Galatians 2 - Did Christ Die for Nothing?

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Paul Accepted by the Apostles

We often miss the fact that Paul spent 14 years in Damascus. Paul had done a lot of missionary work helping many Gentiles come to faith in Christ during these 14 years. One of the issues that arose was male Gentile converts had not been circumcised. This became an issue for some of the more legalistic Jews. In fact, Paul mentions that they were "false believers", who tried to spy on them and take their freedom away from them. 

By freedom Paul means freedom from the Law. Paul realized and taught the Law had no inherent power in it but it could only condemn us. The only function of the Law was to point out how far we fall from God's perfect standards. The most important use of the Law is to lead us to Christ. Paul had seen how all of these Gentiles had come to faith in Christ, by the grace God had poured out through in the cross. Paul's biggest fear is that these false teachers would somehow pervert the pure gospel of grace, and replaced it with a works based religion. 

Fortunately the pillars of the church at Jerusalem, Peter, James, and John, all recognized the legitimacy of Paul's work among the Gentiles, just as Peter had led the missional outreach to the Jews. Practically the Jerusalem leaders were grateful that Paul had honored his pledge to bring an offering that he had collected throughout Europe and Asia for the poor in Jerusalem. 

Paul Accepted by the Apostles

But things did not always go well for Paul, as is explained in an incident which happened with the apostle Peter, who was also called Cephas. Peter used to eat with the Gentiles and then when some men came from the party of James came, he quickly withdrew from eating with the Gentiles fearing these men might disapprove of his behavior. 

Peter had known that God did not require Gentiles to come under the Law of Moses for salvation. He learned this from the vision God gave him in Acts 10:10-16. He learned this from the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Gentiles who believed (apart from being circumcised) in Acts 10:44-48. He learned this by the agreement of the other leaders of the church in Acts 11:1-18. Now, Peter turned back on all that he had known about the place of Gentiles in the church, and he treated uncircumcised Gentiles as if they were not saved at all. - Guzik 

It is surprising that despite what a strong and bold leader Peter was that he shrunk back in fear and appeared "two faced". It shows how powerful the urge is for all of us to be accepted by others, even perhaps to the point of compromising the truth. The others followed suit with their leader and also spurned the Gentile believers. 

The word hypocrite, in the original language of the New Testament, means “one who puts on a mask,” referring to an actor. In this case Peter, Barnabas, and the rest of the Jewish Christians in Antioch knew that these Gentile believers were really Christians. Yet, because of the pressure from the certain men from James, they acted like they were not Christians at all.

 This shows what a heavy responsibility it is to be a leader. When we go astray, others will often follow. Satan knew that if he could make Peter take the wrong path, then many others would follow him. - Guzik 

There are many verses I point out that are worthy of memorizing. There are about 10-12 verses in the bible that have become life verses for me. Galatians 2:20-21 is one of them. There is perhaps not a more succinct explanation of what it meant for Paul to follow Christ than in these two verses. In these two verses, he distills the essence of what it means to be a disciple in these verses!

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

What does it mean when Paul says, "I have been crucified with Christ!" Obviously he does not mean it literally. Paul is saying that he has nailed his old sinful nature to cross. He has died to trying earn God's love. He has admitted what every person needs to admit to become a Christ, "I am powerless over sin and it has made my life unmanageable." Those in 12 step groups will recognize this as the first step in A.A.

It is the hardest step because as we take it, we must crucify our pride and ego. We essentially say, "I can't but God can." I must die to live! I must surrender to find freedom! And we don't just surrender or die to self, but we turn to Christ and then LIVE BY FAITH. Notice we become a Christian by trusting in Jesus as our Savior, but we continue our life as a Christian by walking faith. 

And we can't forget this short phrase. Paul says, "But Christ lives in me." When we come to Christ, we are born again and we are filled with the Spirit of Christ. That is the sense in which Christ lives in us. We go from being powerless to having the power of Christ living within us. Remember this is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead that lives inside of us. 

Finally, Paul says something very important. He basically says that if he could have been made right by keeping the Law, than Christ died for nothing. Why? Because Christianity is not faith PLUS works. A Christian relies on Christ alone and realizes that our good deeds are like filthy rags. By relying on good works, we are essentially disrespecting and minimizing what Jesus did for us on the cross. It is like saying, "Jesus thank you for dying an innocent death for me on the cross but I am going to still rely on myself to be saved!" 

Paul says that if he were to go from grace back to works, Jesus' death is meaningless. You can see how important it is for Paul to hammer this point home, because the Galatians had shown by their actions that they misunderstood the grace of God. By requiring the Gentiles to be circumcised, it showed they had missed the most important thing. They had either missed the point entirely and were still in their sins, or they had forgotten it way too quickly. 

It what sense have you been crucified with Christ? Have you come to the point in your life when you realized you were powerless, and the only hope you had for salvation was through Christ Jesus? How do we in the church act like the Jewish leaders who slipped back into legalism? Why is this so detrimental to the mission of the church to make disciples who make disciples?