What is required for salvation? Parts 1 and 2

Lynne Baab • Thursday May 28 2026

Overall theme for the next few months: God’s law is love

Lesson 9: What is required for salvation? Parts 1 and 2 (Acts 15:1-21)

Key verse: “God, who knows the human heart . . . has made no distinction between them and us.” Acts 15:8-9

Stepping into the Word

Communal decision-making is seldom easy. Families who try to decide together about the location for a vacation know this. Anyone who has participated in committee meetings at work or at church has experienced this.

Kerry and Jamie serve on the board of their church, and they have found that they frequently have different perspectives. Kerry, a long term member, looks back on the stability that the congregation brought to its local community in years past: “We were a beacon for the community. We offered space for the Boy Scouts and AA. Keeping our building in good repair and offering it to the community has always been a significant part of our mission, and that should continue.”

Jamie, who works in a business close to the church, sees that the community has changed: “I’d like us to go out into our community and try to figure out what people are longing for. We can’t always do things like we used to. We have to shift and change as people’s needs change.”

Kerry is aware of the congregation’s rich heritage of service to the neighborhood through its building. Jamie is aware of changes in the community that surrounds the congregation. They bring these concerns to the conversations and debates on their church board. With the other elders, they try to discern where God is calling them now.

Acts 15 describes a communal decision-making process in the early church in Jerusalem with some of the same issues at stake. Some Jewish Christians feel strongly about their Jewish heritage, particularly obedience to the Old Testament law, and they want to reinforce this among Gentile converts. Paul has been travelling in Asia Minor and is aware of the unexpected and beautiful work of the Holy Spirit in Gentile converts. In the council in Jerusalem the elders and apostles discuss the theological issues underlying this conflict between tradition and the current situation. God’s grace is at stake.

Creative God, help us see what your Holy Spirit is doing around us today. God of grace, help us ground out ministries in your gift to us in Jesus.

Communal Decision Making in Jerusalem

Paul’s first missionary journey is described in Acts 13 and 14 and includes Cyprus, several cities in Asia Minor, and Antioch in Syria. Acts 15 opens in Antioch. Several Jewish Christians from Judea come for a visit, and they insist that the new Gentile Christians in Antioch must be circumcised (Acts 15:1). This causes so much dissention that Paul and Barnabas are appointed to travel to Jerusalem to confer with the church leaders there. Their route enables visits with believers in Phoenicia and Samaria, where Paul and Barnabas bring encouraging stories of God’s work among the Gentiles in Cyprus, Asia Minor, and Antioch. When Paul and Barnabas arrive in Jerusalem, they tell the same stories.

In Jerusalem, Paul encounters members of the group who had sent emissaries to Antioch. These Jewish Christians stress that that Gentile converts should be circumcised and “ordered to keep the law of Moses” (v. 5). Circumcision was a widespread requirement for those converting to Judaism. It would have been a natural assumption that followers of the Messiah of Israel would undergo circumcision. Paul’s perspective on this issue was quite radical and ultimately transformative for the young church.

Acts 15 presents the perspective of Luke, the author of Acts, on the events that Paul narrates in Galatians. Whereas Paul’s letter captures the sense of urgency he felt over this dispute, Luke’s aim is to show the unity of the church as they wrestle with pressing and controversial theological questions.

The apostle Peter’s speech in verses 7 to 11 complements Paul’s reports about the spread of the Gospel among the Gentiles. Peter stresses that God gave the Gentiles the Holy Spirit, “cleansing their hearts by faith” (v. 9), which is reminiscent of Paul’s argument that the experience of receiving the Spirit (Galatians 3:2) and the internal “spiritual” circumcision of the heart (Romans 2:29) are sufficient proof of being in Christ. Similarly, Peter emphasizes that God makes no distinction between Jew and Gentile (v. 9, see Galatians 3:28). Peter emphasizes that “we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus,” Jews and Gentiles alike (v. 11).

The council decides that there are some essential elements of the law: “to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from whatever has been strangled and from blood” (v. 20). These are the laws followed by God-fearers “in every city” (v. 21). While these are not the means of salvation, they remain the ethical requirements expected of Gentile converts, so that they can stand in unity and solidarity with their Jewish Christian brothers and sisters (see 1 Corinthians 10:14-23).

Have you experienced a communal decision-making process about issues or questions related to God’s grace?

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Next week: What is required for salvation? Parts 3 and 4. Illustration by Dave Baab (a wonderful tribute to Dave and his art is here): Oban Presbyterian Church, Stewart Island, New Zealand.

Three of the posts in my series “Drawing near to God with the heart”:

This lesson appeared in the Fall 2023 edition of The Present Word adult Bible study curriculum published by the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Used with permission.

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