Today we read Acts 11 and meet the “circumcision party” (verse 2). These are men whose religion used to be Judaism but who converted to Christianity. They believe they must adhere to their old Jewish traditions *in addition to* believing in Jesus to be saved. This is a conflict that we will run into throughout Acts (and in other books of the New Testament as well). These men do not yet understand that we are saved by faith alone in Jesus, not by faith. As we read in Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”