Galatians 2

December 3, 2017

Evening Service

Sean Higgins

Download the Kids’ Korner.

Or, Keeping the Truth of the Gospel Straight

A treadmill is a lot like the law. A treadmill lays out the direction and sets the pace. A treadmill requires constant attention and demands that each step land in the right place. You must keep up to speed. And like obeying the law, you don’t really get anywhere, but you can at least keep from getting hurt.

Some people think about a treadmill like hell. To the degree it is like the law, it certainly doesn’t feel like life.

I remember when I first started to study Romans 7 which is all about the Christian and the law. I read not tens, but hundreds of pages trying to figure out both halves of the chapter and how they were related. I remember coming across the illustration of the performance treadmill and the relentless pressure to meet the demands of the churning belt.

The law, and the relationship of Jews and Gentiles and Christ and faith to it, was (and is) an inescapable issue. God is good with that. He’s the one who gave the law; it’s His, and it’s good (Romans 7:12). He’s also the one who sent His Son to fulfill it, and He’s the one who saves men apart from it. But working out how it’s all connected has been causing conflict since the first century. It certainly caused conflict in the churches of Galatia.

This epistle addresses the self-righteousness that (attempts to) nullify the grace of God. Self-righteousness as attained by the law means Christ died for no purpose. But this is not reality, it is certainly not the gospel, and it is something Paul could not stand for. The truth of the gospel was at stake. The phrase “the truth of the gospel” is used in verse 5 and verse 14. Paul contended for it, confronted over it, and clarified what he meant by it. He could not let it be lost or twisted.

In chapter 1 Paul began to defend his preaching and ministry as one called and instructed by God directly. His apostolic credentials were being questioned, so he provided testimony about how he received his gospel (1:11-24), and now he relates that his gospel was tested and affirmed by the other apostles in Jerusalem (2:1-10), acknowledged by Peter in Antioch (2:11-14), and then he defined it explicitly (2:15-21).

The Truth of the Gospel Endangered and Preserved (verses 1-10)

In his testimony, after fourteen years probably refers back to his conversion around AD 33, making this visit to the capital around AD 45-47. He was saved on the road to Damascus, went into Arabia then back to Damascus (1:17), visited Peter in Jerusalem three years later (1:18), then went into Syria and Cilicia (1:21). Now Paul says I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus. I think this visit was prior to the Jerusalem Council mentioned in Acts 15, the Council that made official decision on what to expect of Gentiles.

Barnabas was known by the Galatians; he had helped introduce Saul/Paul to the Christians in Jerusalem (Acts 9:27) and was part of Paul’s first missionary journey, inviting Paul to join his work in Antioch for an entire year (Acts 11:22-26). Titus, being a Greek, becomes important in a moment. The reason Paul went went up with these men was because of a revelation; in other words, God told him to go, it wasn’t because the other apostles subpoenaed him. And what he accomplished was receiving official recognition that he was preaching the gospel.

In verse 2 he spoke with those who seemed influential. In verse 6 it is those who seemed to be something. In verse 9 they are named, James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars (in Latin: qui videbantur columnæesse) in the church. It’s all the same group, portrayed from the perspective of their overly eager followers. Paul is acknowledging that God put these men into position of influence without conceding that his apostolic work depended on their approval. Paul didn’t need them; he didn’t receive his gospel or his call from them, and at the same ti[...]