This is one of the most important teachings, in my opinion, in all of the New Testament.  And I will tell you who this really should hit home with the most - those of us that grew up in the church.  For most Christians who grew up in church, at least down in the Southern region of the United States where I am from - the Bible was described to us a manual for life, as a measuring stick, and as an order of conduct.  We were taught to act right, to do right, and that behavior is what is most important.  The Bible was regarded as the super-Holy object, it was mysterious, and it was God’s Sacred Word, God-breathed, God-inspired, and it teaches us how to live.

In reality, there is an element of truth to all of that.  But, also in reality is the fact that a lot of that misses the point that God was clearly making brining Jesus into the world.  God was introducing Grace to the world with Jesus.  God was redeeming the sins of the world.  God was cutting the ties to the 10 Commandments, God was severing the relationship between behavior and salvation, and God was giving us absolute freedom to abuse His Grace and receive His Savior Jesus.

Now, if you are a church leader, or you are a parent, or you are just a person who wants to be treated fairly (we are all at least one of those things, just FYI), how reasonable does that sound?  How reasonable is it that a cold-blooded, calculating serial killer and murderer, could stand right next to you in Heaven one day?  Is that fair?  What about the people who shamed you in school?  Or what about the people who stole your promotion at work?  How is that fair?

There is a tension that we all feel between what we think is right and with what God gives us through Jesus, which is Grace.  Deep down, pretty much all of us at some level have to deal with the issue of what is ‘fair’.  And, in reality, God never lays that out for us.  So, when we adhere to a fairness standard, we are essentially giving ourselves authority that we don’t have - the authority of being a judge.

These counsel members that were pushing for circumcision were doing just that - they had to endure it, they had to trade things out in their lifestyles in order to be followers of God before Jesus, they had to suffer (in their minds) - it wasn’t fair that people could now walk right up and enjoy the fruits of faith without suffering.  Paul understood it because Paul had to get past that himself.  Fair isn’t in God’s vocabulary.  Grace is free...and it is free for everyone.

Now, ironically...think about fair for a moment.  What could REALLY be more fair than something that is free for everyone, as is Grace?  That is really the ONLY fair thing anyways.  The only thing that isn’t fair, in reality, is that many of us were wrongly taught, or it was wrongly implied to us, that we have to earn our way into God’s favor.  That’s not what Jesus taught, and that’s not what scripture teaches us.  We see this counsel wrestling with this this morning.