adds, "these churches glorified God in me, not because I taught that
circumcision and the law of Moses should be observed, but because I urged
upon all faith in the Lord Jesus Christ."


CHAPTER 2


VERSE 1. Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem.

Paul taught justification by faith in Christ Jesus, without the deeds of the
Law. He reported this to the disciples at Antioch. Among the disciples were
some that had been brought up in the ancient customs of the Jews. These rose
against Paul in quick indignation, accusing him of propagating a gospel of
lawlessness.

Great dissension followed. Paul and Barnabas stood up for the truth. They
testified: "Wherever we preached to the Gentiles, the Holy Ghost came upon
those who received the Word. This happened everywhere. We preached not
circumcision, we did not require observance of the Law. We preached faith in
Jesus Christ. At our preaching of faith, God gave to the hearers the Holy
Ghost." From this fact Paul and Barnabas inferred that the Holy Ghost approved
the faith of the Gentiles without the Law and circumcision. If the faith of the
Gentiles had not pleased the Holy Ghost, He would not have manifested His
presence in the uncircumcised hearers of the Word.

Unconvinced, the Jews fiercely opposed Paul, asserting that the Law ought to
be kept and that the Gentiles ought to be circumcised, or else they could not
be saved.