Galatians 3:1-9 Who Bewitched You?

Galatians 3:1-9 You foolish Galatians!  Who has bewitched you?  Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.  I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard?  Are you so foolish?  After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?  Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain?  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? So also Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”   Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham.  Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”  So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Paul emphasizes in this letter to the Galatians that the work of Christ is the foundation to their salvation, not the works of their flesh.  The Galatians had been influenced by the followers of Judaism.  They had been told by the Jews to be a real follower of Jesus Christ you must be circumcised, for this work of cutting away the flesh reveals that you are truly right with God.  Paul does not give any ground or credence to this argument of the Jews.  He knows the work of sinful flesh will never grant anyone the privilege of entering the presence of God without one fault.  When the Jews asked Jesus what they must do to find God and do the works necessary to know God, Jesus' answer was simple and direct:  Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?  Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”  (John 6:28-29).  Jesus did not point them to the Ten Commandments or the regulations of the law.  He simply said it is a matter of faith, believing in his works, not their works or effort.  Jesus came to give eternal life to an intractable rebellious human creation.  The Jews of the enlightened law were just as lost as the ignorant, barbaric Gentiles.  The Jews, even with the Law of Moses given to them on Mount Sinai to show them the way to please God, could not satisfy the law of God in their personal lives nor in their communal living.  They were consistently idol worshippers from the time of Abraham to the time they were dispersed into the neighboring countries. They carried the barbaric lifestyle of the Gentiles away from Egypt; they possessed personal idols in their satchels as they traversed the wilderness.  Moses told them to get rid of these abominations to their God of deliverance from Egypt.  Joshua had to tell them the same thing before they entered the promised land.  Nevertheless, in the time of the Judges, they had shrines and Asherah poles to the god of fertility in every community.  The Jewish people clung to these gods of the Gentiles; they contaminated the promised land with these objects of reverence to other gods.  All through the history of Judah and Israel, idol worshipping was constantly present.  The kingdom of the ten tribes known as Israel, even made worshipping Baal the state religion.  Jeroboam, the king of Israel, commanded the people to worship two golden calf idols.  Baal's priests were chosen by men.  They were not Levites, nor from the loins of Aaron, God’s chosen priesthood.  The Israelites debauchery was worse than the Gentiles around them.  Consequently, God dispersed them as slaves into the lands of the Assyrians.  Judah followed into slavery later because of their lack of fidelity to the God of creation.  Paul understood this history of the Jewish people, and he was not willing for the Greeks in Galatia to put on this futile garment of works to please God.  He understood well that man's natural, intrinsic inclination was one of rebellion to God’s holiness.  Man would make the laws, man would determine what is right and what isn’t--all of this based on his own works and fleshly desires.  He would make gods out of his own imagination.  As Paul states in his letter to the Romans.  For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin.  As it is written, “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God.  (Romans 3:9-10)

Jesus came to rebellious people, the Jews first and then the Gentiles.  In working with the Jews, He tells them that He is the bread of life, that they must believe in him and his works, to literally devour his teachings and works or they will not gain eternal life with the Father God.  For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”  (John 6:40).  The Jews were programmed to believe that holiness would only be achieved through their effort to obey the law and regulations given to them by Moses on Mount Sinai.  The priests were not only the carriers of this message, they determined how well the people were serving God.  The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were quick to judge people for disobeying the law and regulations.  They followed Jesus around, grousing about how Jesus and his disciples were not obedient to the laws.  Jesus did work on the Sabbath, making them extremely upset with him, even scheming to kill him because of his willingness to do his own thing on the Sabbath.  Paul was now wrestling with this same attitude of criticism of the Greek believers because of them not being circumcised.  They were attempting to bind the Greeks to the Jewish law that none of them nor their ancestors could obey.  He now addresses the Greeks with these words, Are you so foolish?  After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?  Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain?  He knows the Greek believers have suffered much in their communities because of them turning away from the idol worshipping of their ancestors.  Now the Jews are bringing in the law which they could not observe completely, binding the Greeks to another set of religious observances and regulations.  If they bow to these demands of the Jews, their suffering as believers will be in vain.  For works, no matter how good or seemingly holy they are, will not set them free to serve the God of righteousness with a pure heart: only faith in Jesus and his purity can do that.  Abraham, the father of faith, was righteous or pleasing to God because he believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.  Abraham believed the words God said to him.  He believed, All nations will be blessed through you.  By faith in God’s words, he believed Canaan would be his and through Isaac his promised son would come a people who would inhabit that land of promise.  Now God’s word has once again announced that through a son a great nation will be created.  This time, not Isaac, but Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  Through him and his spiritual loins will come an eternal nation, inhabiting the Kingdom of God.  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  (John 3:16-17)  Paul is reminding the Galatians that faith alone in Jesus Christ and his works is the only requirement that God has for entering his kingdom, entering the Holy of Holies.  God caused the dead cane to sprout life; God caused the manna to fall; God wrote the Ten Commandments.  It is his works, not the burning of incense before him.  It is God’s work that redeems man from a sinful state of rebellion--only his work through his Son of love.  Paul now tells the Galatians to avoid this perversion of man’s work for salvation; instead, they must set their eyes on the one who has perfected their faith. Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.  (Hebrews 12:1-2)

The faith of Noah, the faith of Abraham, and the faith of the Patriarchs was a faith in a God who existed before anything was created.  They believed God could make something out of nothing.  They believed: the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.  (Genesis 1:2)  As with the Holy of Holies, God was behind the curtain.  He always existed, and He could perform anything He desired.  These men of old believed in a spiritual world, a kingdom where God abode.  Consequently, they believed as Noah that something new could happen if God desired.  The ancient world was out of control.  People were fully involved with their fleshly, sinful endeavors, But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. (Genesis 6:8).  He knew there was a God who created all things from nothing, so he built an ark, waiting for the flood.  Abraham believed God existed before anything was made.  He believed in God’s words when they were spoken to him.  From that faith, he saw a boy created out of Sarah’s dead womb.  His faith was in the God that existed before anything was created.  Faith that believers hold in their hearts is that kind of faith.  By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.  (Hebrew 11:3).  Jesus came to make new creatures, holy, acceptable to the perfect God, the righteous One, without fault or error.  Jesus said that we should be perfect as the Father in heaven, no leeway there.  But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.  If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also.  If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.  Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.  Do to others as you would have them do to you.  (Luke 6:27-31)  How can we be perfect?  We are but rebellious flesh, no better than the Jews who were given the perfect law.  They failed to please God, and we too will fail to please God, but Jesus is perfect.  Paul wanted the Galatians to understand that.  Do not go back to the beggarly elements of the flesh.  God is a God of mercy and grace.  He has not changed.  In Psalms 136 we read of God’s great grace to the people of the world, Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.  His love endures forever.  Give thanks to the God of gods.  His love endures forever.  Give thanks to the Lord of lords.  His love endures forever.  To him alone who does great wonders, His love endures forever.  Who by his understanding made the heavens, His love endures forever.  Who spread out the earth upon the waters . . .  (1-6)  God reached out to his creation from the very beginning.  His grace and mercy have flowed to all throughout the ages.  As Jesus said, He sends the rain and the sun on the just and the unjust.  His love is an enduring love.  Paul tells the Galatians that the answer to perfection and to being without any fault comes through Jesus Christ, having the faith in the One who has created all things.  We are not alone he is saying, to please God through our own works.  No, the righteous One has come to us to cleanse us of ALL OUR SINS.  In the second letter of John, he addresses the believers with these words, Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, will be with us in truth and love.  (1:3)  Paul tells the Galatians that grace, mercy and peace will be given to them in completeness through the Father’s Son, Jesus Christ.  There is no other way to truth, no other way to eternal life.  Jesus is the truth and the life; the living bread, The Word.  He beseeches the Galatians to put away the foolishness of trying to be right with God by works, obeying the law and its regulations.  Instead, believe as John did that grace, mercy and peace come only through the One God sent to his dearly loved children.  Walk in that love today, breakfast friends.  

Galatians 2:15-21 Imperishable Seed!

Galatians 2:15-21  We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 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 Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.  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!  If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.  “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.  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. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

We find the essence of slavation in Paul’s words for all men everywhere: So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ.  Greek and Jew by faith in Jesus’ work on the cross are made completely right with God without one fault.  Through Christ’s work as intermediator between God and man, all people who die in faith are partakers of God’s glorious, forever existence.  The ransom to free mankind of its finite, sinful life was paid completely by Jesus Christ on the cross.  For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.  (1  Peter 1:18-19)  Peter goes on and explains how we should live a life of love after being redeemed by the precious blood of Christ.  We should emulate the love of God to all people.  We will face persecution and death too as Jesus faced persecution and death because of his righteousness.  This world is not our home.  Yes, we have escaped Egypt and Pharaoh’s hand of sin and death, but our lives still exist in a harsh environment, and we have a wilderness journey to face.  In this adverse environment we are to live as God's instruments of love.  The old man or woman who lived by law to please God, lived in his or her own strength.  Their acts of pleasing God came from doing work, through obedience to regulations and certain mores.  The law and it regulations were to make one right with God; in fact, obedience to the law was life itself.  Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law.  They are not just idle words for you—they are your life.  (Deuteronomy 32:46-47)  But now Paul is telling the Galatians, that to please God, to have real life, comes not through the efforts of men, but through faith in the One who completely pleases God, Jesus Christ his Son.  Paul is stating that real life does not come from obedience to any laws or regulations, but solely through faith in Jesus Christ's works, for He is the true bread of life.  For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.  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.  A salvation, born again experience, comes not through any other means or way than Christ living in us. 

Christ is eternal and has been with God forever.  We too who have set our hope and faith in him will live forever.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  (John 1:1-2)  Therefore, for you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.  (1 Peter 1:22-23)  Paul is admonishing the Galatians not to go back to the beggarly elements of trying to please God through the world of the law.  The works of the law are very attractive to men of all generations and of all ethnic groups.  Their religions are constructed to be observed by obeying specific laws and rituals.  Consequently, law fits well with human’s self-willed spirit.  Effort and competition satisfies man’s desire to elevate himself above others, proving he alone of all creation knows how to worship God.  The Jewish people were chosen out of all the peoples of the world.  They were given the law to reveal God’s righteousness, his likeness.  They were an enlightened people about the God of creation, not like the people around them, whom they considered barbarians, or people ignorant of God’s likeness.  The barbarians were so ignorant that they made images of God out of their own imagination and then served these images made out of wood, stone, and precious metals.  But the God of the Bible detested these images, these idols, for they did not represent him at all, and these idols demanded from their followers strict obedience to their regulations and obeisances.  Because these images are in every society throughout the world, they reveal man’s inherent desire to know the God of creation and the meaning of life.  But idol worship also reveals man’s innate desire to please these gods of their imagination through their own efforts and sacrifices.  We know Israel did not inherit Canaan because of their goodness, their obedience to God who created them.  Canaan came to them because of God’s grace.  Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.  (Deuteronomy (9:6)   Moses complained many times to the Lord that God had chosen a willful, stubborn, rebellious people as his chosen people.  Even after the Jews had the law in their possession, they failed to change and become subservient to the God of creation.  The laws and their regulations given by Moses, and the empty vows of the Israelites to obey them never changed their hearts of rebellion.  They carried detestable idols with them all the way through the wilderness and even after they entered into the promised land.  The laws and regulations given to them when they camped at Mount Sinai never changed the content of their hearts.  Finally God dispersed them from the promised land, for the law could not make their hearts new.  Now, Paul is telling the Galatians that only Jesus can change hearts.  Obeying the Sabbath regulations or obeying laws will not alter a man’s rebellious nature.  Only a spiritual transformation of the heart can make the heart right before God.  

I died to the law so that I might live for God.  We see with these words that we must die to our own efforts of pleasing God.  As Jesus worked with people, He was trailed around by the teachers of the law and the Pharisees.  They were jealous of Jesus’ popularity with the people.  Jesus was usurping their position of favoritism with the people.  He spoke with great wisdom, and He performed many miracles.  In some situations He healed all the people that came to him.  And what the elite hated most was his lack of reverence for the Sabbath.  Jesus did not quit working on the Sabbath; in fact, He healed people on the Sabbath.  This ignorance of the day of rest, brought rage to the religious leaders.  To them, Jesus was attacking life itself when He failed to observe the Sabbath.  For Moses exclaimed that following the law and its regulations WAS LIFE.  The equation of life for these religious followers of the law was that law equaled life and life equaled obedience to law.  Now Jesus was throwing all life as they knew it into confusion.  How could they allow this man to exist?  One time on the Sabbath Jesus healed a man whose right hand was shriveled.  The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath.  But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.”   So he got up and stood there.  Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”  He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored.  (Luke 6:6-9)  The goodness of God was revealed that day by healing this man’s hand.  God made the Sabbath; He commissioned it for man’s own good so that men and women, and their livestock would have a day of complete rest, a period of restoration for the coming week and that during this day the people could honor God in their thoughts and inaction.  Now Jesus is revealing to the teachers of the law and the Pharisees that He is God; He is the Lord of the Sabbath; therefore, He is the Lord of all laws and regulations.  Otherwise, He, in himself, completely fulfills the law and it regulations for they come from him and his Father.  Therefore, if anyone is found in faith in Jesus Christ, he or she has satisfied all the laws that were ever written to honor God or to regulate one's life.  Paul is warning the Galatians not to back off this high mountain of righteousness.  God who met Moses on Mount Sinai gave him the law for the Israelites to follow, but now God met with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration and said to the world, This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.  Listen to him!”  (Matthew 17:5)  The Word of God or the fulfillment of all righteousness is now in flesh, in the man called Jesus.  All law has been satisfied in him.  Breakfast companions, we are to listen to him through the voice of the Holy Spirit in us, and we are to follow him as we venture through this land of flesh.  He will guide us, not laws or regulations.  The law is no longer outside of us, but it is alive in us because Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, has taken away all our sins, made us completely new, and He resides TODAY in our hearts.  Rejoice and be glad!  

(Sorry we are late this week--computer problems.)

Galatians 2:11-14 The Peter Syndrome!

Galatians 2:11-14  When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.  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.  The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.  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?

Paul’s confrontation with Peter in Antioch came after the council meeting in Jerusalem where Paul had gathered with the leadership of the Christian church and proclaimed to them his ministry of grace and mercy to the Gentiles.  The council confirmed that what Paul was doing in the Greek communities, winning Gentiles for the Lord, was a move of the Holy Spirit.  Peter had convinced some of the Jewish skeptics in the Jerusalem church by reminding them of his contact with the Gentile Cornelius and how the Holy Spirit had filled Cornelius’ whole household with the Holy Spirit, evidenced by them speaking in tongues.  Now we see Peter in Antioch on a visitation there, dining exclusively with the Jews when they sat down to eat.  This act disturbed Paul because Peter was bringing division within the Antioch fellowship of believers, both Greeks and Jews.  Paul knew how Peter helped to encourage the Jerusalem believers to accept his ministry to the Gentiles by exposing the hypocrisy of the Jewish believers.  Peter reminded the church leaders that they themselves have fallen short of obeying the law completely and that God had already revealed his acceptance of the Gentiles who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ by infilling them with the Holy Spirit.  God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.  He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.  Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?  No!  We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.  (Acts 15:8-11)  Peter had a good understanding of Gentiles and Jews being one in the body of believers because God had given him a heavenly vision to accept all people who God has validated as clean.  God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.  (Acts 10:29)  Because of this vision, Peter was comfortable with entering the house of Cornelius, a Gentile, a forbidden act of Jewish orthodoxy.  Not only to enter, but to minister to the household of Jesus grace and mercy to all people.  He then stayed with them for a few days longer after the Holy Spirit fell upon them.  He was completely obedient to the vision God had shown him before he went to Cornelius’ house.  However, now in Antioch, we see Peter disobeying the vision that God had shown him that there was no division between Gentiles and Jews.  When dining he gathered with the Jews.  Paul knew this act was dangerous to the church’s unity, so he confronts Peter directly about his act of divisiveness.  

We see Jesus also interacting with someone outside of the Jewish group when He talks with a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in Samaria, a forbidden act by orthodox Jews.  The Samaritans were a despised people in Israel.  In fact, some Jewish people avoided traveling through Samaria.  The direct route between Judea and Galilee was through Samaria, but many Jews would detour around Samaria when traveling either way.  But we find Jesus, tarrying at the well of Jacob because He was tired.  He does something rather unthinkable by asking this woman at the well for a drink of water.  Will you give me a drink?  (John 4:7)  She is surprised by him addressing her, a Jewish man talking to a Samaritan woman.  You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.  How can you ask me for a drink?  (John 4:9)  As with Peter in Cornelius house, this is a forbidden act.  The Samaritan’s are considered as half-breeds, not fully Jewish.  They have their own place of worship; they have distorted the purity of the law, and they have been enemies to the Jewish people in the past.  Otherwise, they were the worse kind of people, cultish in worship and lifestyle.  Yet, Jesus not only talks with her but ministers to her, just as Peter did in the household of Cornelius.  She questions Jesus about him asking her for water.  He responds, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.  (John 4:10)  This confounds her, Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?  (John 4:12)  She asks, Are you greater than the one who has given us water that sustains us on earth?  He says, Yes, I am greater than the patriarch who has blessed you with this water.  Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.  (John 4:13-14)  We find in this scene, Jesus talking to someone who should never know God.  She was as the Greeks, outside of God’s grace and mercy as far as the law was concerned.  Jesus never should have been talking to her.  The disciples questioned him about doing such a thing as talking to a Samaritan woman.  But Jesus as Peter knew the Samaritans were people God wanted to include in his Kingdom.  As with Peter, Jesus stayed with them two more days,  And because of his words many more became believers.  They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”  (John 4:41-42)  Jesus unites the Samaritans with the Jews.  The promise to bless all people through father Abraham would be fulfilled in Jesus.  Peter went to Antioch, but confused this message of oneness by dividing people into groups of acceptable and not acceptable.  But Paul knew God had come for all people, to make all Children of God.  He would not tolerate this division.

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.  (Ephesians 4:4-6)  We see in Peter’s reaction to the Gentiles in Antioch how hard it is for him to leave his Judaism behind. The majority of the church in Antioch were Greek people.  Consequently, when Jewish Christians from Jerusalem came to Antioch to observe what is going on in that city, Peter decides to eat with them rather than with the Greeks with whom he previously ate with before the Jerusalem Jews arrived.  Paul was not happy with Peter’s diversion toward the Jews during mealtime, for he knew Peter himself understood that God was no respecter of persons or groups of people.  When Peter met with the Roman Cornelius he said, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.  You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.”  (Acts 10:34-36)  God is ready to bless all people with the redemptive power of Jesus Christ and his work on the cross.  Now Peter in his actions seems to ally himself to a different message of oneness, maybe because of ethnicity.  Paul is not having any of this division in the body of believers.  He knows Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.  (Colossians 1:15-16)  Jesus alone creates newborn children of God from every nation.  These newborn will forever be with God because of one work: Jesus’ death on the cross.  He makes all things new.  As God is one in Jesus, Jesus is one in God and we who are alive IN CHRIST are one with the eternal Father.  Paul could not allow this oneness to be broken by any division at all: determining who is good and who is not.  Who is following the law and its regulations and who is not.  Who is perfect and who is not.  Who we should associate with and who we should not in the family of God.  Judaism measured people to be right with God based on the law and its regulations.  But the law had no redemptive power.  Jesus came to deliver mankind from his failures to please a righteous God.  He came not to condemn people, but to rescue all people from their hopeless condition of sinfulness.  Paul knew the cross paid the full price for man’s redemption.  In Peter’s actions of sitting down only with the Jews in Antioch, he was preferring one group of people above others.  Peter was discriminating between believers, breaking up the oneness in Christ.  We who are alive IN CHRIST MUST HOLD THE ONENESS OF CHRIST ABOVE OUR OWN REGULATIONS OF HOW TO PLEASE GOD.  If we have the Peter syndrome in us, let God reveal it to our hearts.  For eternal life with God without one fault comes through the Faultless One, Jesus Christ.  He alone is our righteousness, and He offers that gift to all who call upon his name.       

Galatians 2:6-10 No Favoritism!

Galatians 2:6-10  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.  On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised.  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.  James, Cephas, 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.  All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.

After fourteen years away from Jerusalem, Paul with Barnabas and Titus goes back to Jerusalem to validate what he was ministering in the Greek communities.  Some people from Jerusalem and some Jews in the Greek communities have instilled the message of circumcision into the salvation plan of grace alone.  They stated that this message of being circumcised was a necessary step in being right with God.  Their gospel was faith plus law: this doctrine was contaminating the Greek believers, causing them to lose out in being right with God through faith alone in Jesus Christ and his work on the cross.  Paul was deeply troubled, for this message was contaminating the churches, curtailing their freedom in Christ alone.  The Greeks were used to law, for that was a way to appease their mythical gods.  He knew this idea of works would be easily acceptable to the religious nature of the Greeks.  Paul saw this idea of requiring good deeds to be acceptable to God would only enslave the Greeks again to the necessity of works.  Paul knows this work doctrine would kill the newborn Greeks.  So now we see Paul going back to Jerusalem to verify the foundation of what salvation means to the founding fathers.  He wanted the Christian fathers to understand fully that he was preaching faith only in Jesus Christ and that he was seeing marvelous, supernatural works in their communities, establishing that the message of grace and mercy found in faith in Jesus was the way to God.  By seeing these validations from God, he knows that all people are one in Christ Jesus.  In Christ Jesus you (Jews and Greeks) are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.  (Galatians 3:27-29)  Peter got up in the council and affirmed what Paul was saying about faith alone saving people from eternal death.  In Peter’s mission to Cornelius’ house, the Roman centurion, he witnessed the Holy Spirit baptizing the whole house of Cornelius, so he knew the message of Jesus Christ as the Savior was for the whole world, not just for the house of Israel.  Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe.  God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.  He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.”  (Acts 15:7-9)  Peter knew Paul’s message of faith only in Jesus’ work on the cross was the salvation plan for all people everywhere.  He understood well why God was performing marvelous works of healing in those Greek communities.  God was putting his stamp of approval on what He told Abraham that He would be the father of many nations.

This belief that Jesus came for all people was a difficult concept for Jewish believers.  They knew they were the chosen people of God.  God’s law came to them because of their special position in his eyes.  They had been delivered from the barbarian world of Egypt into the enlightenment of the law.  Now Paul and others were preaching that the barbarian could be right with God through Jesus Christ.  For them, to remove the law from their lives was like removing God from their lives.  Even as they analyzed Jesus’ work on earth, they knew it was centered on the Jewish communities.  If that was so, then how can some people extend his ministry outside of Israel?  But Paul’s concept went beyond this small land of the Israelites.  Jesus stopped him on the road to Damascus and expanded his mind to the plan of salvation for all people.  To emphasize this vision in Paul’s mind, He blinded Paul for three days.  During that time, we can assume that the God of all people enlightened him to the salvation of all people on the face of the earth.  His mission would be to go into the dark world of the barbarians and preach the gospel that Jesus Christ saves.  For that, he would suffer much.  His message of Jesus Christ without any additions for the salvation of all people was crystalized in him by the Holy Spirit.  Therefore he expanded this gospel to the Greeks, He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.  For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.  (Ephesians 2:17-18)  Jews and Gentiles would become part of the kingdom of God as one people.  However, for the apostles, this expansion of Jesus’ work on the cross was still difficult for them to accept, for they had heard Jesus’ conversation with the Gentile woman when he said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”  The woman came and knelt before him.  “Lord, help me!” she said.  He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”  “Yes it is, Lord,” she said.  “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”  Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith!  Your request is granted.”  And her daughter was healed at that moment.  (Matthew 15:24-28)  In the above verses, we see God verifying this woman’s faith by a healing.  Otherwise, we see even in Jesus’ ministry to the Israelites only, God performing a miracle for this woman because of her faith in Jesus’ divinity.  Paul is now expressing the same thing to the Jerusalem council.  Paul told them, God is approving of my ministry by signs and wonders.  He is confirming the ministry of Christ as the only message that will deliver men from their sinful state, their rebellion against God and his authority.  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.  Jesus had told Peter specifically to feed his sheep, the house of Israel, and He confirmed this message by having Peter perform great miracles in the Jewish communities where even his shadow falling on people caused the sick to be healed.  Now, Paul is saying that he through Jesus Christ’s direct contact with him has been given the contract of FEED MY WORLD.  Because of the household of Cornelius being filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter now is affirming Paul’s ministry to the Greek world.

What then for the Jewish council?  What admonition should they give to the newly saved Greeks?  What guidelines should they direct these former barbarians’ fellowship to follow?  These Jewish leaders could have drawn from their previous years of bondage to the Jewish laws and regulations, what they thought people must do to be right with God.  But rather than burdening these newly freed people with the Jewish law, they emphasized the grace of God by placing only a few restrictions on the Gentiles.  It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.  You will do well to avoid these things.  (Acts 15:28-29)  Even these directives are not given in a spirit that you must not do them or you will go to hell.  All they said was that you should avoid doing such acts.  Of course, they wanted the Gentile Christians to separate themselves from idol worshipping, from the lifestyle of their communities.  Sadly, the stark reality of the Greeks’ idol worshipping communities revolved around a lot of immoral sexual activity.  Paul, along with preaching avoidance of sexual immoral behavior, incessantly preached emulating Jesus Christ’s spirit of love and kindness.  He wanted them to abandon attitudes and spirits of adversity that corrupted their communities.  Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.  (Ephesians 4:31-32)  Paul knew if they carried these disruptive sinful attitudes in their daily activities, they would always remain immature believers.  Sexual sins, anger, and division would hinder their souls.  They needed to get rid of such behavior.  In place of such actions, they should display Christ’s grace, mercy, and love.  They should forgive others who troubled them.  He wanted them to imitate Jesus in and out of season, when things were going well and when they were not going so well.  Now, in addressing the Jerusalem council about his ministry of creating new creatures in the name of Jesus, he tells them that this is the fulfilling of God’s mysterious plan to save the whole world from corruption and sin.  God is bringing all people to him through the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.  (Ephesians 3:6)  Now, without one fault, all people can enter into the Kingdom of God with the name of Jesus Christ printed next to their names in the Book of Life.  May you walk in the freedom of Christ today unencumbered by guilt or sin.