Paul's defense of his apostleship and testimony continues in Galatians 2. Paul has been talking about the gospel that is from God and not from man and that he is a messenger from God, not from man, to present the gospel and that he is to please God, the sender of the message. So far Paul has not spelled it out how the gospel was being perverted in Galatia. In chapter 2, he gets down to it.
After fourteen years away from Jerusalem, Paul returns "because of a revelation" (2:2). It's not quite clear what this revelation was, but Paul earlier said that he received the gospel through a revelation of Jesus Christ. I would believe that the Spirit revealed to Paul that he should go to Jerusalem- a revelation of God not of man. This journey to Jerusalem is recorded in Acts 15.
So how was the gospel being perverted? In Acts 15:1-
1Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved."
Paul and Barnabas were in Antioch at the time and Jews ("from Judea") came down an preached a false gospel. They turned a gospel of grace into a gospel of legalism and works- you had to do a specific work in order to be saved.
Acts 15 and Galatians 2 records the same story- one from the Luke's historical perspective, and other from Paul's personal perspective. Paul says he submitted to those "of reputation" the gospel which he preached among the Gentiles, for he feared that he might be running in vain. Paul went to Jerusalem, directed by the Spirit, to submit the gospel he had been preaching to the elders at the Jerusalem church for approval or endorsement.
Note in 2:1, Paul makes a point to mention that Titus, a Greek (2:3), went with him to Jerusalem and that not even he was persuaded to be circumcised. Paul mentions Titus thirteen times in his epistles and was one of his closest brothers.
Remember that the early church came out of Judaism. God commanded the Israelites to circumcise baby boys as a sign of the the covenant made with Abraham. (Genesis 17:10-14) Now, some Jews who had become Christian were teaching that one had to be circumcised to be saved. The gospel was now going out to the Gentiles so this was a sensitive issue, to say the least. Note what Paul says about these "false brothers" in 2:4-
4But it was because of the false brethren secretly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage.
Note the terms "secretly," "sneaked in," and "spy." This was an intentional covert operation to cast lies in the gospel. Remember these were Jews from Judea who travelled up to Antioch! Antioch is about 300 miles north of Jerusalem. Perhaps the Jews did not want the Gentiles to enter into the Kingdom.
How do we handle people who teach lies? Do not yield; not even for an hour! 2:5-
5But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.
In 2:7-10, we see that the Peter, James and John accepted Paul into their fellowship and saw that Paul had been redeemed by grace. In effect, Paul defends his apostleship by equating himself to Peter. Peter, an apostle, who brought the gospel to the Jews, the circumcised equated to Paul, an apostle, who brought the gospel to the Gentiles.
But even apostles sometimes err, and Paul calls out Peter(Cephas) here. Peter used to eat with the Gentiles, but when "certain men" sent by James came, he would distance himself from the Gentiles, "fearing the party of the circumcision." Paul calls out Peter for his hypocrisy. Jews were not to associate w/ Gentiles or they would be considered "unclean." (Acts 10:28) For Peter to eat with Gentiles, it was likely that he was eating non-kosher food. Yet, when those Jews were around he'd withdraw, probably avoiding eating with the Gentiles.
In Galatians 2:14-21 Paul quotes his rebuke of Peter. What is he saying here?
"If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?" (2:14)
14"If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jew?
15"We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles
i.e. Jews follow the Law, whereas Gentiles (sinners) do not, but...
16nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.
Paul is saying, "Even though we are Jews and followed the Law(v15), we know that man is not justified by following the Law, rather man is justified by faith in Christ."
Paul actually repeats himself here to get the point across. Three times in the same verse he says that man is not justified by the works of the Law (highlighted in red) and three times he says that justification comes through faith in Christ (highlighted in green).
17"But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be!
Even though we are justified by faith in Christ (building upon v16), we still sin, but that doesn't make Christ a "minister of sin."
18"For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor.
The works of the Law by the flesh is what has been destroyed and we should not go back to them (rebuild). If we do, then we are proved transgressors.
19"For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God.
We are dead in our sins in the Law. "So that"- We had to die in our sins to the Law so that we could be alive in Christ (because there is no life in the Law.)
20"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
We identify with Christ in his death on the cross, for He died for our sins. It is we who should be on that cross, yet He took our place. As Christ died on the cross, so did our life by the Law. In Christ's resurrection, we now live by faith because He rose from the dead and He now lives in us, the believer.
21"I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly."
Living by the Law nullifies the grace of God; meaning- if we life by the Law, then God's grace is worthless to us because we have rejected grace for works. If we reject salvation, the Christ died needlessly. Suppose you bought a gift for your friend. But when you present the gift freely to your friend, he refuses it and insists on paying for the item himself. Paying for it himself requires his own money from his paycheck from his job. Now suppose this gift can not be purchased for one's self, but only purchased to be given away. This is what Christ did for us. Salvation is offered to us by grace. There's nothing we can do to earn it. Trying to attain salvation by works, in the case of the Jews this meant adhering to the Law, is futile. In Paul's time, the Jews tried to impose circumcision on the Gentiles. "Believe in Christ and be circumcised, then you are saved." Today, this legalism can be seen wherever we add things to the gospel- how many times have you done your daily devotions this past week? how much have you given in offering? are you "doing your part" at church? Notice that legalism usually amounts to something that is measurable.
Paul says we are dead to all that, for salvation in Christ is by grace. No more works by the flesh (spiritual dead), rather the life we live in the flesh (physical bodies) is by faith in Christ. Unfortunately, I can't say it any more eloquently that Paul said it himself in Galatians 2:20-
"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
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