The True Gospel {Galatians 2}

For those of you following along in our Galatians study, here are thoughts from Chapter 2 {Or listen to audio here}. Feel free to catch up by checking out thoughts on Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Solo Christo {intro}, The Free & Freeing Gospel {Gal 1:1-12}, and When I Was Going the Other Direction {Gal 1:13-24}.

So, to review and recap: Paul has on his warpaint, he is taking issue with the Judaizers who have put a drop of cyanide in the pure water of the gospel, and thus swayed the minds of the Galatians away from the true gospel. Paul has shared his testimony with us and let us see that the gospel he preached was not from man or told to him by man, but given directly from Jesus Christ to Paul by revelation. Right?

Now, Paul continues his narrative story a bit to make a further point, and then goes on to share a pretty dicey story about some head-to-head apostle combat. He then finishes by giving a summary, clarifying exactly what it is that he is defending. What doctrine is at stake, that is so important that he has gone to all this trouble and explanation to make sure it is not tainted. We have a whole chapter to cover, and I tend to talk fast so it’s a good fit, so let’s lace up our running shoes and hit the ground running, ok?

v. 1 So Paul has been preaching the gospel for 14 years, and he only then heads up to Jerusalem to check with the primary church leaders about the purity and validity of the gospel he’s preaching. NOT because he’s uncertain about it, but because he is certain about it. He’s checking because HE knows that his gospel is the true gospel and he wants there to be NO mistaking this truth.  He also took Titus with him, which is significant in a moment.

v. 2 Paul notes that he went up “in response to a Revelation.” Again, his constant emphasis is that he reacts, responds according to revelation by God not the pressures of man. He doesn’t go up because he’s heard rumors or someone told him he should. God told him he should. Paul maintained a consistent fear of God, not fear of man. That becomes important down the road as we read. Make sure I’m not running in vain. “If I’m preaching this true gospel, but ya’ll are preaching something else, I want to make sure I’m not doing all this work for nothing.”

v. 3 Now, his first point is that even Titus was not circumcised, who was a Gentile or Greek (these words can be used interchangeably because the word “Greek” was loosely used to describe those actually from Greece or those who spoke Greek which was the common language of the day. Prior to the Roman Empire (which is when this was written) Alexander the Great had established the Greek empire and so the language of trade was Greek, and the Bible was written in Greek. So Roman citizens were citizens of Rome but Greek can be a general term in the Bible interchanged with Gentile. It simply means non-Jew. Titus, a non-Jew wasn’t circumcised.

Taking Titus with Paul was a bold and strategic act. One commentator said it was a “master stroke of genius” to take Titus wit him. Titus was the test case. It’s always easy to accept something in theory, right? But what about when it intersects with our real life?

Vs. 4 No why would he have even been pressured to be circumcised? Vs. 4 tells us the pressure came from “false believers who had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves.” The pressure to become slaves. Legalism is always slavery. What did these legalists come to spy out? FREEDOM. The true gospel is characterized by freedom. We learned that our first week: The true gospel is free and it’s freeing. It is characterized by freedom. If our lives are not characterized by an increasing measure of freedom, then we are somehow being yoked into something other than the true gospel.

2 Corinthians 3:17 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

 John 8:36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

 Romans 6:18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

 V. 5 So Paul stood fast in freedom and even Titus wasn’t circumcised, so that (you looked at this in your homework) “the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.” Everything Paul did he did for the same of this truth. The truth of the gospel. The true gospel. Titus proved that even in real life, in real time, Paul lived out the true gospel. Everything that he did he did so that he could connect as many people as possible with the true gospel. And that’s what we’re going to look at today: 5 things we see about the true gospel.

v. 6 Now Paul begins a bit of a tirade, or at least a bit of an emotional rambling that can be a bit tricky to read, yes? One commentator says, “It’s virtually impossible to translate this passage clearly because “Paul became so emotional while defending the heart of the gospel and was so afraid that his beloved flocks would be corrupted by Judaistic heresy that he used complex grammar and failed to complete his sentences.”

“Those who seemed influential” v. 2, v. 6, seemed to be pillars: v. 9. Paul isn’t tearing them down, he’s just refusing to put them on religious pedestals. Paul was not being boastful just truthful. He acknowledged that he was the foremost of sinners (1 Tim 1:15), and the least of the apostles (1 Cor. 15:9) but “By the grace of God I am what I am” that because of God’s grace he was equal to all other believes and his calling was equal to all the other apostles. (2 Corin. 11:5) – was not inferior. Paul accepts their “office” of apostles, and gives them the respect they are due, but he is not overawed by their person as it was being inflated by the Judaizers.

The gist of verse 6 is that those who seemed like the religious giants, the religious superstars if you will, they added nothing to his gospel and they added nothing to his person. Again, Paul emphasizes– , my apostleship didn’t come from man (1:1), my gospel didn’t come from man (1:12), my status or confidence doesn’t come from man (2:6). All that I have and am comes from God.

Paul did not conceive his gospel he received his gospel. Even though Paul received His gospel from heaven, this story proves that it lines up perfectly with the gospel preached by the other apostles, by the disciples who walked with Jesus. This is key because it both Proves His GOSPEL and His APOSTLESHIP. Both were at stake and both were intertwined. Both were under attack and in this one story he gets vindication for both. The Judaizers knew that if they could throw Paul’s apostleship into question then they could throw his gospel of grace into question. Critical issue.

V.7-9 But the result of this visit is glorious: The super-apostles, the “pillars” confirmed Paul’s message and confirmed that the same spirit that worked through Peter also worked through Paul. The SAME spirit worked through each of them with the SAME gospel message for different audiences. And this whole encounter proved this: Our first point about the true gospel.

1. The true gospel isn’t Peter’s or Paul’s (or anyone else’s) … it’s God’s.

All of these pillars of the early church were in absolute agreement because the gospel wasn’t theirs it was God’s. The “right hand of fellowship” means they were in perfect doctrinal and personal harmony. Paul’s person and message are vindicated.

Interestingly enough, Paul remains under attack even today. Many so-called Christians today want the message of Jesus without the message of Paul. Reading the Bible like a fish: Eat the whole thing and spit out the bones. But Peter very clearly ranked Paul’s letters with “the rest of Scripture.” 2 Peter 3:15-16. (Jesus vs. Paul article in Christianity Today)

Peter, Jesus, Paul, James: All the biblical writers confirm that SAME gospel with different emphases. The gospel is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Peter, Paul, and James preached Jesus, and Jesus preached Jesus. One thing that’s interesting is that nowadays a common argument is that Jesus preached a gospel that included concern for the poor but Paul preached a gospel that only included justification by faith. Our very next verses addresses this:

v. 10 The one thing Peter, James and John wanted to be sure Paul continued in was that he remember the poor, which Paul was eager to do. Our second point:

2. The true gospel gives us a heart for the poor.

Just as the true gospel is characterized by freedom, the true gospel is characterized by a heart for the poor. HEART. Not “obligation” to the poor. Not “guilty feelings about the poor.” A HEART for the poor. A LOVE for the poor. 1 John 3:17 – “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?” Concern for the poor is not a requirement of the gospel it is the fruit of the gospel.This is the fruit of true faith.

(James 2:15-16. Ex. 23:10-11, Lev. 19:10, Deut. 15:7-11, Jer. 22:16, Amos 2:6-7, Luke 6:36, 38, 2 Cor. 8-9.) God has a special love and concern for the poor, the widow, the downtrodden, the broken. When the true gospel truly changes us we will have a special love for those same people. When we understand the gospel, what we’ve been freely given, we will freely give. God’s grace makes us just. Just as Peter urges Paul, remember the poor, God would urge us today, remember the poor. Do whatever it takes to remember them. Pictures on the fridge or prayer for them or going to where they are – remember them. We’ve been givein so much.

v. 11-14 So now we enter a new story. Now we’re in Antioch, and Paul relates a further story where poor Peter, Peter who is the pillar of the early church, Peter who is also so prone to cowardice, Peter, a Jew was living out the gospel authentically, living out what they preached by eating with the Gentiles, but when other Jewish men came from James, (that is other religious big wigs) he began just eating with the Jews. Because Peter was so influential, eventually others were caught up in this same behavior, including even Barnabas, right? So Paul, true defender of the true gospel, gets on his warpaint. He takes issue with this and confronts Peter in front of everyone, pointing out Peter’s hypocrisy that tarnished the pure message of the gospel.

Peter should have known better than any apostle that God has declared all foods and people clean. Through a miraculous vision in Act 10, God revealed this truth to Peter and Peter then affirmed (Acts 10:28 “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. … “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality (v.34). The revelation about this specific thing came THROUGH Peter, and yet here he is, the old Peter – weak, fearful, vacillating – coming to the fore again. Why? What would drive Peter to hypocrisy, to compromising the very truth that had been revealed to him by God Himself? What would drive Peter to do this?

v. 12 tells us: Peter was “fearing the part of the circumcision.” Fear. It wasn’t that his beliefs were off, Peter KNEW the truth, it was that he was giving in to pressure – He was, quite frankly, simply falling prey to the fear of man. Even though he knew the freedom of the gospel, his freedom was stolen by his fear. Prov. 29:25 The fear of man is a snare. Peter is acting stupid. The fear of man makes us do stupid things, and even makes us compromise our faith, all because of who we’re trying to impress.

Who are we trying to please? Who are we trying to impress? The fear of man is a snare.

V. 13 Tells us that the “rest of the Jews” and even Barnabas were “carried away”. Everyone followed Peter in this! This is why this is so dangerous. All that we do affects others. Be very careful if you are a natural leader. Passages like this scare me to death – I blog, I write, I teach. And no matter how much we love Jesus and are used by Him to spread the gospel, we are all vulnerable to the fear of man and hypocrisy. 🙂 And it’s worth nothing that this happened to Peter even after Pentecost. Even after the supernatural indwelling by the Holy Spirit. No matter how spirit-filled and powerfully anointed we are by God, we are all susceptible to the fear of man and hypocrisy. We have to be on guard.

V. 14 And Paul opposes him, why? That same phrase again: Because what Peter was doing was not in step “with the truth of the gospel.” Indicates that their steps were crooked. Off kilter – not parallel with the gospel. That’s why we must stand fast in freedom, not veer off to the left or right. It is not enough to BELIEVE the gospel (Peter did) but we must walk in it, APPLY it, live in it, stand fast in it each day of our lives. When we do not, we stray from it.

So Paul when sees this he calls Peter out publicly. This is a WHOA moment. Can you imagine if this happened in church one morning? This is like if Jon Furman stormed up on the stage one morning and rebuked Joel in front of everyone. This is a very public confrontation. Why? Peter had cause a PUBLIC scandal, so Paul had to deal with it PUBLICLY. It wasn’t just that Peter had sinned against Paul, Peter had sinned against the truth of the gospel, against all those who had seen and been carried away in his hypocrisy. Paul knew this, our third point:

3. The true gospel message never changes (though our communication method) may.

And that pure and true gospel message can be tarnished and polluted by our false living just as much as by our false teaching. Just as Paul was opposing the Judaizers who were false teach-ers, he was opposing hypocrites who were false live-ers.

Hypocrisy: an actor wearing a mask. We can do this in two ways. We can put on a mask of Christianity, do all the right things, go through the motions, but not truly be followers of Jesus Christ. Or, we can, like Peter, be true followers of Jesus Christ, and yet fall prey to hypocrisy in situations where being a Christian, or embodying the true gospel message, is awkward or difficult. This is what Peter did and we know how well that went over with Paul. Paul got on his warpaint.

Now it’s possible that someone might read this and think that PAUL is being a hypocrite because in 1 Corinthians 9 he says, “20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 

Here’s the key. The WHY? We’ve said this again and again. Why did Paul do what he did: Vs. 23

23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. (1 Cor 9:20-22).

Paul was willing to do anything for the sake of the gospel. Anything except compromising that gospel. As one commentator said, when comparing these two passages: Paul would make considerable concessions in order to accommodate weak Christians, but he would not yield an inch of truth in order to accommodate false Christians.

Would not yield an inch of truth. Truth was what was at stake. The truth of the gospel. And in particular, one central doctrine: Justification by faith. Number 4:

4. The true gospel’s central doctrine is justification by faith.

JUSTIFICATION is the central doctrine to the Christian faith.

What does it mean to be justified? Declared righteous. You probably found in your homework, this is a forensic term, used in the judicial system to describe someone officially declared not guilty. Justification means it’s just-as-if-I’d never sinned. Just-if-ied. This means that Christ’s righteousness has been imputed to you because of faith in Him. You stand up on the dock and testify, just as Joy said a few weeks ago what you will say to God when you stand before Him someday. You stand and testify and say, “I am guilty.” but Christ comes and stands in front of you on the witness stand and his record becomes yours. His perfection becomes yours. This is the greatest deal you will ever find. The great exchange. Your sin for His righteousness. Just-as-if-I’d never sinned. Innocent.

But what Paul’s saying in verses 15-16 is that no one, Jew or Gentile, is justified by the works of the law but only by faith in God. THIS IS NOT NEW. This is not only true in the new testament. This same truth can be found from the beginning of time. Every person, in all of history, who has been born into sin is born with the universal plague of sinful mankind: Guilt. Every person feels guilty and every person tries in some way to alleviate that guilt. Counseling, positive thinking, self-confident, self-indulgent, escape through sex, alcohol, drugs.

The very first people born into this universal plague were Cain and Abel. And interestingly enough, Cain is our very first example works-based righteousness. God had made it clear what sacrifice He desired, (animal) but Cain brought a sacrifice of his own accord, his own idea. (plant) Wrong kind of offering and brought in the wrong spirit. (This is what it’s like when we try to earn our way to God by our own works and not by faith). By rejecting God’s prescribed animal sacrifice, Cain rejected God’s provision of substitutionary salvation which that blood offering pointed. Cain proudly supposed that his offering of disobedience was just as acceptable to God as the one He had prescribed. Arrogant and prideful rather than humble and obedient. Legalism is always arrogant. Abel on the other hand, obediently and humbly offered the blood sacrifice God required, in faith leaped across the centuries and touched the cross. God accepted his offering not because it had any spiritual benefit but because it was presented in faith and obedience. Thus the beginning of the battle between faith-inspired obedience and works-based legalism.

Those same two lines can be followed throughout scripture. Tower of Babel – a mighty work of unbelieving and rebelliousness. Noah – a mighty work of believing and obedience. Isaac & Ishmael… but we’ll get to them in chapter 4. Justification, salvation, has always been by faith. It’s not that in the OT people were saved by works and now we’re saved by faith. It has always been by faith. And we’ll study that more in Chapters 3 and 4.

v. 17-19 Very tough verses. The gist is this:If we are justified in Christ but still find ourselves to be sinners, or among sinners (NIV), does that mean that Christ is a minister of sin? No, if we rebuild what we tore down, reconstructing the law and living under legalism, we are the ones to be blamed, not Christ. Christ justifies us by His grace but we must continue to live to God, that is, let the life of Christ live through us. v. 19. In FACT we have died to the law, in PRACTICE we must continue to die to the law and yield to verse 20: The life of Christ working through us.

v. 20 This isn’t saying that we need to try to crucify ourselves. In fact, it is impossible. If we are in Christ – we have been crucified. It is a fact. Done deal. We live out that by letting the life of Christ work out through us. We were crucified when Christ was crucified, it was His substitutionary death that justified us freely by His grace.

Col 2:14 tells us: having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.

Ephesians 2:5: made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

Romans 6:5. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.

We are saved by grace through faith and we live by grace through faith. If we place our faith in Christ, we were crucified with him resurrected with Him, and given life each day through Him.

v. 21 The grand summary bring us to point #5.

5. The true gospel hinges solely on the cross of Jesus Christ.

If righteousness came through the law then Christ died needlessly. CRUX of the matter. ANY theology which de-emphasizes the cross of Christ is a deviation of the truth. The end of verse 21 really summarizes why this insidious disease of legalism is so devastating and so abhorrent to God. His greatest act of kindness, grace, love, and mercy, His greatest gift in the history of the world, His son – when we think that we somehow earn our merit before Him by our own efforts, we do nullify the grace of God, we say by our actions that Christ died for nothing! I pray we never, ever are guilty of this.

{Thanks for reading.}