Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Before we popped over to the book of Jacob's last James, Paul and Barnabas had just arrived

back from their first missionary journey and the church at Antioch was celebrating with

them. They've been there for a while and today some guys from Jerusalem show up for a teaching

trip and guess what they're teaching. Circumcision. They start all the drama back up again, saying

people have to convert to Judaism in order to convert to Christianity. Paul and Barnabas

push back. They've already been down this road about a decade earlier. They make a trip

back to Jerusalem in hopes of dealing with it once and for all. When they arrive, we find

out who is behind this circumcision requirement, the Pharisees. These are believers who are

Pharisees though, according to 155, people who have the Holy Spirit. Isn't it his job

to teach us and help us reach unity? Yes, he totally does that. But like with most things,

change happens slowly, not immediately. It's often when we look back over the course

of years that we see the fruit. By the way, Paul is a Pharisee too, but he obviously

disagrees with this Pharisee in Jerusalem. While they're debating this, Peter says,

Hey, remember when this all started? Remember how God used a Jew like me to preach to

the Gentiles? Remember how those uncircumcised people received the Holy Spirit in a way

that was so obvious and evident that none of us could deny it? It's clear that God doesn't

make a distinction between you and Gentile. He knows all hearts, and he cleans the Gentiles

hearts too. By saying he requires them to be circumcised, you're doing two very foolish

things. You're heaping a burden on them that none of us have been able to bear anyway,

and you're also testing God because he's made himself clear. Knock it off. All who are

saved are saved through his grace alone, not by keeping the law.

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