“Herein lies the
principal point of the matter, which amounts to the true confutation of Paul’s
adversaries and the unassailable defence of his teaching… that he was given the
Gospel directly by Jesus Christ”.
Jerusalem, Antioch
and standing for the Gospel
As Paul affirms his
message has been given by God (1:11 &12), so he now shows that it’s
confirmation is heaven-sent. As he goes out and preaches salvation by grace
alone to the nations, the Holy Spirit is pleased to empower this giving of Christ
(Antioch - Acts 11:25-30), and the people are drawn and saved by the truth. God
is at work amongst us when we also seek to proclaim this same Jesus – as with
Paul, nothing can be added to that message (Jerusalem - Vs 9), but the Gospel
itself condemns any seeking to cripple or remove its power to make us free by
binding us to rules which are imposed by traditions or beliefs made to be
important by men, especially when these seek to gain authority in the church
(Antioch - Vs 11-14).
The struggle is always
between the things we feel we must do (or should be doing), and what IS done
for us – what really makes us right with God. We all want to be like the rich
young man, coming to get the ‘secret’ of being righteous from a good teacher,
when Jesus shows us however high we place that mark of what we think is holy,
what we think will do, it will never be high enough, and all that awaits us in
that way of thinking is futility or, as with the religious people of those
times, total delusion.
The power of this
error is like gravity – it keeps seeking to pull us back into a confidence in
something other than Jesus – look at how Peter and Barnabas become ensnared
into it (Vs11-14). That is the turmoil of this life. Because we are fallen
creatures, our old nature longs for something to adorn it that it can parade as
a virtue, so it can boast that some good comes from its behaviour, but it is
this very nature that exiles us from God and seeks to eclipse God’s work in His
Son by offering us confidence in something that denies the Fall of our race and
the cost to redeem us from that horror through the death of Jesus at the Cross.
The labour of the
church is always to be to one end – to bring and keep us in the wonderful
freedom Christ alone brings by His work. In the opening section of this
chapter, Paul relates just how this has been the imperative in his ministry.
The conflict
The true work of
grace always includes
those who were ‘outside’ and excluded by external values of righteousness.
Titus, a gentle, not only became a believer as a direct result of the gospel,
but, even though he in no manner adhered to what would have been the rules of
Jewish religious culture, he became a leader in the church (Vs 1 & 3. Titus
1).
Working with Jews
and Gentiles, then, to bring life to the pagan world, Paul visits Jerusalem (Vs
2), and, it would appear, whilst there, he notices the beginnings of this
trouble (Vs 4). This imposition of legalism would continue until it was
countered by the whole church (Acts 15). Paul’s concern was to remove any voice
given to those who wish to bring Christians back into a slavery to anything
which alienates them from the deliverance made ours by God in Christ. Not a
single moment should be given to such folly (Vs 5).
It is only when we
are apprehended by the rich and sweet redemption the Father bestows upon us in
His only Son, made ours freely and totally by His love, that we find true
adoption and acceptance – true peace – with God, for only here is there
forgiveness and life, flowing from Christ to us in His death and resurrection.
How foolish, how tragic, then, it would be to seek to exchange this marvel for
the leaky, tottering and failing shambles of our own piety before a God, who,
outside of the life given to us in Christ, must exact the full weight and
requirements of the law upon our rebellious estate – what a foolhardy error,
what a terrifying choice! That is why Paul so strongly rejects and condemns
this.
In that first visit
to Jerusalem, Paul shows those who wish to conform our faith to something less
than it really is that they are already confounded in their attempts – that the
Gospel is already bringing new life to those they considered ‘outside’ of the
truth (those who did not keep the law). This should have been more than enough to
clarify the true nature of God’s activity amongst us – that in Christ, the
walls of partition between Jew and Gentile are gone – but rather than heed the
clear evidence of this, the Judaizers chose to cling to their cultural
religious identity and begin to plot and then to work against this wonder –
that is why they are totally condemned.
We can raise all
manner of things to prominence - a particular heritage, perhaps, a personal
manner of devotion or goodness, even a code we think that we or others must
abide by – but as with the seduced Galatians, we are effectively placing
ourselves in real danger when these self-devised methods became as important to
us, or even more important, than God’s work in His Son.
In Christ, we are
made anew, made to be a realm of priests and kings to God, made to be conformed
to the beauty of the nature and person of Jesus, that the world may see a faith
that is caused and matured by love. Outside of Christ, we are cruel and selfish
creatures, in which all that is good is twisted and bent to serve what has
become corrupt and sinful and therefore can in no manner please God or truly
help others or us. Enthusiasms, devotions, good works, even Apostleship, are of
no value whatsoever if they take us from the Gospel.
Correctly handling
the Word
Paul’s conversion
and message had come directly from Christ (1:12,15&16). It was because of
this that when he visited Jerusalem, the Apostles had nothing to add to what He
had been given (Vs 6). Here,
again, we see the importance of this Gospel – the very men who had known Jesus
as His disciples recognise that in Paul’s calling and ministry, God is clearly
at work in a manner which is marvellous to behold. So splendid is this, that
all they can do is re-affirm what God has already done (Vs 9) – that Paul is
indeed the Apostle to the gentiles (Vs 7-8), so the entire argument against him
is totally without foundation.
It was because of
the authority of His calling, which he has shown us, stands or falls in
relation to faithfulness to the message of Christ, that Paul refutes and
condemns the error of the Judaizers when this makes its first real appearance
amongst the gentiles at Antioch (Vs 11). Peter’s actions (Vs 12), siding with
such behaviour, undermines and discredits the weight and validity of the Gospel
itself, because they convey that methods devised by men regarding abstinence
and non-essential division are actually to be valued as more important than the
freedom and fellowship given to us in the saving death of Jesus. It is not, said
Jesus, what we take into us - the things we eat, drink, wear and the like -
which are evil, but what comes from our own hearts – what characterizes us
outside of God’s care - that is truly wicked and condemning (Matthew 15:11
& 18).
Peter’s fall
teaches us how easy it is for anyone to loose their footing in the faith, to
begin to major in minors, become critical and judgemental of the life of
others, and not see our own slipping, not into worldliness, but the
censoriousness of a supposedly superior judgement or manner of behaviour or a
spirit of fear that comes from a heart and life becoming disconnected from
Christ.
It can be very
costly to stand for the truth (Vs 13). Men had come from James and Jerusalem
with this bondage. Peter stood with them, and even Barnabas, Paul’s companion,
was persuaded by their error, so Paul could have also caved in and gone with
them rather than stand alone – imagine what would have happened if he had…
where would we see the church today?
There would have
been no gospel!
Paul profoundly
knew where these men were coming from – he had spent his life schooled in such
religion, but he knew it was nothing but dung before the excellence of the work
of God in Jesus Christ – that is why he so vehemently rejects and ejects it
from the church – it has no place.
We live in a world
where all manner of religious powers and authorities seek to place us back
under the tyranny of subjection to law to achieve righteousness, but it is all
in vain, for none of these powers can break the hold of sin and death upon us –
only Christ makes us free.
God has provided a
better way, which truly rescues us, and through Paul in this incident, Christ
tares down the deceit which would ensnare His people, and ensures that our safe
haven, only found in Jesus, is kept before us.
It is in his
discerning of this matter (Vs 14) that the Apostle shows us how we can truly
remain within the faith and thereby grow as we need to as God’s children.
Rather than succumbing to deceit and error paraded as something which is
benevolent or harmless (the false always dresses itself as something good and
holy), we must become those who can distinguish between the sweet and living
waters of Christ and the poisoned mire of rules and obligations devised only to
cripple and control. If we learn to make and understand this vital distinction,
then we will learn something that as at the core of what is necessary as a
Christian – the means whereby we test or prove (weigh up) all things which
would seek to require our attention as they deem themselves of spiritual value
– to test these, and to then adhere only to what is good. It will correct us
well, and prevent us from seeking to impose on others things that are totally
indifferent in regards to the work of the Gospel, which was the error evidenced
at Antioch (Vs 15).
Having placed this
trouble in its context, Paul will now re-open for us the glorious message that
saves us from these follies.
The truth at the
heart of the issue is now reached (Vs 16). Men will seek to justify themselves
by all manner of programmes that they believe makes their behaviour or
character of value, but actual rightness before the Father of all can only come
when we rest entirely in the person and saving work of His Son. The law, as shown by Paul himself
(Romans 1 & 2), defines one great truth for us – that we are all concluded
as a race in the terrible state of sin and death, and would be totally without
hope, divorced from God, without rescue (Romans 3:19& 20); that is why the
Gospel is such good news. It truly sets us free.
And that is why the
events which unfold, first in Antioch and then in Galatia are so tragic, for
they essentially seek to replace Christ by the law, and in so doing, appear to
make the Gospel no more than an instrument for miss-placed confidence in false
means (Vs 17).
The Judaizers
claimed that they had something ‘superior’ to other men in their keeping of
certain traditions and rules, and that these were necessary for true godliness,
but Paul refutes their blindness because to maintain such a belief is to
entirely demean and seek to replace the free gift of God – salvation by His
grace – with something menial and ineffective (Vs 18). By holding onto the law,
they had lost Christ, and turned the gospel into nothing more than a false
hope, but Paul will have none of it.
Christ alone does
what the Law cannot and could never do – it replaces our hopeless attempts at
reaching God with the one who has come from heaven to reach us. Through Christ,
notes Paul, I have not only been given new life within this being so bent by
corruption, but I am also, because the law can only kill, dead to any
obligation to the Law (Vs 19). What matters before the Father is the nature and
work of His Son, and this is what grace gives to us (Vs 20).
In conclusion, Paul
contends that there is only one life, one manner of goodness, one righteousness
which is of any true value in heaven and earth. If we seek to subjugate that
wonderful gift to other ways of being right with God, however noble they may
appear, then we nullify the power of God’s work (Vs 21), and this truly leaves
us without hope. The boast of the church is a life lived by faith in the person
and work of Jesus, no more, no less, and that is where Paul will seek to lead
his way-laid brothers in Galatia next.
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