Receiving the Gospel - Galatians 2 - 3

The first verse in the second chapter of Galatians was written by Paul and it tells us that fourteen years after his conversion on the Damascus Road he went again to Jerusalem. There is no way for us to know for sure the number of times Paul was in the city. We know that during the time of Christ’s ministry Paul was working for the Sanhedrin Court that was based in Jerusalem and he must have been in the city often getting his orders regarding where he was to go in search of the new Christian’s movement whose membership were considered enemies of the Jewish church during that day. He had just departed the city and was on his way to Damascus to make Christian arrests when he met Christ on the road and was converted.
It is easy for us to understand that Paul would not want to go back to Jerusalem right away because of the conflict he would have over the drastic change brought about by his conversion. Peter, John and the other disciples who had been called from their work to follow Christ and named apostils by Him were all Jews. When word got around that Paul was now claiming to also be an apostil of Christ, as a result of his miraculous conversion, he met with some strong Jewish opposition including some reluctance on the part of the apostils to accept him as a God called apostil.
You must remember that the church was given instructions to be followed when they considered a replacement for Judas, the disciple that betrayed Christ and then committed suicide. Qualifications included having walked with Christ during his three years of ministry; he must have been present with those that gathered in the upper room and witnessed the coming of the Holy Spirit and he had to have been present and visited with Christ after his resurrection. Paul did not do any of these things, and therefore many did not consider him to be an apostil.
His calling was not in question any more than was his message. Paul contended that his calling was to preach to the gentile, just as Peter, and others had been called to witness to the Jews. The Jerusalem disciples had been under the direct influence of the original Jewish synagogue and the Sanhedrin court and there was pressure on them to hold on to the teaching that it was necessary for all new Christians to also be Jews. And that they had to at least practice some of the laws pertaining to circumcision and restricted foods.
Paul was preaching the true doctoring of Jesus Christ that salvation came only by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and his death on the cross and nothing else. Paul took Barnabas and Titus, who was a Greek, with him to Jerusalem and they met with the leaders. Paul tells us that Peter, James and John all gave him the right had of fellowship when they realized that he was preaching the truth. It is too bad that the old guard did not agree, but instead they continued to be enemies that tried to stop Paul wherever he went preaching God’s word. Paul was considered a bigot in his day because he was right and all others were wrong. Times haven’t changed here either. I am considered a bigot because I believe that Christ is truth, and that truth is not relative. Christ told us that he is the way, truth and life and that he is the only one by whom or through whom anyone can be saved. We must accept either Christ crucified on the old rugged cross or be lost forever without hope—and you and I must make the choice.
It appears to me that the greatest enemies of Christianity today are those who add to it things that are useless and unacceptable to our Lord and those that would delete from it rules, regulations and precepts that Christ claims are of value. Paul is my hero of the New Testament and the greatest man ever next to Christ. We both believe that Christ and the cross are the most important objects of our worship. Any church that refuses to display the cross as an important symbol of religion has a problem. Any church that has to depend on a book other than the inspired word of God for its directions is disobeying God’s command that there should be nothing added to or taken from His Holy Word.
Paul had only been gone from Galatia a short time when he learned that they had already started adding to and taking away from the gospel he had taught. His trip back to see them and the writing of this book to them is the result of his finding that they were going astray. When Paul returned to Jerusalem he took Titus with him. There was pressure placed on him to have Titus circumcised, but since he was a Greek, Paul did not give in. You may not realize it, but later Paul allowed Timothy to be circumcised, and some may wonder why he made the exception. Timothy was half Jew, and Paul explained the he did not wish to disallow the Jews the right to be circumcised, but that he simply wanted all to understand that there was nothing wrong with the practice—but it was not necessary for salvation.
This opposition came mostly from the party of the Pharisees, [Acts 15, 5] and the other apostles did not disagree with Paul. The only problem that arose between Paul and Peter had to do with the fact that Peter had a problem eating with the new non Jewish Christians because of what his Jewish friends would think and say about it. If you will remember, Christ had to deal with Peter in a personal way about what foods were clean when He showed Peter the vision with all kinds of food being let down from heaven on a sheet. In verses 11 and 12, it specifically says that Peter felt ok eating with the gentiles until he realized that he may be seen by some of the opposing Jews.
Chapter two winds to a close with some of the strongest teachings found anywhere in the Word. Read it now. Are you saved? Have you been crucified? Yes. If you are a Christian you were crucified on the cross at Calvary. You ask how. When we accept Christ as savior, He looks at our sins as if they died on the cross with him—and we are no longer condemned. The Bible says that we have become one with Christ—we are in him and he is in us—therefore his experiences are our experiences. We became a Christian the moment this unity with Him became a reality. We died with Him. We were raised with Him Rom. 6:5.
It is so easy for us to act like Christ died for nothing, and that is not so. We go to church regularly. We pray often. We witness to sinners. We give to the poor. We support our church. We sing in the quire. We teach a class. We attend often and regularly. We visit the sick and homebound. We observe the Lord’s Supper. We get baptized. All of thee are well and good, but have nothing to do with being justified or getting saved. Rather these are all necessary because we are saved and God expects the saved to work—but he does not allow the sinner to work in order to be saved. You can not do these things to set aside the grace of God [or instead of depending on the grace of God] for if righteousness could be gained through the law, CHRIST DIED FOR NOTHING verse 21.
As a final thought Paul takes us back to the faith of Abraham in 3: 9. Those of us who have faith are blessed along with Abraham who is known as the “Man of Faith.” The Judaizers argued that Gentiles had to become Jews in order to become Christians. Paul exposed the error in this argument by simply showing that the real children of Abraham are those who have faith, and not those who kept the law. The Bible plainly teaches that Abraham was saved by his faith.