Paul. 

Because this controversy followed Paul in all his ministry planting churches across the Roman Empire, it was important to combat this false teaching that new Gentile believers were required to be circumcised. For the first-century Gentile believers who read the Book of Acts, they would see that the teachings of the traveling preacher Paul were in exact alignment with one of Jesus’s closest disciples, Peter, and His own half-brother and pillar of the Jerusalem church, James. 

This would help to inspire confidence in new believers that Paul represented what Jesus the Messiah really taught. Then they could ignore any competing Jewish “authorities” who were pestering them to become circumcised and practice the hundreds of ritualistic laws of Moses in order to be saved. The Gentile believer could see from the mouth of Peter and James that Jesus Christ never taught this (Acts 15:11, 19). 

Paul taught to have faith in Jesus and obey the leadership of the Holy Spirit who lives in all believers (John 3:14-16, 14:15-17, 16:12-15). Thus, Luke is guiding his readers to see that Paul is just as legitimate a messenger of God as the respected Peter and James. By recording the words of Peter and James in this Jerusalem Council, Luke is providing documented support for Paul’s authority as a true apostle, as well as validating the veracity of his teaching that being justified in God’s sight comes by faith alone. 

In this Jerusalem Council, a time was allowed for both sides to make their arguments, but:

After there had been much debate Peter stood up and gives his response. It seems that Peter’s response was considered by the group to settle the matter. 

His words likely carried much weight because he was one of Jesus’s closest disciples. The greatest miracles in the first half of Acts are attributed to Peter. He had even raised someone from the dead (by God’s power alone, not his). An angel had freed him from prison, just after the Apostle James was beheaded (Acts 3:1-11, 5:12-16, 9:33, 34, 36-41, 12:7-17). However, it is likely that Peter’s words also carried much weight because he personally was the first to take the gospel to the Gentiles, and he did so under direction of the Spirit. 

Peter stood up and said to them, “Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe (v. 7).

He begins by addressing the elders, apostles, Pharisees, and general assembly together as Brethren. All present are united in their faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the Son of God, who died for our sins and was resurrected by God. This includes even the disputing Pharisees, because they were also believers (Acts 15:5). Peter turns to his own ministry history to make a point about the Gentiles coming to faith. 

He describes the events Luke recorded in Acts 10, where the Gentile named Cornelius, a Roman Centurion, believed in Jesus, along with his household and friends. Peter’s audience already knows about this occurrence, as he says, Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you. By including the phrase you know Peter is reminding the audience that this was not new information, it had occurred in the early days of the church, shortly after the Holy Spirit had descended (Acts 2:1-4). 

Peter is referencing how God chose him to preach to the Gentiles first. He says you know that in the early days God made this choice. While the timeline of the events of Acts are not concretely laid out, scholars estimate there was 8 to 10 years between Peter preaching to Cornelius in Acts 10 and the Council of Jerusalem here in Acts 15. 

By mentioning the early days, Peter means the early days of the growth of the church. God made a choice among the believers, picking Peter to be the first to take the gospel to the Gentiles. Peter states that it was by his mouth, his teaching, that the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. Peter makes clear that it was God’s choice for the gospel to be preached to the Gentiles. God made a choice to appoint Peter to be His instrument to bring the gospel to the Gentiles that they might believe. 

Before Peter’s encounter with Cornelius, only Jews and half-Jews had believed in Jesus as the resurrected Son of God, been baptized, and received the Holy Spirit. Peter was staying in Joppa among the Jewish believers there, when he had a vision from the Holy Spirit about unclean animals coming down from heaven, and the voice of God told him to eat of the animals. Peter argued with God, attesting to his faithfulness to the Law of Moses not to eat unclean animals. 

But the vision was an illustration, the point of which was that Peter was to no longer regard Gentiles as unclean, as unholy, as outside of God’s favor. After waking from the dream, Peter heard the Holy Spirit tell him to go with men whom the Spirit had sent to escort him to Caesarea by the Sea, 30 miles up the Mediterranean coast from Joppa (Acts 10:9-23). 

Peter went to Caesarea, into the house of Cornelius the centurion, a Roman who feared the God of Israel. Peter realized the meaning of his dream was to prepare him to preach the gospel to these Gentiles, rather than withhold the good news of Jesus from them. So Peter preached the gospel to Cornelius, his family, and his friends.

Here, at the Jerusalem Council, Peter says, And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us (v. 8).

Luke records this moment in this way, 

“While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.”
(Acts 10:44-45)

While Peter was still in the middle of talking, suddenly the Gentiles listening to him began speaking in foreign tongues. They did not have to confess their faith, or be baptized, or pray a prayer, because all God requires is faith. And it is only God who knows the heart. God knew that Cornelius, his family, and his friends each believed in their heart. They did not have to perform any actions to prove to any humans they had believed. They only had to believe in their heart, because God knows the heart, and it is God who justifies humans in His sight through the atoning death of Jesus. 

Then, as a testimony to everyone there in Cornelius’s house—Peter and the Jewish believers with him—God showed that these men and women had received the Holy Spirit. He testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he also gave to the Jews. The Jewish believers first received the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, when they too were able to speak in foreign tongues they had not formerly known to preach about God’s glory (Acts 2:4, 7-11).

The fact that Cornelius and his fellow Gentiles could speak in tongues was a sign that they had believed in Jesus Christ and had received the Holy Spirit.

Peter explicitly makes this point, and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith (v. 9). There is no distinction between Jews and Gentiles (Acts 10:34). The cleansing of our hearts of sin and spiritual deadness only comes by faith in Jesus. It is the same for us and them, Peter is saying. All hearts are cleansed, all sins are forgiven, all the spiritually dead are saved by faith, no matter their culture or ethnicity. And all without any adherence to any religious rules or traditions.

Here at the Council of Jerusalem, Peter is reminding his audience of this moment where God poured out His Spirit on the Gentiles who believed to show them, “I was there when the first Gentile came to faith. I witnessed it. God knows the heart, God sent the Spirit simply because these Gentiles believed. These Gentiles received the Spirit, just like we did. We spoke in tongues, they spoke in tongues. God has welcomed them in. We are saved by faith in Jesus, they are saved by faith in Jesus. We, Jews and Gentiles, share the same Holy Spirit through faith in the same Savior.” 

Having shown the equality between Jewish and Gentile believers, that there is only one way to salvation—faith in Jesus—Peter comes to his conclusion that the Law plays no part in being justified in God’s sight.

He challenges the Pharisee believers and their claim that Gentiles should become Jewish in order to be saved:

“Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? (v. 10).

He is essentially asking them: “What is the point of adding the Law to them? What would it benefit the Gentiles? Furthermore, it is an insult to God and an insult to the cross of Christ to claim that Gentiles need to become subservient to the Law, as though Christ’s work was not the one and only thing that led to salvation. You are implying that what Jesus did is lacking.”

This Council seems to have been attended only by Jews, so it is likely that they were speaking Hebrew, rather than the Greek which Luke uses to write this book. If Hebrew, then when Peter says, “why do you put God to the test?” he would have said, "Why do you ‘nasa’ (test) God?” 

Peter would be referencing the Old Testament verse which Jesus quoted to Satan when He was tempted. Jesus said, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test,” quoting Deuteronomy 6:16, which says, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah.” 

Massah was a location in the desert where the Israelites doubted that God was for them, putting the Lord to the test. Moses named the place “Massah,” which is derived from the Hebrew “nasa.” Both mean “test” or “to prove,” because the Israelites wanted God to prove Himself to them, just as Satan tempted Jesus to prove Himself to Satan. 

The idea Israel had at Massah was essentially “If you want to be our God, then you have to perform for us and do as we wish.” Thus, Israel was insisting God be like a transactional idol that they could control: “We will give you service if you will give us what we want.” 

Thus, Peter is putting it to the Pharisees that they are trying/testing God, just as the faithless Israelites or Satan himself. They are trying to impose upon God, rather than trust Him and follow Him. They are insisting that God fit into their “box” and follow their leading instead of seeking to follow God’s leading. 

Peter questions the Pharisees concerning why they should want to put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples (the Gentile believers) a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 

A yoke is a heavy collar worn by plow animals, such as oxen. It joins the two animals together. It is a symbol of being tied to something. Peter asks why this yoke of the Law of Moses should be placed upon the neck of the Gentiles. Why impose this burden onto someone when God has not required it? Why are you trying to tell God what should be done? 

The larger point is that even the Jews have failed to wear the yoke. It has been too heavy to bear. Peter points out that no one has had the “strength” to bear it, neither our fathers, the Jews of the past, nor we, meaning Peter and the other Jews of the first century. 

He is asking, “How well did our fathers do keeping all these rules? We know the Scripture; it is mostly about them messing up. Why would we ask the Gentiles to do something we could not do?”

In any event, the point of the Mosaic Law was never about being justified in His sight (Romans 4:1-8). Nor was circumcision. God chose Israel because of His love (Deuteronomy 7:6-8). The Law was to direct the Jews toward fellowship with God and one another (Matthew 22:36-40). It was to bring life to them and their communities (Deuteronomy 30:19). 

But Israel failed to uphold the Law. Their failure to follow the Law was meant to show them that they needed a new heart, which could only be given to them through faith in Jesus the Messiah (Ezekiel 36:26, Jeremiah 31:33, Galatians 3:19-26). As Jesus stated to the Pharisees, “You are the sons of those who murdered the prophets,” showing that Israel had a long history of following their own way rather than God’s way (Matthew 23:31). 

Peter finishes his rebuttal with a simple summation of what saves all men from the penalty of sin and separation from God, whether Jew or Gentile:

“But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are” (v. 11).

It is not the Law that saves from sin. Rather, the Law is a yoke no man can fully bear. The illustration is that the Law is a burden too heavy to pull. Like a team of oxen trying to pull a load that is too heavy, so is the Law. No one can live up to the Law’s standards and achieve righteousness in God’s sight (Romans 3:9-10, 23). 

Peter points to the gospel as the true solution—the fact that Jesus took sin upon Himself to pay our debt and pave the way for us to be in right relationship with God (Colossians 2:14, Romans 3:22). The good news, Peter says, which we believe, everyone there, including the Pharisees (Acts 15:5), is that men and women are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus. 

Peter insists that the unearned favor (grace) of the Son of God received by faith is what saves us (John 3:14-15). The Jews are circumcised and keep the Law of Moses (though incompletely, as Peter has just pointed out), but they are not saved from the penalty of sin through law-keeping or physical markings. 

All who are justified in God’s sight are saved by trusting in Jesus and receiving His grace. It is in the same way that they, the Gentiles, also are saved, even as are the Jews. Peter is saying that if we are all (Jews and Gentiles) saved the same way, what purpose would the Law serve to the new Galatian believers, whom Paul and Barnabas have just told us about? 

Peter’s friend Cornelius believed and received the Holy Spirit, because God knows the heart. If they are already justified in God’s sight, then why direct them to follow Jewish tradition as an added burden? 

Why would Peter travel back to Caesarea and tell Cornelius that he was incomplete and needed to fully convert to Judaism when he had already received the Holy Spirit? Cornelius had believed and been filled with the Spirit. He had Jesus’s grace. He had Jesus’s favor. What would the yoke of the law benefit him?

This entire episode recorded by Luke is echoed by Paul many times in his teaching. It seems that while this council settled the matter in part, controversy continued. There were Jews who did not give up the idea that Gentiles should be circumcised. An example of Paul’s position on this matter is stated bluntly in Paul’s letter to the Galatians:

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus”
(Galatians 3:28). 

The region of Galatia was one of Paul’s stops on his first missionary journey. It seems that Paul was followed thereafter by Jews seeking to convince the Galatian believers to be circumcised, and he wrote the Letter to the Galatians to counter their false teaching. We can infer that Luke’s writing of Acts was a companion effort to Paul’s defense of the gospel of grace. 

Peter’s rebuttal of the believing Pharisees’ assertion—that the Gentile believers were required to be circumcised in order to be saved—has a powerful effect on those present for the Council. They are quiet:

All the people kept silent (v. 11). 

This opens up the opportunity for Paul and Barnabas to further persuade the assembly about God’s acceptance of the Gentiles in Cyprus and Galatia. While all the people kept silent, the missionary team goes into more detail about the work of the Holy Spirit among the Gentile peoples:

and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles (v. 11).

The signs and wonders which Luke recorded from the first missionary journey were:

• the blinding of a false magician who opposed the gospel (Acts 13:10-11)
• unspecified “signs and wonders” done in Iconium (Acts 14:3)
• the healing of a man born lame, so that he could leap and walk (Acts 14:8-10)
• and Paul’s miraculous survival and recovery when he was stoned in Lystra (Acts 14:19-20)

God did all these amazing things among the Gentiles, while Paul and Barnabas preached faith in Christ to them. They did not circumcise anyone. They did not direct any Galatian to keep kosher (the Jewish diet, forbidding consumption of pigs, for example). But God was clearly at work among the Gentiles, accepting them through His grace. 

The inclusion of Peter’s speech hints at a primary purpose for Luke in writing Acts. Luke seems to be making a parallel between Peter and Paul. Through Peter, the gospel first came to the Gentiles, and the Holy Spirit dwelled within them without any need for them to be circumcised or otherwise submit to Jewish religious tradition. 

Paul has continued this ministry to the Gentiles. He and Peter are preaching the same gospel message to the Gentiles. The point seems to be that if you accept Peter as a true apostle, then you have to accept Paul, because a) he is bringing the gospel to the Gentiles just as Peter did, and b) God is performing the same kinds of signs and wonders through him as He did with Peter. 

This documentation by Luke, Paul’s ministry partner (Acts 27:1, Philemon 1:24), powerfully supports Paul’s gospel message of grace. It shows his authority as an apostle appointed to preach to the Gentiles a message of grace alone, and freedom from the Law.

James, the half-brother of Jesus, will appeal to the Hebrew scriptures to further confirm that God has accepted the believing Gentiles as they are, without the need of circumcision or following the Jewish Law.