In the passage (please click this link), we find Paul giving details on his apostleship and gospel ministry to the Gentiles. Under God’s hand this ministry had brought much fruit for His kingdom. Paul explains that after 14 years he was then led by God to go to Jerusalem to meet with the leaders of the church there. This was to confirm the validity of the spread of the gospel, through Paul, among the Gentiles.
We now find more detail on the ‘different’ or false gospel. It was about a requirement being imposed by some men from a Jewish background on Gentile believers. The requirement was that the Gentile believers also be circumcised. This was very serious because it was saying, in effect, that faith in Christ was not enough to make a person right with God. A person had to obey the Jewish law as well, which included circumcision. Paul strenuously resisted this because he saw the danger. It would nullify the gospel of God’s grace.
Paul goes on to say that the leaders of the church in Jerusalem saw that He had been given the responsibility of preaching to the Gentiles just as the apostle Peter had the responsibility of preaching to the Jews (literally ‘the circumcised’). He says in Vs8 of Ch2:
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.
Galatians 2:8 (NIV)
So we start to see the contradiction appearing which showed up much more clearly when the apostle Peter came to Antioch, a Gentile church where Paul had been involved. Peter had been greatly used, many years earlier, in the salvation of thousands of Jews who had gathered at Pentecost. This makes it all the more startling when we find Paul saying here that he ‘had to oppose him (Peter) to his face, because he stood condemned’. Let’s read together what Paul further wrote in Vs 12-13:
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.
Galatians 2:12-13 (NIV)
Here we have the full exposing of the problem. It is good to be reminded of it a second time. The problem was caused by the arrival in Antioch of what is called the ‘circumcision group’. These apparently were a group of men from a Jewish background who were circulating in the church and it appears that they were requiring all believers to be circumcised. When Peter sided with these men it was like a denial of the gospel. Paul said that ‘they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel’. He puts it quite simply in vs 16 where he says that ‘a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ’, and he also says ‘by the works of the law no one will be justified’. Peter should have resisted these men not sided with them.
This brings us to the first of Paul’s ‘guidepost’ questions in Vs 17 as follows:
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!
Galatians 2:17 (NIV)
The sense is taken to be ‘If we remove the law doesn’t that make us ‘sinners’ (in inverted commas) like the Gentiles’. By associating with the Gentiles and proclaiming justification by faith, Paul was, in a way, removing the law. It could be wrongly said that therefore Christ, who justifies us by faith, is encouraging sin. By going back to eat with the ‘circumcision’ Peter was rebuilding the law which they had removed by their preaching on justification by faith.
This also exposes something which was very dangerous in the Jewish ‘mentality’ about their relationship to the law. It becomes apparent that they may have seen their relationship to the law as a type of ‘righteousness’. Not just in terms of obeying it but in just having it. Hence with the removal of the law as a requirement to be right with God they became ‘unrighteous’ or ‘sinners’ (in inverted commas) like the Gentiles. This helps to explain, perhaps, some of the motivation of the ‘circumcision’ group. They were seriously wrong … they were dangerously wrong … but they thought that what they were doing was right.
The chapter finishes with Paul’s words in Vs 21 which are like a very concise summary of what has been said:
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!
Galatians 2:21 (NIV)
The next chapter Ch3 begins with a stinging rebuke and warning to the Galatians. ‘You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you.’ Paul says. He then shows and stresses, for 3 verses, the absurdity of adding the works of the law to faith in Christ as a requirement to be right with God. He finally says in Vs 5:
So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?
Galatians 3:5 (NIV)
Abraham is now introduced, as an example, in the next 15 verses. There are a number of reasons for this. Abraham had received the promise a long time earlier … hundreds of years before the law had been given to the nation of Israel. So the law could not have been the basis of his standing before God. Abraham looked forward to Christ by faith … he was justified by faith. We see this in Vs 6-9 (NASB) as follows:
Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.7 Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.
Galatians 3:6-9 (NASB)
We also have Jesus’ words, recorded in John’s gospel:
Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.” John 8:56 (NIV)
This brings us to the second of Paul’s two ‘guidepost’ questions in Galatians which is in Vs 21:
Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be!
Galatians 3:21a (NIV)
Paul uses this question to show that the law is not inherently bad. Also some parts of the law were only temporary. The problem comes when we misunderstand the purpose for which God has given it. The law is good, it comes from God, but, because of our indwelling sin, it can never make us right with God … we can never obey the law perfectly. That is why we must receive the promise by faith in Christ Jesus. In this way we have His perfect right-ness, like wearing a spotless garment, which puts us in a right relationship with God. Forgiven and set free.
The remainder of the chapter gives us more information about the purpose of the law. It is described as a ‘guardian’ or a ‘tutor’ to Christ. It shows us our sin and therefore our need for the one who was and is sinless … our Saviour, Jesus Christ. When we are united to Him by faith we are children of God, Abraham’s spiritual descendants, and we have an eternal inheritance which awaits us in His kingdom.
CONCLUSION
In the early Christian church there were very serious errors which came about through misunderstandings of the ‘good news’ … the gospel of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. Two major errors which occurred were connected with wrong views of the place and purpose of the law. This was a huge problem because the Jews had come to identify their relationship with God and their relationship with the law as being interconnected. The gospel, however, has to be free. The only connection that a person needs in order to be right with God is to be united to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith.
What then were these two errors? The simplest way is to think of one of the modern marketing slogans which we often hear called ‘buy one get one free’. The one we get for free is not really free if we have to pay something to get it. The reverse also applies. ‘Get one free buy one’. The one we get for free is, once again, not really free for the same reasoning as before.
The problem which the apostle Paul addressed in Romans was like ‘buy one get one free’. It was a type of spiritual adultery whereby a person was still holding onto the law in order to be right with God, whilst coming to Jesus for the free gift of being made right through faith union with Him. This is like ‘buy one get one free’. Here in Galatians the problem is the reverse. People who had been made right with God by trusting in what Jesus had accomplished for them on the cross were being told that they must also be circumcised to be truly part of God’s family. This is like ‘get one free buy one’.
The problem for those from a Jewish background is clearly seen in what Paul says elsewhere about having a right standing before God, or righteousness, as follows:
30 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness have not attained their goal. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone.
Romans 9:30-32 (NIV)
Someone may ask ‘what about the 10 commandments’. The 10 commandments are referred to as the ‘moral law’ and as such are ‘holy and righteous and good’. We must take this law very seriously and with appreciation as being given from God. We must also always keep in mind that even the strictest adherence to the ‘moral law’ can never make a person right with God. We are part of the body of Christ by faith in Him alone. The law and the gospel have been given by God for two very different purposes. Simply put, the law has been given to reveal sin in our lives. The gospel has been given to save us from our sins.
Having described two problems addressed in Romans and Galatians, there is one other situation which needs to be mentioned. An illustration here is helpful. A fast food restaurant chain has an offer to senior customers of a free coffee. Some stores however say that you have to buy something to get it. It is not therefore free … but what about when 2 people are involved. If the first person buys a coffee he or she can then give the senior’s coffee to the other and in this case it is truly free to that person. This is a wonderful picture of the good news of Jesus Christ. At enormous cost to Himself He gives us a priceless gift.
The implications of what we have seen here in these Chapters in Galatians are far reaching. The gospel makes Christians truly free in the most important and enduring sense of the word. Therefore we need to be gracious in our interaction with other members of the body of Christ. If we don’t do this we may be putting a stumbling block in the way of others. This is because we misrepresent the gospel as Peter did in siding with the circumcision group.
The apostle Paul wrote the following to the church in Phillipi which appears to have been troubled by the same problem:
Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.
Phillipians 3:1-9 (NIV)
The church in Rome, the Galatian churches and the church in Phillipi … we too need to be on the lookout for ‘circumcisions’ of the gospel which can ringbark the tree of our joy and peace in believing. We cannot be fruitful as Christians if we are constantly trying to justify ourselves. Through believing in what Jesus has done for us in His death on the cross and resurrection, and in this alone, we become children of the promise, Abraham’s spiritual descendants and eternally secure.
The Gospel in Canberra 