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2.2.3 - A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age
Primitive Jewish Christianity
Pentecost and the Earliest Evangelism - Proof of the Messiahship, Cont.
In spite of all the evidence that could be adduced for the Messiahship of Jesus from his resurrection and exaltation and from the Scriptures which fore told those events, his death must remain a stumbling-block, and must seem to many a fatal objection to the identification of the man Jesus with God's chosen Messiah.
Not that the conception of a suffering Messiah was absolutely unknown, but such a conception was certainly not common and nowhere included his official refection and disgraceful execution by a mode of death pronounced accursed in the law. [Cf. Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho, c. 89 and 90.]
It was in view of this difficulty that the disciples were led again to look for light in the Scriptures. If it could be shown that it was there foretold that the Christ should suffer and be rejected by God's chosen people, and under go a disgraceful death, the difficulty would be at once removed, and at the same time added proof would be secured for the Messiahship of Jesus, who had in this particular also fulfilled Messianic prophecy.
In Peter's Pentecostal discourse nothing is said upon this subject, though the quotation from the sixteenth Psalm, which is used a s a prophecy of Jesus' resurrection, of course involves also his death. But in the address recorded in Acts 3:12 (and following), we read: "But the things which God foreshewed by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled;" and the same idea appears in other passages in the early chapters of Acts. [Acts 8:32 sq. Compare also Acts 4:11, 28]
With this explanation of the death of Jesus, the disciples seem for some time to have contented themselves. At least we find no other reason for it referred to in any of the recorded speeches or prayers of Peter or of his associates.
There is no sign that they thought of it as Christ did, as possessing an independent value of its own, or a s contributing in any way to the well-being of his followers, or to the advancement of the kingdom. [The words of Paul in 1 Cor. 15:3: "I delivered unto your first of all that which also I received" seem to imply that the idea that Christ's death had some relation to men's release from sin, was not original with himself, but was gained from those who were Christians before him. It is certain that the idea was widespread long before the end of the first century even in non-Pauline circles (cf. e.g. Matt. 26:28, where the words "for the remission of sins" are added), and there is no reason to doubt that it arose very early. Indeed, it cannot have been long before the disciples were led to make a connection at once so obvious and so clearly suggested by such a passage as Isa. 53. But that the connection was thought of in the early days with which we are dealing, there is no sign in our sources, and it may be regarded as certain, at any rate, that it was not emphasized. It is worthy of remark that even when it was generally recognized that some connection existed, it was long before the nature of it was determined. There was, in fact, for centuries much vagueness of conception and wide lack of agreement at this point.]
According to the author of the Acts, Peter's Pentecostal discourse produced a profound impression upon his auditors, and drew from them the anxious query: "Brethren, what shall we do?"
Peter's reply, taken in connection with other utterances recorded in the following chapters, reveals with sufficient clearness the conception of the Gospel prevalent among the disciples in these early days. That conception was of the most simple and primitive character.
Christianity, as they understood it, was Judaism, and nothing more. It was not a substitute for Judaism, nor even an addition or supplement to Judaism; it was not, indeed, in any way distinct from the national faith. It was simply the belief on the part of good and faithful Jews that Jesus was the Messiah, and it involved no disloyalty to Judaism, and no abandonment of existing principles.
For a Jew to believe in the Messiah whom they preached, was not necessarily to revise his conceptions of the nature of the Messianic kingdom, and of the blessings to be enjoyed within it, nor indeed of the conditions of sharing in those blessings. Peter says only, "Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ." [Acts 2:38]
Both here and in Acts 3:19, where he again exhorts his hearers to repent, the sin that is uppermost in his mind is their crucifixions of Jesus. But in v. 31 the word "repentance" is employed in a more general sense, and even in the two passages just mentioned, it is clear from Peter's reference to the forgiveness or remission of sins, that he did not intend to confine the needed repentance to the single crime which they had committed against the Messiah. It is clear, in other words, that though he was stating primarily not the conditions of salvation in general, for which, indeed, his hearers did not ask, but simply the particular duty devolving upon them under existing circumstances, he was voicing at the same time the general truth, that if one is conscious of sin committed, he must repent before he can expect to enjoy God's promised blessings.
In laying down such a condition, Peter was simply reiterating a principle universally prevalent among the Jews of his time, that righteousness is an indispensable condition of enjoying God's favor, whether now or hereafter. It would be a mistake to suppose that he intended, during those days, to enunciate a new way of securing God's favor, or a new method of salvation.
He did not put repentance in the place of righteousness, nor did he suggest any revision of the prevailing theory of righteousness, making it consist in something else than the observance fo the Jewish law. Moreover, we are not justified in assuming that his words involved in any sense a rebuke of the self-righteousness of his countrymen; that he intended assert that every man is a sinner, and that repentance is a universal precondition of enjoying God's favor.
Whatever his own opinion on the subject, the words which he is reported to have uttered during these early days leave room for the theory, which was widespread, at least in Pharisaic circles, that it is possible foe a man to keep the law of God and thereby to secure through his own efforts the favor and blessing of th Almighty.
Peter therefore preached no new and unfamiliar Gospel, when he summoned his hearers to repentance. He was simply enforcing the application, in the case of men whom he believed to have committed a grave crime, of a long established, widely recognized, and genuinely Jewish principle, which they accepted as truly as he.
Used by permission of the publisher.
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