Study of Galatians Part 6 - Galatians 2:14-21

Last week, we heard of Paul’s confrontation with Peter because Peter was backing down on the freedom of the Gospel, in Christ (Galatians 2:11-14). That problem was resolved, and then Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch, in Syria (Acts 12:25). We now need to review a little more history in the Book of Acts before we continue with Galatians 2.

The Holy Spirit communicated to prophets in Antioch that Saul (Paul) and Barnabas were to be sent out on a missionary journey to share the Gospel with as many people as possible (Acts 13:2-3). This, the first of Paul’s three missionary journeys recorded in Acts, probably lasted from about 46-48 AD. You can read about it in Acts 13:4-14:28.

During this journey, Paul and Barnabas visited areas of the Roman province of Galatia (part of the country of Turkey, today) and established churches, gatherings of believers, most likely in Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. They then returned to Antioch in Syria and rejoiced that God “had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.”

Those Jewish Christians who thought that all people should be circumcised and follow Old Testament laws were still around, though. Some of them went all the way to Galatia and visited the churches that Paul and Barnabas had started. They stirred up trouble and said that Paul was wrong in saying that faith in what Jesus had done for them was enough for salvation. Some also came to Antioch in Syria and insisted that all Gentile believers had to be circumcised and follow other Jewish laws. Paul and Barnabas challenged and debated them, and finally a delegation of believers, including Paul and Barnabas, was sent to Jerusalem to a meeting of all leaders to discuss this dispute. This “Jerusalem Council” happened about 49 AD (though some date it a little later).

You can read about this, again, in Acts 15, with the Judaizers, Pharisees, and the “circumcision party” insisting, “unless you are circumcised according to the law of Moses you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1-6). There was “much debate,” but Peter and James and finally the whole Council agreed that “we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” They asked that Gentile Christians avoid a few things that were especially offensive to Jewish Christians, but they did not have to be circumcised or keep all the old Jewish rules (Acts 15:6ff).

It was likely soon after this that Paul wrote his Letter to the Galatians. He could not go back to Galatia right away, as he and Barnabas were to keep working in Antioch in Syria, which was becoming a strong church and a base for more missionary outreach. Paul’s letter would be his defense and clear proclamation of the Good News of salvation purely by the grace of God through faith in Jesus (Acts 15:30-35). This was likely the first of Paul’s letters that we have preserved in the Scriptures.

Go back now to Galatians 2:14. Paul affirmed what was said at the Jerusalem Council. If Jews could not do everything expected in the Old Testament laws, how could they require non-Jews to do all these things that they could not do? Instead, they all had a new freedom in Christ, now that He had come as their Savior. (See again Peter’s words in Acts 15:7-10.)

Paul went on to write, in Galatians 2:15, that Jews had great privileges in knowing God’s will and expectations for them in the Old Testament. The problem was that they still never could or would keep and obey that Law as they should have. They could not be “justified by the works of the law,” no matter how hard they tried, since they were still sinners, falling short of God’s Law, His expectations (Galatians 2:16). Three times in this one verse, Paul says the same thing. (“A person is not justified by works of the law… not by works of the law… by works of the law no one will be justified.”) Salvation could only come by faith in Christ Jesus and all He did perfectly for them.

It is important also to remember that the word “justified” was a legal term, a courtroom term, in the ancient world. A judge or a jury needed to “declare” someone “justified” or “not guilty.” The commentator, Lenski, says, “The sense is 'to declare righteous' and never 'to make righteous.'" The sense is not that in Christ we “become righteous” and are now good enough and capable enough that we can now please God by what we do and can do enough to make ourselves fully acceptable to God. That can never happen by our works of fulfilling God’s law.

That is the problem whenever we say that it is Christ’s work, plus our work that we do, that really saves us. But that is what the false teachers, the Judaizers, the circumcision party, were trying to tell the new Christians in Galatia and in other places. They were being told that they must also become “Jewish” in terms of being circumcised and doing other things according to old Jewish laws and ceremonies.

Paul responded more to these false ideas in the verses that follow. In Galatians 2:17, he asked, “What if we are trying, as Christians, to do the right things and still find ourselves to be sinners? Does that mean that Christ is implicated in our sin, and is somehow a 'servant of sin?'" “Certainly not!” Paul says, very strongly.

We are not “made perfect” by Christ, but are “counted” or “declared perfect” and acceptable in God’s eyes, simply through what Jesus has already done for us. We try to follow God’s moral law, as Christians, but we do not lose our salvation by failing and sinning, at times; and we bring those sins to Jesus for His forgiveness, already earned for us.                                                          

In addition, Christ has already freed us from many of the old Jewish ceremonial laws. (See Mark 7:18-19 and Romans 14:2-6, 14, and Colossians 2:16-17, for example.) It is not a sin if we eat pork or do some work on a Saturday or even are not circumcised - which would have been sins under Old Testament Judaism.

So, in Galatians 2:18, Paul said, “If I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.” We are sinning if we teach people that it is sinful to do things that God Himself has said are acceptable in the New Testament. Paul could not go back and change what God clearly said was OK in the New Testament, the New Covenant God gave His people. It was also sinful to add our own requirements for salvation to what Jesus has already said and done for us.

In Galatians 2:19-20, Paul went on to say that he had died to his old life, under the curse of the law, and Christ now lived in him, as he now lived by faith in Christ, the Son of God, who loved him and gave Himself for him. It was by the sacrifice of Christ for him on the cross that Paul had been declared justified, forgiven and not guilty.

Paul’s efforts added nothing to Christ’s completed work for his salvation, purely by His saving grace and work for him. If Paul’s ultimate justification depended still upon his own efforts to fulfill the law in his own life, then Christ’s work was incomplete, and “Christ died for no purpose.” If we still have to depend on more that we need to do to be saved, then our eternal future is always uncertain and in jeopardy. Our confidence is simply in God’s grace, His undeserved love and favor for us, and in what Jesus has done for us.

Paul said much more about this that we will see as we continue to look at Galatians. What he talks about is at the center of our Christian faith. I will try to explain more as best I can, using other Biblical examples, too, but in a simple and concise way, though it may not seem like it. (Martin Luther’s commentary on just the first four chapters of Galatians is 416 pages long in its English translation!)

The Lord’s blessings, as you study Galatians and think about these things. Just try to follow the Word of God.