Galatians 2:1-10 Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. 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.
Paul is telling the Galatians that the gospel he ministered to them came directly from the Lord Jesus who intervened in his life on the road to Damascus. After Jesus called him to be an apostle to the Greeks, Paul did not consult with any other apostles or leadership in the church. Instead he went into Arabia to learn what is meant by being a follower of Jesus Christ. In Arabia he learned about THE WAY to be right with God through faith IN Jesus Christ. This truth of the way to be right with God was relayed directly from Jesus Christ. Paul an inveterate enemy of Jesus, knew only a few general tenets of this apostate religion. He understood Christians were fanatics about believing in this man, Jesus the Nazarene, as the promised Messiah to the Jews. These Christians also believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. Of course, Paul, known as Saul at the time, thought of them as being lunatics, for no one can escape the grave. Consequently, when Jesus called him on the road to Damascus to be an apostle to the Greeks, he was quite ignorant about what Christianity entailed. In Arabia Jesus revealed himself as the Messiah of the Jews through opening up the Pentateuch and the prophets' reference to him. Paul as a rabbi believed fervently in the scriptures. Jesus opened Paul’s eyes and unstopped his ears to the reality that Jesus was, and is, the Messiah of the Jewish people and also the Lord of all people on earth. This same biblical course had earlier been taught to the two men on the road to Emmaus. They were confused about the things they had seen and heard the last few days in Jerusalem. They knew Jesus had been murdered by the Romans on a cross, but they had also heard the confusing message that Jesus had been resurrected. Jesus, joined them on their travel to Emmaus and opened up their understanding of what they recently experienced in Jerusalem through a review of the Old Testament, teaching them that what they saw with their own eyes and what they heard about the resurrection were as the scriptures foretold. Now we hear Paul tell the Galatians of his reeducation. Jesus revealed to Paul that He was the Way, the Truth and the Life and that no one will be right with God until he or she puts faith in Jesus Christ as his or her savior. Salvation from death comes only through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul spent three years away from Jerusalem, teaching and ministering what he heard from the voice of God. After that time, Paul went to Jerusalem to see if what he heard from Jesus was the true gospel. He found that what he heard from Jesus through revelation was the same gospel the leaders were teaching. However, since the Spirit of God is alive and active in Christians, Paul was receiving even deeper revelations about the salvation plan. He was readily preaching grace, the gift of salvation to all who believe in the works of Jesus Christ. He understood well that Jesus broke the hold of death on all people. Jesus was the gate through which people could escape the consequence of sin, which is death. Paul would tolerate no addition to Jesus being the only way out of the power of sin. As a rabbi he knew well the 613 commandments in the Pentateuch that would supposedly lead people to God if they were were completely obedient to the law. He was well versed in the law, well ahead of other rabbis his own age. He was a teacher of the law; therefore, his hatred burned strongly against these apostate Christians who have abandoned the law as the necessary step to be right with God. Now, after fourteen years he reconnects with the church leaders to verify that what he is teaching to the Gentiles is THE WAY to be right with God. The church leaders put their stamp of approval on Paul’s ministry to the Greek world: the right hand of fellowship.
Paul was very fearful about the inroad of teaching people to be circumcised to know God. For Paul, to accept circumcision as a verification of being right with God would contaminate the purity of the gospel. Therefore, he did not give in to the teaching of accepting circumcision as a necessary step to be a Christian. He knew the requirements of the law would follow if people accepted the teaching of circumcision. Paul taught strongly that the faith of Abraham made people right with God; any other belief would make them an enemy to God, for they would be discounting the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Faith in Christ alone brings righteousness. Faith in the words of God brought righteousness to Abraham, not the law. It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, because the law brings wrath. (Romans 4:13-15) Paul understood well, if the people went back into the law as a necessary step of being right with God, they would receive the wrath of God for no one has ever been able to fully satisfy the law by the way they lived. Any variation to completely following the law will bring eternal judgement. Only faith in Christ escapes the judgment of death on a person’s soul. The dependency on the law to be right with God will close the gate to eternal life. So Paul fervently attacked the Galatians' inclination that the addition of circumcision is a better way to be assured that they are right with God, but Paul says, it will lead them to destruction. Paul is adamant about the salvation plan of God. To be reconciled to God, people must accept God’s gift to them when they were buried in sin, enemies to a righteous and holy God. The blood of Jesus was spilled for his enemies so that they might be right with God, curtailing the wrath of God on them. God, through the sacrifice of his Son, Jesus the Christ, on the cross, has made us friends of God, children of the Most High. We have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:9-11) Paul wanted no interference from any other gospel than Christ alone. He had heard this truth from Jesus Christ. He had been blinded on the road to Damascus, so his eyes could be open to a better truth than dependence upon law as a way to be made right with God. He was worried by the Galatians accepting circumcision as being part of the truth of knowing God. He did not want their freedom IN CHRIST to be hampered. If they accepted the law as a gate to eternal life, they would once again become slaves to sin and death. THE WAY to eternal life, to escape the blanket of death on all people comes only through faith in Jesus Christ. He is the only gate to freedom, to the ascension of the soul to God. On the cross, we died with Jesus, our sins were nailed to the cross. Now in the resurrected Christ, we too are resurrected with him to an eternal life. If we died with Christ, we will also live with him. (Romans 6:8) Paul could not believe that some were still teaching circumcision to those who have been set free to eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. This pernicious belief would destroy the work of the cross and make Jesus’ death irrelevant in being right with God. But the real truth of knowing Christ is that people have have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. (Romans 6:17-18) The power of sin has been broken, the gate: Jesus Christ, has punctured a hole in the blanket of death, a sentence on all men and women. Therefore, Paul is encouraging the Galatians to put away the law that smothers them under the sentence of death. Instead, choose freedom in the one who won the victory over sin and death.
The temptation to go back to the old covenant, the law, is alway present with men and women. In the arrogance of humans, we want a say in our redemption. As in the garden, did God really say we should not eat of that tree. Of course Adam and Eve chose their self-will rather than believe in God’s words as absolute, irrefutable. The law is attractive to the self-willed nature of humans. We just tell God, point the way and we will follow it in our own strength. But THE WAY, THE TRUTH, THE LIFE are all wrapped up in Jesus. He is the gift of God, not one earned but just a gift of God. God tells the Hebrews that He has a gift for them and that they should put away their old law of works. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord, ’because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:10-12) This new covenant is not just for the Hebrews, it is for all mankind. It is God’s gift to all people who trust in God’s words, as Abraham did. And who is THE WORD? Jesus is the Word and all things were created by him and through him. So the new covenant is wrapped in and through the Word. Trust in him and the Word will be planted in your heart. The more you trust him the deeper your roots in him will grow; Know the Lord is the theme of the New Covenant. Fall in love with Christ. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:31) Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9) Jesus makes salvation very simple: 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 new covenant with mankind is fulfilled with those words: everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him will have eternal life. Not maybe have new life, but HAVE new life. Paul did not learn the way to God by the advice of others, even from the apostles who walked with Christ for three years, who heard all of Jesus’ teaching and saw all of his miracles. Paul learned the salvation message from Jesus' own lips, for he was now an apostle for the whole world, not just the Jews. He needed to know the gospel of salvation from the Origin of life itself. So Paul is beseeching the Galatians, hang on to Jesus only, for HE IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. Everything else is no gospel at all. Know the truth, for the truth will set you free.
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