There Is One Gospel Message (Galatians 1:10-2:21)
The churches of Galatia were under attack from the Judaizers. And apparently, they questioned who taught the gospel to Paul. The Judaizers seem to have claimed that Paul’s learning was partial and that there was more to the story. And they were, of course, just the people to fill the gap in Paul’s teaching.
Of course, if you want to disturb the peace of a church, the best way to do it is to disparage the leadership. And that seems to be what happened here. In order for the Judaizers to get a foothold among the congregations of Galatia, it was necessary for them to disparage Paul.
But Paul would have none of it. The things that they were claiming about him were false. And he didn’t just let them continue their tirade against him. They lied about Paul, and so Paul showed them just how wrong they were as he discussed the details of how he came to know the gospel and the approval he received from the Apostles.
It may seem like this is something that is far in the past and doesn’t mean much to us today. But it is not. Similar sorts of arguments are made today by liberal Christians to disparage things that Paul taught. Even today, liberals and atheists state that James and Paul contradict each other. I remember hearing from a friend of mine that was in a Christian History class at Arkansas Tech University, that the difference between different denominations boiled down to the difference between Peter and Paul.
But this is just the thinking that Paul destroys. The disciples spent three years learning the gospel from Jesus. Paul did as well. Paul spoke with the disciples of Jesus about the gospel and they gave him the right hand of fellowship. And when one of Jesus’s disciples deviated from behaving in a way that is congruent with the gospel, Paul confronted him and Peter accepted it.
Paul makes a case here from a lot of historical events that the gospel Paul preached was the gospel message that Peter, James, and John preached.
The Judaizers were lying. And so are modern day false teachers that claim Paul taught differently than the others. There is one gospel message. It was preached by Peter. It was preached by Paul. It was preached by Jesus. And it is preached by us today.
Paul Learned The Gospel Directly From Jesus (Galatians 1:10-17)
Paul stated plainly that he was taught the gospel, but he was not taught from people. He was taught from God. Paul received this directly from Jesus Christ. Those familiar with Paul’s story are not shocked by this. Luke discusses Paul’s conversion, where he was confronted by the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus.
It is interesting to look at what Paul discussed concerning his own time as a Pharisee. He was better at Judaism than the Judaizers (Galatians 1:13-14). I find this humorous because he is comparing his own law keeping to those that are causing a stir in the churches of Galatia. Whatever they think they do, he did it better. And God delivered him from that through this revelation of the gospel by Jesus Christ.
And so, Paul was set apart by God to take the gospel to the Gentiles (Galatians 1:15). This again is in contrast to the people that were causing a stir among the people of Galatia. He was set apart to deliver the gospel that Jesus gave him. And he did not see it necessary to talk with anyone about it. He went for three years without consulting anyone (Galatians 1:16-17).
Paul did spend 15 days with Peter, but it was only Peter (Galatians 1:18-20). But it seems that there wasn’t a significant interaction between the two of them. Paul just kept on preaching without having a significant interaction with Jesus’s Disciples (Galatians 1:21-24). And the result of all of this is that the churches gave glory to God because of Paul’s conversion and preaching.
The gospel that Paul proclaimed was not the product of man but of God. This is the gospel of God. The one gospel of God. And it was delivered to him directly from the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are not told directly how Paul was taught. But I do believe that Paul sees the three years as being important. He was directly taught the gospel by Jesus Christ and separated to learn it for three years. The Disciples themselves had been directly taught by Jesus Christ for three years.
So what are we to say to people that claim Paul’s letters should be thought of as less than or different from the rest of Scripture?
No. Jesus Christ directly taught Paul the gospel, just as He did the Disciples.
What are we supposed to say to people that claim that there is another gospel message?
No. This is coherent. Jesus taught the message to Paul and the Disciples.
This is not multiple messages, but one coherent message.
Paul’s Gospel Message Received Confirmation From Jesus’s Disciples (Galatians 2:1-14)
Paul did, later on, have more interaction with Jesus’s Disciples. And when he did so, he took Barnabas and Titus with him. They spoke about the gospel he had already proclaimed for years (Galatians 2:1-2).
The Judaizers had been claiming that circumcision was necessary for salvation. But an interesting thing didn’t happen in this interaction. Titus was not forced to be circumcised. If the Disciples had agreed with the Judaizers, then Titus would have been circumcised. Or they would have at least argued for it. But this did not happen. This proved that the Judaizers were false teachers (Galatians 2:3).
Paul did not yield at all to the false teachers that argued for circumcision. He wouldn’t yield to them at all. And this is interesting. Paul had Timothy circumcised, but refused to do so in the case of Titus. It seems that this decision was on principle. If he caved in this case, it would have added law to the gospel. The truth of the gospel would not have been preserved (Galatians 2:4-5).
In an aside, Paul claimed that he was entrusted with the gospel to the Gentiles in the same way that Peter was entrusted with the gospel to the Jews (Galatians 2:6-8). These people seemed to be influential, but God shows no partiality (Galatians 2:6). And so, Paul and Peter had been given similar roles. And neither of them were allowed to depart from the gospel.
But then we receive another important part of the discussion. Those who were thought to be more influential: James, Peter, and John, heard the gospel Paul preached. And they approved of it heartily. They gave him the right hand of fellowship and sent him on to preach this message o the Gentiles (Galatians 2:9-10). They gave approval to Paul and not to the Judaizers.
Another account, which is even more telling is now given by Paul. It even more forcefully shows the Disciples approval of Paul’s message. It was the confrontation of Paul to Peter’s face.
Paul here discussed his opposing Peter, “because he stood condemned” (Galatians 2:11). The reason for his standing condemned was that Jewish believers came to town and Peter was eating with the Gentiles. Peter was in full fellowship with the Gentiles before these Jewish believers showed up. But when they showed up, that stopped. Peter stopped fellowshipping with the Gentile believers. And Peter led other Jewish believers to do the same thing. They saw his behavior and began to do the same. It caused a division between the Jewish and Gentile believers.
This act told the Gentile Christians that they were lesser because they did not adhere to Jewish customs. Even Barnabas was carried away by this (Galatians 2:13).
And Paul would not have it. He stepped in and publicly confronted Peter (Galatians 2:14).
We must understand that Peter didn’t proclaim anything that changed the message of the gospel. Peter’s actions betrayed the gospel message. His actions conveyed a message and it was that the gospel was not enough. Peter’s actions were declaring that the Jews were better because they kept Jewish customs. Paul confronted this in front of everyone.
Peter’s response is quite telling here. Peter repented. He understood that Paul was correct and repented of his sin. Peter, the Disciple of Jesus that was one of those that everyone looked to as the great leaders of the Church, repented when Paul confronted him.
Again, the point should be quite clear to us. The message that Paul preached was not a new one or a different message than the Disciples. He was delivering the same message that they were. Though he didn’t need their approval, he got it. And not only did he get there approval, but Peter accepted the rebuke of Paul when he betrayed the message and began separating himself from the Gentiles.
Is there a different gospel?
Do Peter and Paul preach different messages?
The fact of the matter is that there is a large group of people that claim Paul is a male chauvinist that taught differently than the Disciples.
But this was not the case.
Is there a different gospel message proclaimed in the Scriptures?
Can people claim that an emphasis on Paul leads people astray? Because that is what many people say today.
The Message Paul, The Disciples, And We Proclaim (Galatians 2:15-21)
This is a further explanation of Paul’s discussion about Peter, but it also serves as an explanation of the gospel message that both he and the disciples of Jesus agreed upon.
Peter and Paul were both Jews. They both know that “a person is not justified by works of the Law but through faith in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16 ESV).
Both Peter and Paul “believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law” (Galatians 2:16 ESV).
Both Peter and Paul believe that no one is justified by works of the law (Galatians 2:16). Justification is God’s declaration of righteousness. No one is declared “not guilty, but righteous instead” based upon their own works. This is all through the finished work of Jesus Christ. Both Peter and Paul believed and proclaimed that.
Does this mean that works don’t matter. We are justified by grace alone. Does that mean that we sin and make Christ a “servant of sin”?
Paul says here that he died to the Law. This means he no longer tries to keep it to gain God’s approval. But now he lives for God. He is not trying to gain his salvation anymore. He is freed from that. Now He is living for the Lord.
Paul states that he has been united to Christ. He was crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20). When Jesus died on the cross, Jesus died for Him. And He died to the Law when Jesus died for him. He is not attempting to earn God’s favor. But Christ is living within him and working in him to do good works.
So now, Paul lives by faith in Christ. It is not the doing of the Law that brought him redemption. It is the salvation that he found in Jesus Christ. Jesus loved him and gave Himself for him.
We rebelled against God and earned His justice. And God could have left us in that state. But He did not. God sent His Son to accomplish salvation for us. He lived and died for us. Jesus lived the life we should have lived and died the death that we owed. And that is credited to us. We are credited with Jesus’s perfect life. And our sins were placed upon Christ and He paid the punishment for them in our place. This is how we are justified. It is through the finished work of Christ for us. He gave Himself for us.
And this salvation produces good works. We are saved by grace alone, through the finished work of Christ alone.
If we were to attempt to reverse that and say that righteousness were through law keeping, then Christ died for no reason (Galatians 2:21). If you can save yourself, then Jesus did not need to die.
Here is the question that Paul gets us directly to in this moment.
Are you saved by your own works?
Will Christians do good works?
Why?
How is it that we are saved?
I want to ask you a question. And this question, if you answer it honestly, will drive us right to the heart of this discussion. And I want you to answer it honestly, not out loud, but in your own head and ponder it
Let’s imagine that we eat our fellowship meal and on your way home you die. A 2 ton hunk of steel and plastic drives into you and you find yourself in Heaven standing before the Almighty. And He asks you this question.
“Why should I let you into my Heaven?”
What is your answer?
If your answer is that you have been a good person, then you are trusting in your own works. And if you are trusting in your own works then you will go where your own works have earned you passage, and that is in Hell. If you get what you deserve, then you will receive eternal punishment.
If your answer is that Christ died for you, that He earned a place in Heaven for you, then you will be with Christ for all eternity.
Conclusion
Have you seen the bridge illustration? On one side of the ravine is a lost sinner. On the other side of the ravine is eternal life. But in the chasm there is an eternity in Hell. The only way to get from one side to the other is Jesus Christ. And oftentimes this bridge is drawn as a cross.
Now, if you add your own righteousness to any part of that bridge, then the whole thing will fall under the weight. Your personal righteousness cannot bear it. If you think that your good life and your good works will merit eternal life for you, then the whole thing will come to nothing, and you will find yourself in an eternity separated from God.
If you were to die tonight, would you find yourself with Christ for eternity? Or would you find yourself lost forever paying the punishment for your sin?
R. Dwain Minor