Galatians Chapter 2

Paul Accepted by the Apostles 

       1 Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. 2 I went up because of a revelation and set before them(though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain.

 

1. What had Paul been doing for 14 Years and why go up to Jerusalem?

 

This time was spent in Asia Minor chiefly in preaching the gospel.

Acts 11: Barnabas and Paul in Antioch.
Acts  13: Barnabas and Saul on Cyprus,  Barnabas and Paul in Paphos , Perga in Pamphylia, and  Pisidia.
Acts 14: Paul and Barnabas at Iconium , Paul and Barnabas at Lystra, Paul and Barnabas Return to Antioch in Syria via  Attalia.
This was after certain persons came from James to Antioch, where the apostle was laboring, and insisted upon things that are mentioned in this letter-that the Gentile believers must be subjected to Jewish rites and ceremonies, that they must be circumcised, must keep the law of Moses, or they could not be saved. When Paul came in contact with them he waited until he had a definite revelation commanding him to go to Jerusalem. BN

He says, “I went up by revelation.” He did not go alone; he took Barnabas with him. IC

 2:1 fourteen years … again to Jerusalem. This was the period from the time of his first visit to Jerusalem (1:18) to the one Paul refers to here, which probably was for the Jerusalem Council (Ac 15:1–22) called to resolve the issue of Gentile salvation.
2:2 because of a revelation. This revelation from God was the voice of the Holy Spirit.  So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. Acts 13:4 ESVN

He refers to the divine commissioning of his visit in order to refute any suggestion by the Judaizers that they had sent Paul to Jerusalem to have the apostles correct his doctrine.those who were of reputation. The 3 main leaders of the Jerusalem church: Peter, James (the Lord’s brother, 1:19) This phrase was typically used of authorities and implied a position of honor. Paul refers to them in a similar way two other times (vv. 6, 9), suggesting a hint of sarcasm directed toward the Judaizers, who claimed they had apostolic approval for their doctrine and Paul did not. They had likely made a habit of exalting these 3 leaders at the expense of Paul. might be running … in vain. Paul hoped the Jerusalem leaders would support his ministry to the Gentiles and not soften their opposition to legalism. He did not want to see his ministry efforts wasted because of conflict with the other apostles. MSBN

 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. 5 But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the Law of Moses.” Acts 15:4-5 (ESV)

 

It was a master stroke of Paul to take Titus with him. Titus was a young preacher and a Gentile. This, I believe, was the first great council in Jerusalem as recorded in Acts 15. The question to be settled was whether men are saved by the grace of God or whether they should come in under the Mosaic Law. Paul had Titus there as exhibit number one. Titus had not been circumcised. Will he be forced to become circumcised? This was to become a very important matter. You see, the Judaizers were going about saying that the church in Jerusalem held that all believers in Christ should be under the Mosaic Law. All of the men there at the Jerusalem church, which was an all-Jewish church, had certainly been under it. Many of them still went to the temple to worship. In fact, that must have been the Christian’s meeting place. Paul and Barnabas came there to get the official word regarding law and grace.Paul recognized that if he were preaching a different gospel from what the other apostles were preaching, there was something radically wrong. Paul was willing to admit, “If I were preaching a different gospel, I would be wrong. I have run in vain. I have certainly been disillusioned and misinformed.” So he goes to Jerusalem and communicates that gospel to the apostles there. JVM 

But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. 4  Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery— 5 to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.

 

  2. “spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus” What freedom do we have in Christ Jesus, I thought Christians have to do a bunch of stuff and not do other stuff?

 

I don’t drink and chew and go with girls that do. The Liberty of the Gospel, that they might know the better how to oppose St. Paul and his fellows in their preaching Christ to the Gentiles—ACC

Liberty is not license. License implies freedom with no responsibility and accountability (James Bond: Licensed to Kill). Liberty requires freedom within responsible limits and obligations. Our position with Christ is solidified and is not dependent on our performing religious duties. The Muslim in contrast never has any assurance of eternal life.

 6 And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. 7 On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised 8 (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), 9 and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10 Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.  

 

3. What is remarkable about the pillars of the church, Peter, James and John still being in Jerusalem after 14 years?

 

 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, Matt 28:19 (ESV)

“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Mark 16:15 (ESV) 

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8 (ESV) 

The church was instructed to go. It seems strange that they are still sitting in Jerusalem and this Paul fellow is out for 14 years preaching the gospel to those who needed to be saved.

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Gen 9:1 (ESV)

  Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over theface of the whole earth.” Gen 11:4 (ESV) 

We have tendency to circle the wagons and set up camp and not go out of our comfort zone.Eventually God deals with the situation. A few years later he allows to the Romans to destroy Jerusalem in 70 A.D. It is interesting that 1.1 million Jews were slaughtered, but almost no Christian. Why? The Christians remembered what Jesus had told them in the Olivet Discourse and got out of town. When they saw Jerusalem being surrounded by the roman legions they fled to Pella.When God wants us to move, sometimes he engineers the circumstances such that it is  impossible for us to stay.

Paul Opposes Peter

11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. 13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?” 

 

 4. I thought Jesus was going to build his church on Peter the Rock? It seems like this rock is a little squishy.

 

 Of course when Jesus declared that he would build his church on Peter, I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the
gates of Hades will not overpower it. Matt 16:18 (NASB),

he was not referring to Peter personally but to the faith that Peter exhibited in declaring that to Jesus “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Matt 16:16 (NASB).

Peter was a work in progress, he was never the Bishop of Rome and not the first Pope, and the entire Roman Catholic doctrine of apostolic succession is a fantasy.

Justified by Faith

15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. 

 

5. Well then what was the purpose of the law and why doesn’t it apply to us now?

 

The Hebrews spent over 400 years in Egypt as slaves and once God had Moses lead them out of bondage, they were like children and had to be told how to act. The 613  stipulations of the Mosaic Law covered everything from the 10 commandments to the Mishpatim, the judgments, which covered everything from how to treat slaves and servant, how women should be treated,  and what to do if someone gets a skin rash. If I dig a pit and your ox fall into it and dies, there was a certain prescribed law as to how to handle the situation. We might not understand the context of how or why these regulations were there but indeed in every case they were enacted to limit evil, not endorse it. An eye for an eye and tooth for tooth, was a law to put equality in retribution. If I knock out your tooth, you cannot kill me and my whole family, your retribution is limited to a tooth.So to a certain extent the Mosaic Law was a teacher. When I was in 1st grade I had to raise my hand and ask permission to go to the restroom, but in college I was a grown up and was mature enough to handle those things like an adult. The Old Testament Mosaic law was like a school teacher that gave men direction until they were grownups.

It was also a teacher in the respect that no one was able to keep the law perfectly and when you broke a law you were required to kill an animal and the blood of that animal paid the price you owed to God for breaking His law. Seeing millions of animals slaughtered year after year for our inability to do things properly showed mankind that there was no place for their pride and that we are all a bunch of screw ups. The animal sacrifice thing was just a band aid, covering a serious defect until Jesus came, dying on the cross, paying the sin debt for those who will accept him as the “final solution” to our debt crisis. Jesus was a Jew who lived under the Mosaic Law perfectly, never violating any of the 613 rules, and when it says he fulfilled the law it means he not only did not break any, but also went further. He full-filled, went past the literal law and performed what it could not do.

He said fulfilling the law is not just not committing adultery but it was also not even lusting after a woman in your mind. He lived a life that surpassed the written requirements. He said it was not just not murdering your brother that fulfilled the law; it was not hating your brother in your heart that fulfills the law.
So after Jesus fulfilled the law at every point, the law was no longer necessary. It had served its purpose. After Jesus was resurrected and went back to heaven where he came from, He sent His Spirit, the Holy Spirit to live within us. As Jeremiah says He wrote the Laws on our hearts. So now we no longer have 613 laws, we only have two.Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. You see if I love my neighbor as myself, when your ox falls in my pit, I will do everything in my power to  make it right with you. I don’t have to look in the book any longer to tell me how to act, now I have the Spirit of Christ inside of me showing me how to act like a grown up.The OT law was for people who did not have the Holy Spirit living within them, therefore they needed a set of written instruction. In contrast the NT was for people who did have the Holy Spirit living within them. As a result we have a “real time” guide helping us get to where He wants us to go. It’s much like the difference between trying to read a street map to get to your destination, and having a GPS in your car calling out turn by turn direction.
Once you get this point settled and it becomes part of your Christian worldview, it is very liberating. This was why Paul could claim

“All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.” 1 Cor 6:12 (NKJV)

17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.

 

This lowering of the Jew to the level of the Gentile seemed to involve Christ, making Him a minister of sin in that He released man from bondage to the Law, since faith in Christ for both Jew and Gentile on equal terms is the condition of salvation. But Paul rejected the conclusion, for it rested on a false premise, namely, the fancied superiority of Jew over Gentile. Here Paul delicately takes what belongs to Peter and refers it to himself. The real transgressor is not Christ, but the one who, like Peter, builds up again a distinction that has in fact been destroyed. Peter was doing just that by withdrawing from Gentile fellowship, making it appear that Jewish believers were a superior breed.—WBC

The sense of this verse seems to be this: Since the Jew had to forsake the Law in order to be justified by Christ and therefore take his place as a sinner, is Christ the One who  makes him a sinner? Paul’s answer is, “Of course not.” The Jew, like the Gentile, was a sinner by nature. He could not be justified by the Law, as he demonstrated. This same thought was given by Peter in his address before the great council at Jerusalem: “Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they” (Acts 15:10–11). You see, Peter and Paul were in agreement on the doctrine of justification by faith. JVM 

The fact that Jesus fulfilled and made the Mosaic Law obsolete does not make Him an advocate for irresponsible sinful living.

  19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 

 

 6.  What does Paul mean; It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me?

 When a person trusts in Christ for salvation, he spiritually participates with the Lord in  His crucifixion and His victory over sin and death.

no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The believer’s old self is dead, having been crucified with Christ (Ro 6:3, 5). The believer’s new self has the privilege of the indwelling Christ empowering him and living through him. MSBN

I have been crucified with Christ. Paul’s former “self,” the person Paul was before he trusted Christ, with all of his sinful goals and proud, self-exalting desires, came to a decisive end—he “died.” It is no longer I who live does not mean that Paul has no personality of his own (all his writings show that he does) but that his own personal interests and goals no longer direct his life; rather, Christ who lives in me now directs and empowers all that he does. How then does he, as a “crucified man,” gain any strength to go on living? the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God. Paul seems to be saying that, as he trusts Christ moment by moment, Christ then works in and through Paul to give spiritual effectiveness to all that he does. who loved me and gave himself for me. The fact that on the cross Jesus bore believers’ sins as their personal, individual substitute (“he … for me”) shows that the crucifixion was not an impersonal, mechanical transaction, but a personal expression of Christ’s love for people as individuals. ESV

21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

 7. Would God send his Son to die on a Roman cross if there was a better way to save us from our sins? 

The main thought in this verse is simply that if there had been any other way to save sinners, then God would have used that method. If a law or a religion could have been given that would save sinners, God would have given it. The only way that an infinite God could save you and me was to send His Son to die. He was willing to make the supreme sacrifice. JVM

• ESVN………….ESV Study Bible Notes

• MSBN…….MacArthur NASB Study Notes

• NIVSN…..NIV Study Notes.

• JVM ….J Vernon McGee,

• ACC …. Adam Clarke’s Commentary

• BN …..Barnes Notes

• WBC……   Wycliffe Bible Commentary

• CN …… Constables Notes

• IC……….Ironside Commentary

• NET………Net Bible Study Notes.

  JFB…………..Jamieson  Fausset  Brown Commentary

• VWS……………..Vincent Word Studies

• CMM………….Commentary on Matthew and Mark

• BDB………….. Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT)

• Darby………..John Darby’s Synopsis of the OT and NT

• Johnson………Johnson’s Notes on the New Testament.

• NTCMM…………..The New Testament Commentary:  Matthew and Mark

 

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