After Paul and Barnabas’ first fruitful mission to the Gentiles, they returned to their home base in Antioch where there were numerous Gentile believers. But some men, presumably Jewish believers, came from Judea and said (Acts 15:1) – “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” In short, their claim was: In order for a Gentile to become a Christian, they must first become a Jew. Humanly speaking, their viewpoint was understandable. After all, all the first Christians were of Jewish background, including Paul and Barnabas. Moreover, the Jews were the people of God – the God of the (Christian as well as Jewish) Scriptures, and therefore the gatekeepers of the way of salvation through Christ (or at least they thought so). Gentiles were considered as “dogs” and would need to submit to the Law of Moses as proof of their belief in the God of Abraham. If He was the same God, should would-be Christian Gentiles not have to do the same?
The controversy would lead to the first Church Council of apostles and church elders in Jerusalem. They determined that justification is not a human endeavor mediated by the Law of Moses, but a work of the Spirit of God in the hearts of men through faith and the grace of the Lord Jesus – whether Jew or Gentile. The apostle Peter made this clear in several statements to the Council:
And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them (the Gentiles), giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us;
And He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.
But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are (Acts 15:8-9, 11).
So we, in every generation, need to declare one gospel for all; and guard it against efforts to add religious, cultural, or political requirements that dilute its purity or add to the finished work of Jesus Christ.