Galatians 2

Galatians 2:1-21

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Defending the Gospel

1 Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me. 2 And I went up by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I might run, or had run, in vain. 3 Yet not even Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. 4 And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage), 5 to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.

6 But from those who seemed to be something—whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God shows personal favoritism to no man—for those who seemed to be something added nothing to me. 7 But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter 8 (for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles), 9 and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10 They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do.

No Return to the Law

11 Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; 12 for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. 13 And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.

14 But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? 15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, 16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

17 “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. 19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Gal 2:1-21

• Transcript

  Hey, good afternoon. Good afternoon. Welcome to Friday edition of coffee and devotions. Let's go ahead and check. Make sure everybody's online. Let me jump on the computer here. Make sure we're going live. Send out the text and we're almost ready okay, just about there, you know one minute for things to go live here sometimes Facebook just likes to go funky. I don't know why everything else seems to be going fine on the other sites. But not there, you know? That's all right. Well, good morning. Good morning or afternoon. Welcome to Coffee and devotions is where every day you and I we get together, we get into God's word. And we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year 2022. Lord willing, we'll make it from the book of Acts to the book of Philemon. And this morning, we're at Galatians chapter two. Let's pray. We'll get into God's word. Father, we thank you so much for who you are, as a great God, the One who has loved us, the one who has saved us. God, we pray that as we read your word this more this afternoon that you would care for us. Lord, we pray that we would read and understand in Jesus's name, Amen. Here we go. We are at Galatians chapter two Galatians chapter two and we'll read the entire chapter together. Then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and took also Titus with me. And I went up by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles. But privately to those who were of reputation less by any means I might run or had run in vain. Yet not even Titus, who is with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. And this occurred because of false brethren. secretly brought in who came in by stealth, to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage, to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. But from those who seemed to be something, whatever they were, it makes no difference to me. God shows no personal favoritism to no man. For those who seemed to be something added nothing to me. But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me as the gospel the circumcised was to Peter, for he who worked effectively and Peter for the apostle ship to the circumcised, also worked effectively towards me, toward the Gentiles. And when James sofas and John who seemed to be pillars, perceive the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. They desired only that we should remember the poor, that the very thing which I also was eager to do. Now, when Peter had come to Antioch, I was stood him to his face, because he was to be blamed. For before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles. But when they came, he withdrew and separated himself fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before all of them, if you being a Jew live like a manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? We who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners in Christ, therefore, is Christ there for a minister of sin. Certainly not. For a five build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the Lord died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. Or we need to ask ourselves a What's this about? Be what's the best verse to summarize this and see what are we called to do in response to these words, what are we what are we going to do, right? How does this apply to us? Well, there's really two sections of this chapter The first section is verses one through 10. And the second section is verses 11 through 21. And in verses one through 10 He's getting at this idea it continuing from chapter one that he wasn't a secondhand apostle and he wasn't a preaching a different gospel. But 14 years later, he goes to Jerusalem. And there he meets Peter and James and John, and he says they're pillars of the church, right? They are there. They are the big honchos, right? They are the they are the main apostles who are still there in Jerusalem. And he says, But you know, I don't really care who they were because God doesn't show favoritism towards men. But you know what they did? They offered me the right hand of fellowship, he says that they received me and they said, We're not adding anything else we see that Peter has sent was sent to go preach the gospel to the Jews, but God has given you a ministry to the Gentiles, but there's only one thing don't forget the poor and he says, and that's exactly what I was eager to do. So he says, there was no discord in the Gospel. There was no discord in my apostleship but this is what God did. Now, the second part what this is about verses 11 through 21, is him saying, but I did confront Peter one time, because he was being a hypocrite. Right? He wasn't living like a Jew anymore, but he was telling Gentiles they needed to become like Jews. He was he was coming in and he was bringing with them this Judaizing idea of what does it mean to be a Christian have to have all this this Jewish influence and and almost acting as if somehow you have right standing you're legally declared righteous, you are justified by God through keeping the law and he says, I confronted Peter face to face about this, right I went toe to toe with him in front of everybody and I said, this is wrong and you know it. Because see, no one is justified by the law. The law brings death. The law condemns us. I love the Westminster shorter catechism after it goes through the entire 10 commandments. It says, is anybody able in this life to perfectly keep the commandments of God? No. No one in this life is able to perfectly keep the commandments of God but that daily break them in thought, word and deed. We break God's commands all the time, God's law shows us, here's the standard of righteousness, and we fall short. Here's what holiness looks like and we don't match up. See, the law doesn't give us a way to be right with God. The law shows us our sin but Christ who knew no sin, became sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God In Him as wine to 20 he's able to say it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by faith and the Son of God. Who loves loved me and gave himself for me. See, Jesus kept the law perfectly that we might be declared righteous. That's how we have a right standing before God. Now, the Holy Spirit's going to spur us on towards righteousness towards following in God's ways towards the reforming of our hearts, which means bringing fruits and keeping with repentance. But the fruits of repentance do not earn us a spot and heaven does not allow us to become children. of his kingdom. No, it's by spirit of adoption through Jesus Christ. So what's the best verse in this section? Well, I would probably underline 19 and 20. Right for for I through the Lord died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me. But see, the problem is, if I did that, I'd probably want to underline verse 16. Also, and if I wanted to underline verse 16, well, then, you know, I'd probably underline verses one and two, and I'd start my whole Bible would be underlined. So let me know what would you underline in your Bible, as the best first that gets at the heart of this passage will last we need to ask ourselves see calling what are we called to do in response to this? You know, there's a song that came out Oh, that was probably in 2009. by a band called 10th Avenue north, I'd encourage you to look it up sometime. In the line in the song goes, Why are you still trying to earn grace? Alright, you've been saved by grace through faith and not of your own works. It is a gift of God. Right? We can't boast about it. Well, you take comfort. Well, your heart so cling to Jesus, that you would love him that you would say, Lord, it is with an open hand I bring the cloth to the Cross I clean. Would you come as a beggar? Knowing that you need bring nothing to the equation of salvation except the sin that made it necessary. Will you see yourself as empty and when your eyes behold the goodness and glory of Jesus? I think this is what this passage is calling us to. To embrace Jesus Christ to love him to hold on to him. I pray that you might find grace with Christ and that you would be enraptured in his love. I pray that you would stop trying to earn grace. Pray that as you walk in his ways it would be because you love him. Not because you're trying to earn his love. Let's pray. Father, what great love you have shown us in that wall. We were still sinners. Christ died for us. Lord, what a wonderful and good god you Our Father, please teach us to rest. Teach us to love you. And out of that love. Holy madness might flourish. Please God, work in our hearts that we would have a perfect peace. Because our minds are stayed on you in Jesus's name, Amen. May the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ. And I'll see you tomorrow. Bye Transcribed by https://otter.ai