Galatians
2 New International Version - UK (NIVUK)
Paul accepted by the
apostles
2
Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with
Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2 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. 3 Yet not even Titus, who was with
me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4 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. 5 We did not give in to
them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.
6
As for those who were held in high esteem – whatever they were makes no
difference to me; God does not show favouritism – they added nothing to my
message. 7 On the contrary, they recognised that I had been entrusted with the
task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised,[a] just as Peter had been to
the circumcised.[b] 8 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. 9 James,
Cephas[c] and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right
hand of fellowship when they recognised the grace given to me. They agreed that
we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. 10 All they asked
was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been
eager to do all along.
Paul opposes Cephas
11
When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood
condemned. 12 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. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by
their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
14
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?
15
‘We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 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[d]
Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one
will be justified.
17
‘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!
18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a law-breaker.
19
‘For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 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. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if
righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!’[e]
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.
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.
"Not often, but every once in a while, God
brings us to a major turning point--a great crossroads in our life. From that
point we either go more and more toward a slow, lazy, and useless Christian
life, or we become more and more on fire, giving our utmost for His
highest--our best for His glory." --Oswald Chambers, from the My Utmost
for His Highest
The Bible Panorama
Galatians 2
V 1–5: CONFIRMATION Fourteen years later, Paul, along with Barnabas and Titus, went to
Jerusalem to meet the other apostles. He confirmed that the truth that he
preached was given to him directly by God. It was the same truth that God had
given to the other apostles. There was, right from the start, a real concern
that no falseness, especially legalism, should creep into the doctrine and
spoil the truth ‘even for an hour’. Titus, a Greek, was not compelled to
undergo circumcision. That Jewish rite could never bestow salvation.
V 6–10: COMMISSION God
confirmed to Peter, James and John that Paul was His apostle. Accordingly they
commissioned him, along with Barnabas, to take the gospel to the Gentiles. They
also were asked to remember the poor.
V 11–15: CONFRONTATION Later,
when Peter came to Antioch, Paul confronted him openly because Peter’s correct
practice of eating with the Gentiles was suspended when Jews came along. Paul
saw this as a hypocritical undermining of the gospel, which adversely affected
the Jews and even his companion Barnabas.
V 16–21: CORRECTION Paul insisted to them that it was only by grace in Christ that
anyone could be saved, and that salvation could only come by personal faith in
Him. In dying to justification by the works of the law, and living by faith in
the Son of God, Paul taught that Christians should reflect the fact that
salvation is by grace and not by the works of the law. The death of Christ and
His risen life are fundamental to this. The false teaching of salvation by
works empties the cross of Christ of its real meaning and purpose.
The reason for your life
part 2 (Elim Missions)
Galatians
2
We
continue to examine how Paul's purpose (the gospel of grace) shaped his life.
6.
Purpose brings confidence, v6-10.
v6,
The "seemed to be important” is v2 “those who seemed to be leaders” is
v9
“James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars”.
Who
were they?
James
(not the apostle) – brother of Jesus, leader of the council of Jerusalem
(Acts
15), leader of the elders in Jerusalem Church.
Peter
– leading apostle, fantastic Jewish ministry.
John
– disciple whom Jesus loved, son of Zebedee, brother of James, one of the
Twelve. Later wrote Gospel, 3 letters and Revelation.
Paul
lived with purpose and in so doing he was not intimidated by: reputation (v6)
or appearance (v6).
What
Paul was saying was that he was equal in ministry, God was at work in Paul just
as much as them.
Leaders
can get things wrong just like any other human being and if you spot this, it
doesn't mean you are a Jezebel or that you are touching the anointing, you are as
anointed as anyone, v11-14.
Just
because man puts man on a pedestal and because man likes being up there is not
the sign they are above you.
Experience
tells you what to do; confidence allows you to do it.
In
his inaugural speech, Nelson Mandela in 1994 said this:
Our
deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our
deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It
is our light, not our darkness that frightens us...
We
were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It’s
not just in some of us, it’s in everyone.
And
as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to
do the same.
As
we are liberated from our own fears, our presence automatically liberates
others.
Without
being rude and above reproach we do need to break free from the intimidation of
the reputation and appearance of man and let others copy the beauty of living
with purpose.
Part
3 Words for The Wise, The Fellowship of the Faithful, Galatians 3, English
Standard Version (UK)
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