After Paul and Barnabas finish up their first missionary journey, they come back to Antioch (in Syria).  While there, they are confronted by a group (unauthorized) from Jerusalem who proclaimed (to those Gentiles that were already saved! Stedman) that circumcision was required to be saved.

 

This issue so closely parallels the main topic of Galatians that some speculate that Galatians was written during this time.  

 

Today's lesson reminds us that nothing is required for us to be saved other than to receive God's saving grace. It also sets us up for the rest of the story which offers rich teaching about a number of things:

conflict and how Christians can sort it out

the beauty of grace

the insufficiency of the law

what good compromise looks like

when it can be appropriate to restrict your own freedom

Class notes are here.