“THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL”

Galatians 2

Taught by:  Pastor Carolyn Sissom

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Last night (August 1, 2009), I had a dream.  In the dream, I saw my past four sermon notes.  The Lord spoke, He said, "You are preaching on Liberty, the people do not want Liberty."

On awakening, I interpreted that to mean that one of the "spirts of the age" over the people of the world is "bondage".  The "spirit of the age" is a mind control spirit that is leading the people astray.  This, of course, is the spirit of the anti-christ.

The letter to the Galatians was written because they were being led astray by the Judaizers who were teaching that first a Gentile had to be circumcised and come under Jewish tradition before they could become a Christian.  Here Paul teaches the doctrine, of Justification by Faith plus nothing.

Chapter 2- Paul allowed 14 years to pass before he sought to have his Gentile ministry ratified by the mother church in Jerusalem.  Finally the Holy Spirit bade him go, arranging for him to attend an apostolic council on Gentile circumcision as a delegate from the church at Antioch.  In King James this is called a “conference”.

(Vs.6b) “For they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me.”  I had to smile at this hoping that our conferences in the 21^st century are more enlightening.  As I considered the purpose of this conference, and Paul’s bold stand, I realize that as we have conferences today with different streams coming together;  there are other stands being made on other issues of the times and seasons.

My personal burden is to call people to “come up higher”, “unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, liberty in the Holy Spirit, freedom from religious bondages and the battle of Christianity in opposition to the spirit of anti-christ.  Many of my brothers and sisters duke it out over the “rapture”, “judgment” and the time-line of the great tribulation and the second coming.

I don’t judge those burdens or your scruples.  If that is your calling, you won’t have any trouble out of me.  However, in our church we respect each other’s gifts and callings as long as it is scriptural.   Hopefully we will receive revelations that will enlighten us unlike this conference described by Paul. 

I believe the battle fought and won at this conference in Jerusalem is significant and a “now” word for some of the present struggles of the church today.  There are many teachings out there that would put Christianity back under Jewish traditions to enhance Christian worship.

2:1-2:  Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.  And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should, run or had run, in vain.

This trip coincides with the one in A.D. 50 or 51.  Whereas, Luke records the public transactions taking place in the open convention.  Paul here speaks of his private session and agreement with the apostles.  Paul declared to them what he preached exactly as it had been given to him by revelation.  Should the mother church disapprove his teaching, his trip to Jerusalem would have been for nothing—in vain.  It would have undone all of his work among the Gentiles.  Thus he felt it was important to meet privately with the other apostles and make sure he was in agreement with them before laying his work before an open convention.

This giant of the faith went to this convention ready to defy the whole structure of Judaism.  He took along Titus, an uncircumcised Gentle, as living proof of the gospel’s power!  To have this unclean Gentile stand before the mother church was shocking!  But if he could have Titus received into fellowship right there on the sacred soil, it would be a damaging blow against the Judaizers.

Note:   This teaching has absolutely nothing to do with loyalty to the prophetic revelation of the promise of God to the Jewish nation or Paul’s love for the nation.   It has everything to do with the purity of the “Truth of the Gospel” (Gal. 2:5).

(2: 3, 4 & 5):  “But neither Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised; And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:  To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL MIGHT CONTINUE WITH YOU.”

The Judaizers made circumcision the basis of all they sought to impose on Gentile Christians.  They said it was as vital as keeping the Law.  All other Jewish requirements rested on the act of circumcision.  Paul focused on this one issue and in doing so he demonstrated that circumcision had no spiritual value for Gentiles and the rest of the Jewish requirements were useless as well.  If circumcision was not a ground of justification, then none of the other rites had any validity either.

The demand that Titus be circumcised came from “a sect of the Pharisees” (Acts 15:5).  At least three parties were present at the convention:

(1)   Those favoring Gentile freedom.

(2)   Those insisting on circumcision, i.e. the Judaizers.

(3)   Those favoring an appeasement, wanting Paul to set aside his scruples for the sake of convention unity.

Paul knew the ambition of the Judaizers was to bring Christianity under the yoke of Judaism.  Judaism was over!!!  To make any part of it essential to salvation would destroy the truth of the gospel.  His firm stand on Titus forced the convention to settle the issue one way or the other.

When Titus was welcomed into the brotherhood, the council ratified Gentile freedom removing it forever from under the yoke of Judaism.  That was enough to cut the ground from under the Judaistic teachers of Galatia, and any others who would impose external rites as essential to salvation.

(2: 6, 7, & 8): “But to these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it makes no matter to me: God accepted no man’s person for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me:   But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the Uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter; (for he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:)

Paul says, I don’t know all of those guys exact titles.  God makes no distinctions between men on the basis of rank.  These leaders, I saw were unable to add anything to my ministry.  Quite the contrary, they recognized that I had been commissioned to take the gospel of the Gentiles as sure as Peter.

Paul is not demeaning the other apostles.  He makes it perfectly clear that he is equal to the other eleven in every way.  He had a different ministry, but was as fully certified by the power of God as was Peter. 

(2:9 & 10):  “And when James, Cephas, and John who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.  Only that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.”

What a moment in gospel history!  James, Peter, John and Paul stand with hands clasped in official fellowship.  The other apostles give full sanction to Paul’s ministry, acknowledging his commission, received by revelation, to be identical with the one they received from Jesus in Person.  Can you picture those four writers of most of the N.T. standing there in such perfect accord!  The clasping of hands signifies complete actual agreement in receiving Paul into the apostleship.  The session ends on a note of unity with all of them pledging help for their impoverished Christian Jews at Judea, for famine was in the land.

(2: 11, 12 & 13):  “But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.  For before that delegation came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles; but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.  And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their hypocrisy.

Peter did not do this action out of conviction, but FEAR.  He dreaded the reproach of those visiting from Jerusalem.  Many there, including James, believed natural-born Jews were under obligation to observe the law of meats.  By joining them, Peter behaved as though he felt the Gentile Christians were still separate from Jewish Christians.  He gave no explanation, but comnpromised the truth of the gospel.   His great rank made the action divisive.  He caused other Jewish Christians to stumble by his actions.  So great was his influence even Barnabas and possibly the pastor of the Antioch church was swept into the doctrine.  This may have been the beginning of the break between Paul and Barnabas.  They never again appear together after this. 

(2:14):  “For  when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL, I said unto Peter before them all, If you being a Jew, live after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compel the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? 

Peter was jeopardizing the doctrine of grace.  His conduct, along with the other Jews, amounted to a denial of the TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL.   Though Paul loved Peter, he had to deliver a public rebuke.  He saw a weakening of the basic tenet of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ only. 

(2: 15, 16 & 17):  “We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.  But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin?  God forbid.

Paul’s argument is brilliant.  He asks Peter:  was Jesus wrong in leading us Jews from our legal righteousness to come to Him as sinners?  And because we have forsaken the law to see ourselves as sinners like the Gentiles, does that mean Christ has led us into sin?  The idea is blasphemous, utterly repulsive to the Christian mind.  Paul uses this to shock Peter.  By withdrawing to eat with the Jewish Christians, he was indicating that the Jewish law of meats was still obligatory, when in fact it was observed purely for the sake of its benefits. 

(2:18) 
For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

There is terrible sin in going from grace back to Law.  Again, returning to legal bondage after receiving the grace of Christ is like a man who has been pardoned, returning to prison to serve out the balance of a life sentence. 

(2:19): 

“For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.”

Imagine a medical machine that diagnosed your illness and then killed you because it found you sick.  That’s the way the Law works.  It reveals one sinner when he fails to measure up to its requirements, and then slays him, for it also carries the death penalty for sin.  The Law offers no help for sinners.  What can men do then?  Abandon the Law to find life in Christ.

Though this is a spiritual principle, I believe this same principle will apply to the proposed health care plan by this administration.  The government can decide whether you live or die depending on the rules of the health care plan.   Here is again the battle between the Christian Faith and the spirit of anti-christ trying to put life and death under the law.

From the spiritual, Paul contrasts “law” with “God:” Those two terms represent two different kinds of life.  As long as one lives under one, it is not possible to live under the other.  Yet there is no escape from under the Law except by death.  A man must suffer this penalty himself (go to hell- or receive Christ’s death as his own).  Receiving the death of Christ places one beyond the ljustification by the law.    Death to the Law (justification) comes instantly; death to sin (sanctification) is a slow, day by day process.

(2:20) “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Whenever we take communion, the broken bread pictures receiving Christ’s death.  When He came into our hearts we actually received His death.  It is now our death as surely as though we died on the cross with Him.  That is what makes us dead to the Law and beyond its reach.  Taking the cup pictures the receiving of His life. 

(2:21) “I do not frustrate the grace of God; for if righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

Taught by:  Carolyn Sissom

Scripture from K.J.V.; Bibliography Lovett’s Lights on Galatians by: C. S. Lovett.  Vision was given to Carolyn Sissom 8/2/09 and comments are my own.

We stream our messages weekly at www.eastgateministries.com