And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and elders, about this question. Acts 15:1-2
One of the biggest issues the first century Church faced was whether Christianity was an exclusively Jewish religion. Spoiler alert: It is not.
Jesus was not only a Jewish man, He was the Jewish Messiah and the King of the Jews. The disciples were all Jewish. Most of the first believers were Jewish. But let us remember Jesus’ words spoken to Jewish people in John 10:16 referring to the non Jewish people He also came to save:
And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:14-16 about how Jesus made believing Jews and Gentiles one body, the Church:
14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
And when we turn to the “back of the book,” Revelation 7:9-10 makes it clear that Heaven’s human population will be made up of all nationalities:
9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"
Unfortunately, there were among the first Jewish believers those who insisted that Gentiles had to become Jewish to be saved. More on that next time…