Galatians 2 - If We Could Earn Our Salvation Through Our Works, Then Jesus Died for Nothing!
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 was in Arabia for 14 years before he went back to Jerusalem. He took his partner Barnabas, who was known for his gift of encouragement, and also another colleague Titus. As he went back to Jerusalem, the home of all of the other apostles, he gave the leaders a clear presentation of the gospel. He wanted to make sure they were on the same page, especially the relationship between works and faith. If the Jerusalem Christians were preaching another gospel, Paul declared that his labor would be in vain.
One of the biggest issues in this letter to the Galatians was the role of circumcision in the life of a new male believer. Titus, was Greek, which meant he was a Gentile, but Paul did not require him to be circumcised. Paul recognized that circumcision was part of the old covenant of Moses that Jesus came to fulfill. Whereas Jewish boys were set apart by the rite of circumcision, Titus was set apart by the Holy Spirit, when he came to believe in Jesus as His Savior. Paul describes this as the circumcision of the heart.
Some false believers came into their midst who tried to demand that all new, male Gentile Christians be circumcised. For Paul this was a huge matter and a potential turning point for the 1st century church. If Paul did not take a firm stance on circumcision, it would have led to a slippery slope. Soon the gospel would be replaced by the Law, and grace replaced with works.
Here is a summary of the problem Paul was facing.
At this time, there was a contention rising over the place of Gentiles in the church. God used Peter to welcome Gentiles into the church in Acts 10. But some Christians from a Jewish background said that Gentiles could indeed be saved, if they made themselves Jews first and brought themselves under the Law of Moses. Their idea was that salvation in Jesus was only for the Jewish people, and Gentiles had to become Jews before they could become Christians. - Guzik
Knowing this contention was present, the leaders of the church in Jerusalem wanted to know what Paul taught. When he visited Jerusalem it was the perfect time to tell them, so Paul communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles.
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 notes that God didn't show favoritism to him or Peter, or any other apostle for that matter. The evidence that Paul was a true apostle was seen in the fruit of his ministry, especially among the Gentiles. While Peter focused on the bringing the gospel to the Jews, Paul focused on bringing the gospel to the Gentiles. The one thing they asked Paul to do was to remember the poor in Jerusalem, who were apparently poorer than the rest of the world.
Paul didn’t wait for someone else to make him a great Christian. He knew that it came down to a personal relationship between himself and Jesus. This isn’t to say that Paul received nothing from others or that no one else could ever bless him; but his Christian life was not built upon what other people did for him. (Guzik)
“Paul’s words are neither a denial of, nor a mark of disrespect for, their apostolic authority. He is simply indicating that, although he accepts their office as apostles, he is not overawed by their person as it was being inflated (by the false teachers).” (Stott)
Paul certainly did remember the poor in Jerusalem. He put a lot of effort towards gathering a contribution among the Gentile churches for the sake of the saints in Jerusalem. (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?
Peter, whose other name was Cephas, disappointed Paul. Though Peter was a pillar of the church and probably the top leader of the church in Jerusalem, he acted as though he was double-minded. When the men of the circumcision group, also called "Judaizers", were not around, he ate with the Gentiles. He shared table fellowship with them. Yet, when this group came, he acted like he didn't know the Gentiles.
Obviously he was fearful the circumcision faction might think poorly of him. He was more worried about what they thought of him, than what God had thought of reaching the Gentiles with the gospel. We saw Peter's weakness when he denied knowing Jesus three times in the garden, so perhaps this was a remnant of his past. Paul rebuked him publicly in front of the others, because he knew once again the gospel was at stake.
Are you as vigilant as Paul to protect the purity of the gospel? When it comes to standing up for the gospel, are you more concerned what others think of you, or God?
“He seems to have taken this action shamefacedly. As Bishop Lightfoot says, ‘the words describe forcibly the cautious withdrawal of a timid person who shrinks from observation.’” (Stott)
“It is perhaps curious that nobody seems to have recalled that Jesus ate ‘with publicans and sinners’, which can scarcely mean that he conformed to strict Jewish practice.” (Morris)
Sadly, others would follow Peter’s lead. “The sins of teachers are the teachers of sins.” (Trapp)
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.
When Paul says, "sinful Gentiles", he is speaking "tongue in cheek". He is using the characterization of the other Jews. He obviously doesn't think that the Jews were superior to the Gentiles and less sinful. Paul stresses that we are not justified by work but by faith in Jesus. The word "justification" is one of the most important words in the New Testament.
The word justification means to be "made right with God". Or, we might say to "be reconciled to God". The word also has the root word "just" which is connected to word "righteousness". Justification is an accounting word. If you don't owe any debts to a person you have a right standing with them. If you owe them money, you are a debtor. The only way you can be justified with them is by paying your debt to them.
It's sort of like reconciling a bank account. It is only when our debits and credits are equal is our account in good standing. What does this have to do with the Christian faith? When we sin we rack up a debt with God. Our account is out of balance. We can try to pay back God with our good deeds but they can't erase the debt we owe to God. This is also why Paul says in Romans,
"There is no one who is righteous, no not even one." Romans 3:10
In a similar way to be righteous is to have a right standing with God, which would mean we did the "right thing" every time. When we don't uphold God's perfect standard of righteousness, we become unrighteous and fall out of a right standing with God. Whereas the word "sin" focuses on the things we have done wrong, "righteousness" is more about the things we have done. We often say one is a "sin of commission", whereas the other one is a "sin of omission".
In our Lutheran liturgical confession we says, "I have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed. By what I have done and by what I have left undone. I have not loved with my whole heart or my neighbors as myself."
With the background you can see what Paul was so fired up when these false teachers started teaching that people were justified by works like being baptized. We need to keep the purity of the gospel. Its beautiful. It's amazing. It is not of the world and not logical. Only God could have invented it. Remember you saved by grace and justified by faith not by works!
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!”
The law only brought death, but the gospel brings new life. With this new life, freed from the law, we can wholly serve God!
Finally, verses 20-21 are worthy of your memorization. They summarize the Christian life in a nutshell. The source of the new life we live is Jesus, who lives in us. We come to faith in Jesus to be saved and we walk in faith as we follow His path for our lives. Paul says something of immense importance. It is the clearest way to explain why good works will never get it done.
"If good works could save me, then Christ died for nothing!" Think about that for a minute. If I think that I can earn my salvation by what I do, it is really a slap in the face of Jesus. It would mean he really didn't need to die for the world on the cross. It is like saying, "Thanks for dying for me and taking away all my sin Jesus, but I am still going to do it my way!"
Friends, you can't earn your salvation. You can't justify yourself. You can't do the right thing every time. You can't live a sinless life. But the Good News is that God loved you so much He sent His only Son to die for you on the cross and by believing in his life you will be given eternal life!
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