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Day 324: In the Name of Jesus
Agape Bible Study
Acts 3
Chapter 3: Peter and John Teach and Heal in the Jerusalem Temple
Acts 3:1-4:22 is a story in five parts:
- The healing of a beggar who was lame from birth (Acts 3:1-10)
- Peter's 2nd kerygmatic discourse (Acts 3:11-26)
- The religious authorities arrest Peter and John (Acts 4:1-4)
- Peter's 3rd kerygmatic discourse before the Sanhedrin (Acts 4:5-12)
- The ruling of the Sanhedrin (Acts 4:13-22)
Acts 3:1-10 ~ The Healing of a Crippled Beggar
Please notice that ever since Jesus sent Peter and John to prepare the Upper Room for the Last Supper, that these two are often paired together.
Acts 3:1 Now Peter and John were going up to the Temple area for the three o'clock hour of prayer [at the ninth hour].
There could only be one altar of sacrifice to the God of Israel and one Sanctuary unlike the pagan gods for whom multiple altars and temples of worship were established. The first Sanctuary was the one built by Moses and the children of Israel at Mt. Sinai (Ex 25-31 and 36-40). The furnishings of the Sanctuary and the altar of sacrifice were copies of what Moses saw in the heavenly Sanctuary (Ex 25:1-9). This was a movable Sanctuary that traveled with the Israelites during their forty years in the wilderness. When David conquered Jerusalem, the Sanctuary was permanently settled in Jerusalem as the place God chose as "a home for His name" (Dt 12:10-12; 1 Kng 11:36; 1 Chr 6:6). David's son Solomon built the first Jerusalem Temple on the heights of Mt. Moriah in the 10th century BC (2 Chr 3:1-2). The first Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587/6 BC. After the Jews returned from exile seventy years later, they built the second Jerusalem Temple. When Herod the Great became the Roman appointed King of the Jews, he began a major building project to expand and beautify the Temple, making it one of the most beautiful buildings in the ancient world. Each of the nine gates that led into the Temple precincts had huge double doors. With the exception of the Corinthian gate that was made of bronze embellished with silver and gold, all the other gates leading into the Temple area were wooden doors that were completely covered with gold and silver on the front and back of each door (Josephus, The Jewish Wars, 5.5.3 [201-204].
The hour of the afternoon Liturgical worship service when the second communal Tamid sacrifice was slain and the Temple doors opened for prayer and worship.
Acts 3:2 And a man crippled from birth was carried and placed at the gate of the Temple called "the Beautiful Gate' every day to beg for alms from the people who entered the Temple.
The identification and location of the "Beautiful Gate" has been a highly debated topic for Bible scholars.This man's deformity prevented him from attending worship in the inner courts of the Temple, and he counted on the generosity of those coming to the Temple to support himself (Lev 21:16-18; Dt 15:21; Mal 1:8, 13; Mishnah: Kelim, 1:5). He was crippled from birth and was now over forty years old (Acts 4:22).
The gift Peter had to give the man was beyond any monetary contribution. Peter's mention of "silver or gold" may be a reference to the beautifully embellished gate they were standing near that was covered with silver and gold.
Question: What promise did Jesus make His disciples in John 15:16, 25-27 and 16:23-24 that was fulfilled in Acts 3:6-8?
Answer: Through the power of the Holy Spirit they would testify about Him and that whatever they ask in the name of Jesus they will receive through the power of the Spirit.
For the ancients the "name" of a person was inseparable from the person himself and expressed the true moral essence of that person (see for example Ex 3:13). By invoking the "name of Jesus," Peter has brought the life-force of Jesus into action.
Question: What other requirement is there for the active power of Jesus to be manifested in the invocation of His name? See Mt 8:10-13; Acts 4:16;19:13-17.
Answer: Genuine faith in both the one receiving the healing and the one calling on the power of Jesus' holy name and also submission to the will of God for both.
Jesus asked for faith when He worked His miracles (see Mt 8:13; 9:1-2; Mk 5:36-43; 10:51-52; Lk 17:14-19). Miracles require faith, without which the miracle loses its true significance since faith requires the submission/sacrifice of the whole person "mind and heart "to the will of God for his/her life.
Question: What does his healing signify beyond the physical restoration?
Answer: He has also been restored to communal worship.
Acts 3:11-26 ~ Peter's Homily to the Jews at the Temple
Peter, John and the restored man have entered the gate and are now in Solomon's Portico, a colonnade running along the inner side of the wall enclosing the outer court on the eastern side of the Temple. It had rows of columns 27 feet high and a roof of cedar and was used as a place to gather and to discuss Scripture. In verses 12-26 Peter puts the miracle of healing the lame man in the context of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is Peter's 2nd kerygmatic discourse as he proclaims the Gospel to the Jewish crowd in the Temple.
Question: How does Peter begin by putting the healing of the lame man in the proper perspective?
Answer: Peter tells the crowd that is was not their miracle by which the man was healed, but it was Jesus the Messiah who healed him
Agape Bible Study
Romans 4 - 5
Romans 4:1-12, Abraham is justified by faith:In this passage Paul presents his argument in 3 stages:
- Romans 4:3-5 focuses on Genesis 15 [quoting verse 6]
- Romans 4:6-8 focuses on Psalms 32 [quoting verses 1-2] and King David's justification
- Romans 4:9-12 focuses on Genesis 17 [quoting verse 10] and Abraham's righteousness which is not the result of circumcision because his faith preceded his circumcision.
Abraham's righteous works might have been something to boast of to other men and women because his deeds were good and in the eyes of others were worthy deeds, but Paul is linking this question to his statements in 3:23-28 that there is no room for boasting because "faith is what counts, since, as we see it, a person is justified by faith and not by doing what the Law tells him to do." Paul's point is that Abraham's justification and the works that resulted had their source in the first stage of the process of justification—which is in the supernatural gift of faith—which comes from the divine grace and favor of God [CCC# 153].
Question: Why might this be a hard teaching for Paul's Jewish audience?
Answer: This is a hard teaching for Paul's Jewish audience, who through their tradition, have been preoccupied with Abraham chiefly as a model of works of obedience no matter what the trial:
- 1 Maccabees 2:51-52: "Remember the deeds performed by our ancestors, each in his generation, and you will win great honor and everlasting renown. Was not Abraham tested and found faithful, was that not considered as justifying him?"
- Wisdom 10:5 [Wisdom at work in Salvation history]: "Again, when, concurring in wickedness, the nations had been thrown into confusion, she singled out the upright man, preserved him blameless before God and fortified him against pity for his child."
- Ecclesiasticus 44:19 (20):"Abraham, the great ancestor of a host of nations, no one was ever his equal in glory. He observed the Law of the Most High, and entered into a covenant with him. He confirmed the covenant in his own flesh, and proved himself faithful under ordeal.
But Paul's point is that faith and obedience in deeds are so interdependent that they cannot be separated and yet it is the gift of faith that must come first in order for the works of faith to be generated. The gift of faith is the first step in obtaining justification/salvation: "The necessity of faith: CCC# 161, Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation. Since without faith it is impossible to please [God]' and to attain to the fellowship of his Son, therefore without faith no one has ever attained justification, nor will anyone obtain eternal life but he who endures to the end.'" [quoting Dei Filius 3; Matthew 10:22; 24:13; Hebrews 11:6; Council of Trent: DS 1532]. The Council of Trent stated that this initial act of faith "moves the person to recognize God, to repent of his sins, to put his trust and faith in God's divine mercy and to love him above all things; and to desire the sacraments and resolve to live a holy life.." The Council of Trent, De Justification, chapter 6.
In Genesis chapter 17 circumcision becomes a "sign" like the covenant sign of the rainbow in Genesis 9:16-17, to remind Yahweh of His covenant commitment and humans of their covenant obligations. However, according to God's plan, circumcision was only an external sign of Abraham's justification—not the cause!
- Deuteronomy 10:16: "Circumcise your heart then and be obstinate no longer; for Yahweh your God is God of gods and Lord of lords..."
- Jeremiah 4:4: "Circumcise yourselves for Yahweh, apply circumcision to your hearts, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem."
- Jeremiah 9:24-25 [25-26]: "Look, the days are coming, Yahweh declares, when I shall punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh: Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all the men with shaven temples who live in the desert. For all those nations and the whole House of Israel too, are uncircumcised at heart."
Paul insists that the blessing in Psalms 32:1-2 is not limited to the circumcised Jews. The force of Paul's questions center on Abraham and whether he was circumcised when he was first justified by faith. He was not. Abraham was justified by his faith in Genesis chapter 15 but was not circumcised until chapter 17. Paul argues the status of the individual depends on his uprightness before God—whether or not he came to God in faith—because in Abraham's case justification came about through faith and not by "deeds of the Law" like circumcision. It is, as Paul explains in Romans 4:11, the "sign and a guarantee that the faith which he had while still uncircumcised was reckoned to him as uprightness." It is the time sequence that is Paul's focus in the Genesis story. Abraham was judged as righteous in Genesis 15 but was not circumcised until Genesis 17; therefore, circumcision had nothing to do with Abraham being reckoned as upright. Circumcision was a "sign" to seal the Covenant with Yahweh to be handed on to Abraham's posterity, but it was a sign given to Abraham as a person of faith. Abraham, through the gift of faith, believed in God and God made a covenant with him, and circumcision became a sign of that covenant and a seal of his justification through faith!
Question: And so in Romans 4:11-12, according to Paul whose father does Abraham become?
Answer: Abraham's spiritual paternity is as important as his physical paternity and it is the spiritual paternity that makes him the father of all believers who imitate his faith and turn to faith in Jesus Christ whether they are circumcised in the flesh or not.
Romans 4:13-17, Justification is not through obedience to the Law of Moses:
Question: If salvation was only through the observance of the Law of Moses what would be the result?
Answer: The result would be that faith as a supernatural gift of God would have no role in God's plan of salvation for humanity. Faith would be "null and void" of any meaning or impact and God's promise of justifying Abraham's faith could not be fulfilled. The "uprightness of faith" that Paul mentions is the obedience of faith that is evidenced by a living and active faith in Abraham's life. God awarded the promises to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 because of his faith. It was an inheritance that wasn't given as a reward for a duty performed or as a contract fulfilled [Abraham hadn't even left for Canaan] but was given in faith to be redeemed by faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ.
In Romans 4:15 Paul is repeating what he introduced in Romans 1:18 and then taught more fully in 3:19-20, "Now we are well aware that whatever the Law says is said for those who are subject to the Law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world brought under the judgment of God. So then, no human being can be found upright at the tribunal of God by keeping the Law; all that the Law does is to tell us what is sinful."
Question: What point is Paul repeating? How is the Law of Moses limited?
Answer: The Law was given to identify sin; it cannot eliminate sin nor can the Law bring about salvation.
Then in completing his thought in Romans 4:15 Paul makes a curious statement. He writes, "...it is only where there is no Law that it is possible to live without breaking the Law", which can also be translated as "but where there is no law, there is no transgression."
Question: What is Paul's point?
Answer: A "transgression", or "breaking of the Law" implies an act that violates the law that has been prescribed. So, if there is no law prescribed then there can be no violation of the law—and yet if there is no law at all sin abounds even when it is not labeled as sin. Paul will develop this further in Romans 5:11-13
Romans 4:18-25, Father Abraham's faith is a model for Christian faith:
Question: Why would there seem to be no hope for the fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham? What was the necessary condition that had to be completed for the promises to be fulfilled? See chart of promises from Genesis chapter 12 and read Genesis chapter 17:1-22
| 3 BLESSINGS PROMISED TO ABRAM FOR FAITHFUL OBEDIENCE |
| 1. "I shall make you a great nation": This is the promise of a nation that will belong to Abram's descendants and over which they will rule. |
| 2. "I shall bless you and make your name famous": This is the promised of the blessing of descendants. A man's name was carried on by his offspring. |
| 3. "All the nations on earth will bless themselves by your descendants": This is the promise of a world-wide blessing that will come from the children of Abram. |
These promises will become the 3-fold Covenant with Abram and his "seed"/descendants in chapters 15, 17 and 22, a period that covers approximately 40 years.
Answer: Abraham would have to have children—all the promises are based on descendants. He was elderly and his wife was beyond childbearing years—in Genesis 17 he is 99 and Sarai is 89 but he believe and miraculously Sarah conceived the child through which the promises would be eventually fulfilled and gave birth when she was 90 years old. Abraham's son Isaac—born when his father was 100 years old—would father Jacob who would be renamed by God as Israel and Jacob/Israel would become the physical father of the 12 tribes of Israel, and Jesus the Messiah would be born from the 4th son, the tribe of Judah.
Question: Paul is presenting Abraham as a model of faith but was there a time when Abraham's faith in the physical fulfillment [not the spiritual fulfillment] of the promises was weak?
Answer: Earlier in his walk with God Abraham had tried to take the fulfillment of the promises into his own hands and the result was Ishmael, Abraham's son by Sarai's Egyptian slave girl, Hagar [Genesis chapter 16]. However, in Genesis chapter 17:1 God repeats His promise adding in 17:15-19 that a son is to be born to Abraham and Sarah in their old age.
Question: Turn to Genesis 17. What request does Abraham make in Genesis 17:18? What is God's answer?
Answer: Abraham is elated to be told Sarah will bear him a son but he reminds God—look here is a perfectly fine son [Ishmael] who can inherit the promises "that will be enough.". But God's answer is that the Covenant is to only pass through the Hebrew bloodline of Abraham and Sarah——the son of the promise in whom the promised "seed" of Genesis 3:15 is preserved. This is the line through which the Messiah will come. Abraham believed and his reward was the fulfillment of the promises.
Question: In Romans 4:20-21 what does Paul write that Abraham's faith achieved for him?
Answer: The exercise of faith strengthens the believer—even when the believer is physically or spiritually weak. Even a little faith is enough for God's grace to work in our lives for faith is all powerful and allows God's power to yield miracles in our lives. Paul confirms this "strength" in weakness when he writes to the Church at Corinth: 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, "for power is at full stretch in weakness. It is, then, about my weaknesses that I am happiest of all to boast, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me; and that is why I am glad of weaknesses, insults, constraints, persecutions and distress for Christ's sake. For it is when I am weak that I am strong.
Notice in Romans 4:25 that Paul's reference is not only to Jesus' sacrificial death but also to His glorious Resurrection. Paul never writes of the death of the Savior in isolation from His Resurrection.
Martin Luther interpreted these passages in Romans chapters 3 and 4 to support his doctrine of salvation by "faith alone"—rejecting the "justification by deeds in chapter 2 as an "unfulfilled plan" on account of man's sinfulness. His interpretation of these passages was that justification is a state in which man is only declared "just" generated by faith in Jesus Christ; that this is only a legal declaration—not a transformation, and that justification is not concerned with works. Most Protestants view the different aspects of salvation: sanctification, justification, redemption, and forgiveness as past events and justification only as a state into which the believer is placed upon a one time profession of faith. But according to sacred Scripture all the different aspects of salvation share past, present and future dimensions including justification. Catholic doctrine does agree with our Protestant brothers that justification is a state conferred by God's grace through faith [that is initial justification]; however, Catholic doctrine teaches that justification is a state as well as a process, and that justification has past, present and future dimensions. We do we not agree with our Protestant brothers and sisters who reject justification by works as a part of the salvation process.
Sacred Scripture supports the 3 different dimensions of justification as a life process. Romans 5:1-2, 9 and 1 Corinthians 6:11 are some examples of Scripture that speak of justification as a past event, but the Bible also teaches that justification is not simply a "one-for-all-time" event but is rather also an on-going and not yet completed process in which works of righteous faith are a key part of the process.
| Justification as a past event | Justification as a present event | Justification as a future event |
| Romans 5:1-2 | James 2:24 | Romans 2:13 |
| Romans 5:9 | Romans 3:28 | Romans 3:20 |
| 1 Corinthians 6:11 | Galatians 2:16, 17 | Galatians 5:5 |
M. Hunt copyright 2006
Therefore, taking Scripture as a whole it is clear that justification is a process. The process begins with the first work of the grace of the Holy Spirit in our conversion and our initial justification through faith merited in the saving power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ—we are Baptized by water and the Spirit and reborn as transformed, holy children into God's covenant family. That justification continues after our Baptism into the family of God as we struggle on our journey—turning away from sin and turning back to God, renewed and justified through the Sacrament of Reconciliation and sanctified by the works of God work through our lives in deeds of love and charity—a process that continues until our individual judgment or the Resurrection of the dead and the Final Judgment. When we face the judgment of God we will be judged according to our deeds and, by the grace of God the righteous who persevered in faith demonstrated in works of love will receive the gift of eternal life.
Romans 5:1-11, God's love and the gift of the Holy Spirit provides our hope of eternal salvation:
Holy Spirit Window St. Peter's Basilica
Question: According to Paul in Romans 5:1 what is the first effect of justification?
Answer: The first effect is that the believer experiences peace.
Question: In what sense is Paul using the term "peace"?
Answer: He is not using the word in the sense of "peace of mind" or in the sense of "peace" as a result of the absence of conflict, but is using the Greek word eirene, pronounced, i-ray'-nay [see Strong's Greek Lexicon #1515] in the same sense as the Hebrew word shalom, the fullness of a right relationship'in this case with God and in the justification that establishes that right relationship with Yahweh through the New Covenant in the blood of Jesus the Messiah. Paul speaks of "peace" / "shalom" in the same sense as Yahweh's holy prophet Isaiah prophesized the outpouring of the Spirit of God in Isaiah 32:15-20. Keep in mind as you read this passage that the "dessert" is the spiritually parched souls of Old Covenant believers: "until the spirit is poured out on us from above, and the desert becomes productive ground, so productive you might take it for a forest. Fair judgment will fix its home in the desert, and uprightness live in the productive ground, and the product of uprightness will be peace, the effect of uprightness being quiet and security for ever." [also see Isaiah 54:10; Psalms 85:10-11].
Question: How did Paul describe this "peace" in Philippians 4:6-7?
Answer: "Never worry about anything; but tell God all your desires of every kind in prayer and petition shot through with gratitude, and the peace of God which is beyond our understanding will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus." The Church father, Origen [c. 185-254] wrote in his commentary on Romans 5, "Peace reigns when nobody complains, nobody disagrees, nobody is hostile and nobody misbehaves.
Question: Paul writes in Romans 5:2 that we will be able to look forward to God's glory. What is the glory to which Paul refers?
Answer: To enter into God's glory is to be united to the divine life of the Most Holy Trinity into eternity.
Question: What is the Holy Spirit's unique relationship to the New Covenant Church and to New Covenant believers? See John 15:26; 16:5-15;Romans 8:8-11; 14-16; 1 Corinthians 3:16; 2 Timothy 1:14.
Answer: Paul's point is to remind the Romans that the pouring out of God the Holy Spirit was a manifestation which is distinctive to the New Covenant Church and not part of the Old. He is the Spirit who dwells in the circumcised heart of the New Covenant believer from the moment of our baptism and makes the believer a true child of God.
Romans 5:12-21, Jesus Christ the Second Adam:
In Romans 5:12-21 Paul addresses the origin of sin and death.
Question: How is it that Adam's sin had such an effect on all mankind?
Answer: Adam is our human father and we have inherited from him "spiritual death" as a result of his sin just as we inherit our other genes and traits of human inheritance. Through our first parents we are born physically alive but spiritual dead and it is our spiritual death that infects us with sin and the life-long struggle to resist Satan and the temptation to sin.
Question: Why did Satan set out to destroy mankind? Hint: see Wisdom 1:13-15 and 2:24.
Answer: Wisdom 2:24, "Death came into the world only through the Devil's envy, as those who belong to him find to their cost." It was this same envy or jealousy that lead to the death of Abel and it was this sin that Satan used to bring those under his power [the "seed of Satan"] to condemn Jesus to death: "For Pilate knew it was out of jealousy that they handed him over." Matthew 27:18 [also see Mark 15:10; 1 John 3:11-12; Hebrews 11:4].
The inspired writer of Wisdom in interpreting the Fall of man in Genesis chapter 3 writes that the death introduced by the devil is spiritual death, with physical death as its consequence: Wisdom 1:13-15, "For God did not make Death, he takes no pleasure in destroying the living. To exist'for this he created all things; the creatures of the world have health in them, in them is no fatal poison, and Hades has no power over the world: for uprightness is immortal." As a result of Adam and Eve's sin in usurping God's power and authority in their desire to judge good and evil for themselves [Genesis 3:5], they "died" to sin and sin came to "live" in humanity with the consequence that spiritual and physical death became the "reward" of sin.
Question: What do we call the first sin that entered the world and the lasting effect it had on humanity? What is the consequence of this first sin that causes us to be inclined to be tempted to commit sin?
Answer: That sin first entered the world through the Fall of our first parents is the doctrine of original sin. The temptation to sin which is a result of original sin is called concupiscence. In turning to the doctrine of original sin St. Paul is drawing a contrast between the temptation and Fall, or the "work" of the first Adam with the One he prefigured, Jesus of Nazareth the "second Adam" and His "work" of redemption in He becomes the Savior of all the children of Adam who now have the opportunity to be freed of the inheritance of sin to be reborn as children of God. It is because of the stain of original sin that mankind needs a redeemer.
- CCC# 389: "The doctrine of original sin is, so to speak, the 'reverse side' of the Good News that Jesus is the Savior of all men, that all need salvation, and that salvation is offered to all through Christ. The Church, which has the mind of Christ, knows very well that we cannot tamper with the revelation of original sin without undermining the mystery of Christ."
- CCC# 404: "How did the sin of Adam become the sin of all his descendants? The whole human race is in Adam 'as one body of one man.' By this 'unity of the human race' all men are implicated in Adam's sin, as all are implicated in Christ's justice. Still, the transmission of original sin is a mystery that we cannot fully understand. But we do know by Revelation that Adam had received original holiness and justice not for himself alone, but for all human nature. By yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal sin, but this sin affected the human nature that they would then transmit in a fallen state. It is a sin which will be transmitted by propagation to all mankind, that is, by the transmission of human nature deprived or original holiness and justice. And that is why original sin is called 'sins' only in an analogical sense: it is a sin 'contracted' and not 'committed''a state and not an act."
- CCC# 405: "Although it is proper to each individual, original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam's descendants. It is a deprivation of original holiness and justice, but human nature has not been totally corrupted: it is wounded in the natural powers proper to it; subject to ignorance, suffering, and the dominion of death; and inclined to sin'an inclination to evil that is called 'concupiscence.' Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ's grace, erases original sin and turns a man back toward God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and common him to spiritual battle." [for a more complete study see CCC#s 396-421]
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