Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. 

Acts 13:38-39 

Acceptance with God is never by works. It has not ever been by works and will never be. There are only two types of religion. The one type demands a plethora of works for acceptance with God. The other is free grace with works as the evidence of true gratitude for what we have received. Ancient Judaism was based on the law of Moses. The Ten Commandments provided much of the basic foundation from which the rest of the practices derived. Having said that, the law could not ever bring anyone into a right relationship with God. Along with the law there was always the promise of Messiah. From Genesis through to Malachi ‘to Him give all the prophets witness.’ As Paul points out in Galatians, ‘Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.’  Therefore, as Paul is preaching to the Jews in Antioch of Pisidia he articulates justification by faith and goes on to point out that justification is not by the deeds of following the law of Moses. Paul is setting forth salvation by free grace. Here is where the faith of Christ departs from every other religion, ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.’ As Paul says elsewhere, ‘by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight.’ This plants the knife into the heart of all self-righteousness and works-righteousness. We cannot ever do enough. Christ, has done what the law could never do.  

Our Gracious Master and our God, 
we rejoice that You are the reason we can be justified. 
We praise You that what You have done 
is what we need most.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. 

Acts 13:38-39 

How can we be just with God? This is an old question. Job asked it in what is perhaps the oldest book of the Bible. The nature of the question is how can a person be righteous before God? In his message, Paul answers that question. He begins with forgiveness of sins and proceeds to, ‘by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.’ The law of Moses laid down spiritual and moral demands which are humanly impossible to meet. No matter how we attempt to satisfy those demands, we will never succeed. Because we are the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, we are sinners by nature and by choice. As Isaiah puts it, ‘All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.’  The end of that verse points to Christ as the Bearer of sin. If we want to understand how we can be righteous in the eyes of God we must look to the life and death of Christ. By His life, He satisfied all the demands of the law of God in precept. By His death, He satisfied all the demands of the law in penalty. He has been the righteous person. In order to be declared legally righteous in the eyes of God and of His law we believe in Jesus. God imputes His righteousness to us. He accepts us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us and received by faith alone. Thus we can be just with God.  

Our Holy and Righteous God, 
we rejoice that You have given us Your only begotten Son. 
We praise You that by His righteousness, 
we can be justified. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins. 

Acts 13:38 

Paul preaches Christ for the forgiveness of sins. As he was preaching in the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia, he laid the historical groundwork to introduce Christ. He brought the account of His death, burial, and resurrection to his hearers, proving his points from the Old Testament. He introduced Jesus as the Man through Whom there is forgiveness of sins. This is the place in the message toward which Paul had been working all along. The congregation who were listening were well-versed in the matter of sin. They knew the law of Moses. They knew, not only the Ten Commandments, but also the extrapolations and implications of the law which their teachers had been expounding for centuries. An astronomical amount of their discussions had been about sin and the forgiveness of sins. Now Paul introduces Jesus and says, ‘through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins.’ This was striking news. Paul, having excelled in Judaism above others, knew how radical his message was. It is still a radical message. Forgiveness of sins is through Christ. This is one of the premier facts of the gospel. As such, Paul emphasized it to his hearers. We do the same. By Jesus is forgiveness of sins.  

Our Good and Gracious God, 
we rejoice that You have provided Christ for us. 
We praise You that, by Him, 
we have the forgiveness of sins. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

And though they found no cause for death in Him, they asked Pilate that He should be put to death. Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. But God raised Him from the dead.  

Acts 13:28-30

Paul proclaimed Christ’s resurrection from the dead. In this first record of his preaching, he includes the fact that God raised Christ from the dead. This was key to Paul’s message. Because he was speaking to Jews, he laid the historical groundwork by weaving together their history with the ancient prophecies of the Messiah. Having laid the groundwork in his introduction, he begins to make his most important points. One of these primary points is that Christ has risen from the dead. This was such an important fact that it pervaded Paul’s writing, preaching, and teaching throughout the rest of the New Testament. Much of the conflict he had with the Jewish religious authorities centered around his assertion that Christ had risen from the dead. Therefore, it is entirely understandable that in this first recorded message we observe him speaking of Christ’s resurrection. We have learned from Paul’s example. We also believe Christ has risen from the dead. It is one of the most well-attested facts in history. All the Apostles saw Christ after He had arisen, and testified of it. We reiterate what they have told us. When we speak of Him, we speak of Him as the Risen Christ. He is no longer on the cross, or in the tomb. He is risen from the dead. This was Paul’s message and is ours.  

Our Glorious, Living Christ, 
we rejoice that You are alive from the dead. 
We praise You that because You live,  
we shall live also. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

And afterward they asked for a king; so God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will. From this man’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior, Jesus. 

Acts 13:21-23 

What was important to Paul to declare to those who heard him? Acts 13 gives us the first recorded message of Paul on his first missionary journey. While he had been preaching for quite some time, this is the first record we have of what he said. How does he communicate his message? A reading of the whole of the sermon reveals he recounted the history of Israel to his audience. This is logical considering he was in a synagogue and the majority of his hearers would be Jewish. He recounted the exodus; their occupation of Canaan; the rulership of the judges; the kingship of Saul; then the ascension of David. From David, as the progenitor, he presents Jesus. Why does this matter to us? It matters because here is perhaps the most important missionary and theologian of the New Testament, preaching the first message recorded for our benefit, and his preeminent message is Christ. As we see where he begins and how he proceeds, we observe what is most important for us to communicate to others. As soon as possible, Paul introduced Christ. There is no better recipe for preaching than that. Whatever else we discuss, let it be a means of introducing Christ to any audience we have.  

Our Great God and our Savior, 
we rejoice that You have given us the privilege 
of declaring You to all the world. 
We praise You that wherever we go, 
You are the most worthy subject 
of our conversation.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning