Episode 7: Expansion of the Church
Grace, not Law to Gentiles in Cyprus and Asia Minor
Listen as Ed Underwood teaches on Acts in episode seven of the Recentered on the Word podcast.
Book 5 traces the church's growth through the church's missionary efforts in Antioch and under Paul's leadership. Paul’s first missionary journey to Cyprus and Asia Minor brings the issue of the relationship between the Law of Israel and the grace of the church to a head. Choosing grace instead of the Law, the early church leaders rightly concluded that the body of Christ was for every tribe, tongue, and nation, and God's grace was for all who believed.
Against all odds, the church expanded from a Gentile church into the Gentile territories of Asia Minor under Paul’s leadership and preached the message of the grace of Christ rather than the Law of Moses.
The Christian life is lived by grace through faith, not by following the Law.
