Galatians
2
English
Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK)
Paul
Accepted by the Apostles
2
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. 3 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.
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.
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?”
Justified
by Faith
15
We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a
person is not justified[a] 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.
17 But
if, in our endeavour 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. 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. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness[b]
were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
The
IVP New Testament Commentary Series
A
Personal Confession of Faith (2:19-21)
The
points of agreement and disagreement that Paul sets forth in response to the
crisis in Antioch (and Galatia) are founded upon his own personal confession of
faith in Christ (vv. 19-20). His faith in Christ involved both a death and a
new life. When Paul says Through the law I died to the law, he is not speaking
of physical death. In his vocabulary, to die to something means to have no
further relation to it (see Rom 6:2, 10-11). So to die to the law means, in
this context, to cease to be under the supervision of the law.
Paul's
death to the law was accomplished through the law (v. 19). The phrase through
the law is taken by some interpreters as a reference to Paul's own subjective
experience under the law. The law led him to discover his inability to keep the
law and its inability to make him righteous. Thus it was through the law that
Paul was finally led to abandon the law as the means to righteousness and to
seek salvation in Christ. But this interpretation is not warranted by the
immediate context. Paul does not say in this context that he died to the law
because of his terrible sense of guilt and frustration under the law. Instead
he declares that his death was accomplished by identification with the cross of
Christ—I have been crucified with Christ (v. 20). When we interpret through the
law in light of this declaration, I have been crucified with Christ, then we
can see that death to the law through the law is accomplished by identification
with the death of Christ. Paul explains in the next chapter that the law
pronounced a curse on Christ as he hung on the cross (3:13). In this sense
Christ died through the law. By crucifixion with Christ, believers also die
because of the curse of the law on the one who hangs on the cross—and so, in
this sense, they also die through the law. The perfect tense of the verb have
been crucified points to the permanent condition of Christians in relation to
the law: we remain dead and fully punished. Therefore the law can no longer
condemn us.
The
result of dying to the law is a new kind of life, not a life of moral license,
but a life for God—that I might live for God (v. 19). This new kind of life is
not ego-centered but Christ-centered: I no longer live, but Christ lives in me
(v. 20). This new life of faith is motivated and guided by the sacrificial love
of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (v. 20). Participating
by faith in the death of Christ (I have been crucified with Christ) and the
resurrection life of Christ (Christ lives in me) is the only way to live for
God. But attempting to attain righteousness through the law sets aside the
grace of God and negates the value of Christ's death (v. 21).
In
succinct, compact form, Paul's confession of faith expresses his own experience
that Christ, not the law, is the source of life and righteousness. The reason
for his personal confession was his insistence that Jewish and Gentile
believers should not be separated as the law demands, but united as the truth
of the gospel demands. His new spiritual identity—I no longer live, but Christ
lives in me—is the basis of his new social identity: "There is neither Jew
nor Greek . . . for you are all one in Christ" (3:28).
When
we make Paul's confession of faith in Christ our own, we must keep in mind both
the spiritual and social dimensions of our union with Christ. Without the
social dimension, our faith in Christ degenerates into individualism. We then
become interested only in our personal faith and neglect to maintain and
express our union with all believers in Christ. Such individualism has been a
root cause of constant division in the church. But without the spiritual
dimension, all efforts to maintain unity in the church are fruitless. Not until
we can truly know and experience the reality of Paul's affirmation—I no longer
live, but Christ lives in me—will we be able to live in true harmony with our
brothers and sisters in Christ. For until then we will be ego-centered, not
Christ-centered.
The
experience of union with Christ as expressed here by Paul is a mystical
experience in the sense that it transcends rational explanation: direct,
intimate communion with God in Christ cannot be fully described. This mystical
experience, however, should not be confused with the mysticism prevalent in the
Hellenistic mystery religions of Paul's day, or the mysticism of Eastern
religions touted by New Age prophets in our day. Both Hellenistic and Eastern
types of mysticism emphasize ascetic disciplines leading to absorption into the
divine, negation of individual personality and withdrawal from objective
reality. The mystical experience of union with Christ is not accomplished by
human effort but granted by God's grace (I do not set aside the grace of God);
it is not a loss of individual personality but a renewal of true personality
(the life I live in the body, I live by faith); it is not a withdrawal into
isolation but an involvement in service ("serve one another in
love"—5:13).
Mystical
union with Christ also needs to be understood from the historical perspective:
it is not a totally subjective experience divorced from objective historical
reality. Just as a person who becomes a citizen of the United States has
decided to live within the historical reality created by events in Philadelphia
on July 4, 1776, so the person who becomes identified with Christ has decided
to live within the new historical reality created by the events of the cross of
Christ and his resurrection. Paul places the subjective experience of faith in
Jesus Christ in the context of God's redemptive work in history (3:6-25).
The
practical outworking of union with Christ comes into focus in Paul's ethical
appeal (5:13—6:10). There we find that the experience of union with Christ
includes both passive (being led by the Spirit) and active (walking in the
Spirit) dimensions. So it would be a mistake to take Paul's words I no longer
live, but Christ lives in me as a proof text for total passivity in the
Christian experience. The very next phrase underscores the necessity of active
faith: The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God (v. 20).
We do not become just empty pipes that God's power flows through, as I've heard
preachers say. I no longer live as an egocentric person in obedience to all my
selfish passions and desires, for Christ is now at the center of my life. Now I
live in obedience to him, for he loved me and gave himself for me.
IVP
New Testament Commentaries are made available by the generosity of InterVarsity
Press.
Yours
by His Grace
Blair
Humphreys
Southport,
Merseyside
18th
January 2014
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