The Jerusalem Council : Grace or Law (And The Question of Tithing)
The Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) stands as a decisive moment in the New Testament where the gospel is publicly guarded from being restructured into Law-based entry. The immediate controversy was not a minor cultural preference but a gospel-defining claim: “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1). This was not merely a debate about ritual. It was a question of what constitutes salvation and what governs belonging among the people of God. The council’s purpose, therefore, was to preserve the gospel as God’s action in Christ—received by faith—rather than a covenant admission structure governed by the old written code.
Peter’s argument establishes the center. God gave the Holy Spirit to the nations “just as he did to us,” “making no distinction” of jew and the other nations, cleansing their hearts “by faith” (Acts 15:8–9). Therefore, to place the Mosaic yoke upon believers would be to “test God” (Acts 15:10). The conclusion is not presented as two parallel salvations, one Jewish and one Gentile, but as one shared confession: “We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will” (Acts 15:11).
Paul and Barnabas then testify to “the signs and wonders that God had done among the nations” (Acts 15:12), and James confirms from the prophets that God’s inclusion of the nations is promised and intentional (Acts 15:13–18). The resulting letter refuses to impose Torah as covenant yoke and instead gives limited instructions aimed at preserving fellowship and separation from idolatry (Acts 15:28–29). The point is not that holiness is optional, but that salvation and covenant membership are not governed by Mosaic boundary-markers. The gospel is not administered through the written code, it is dispensation of grace, something new.
Discussion of the Law's requirement : Tithing, Treasury, and Alms to the Poor
The wider New Covenant frame matters directly for how the church speaks about money. Tithing is clearly defined within the Mosaic covenant and tied to the Levitical order. The tithe is given to the Levites because they have no inheritance among the tribes (Numbers 18:21–24), and the Law further describes structures connected to Israel’s old covenant life, including provision for Levites and money to the poor (Deuteronomy 14:22–29). Therefore the logic is sound, if the New Covenant does not place believers—Jew or Gentile—under the Mosaic Law, the yoke as covenant obligation (Acts 15:10–11), and tithing is defined by the Mosaic Law then tithing cannot be imposed as a binding requirement under grace, or a new testament/will/covenant in Christ.
It is important to look at how the Mosaic Law and Temple service were a shadow of things to come in Christ. We can in tithing it was never about money, and had a spiritual significance that points to Christ, see From Shadow to Substance: The Peril of Returning to the Old Covenant. "In the Old Covenant, the tithe was a shadowy representation where a portion was given to God and to the Levitical priesthood. The burnt offerings and tithes were part of the "food offerings" to God and these acted as further consecration for the tribe of Levi. What was placed on the altar became holy and the priest who partook also participated in its holiness. This was for service in the temple, so to come before a Holy God. Today, Jesus is the reality of that provision. See Sharing in the Sacrifice of Christ."
From the Jerusalem Council came giving described differently than a legal percentage system. The apostles emphasized “remember the poor” (Galatians 2:10). This is important because it implies there was discussion on the matter. That under Law (tithing, treasury, alms to the poor) it was agreed to have a commitment to “remember the poor”.
These conclusions do not deny generosity; it refuses coercion and refuses to rebuild gospel belonging on the written code. The apostles explicitly refused to “lay on you any greater burden than these requirements” (Acts 15:28–29), and the requirements they listed did not include a mandated financial levy. That omission is evidence that the gospel is not administered by Torah obligations, and that the conscience is not to be bound by a Mosaic system as a New covenant requirement.
Paul teaches giving, never tithing, that is willing and uncoerced: “not reluctantly or under compulsion” (2 Corinthians 9:7), and he directs organized collection for needs without turning it into a fixed Law percentage (1 Corinthians 16:1–2). The church is therefore asked to be generous, but is not authorized to bind consciences with a Mosaic system as though it were New Covenant requirements.
The conclusion is therefore stabilizing. The gospel is a gift, righteousness is a gift not to be earned like a wage, not requiring a monetary price. The people of God are one new man in the Spirit, not two covenant classes under competing administrations (Ephesians 2:14–16). Tithing as a Mosaic/Levitical requirement cannot be imposed as a binding obligation in Christ (Numbers 18:21–24; Deuteronomy 14:22–29; Acts 15:10–11).
Unsound teaching goes back to the Old testament in attempts to make money into a concept of sowing to reap money, a requirement to pay for the gospel, or to pay in return for receiving it, it is not a part of new covenant teaching. Yet giving remains commanded as love’s fruit—willing, purposeful, and uncoerced—not as a yoke (2 Corinthians 9:7; 1 Corinthians 16:1–2; Galatians 2:10). Call it what it is, giving, not tithing.
Where doctrine becomes unsound, tradition-driven, or money-centered, it destabilizes faith. A unity of faith is established in sound doctrine, in knowledge of Jesus, the reality of the shadow that does perfect and mature, something that the Law could not do but the work of ministry is suppose to do in the church, to build up the body into fullness in the Head, Jesus. Where Christ remains central—His grace, His priesthood, His Spirit—the church is guarded from coercion and kept in the clarity of promise.
Deep Dive Exegesis
While Acts 15 is the church’s public “courtroom” moment, and acknowledges the early distinction of Jews and Gentiles, those under the Law and those under Grace, the rest of the New Testament supplies the doctrinal horizon that makes the decision fully intelligible. Paul teaches that those in Christ have “died to the law” and have been “released from the law” to serve “in newness of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code” (Romans 7:4–6). He is speaking the Jews—those who “know the law” (Romans 7:1) are said to be released from it in Christ (Romans 7:4–6). The Law was “weakened by the flesh” and could not accomplish what God has done in His Son (Romans 8:3). The other nations were not under this covenant of the Law, as explained in Ephesians 2.
Ephesians presses the purpose further: Christ has broken down the dividing wall and created “one new man” from Jew and Gentile, reconciling both to God in “one body” (Ephesians 2:14–16). The gospel does not preserve two covenant peoples under competing administrations. It forms one Spirit-indwelt people in Christ.
Hebrews interprets the Temple order itself as incapable of perfection—“the law made nothing perfect” (Hebrews 7:18–19), and its sacrifices could not perfect the worshiper (Hebrews 10:1–4)—and therefore presents the old covenant as obsolete and “ready to vanish away” (Hebrews 8:13). This is a theological reality rooted in Christ’s superior priesthood and once-for-all offering, later mirrored in history when the Temple fell around 70AD after the writings of it as "passing away".
Within that whole-canon frame, tithing must be treated with honesty and precision. The commanded tithe system is defined within the Mosaic/Levitical order (Numbers 18:21–24; Deuteronomy 14:22–29). Therefore, if the New Covenant does not place believers under Mosaic jurisdiction as covenant obligation (Acts 15:10–11; Romans 7:4–6), Mosaic tithing cannot be imposed as a binding requirement in Christ. This conclusion is an inference drawn from covenant logic, not a claim that Acts 15 explicitly debated “tithing.” It is precisely the kind of inference Scripture itself invites when it frames the Law as a covenant whole: receiving one Mosaic requirement as covenant obligation logically entails embracing the administration that binds them together (Galatians 5:3).
Some attempt to relocate tithing outside the Law by appealing to Abraham’s “tenth” given to Melchizedek before Sinai (Genesis 14:18–20), and then using Hebrews 7 to argue for a universal tithe mandate. It is true the event is pre-Sinai. Yet Genesis 14 records an act, not a command. There is no statute given there, no covenant requirement laid upon Abraham’s offspring, and no universal imperative attached to the act. Even Jacob’s “tenth” is framed as a vow (Genesis 28:20–22), not as divine legislation.
More importantly, Hebrews does not cite Abraham’s tenth to institute a giving rule. Hebrews uses the episode to establish priestly rank and covenant logic: Abraham honors Melchizedek, Melchizedek blesses Abraham, and “the inferior is blessed by the superior” (Hebrews 7:7). The argument culminates not in “therefore tithe,” but in “therefore the Levitical system is not final”: “When there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well” (Hebrews 7:12). Hebrews explicitly argues that the former commandment is set aside because it was weak and unprofitable, and that “the law made nothing perfect” (Hebrews 7:18–19). The logic of Hebrews therefore supports covenant transition in Christ rather than reinstating Levitical mechanisms as binding Christian obligations or even tithing outside the Law.
Even it were said to be binding in some way, it was still not based upon the Promise given to Abraham that through his Seed, Christ, all people of all nations would be blessed in a new covenant which God had planned and hidden in him in the beginning before time. And how scripture states the children of God are children of the Promise, so that it comes through the faith according to grace, to those under the Law and those under grace. The Jew is redefined as one inwardly in the New covenant, sons through adoption of the Spirit and through faith.
This is also why the treatment of grace must be handled carefully. When the council concludes the nations are saved “through the grace of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 15:11), grace cannot be reduced to a vague notion of divine favor while leaving covenant administration unchanged. The controversy is specifically about whether Gentiles must enter through the written code of Moses (Acts 15:1, Acts 15:10). Therefore grace here functions as covenant reality: salvation and belonging are governed by Christ and the Spirit, not by incorporation into Mosaic obligations.
Paul speaks in this register: “you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14), and believers serve “in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code” (Romans 7:6). Yet grace does not loosen God’s righteousness. “Grace reigns through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:21). God has done what the Law could not do, weakened by the flesh, by condemning sin in the flesh “in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3–4).
Grace is not permission to remain unrighteous; grace is God’s effective action in Christ and by the Spirit to produce what the letter demanded but could not generate. This is why Paul warns: “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Corinthians 3:6). The phrase is not a dismissal of Scripture but a warning against the written code as covenant mechanism for producing life and righteousness. The New Covenant does not abolish moral reality; it abolishes the Law’s jurisdiction as the means of establishing standing and producing holiness.
Because doctrine shapes stability, the church must resist building binding claims on unsound foundations, especially where money is involved. Jesus rebukes teaching human tradition as doctrine and nullifying God’s word by tradition (Mark 7:7–13). Paul warns against being taken captive by “human tradition” rather than Christ (Colossians 2:8). The church is to grow into stability so it is not “tossed to and fro… by every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14).
When teaching is built on selective inference, it muddies the water, erodes credibility, and shifts emphasis from Christ’s finished work to systems that must be maintained. In contrast, the New Testament’s giving language is clear and sufficient: generosity is commanded, care for the poor is emphasized, and giving is to be willing and uncoerced (Galatians 2:10; 2 Corinthians 9:7), and the conscience is not bound where God has not bound. The gospel remains a gospel of grace, without charge, and money is not a stumbling block to it.