Galatians 2 - Major in the Majors and Minor in the Minors! Major in the Gospel and Everything Else is Minor!

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Paul Accepted by the Apostles

2 Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2 I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. 3 Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4 This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. 5 We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.

Paul traveled with Barnabas and Titus to Jerusalem. God had revealed it to him that he should go. First of all, Paul presented the gospel to them that he was preaching to the Gentiles. He wanted to make it unmistakeably clear what the true gospel was. Why?

As we will see the leaders at the Jerusalem were taking the pure gospel and tainting it. How? They were advocating that Gentile male believers should be circumcised. Even Titus, who had a Greek background and was not raised Jewish, had no reason to be get baptized. Paul wants to confront head on the false teachers who are putting forth this false gospel. 

At the heart of this false gospel is "legalism". Legalism is going back to the Law and trusting in it for salvation. If Paul would have allowed them to have their way to circumcise male Gentile converts, it would only be a slippery slope to more legalism in its many and varied forms. Once you dip into legalism it will never stop. 

It is significant that Paul says these men might bring us into bondage. For Paul, this wasn’t just an issue between the false brethren and Gentiles. It might be easy for Paul to say, “This doesn’t affect me. After all, I am a Jew and have been circumcised under the Law of Moses. I’ll let Titus or other Gentiles deal with this problem, because these false brethren have a problem with them, not me.” Paul realized that if the message of the gospel was compromised, it wasn’t just bondage for the Gentiles, but it was bondage for everyone who named the name of Jesus. - Guzik

6 As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—they added nothing to my message. 7 On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised,[a] just as Peter had been to the circumcised.[b] 8 For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9 James, Cephas[c] and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. 10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.

Paul distinguishes between his call with Barnabas and Titus to the Gentiles, and Peter, John, and James' call to the "circumcised", or fellow Jews. Everyone was in agreement with this idea. The only thing they asked Paul to do was to take up an offering to the poor in Jerusalem, which he did. 

"The leaders of the Jerusalem church (James, the brother of Jesus; Cephas, also known as Peter, and John) accepted Paul and his ministry to the Gentiles. They approved Paul’s ministry, knowing that Paul did not require the Gentiles to come under the Mosaic Law to find favor with God." - Guzik 

Paul Opposes Cephas

11 When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. 14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

Though Peter agreed to Paul's being the apostle to the Gentiles, he received pressure from other Jewish men who belonged to the "circumcision group". These men were speerheading the legalism movement and they tried to intimidate Peter into accomodating their demands. Peter drew back from the Gentiles in fear of these men. Peter was seeking the approval of men, whereas Paul was more concerned about the purity of the gospel. Even Barnabas was led astray.

There always seem to be groups in the church who want to go back to the law. Usually these groups like power and have "pet peeve" issues they get obsessed with. Although we need to have our policies and pratices in line with the scripture, sometimes the issues that cause division come from issues that are not clearly laid out in scripture. For example, a church who does not believe in infant baptism, would ask a person to be baptized again because their infant baptism didn't count. Or, some others might claim a certain type of church government is the only way. Some people get all up in arms about worship and how long it should be. Or how often we receive Holy Communion and whether we use grape juice or real wine. 

We need to major in the majors. I.e. the Gospel. And, minor in the minors. I.e. things not clearly laid out in scripture. Luther called these things "adiaphora" and it was a very important issue in his day, as many people wanted to go back to Catholic ways of doing things. Some things are neither right nor wrong. They are neutral.  This issue was too big not to confront Peter on it publicly. He asked him if he was Jewish, why was he living like a Gentile. Meaning he was not relying on the Law for salvation but grace. 

Paul first reminded Peter that he himself did not live under strict obedience to the Law of Moses. “Peter, you eat bacon and ham and lobster. You don’t keep a kosher diet. Yet now, before these visitors, these certain men… from James, now you act as if you keep these laws all the time.” - Guzik

15 “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in[d] Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. 17 “But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.

Paul reminds them that we are justified by faith, not by works of the law. Jews and Gentiles are both justified in the same way. They are both sinners and both need faith in what Jesus did on the cross to make them right with God. Just because the Jews needed to be saved in the same way the Gentiles did, it do not change status as Jews. There were still God's promised people, but they needed Jesus as their Savior as much as the Gentiles. In fact, the reason God set them apart was to use their lineage to bring in the promised Messiah. If Paul were to go back to the Law, he would ironically be a bigger lawbreaker. 

This is Paul’s first use of the great ancient Greek word dikaioo (justified, declared righteous) in his letter to the Galatians. “It is a legal concept; the person who is ‘justified’ is the one who gets the verdict in a court of law. Used in a religious sense it means the getting of a favorable verdict before God on judgment day.” (Morris)

How is it a sin to build again a way to God through the Law of Moses? In many ways, but perhaps the greatest is that it looks at Jesus, hanging on the cross, taking the punishment we deserved, bearing the wrath of God for us, and says to Him, “That’s all very nice, but it isn’t enough. Your work on the cross won’t be good enough before God until I’m circumcised and eat kosher.” This is a great insult to the Son of God. - Guzik

19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 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!”

I would definitely put to memory verses 20-21. I memorized them a long time ago, and they have served me well over the years. I think the essence of the gospel is baked into these two verses. I have been "crucified with Christ". I have died to trying to earn my way into God's favor. I have crucified my old life in the flesh, when I was a slave to my sinful desires and then trying to make up for it by doing good things. 

On the contrary my old man has died and my new life is in Christ, who lives in me by the power of His Spirit. Though I still live in a body with a sinful nature, my faith is not in myself but in Christ who loved me and gave of himself for me. For me to go back to earning my way into heaven by good works, I would be like setting aside what Jesus did for me. When I go back to earning my way into heaven, though this is impossible, I am denigrating the work Jesus did for me on the cross. 

It is actually really like spitting in Jesus' face. It is like saying, "Thanks very much Jesus for dying for all of my sin on the cross but I will just trying to earn my way into heaven. My way is better than your way." 

Paul ends by saying if I could get into heaven by works then Jesus died for nothing. Jesus' work on the cross means nothing if I can be justified by my works. But if I realize the only possible way I can be restored to the relationship I was always meant to have with God is through his death on the cross, I could never even think about going back to the slavery of works righteousness.

A Christian life is completely lived out of what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross. Every day I die to my own arrogance of thinking I am a good enough person and can justify myself. I will never go back to the Law because it was worthless, except for the fact it pointed out my need for a Savior. 

Thanks be to God for the love he gave us when He sent His only Son to save us from the power of sin, death, and the power of devil. He has won the victory let us no go back to the war we could never win.