What Galatians 2 Teaches Us About Freedom From The Law.
Galatians 2 is the second chapter of a letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatian Church.
In this particular chapter, Paul is telling the Galatian church about the early days of Pauls’s ministry, he reminds them that we are saved through faith, and not from works.
Many people try to earn God’s favor, they give lots of money, donate time, or they try to do good deeds. However, all of these actions fall short. None of them are bad things either, however, the sin we’ve committed against God was great.
There was no way for us to pay the price. And that’s why Jesus came to die on the cross.
Jesus, God, and The Holy Spirit concocted a plan, knowing it was the only way to save humanity. Jesus had to be the way because he is the only way.
If works would’ve saved us then all we’d need is the law, and Jesus wouldn’t have come to die. However, the law was only a standard that we needed to follow. That standard showed us we were sinful, and that we needed a savior.
That is why God gave the law, and why Jesus came to save us years later. Galatians 2 is showing us the dividing law be
Galatians 2: The Apostles Accept Paul
2 Then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along, too. 2 I went there because God revealed to me that I should go. While I was there I met privately with those considered to be leaders of the church and shared with them the message I had been preaching to the Gentiles. I wanted to make sure that we were in agreement, for fear that all my efforts had been wasted and I was running the race for nothing. 3 And they supported me and did not even demand that my companion Titus be circumcised, though he was a Gentile.
4 Even that question came up only because of some so-called believers there—false ones, really—who were secretly brought in. They sneaked in to spy on us and take away the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. They wanted to enslave us and force us to follow their Jewish regulations. 5 But we refused to give in to them for a single moment. We wanted to preserve the truth of the gospel message for you.
Galatians 2:1-5
Galatians 2: Dealing With False Believers:
In Galatians 2 we see the false ones arise, and we shouldn’t be surprised that people like this exist. In fact many people today are still false ones.
In my opinion, these people can fall into two categories,
- They mean well but are ill-informed.
- These people have evil intentions and are actively trying to harm the Kingdom of Heaven.
Obviously, the intentions from #2 are worse, but that doesn’t matter because either way they’re teaching falsehoods, and these false teachings lead people astray.
It’s one of the things I worry about with every article/post I write. It’s one of the reasons I try to focus on Jesus and the Kingdom of heaven. When you get into the weeds many different things can be argued.
And I hate pointless arguments, they make no sense and hurt more than they help.
The best way to deal with false believers is to study your Bible, understand what you believe, and obey the voice of God.
Nobody is going to receive a new revelation from Scripture that’s different from Scripture, and if somebody speaks like that, they’re a liar with the spirit of the Antichrist.
I don’t let those people speak to me much longer than necessary, because I won’t waste my time unless God speaks something for me to say to them.
Galatians 2 is very serious about not giving the false ones a foothold, and I think the pillars of the church did a great job of silencing them.
However, centuries after Galatians 2 the false ones have wormed their way into churches, and many people haven’t stood up to them.
But there’s no time like the present. As Christians, we need to stand firm on Biblical truth.
Galatians 2: God Has No Favorites
6 And the leaders of the church had nothing to add to what I was preaching. (By the way, their reputation as great leaders made no difference to me, for God has no favorites.) 7 Instead, they saw that God had given me the responsibility of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as he had given Peter the responsibility of preaching to the Jews. 8 For the same God who worked through Peter as the apostle to the Jews also worked through me as the apostle to the Gentiles.
9 In fact, James, Peter, and John, who were known as pillars of the church, recognized the gift God had given me, and they accepted Barnabas and me as their co-workers. They encouraged us to keep preaching to the Gentiles, while they continued their work with the Jews. 10 Their only suggestion was that we keep on helping the poor, which I have always been eager to do.
Galtatians 2:6-10
Have you ever wondered how that one person in the church always has been blessed? Or why somebody on your street is always ahead?
A lot of times we see people like this, and we wonder why not me. This mindset sets a chain reaction in our thought processes, and sometimes it even makes us think God hates us.
That can’t be further from the truth, we have to remember we are on a different trajectory from anybody else. He created us for a specific reason, and it’s our job to accomplish that goal.
Only you can do what God has called you to do. It’s up to you, are you up to the task?
Galatians 2: Paul Confronts Peter
11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. 12 When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. 13 As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.
14 When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions?
15 “You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles. 16 Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. No one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”
17 But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not! 18 Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. 19 For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God.
20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.
Galatians 2:11-21
Galatians 2: The Apostles Were People Who Made Mistakes
I love Galatians 2:11-15 because it shows that Peter was still human, and he made mistakes. A lot of times we see these heroes of the faith as people who are larger than life.
Of course, Peter made mistakes, he denied Jesus, but for some reason, the apostles are raised to this high status in Christian culture.
But Galatians 2 teaches us that God has no favorites, this means he doesn’t care about your status who your family is, or how much money you have. Everything you have was given to you by him, and nothing will last unless it’s done for him anyway.
God is heavenly-minded, and while we worry about the physical world that doesn’t matter.
Here’s where Peter messed up, he got carried away with his status, and what people would think of him. Galatians 2 shows us that no matter where we are in life, we have to be careful of where our focus falls.
If we have been truly crucified in Christ, then the status of others shouldn’t matter, we are dead to the old ways and need to remember that.
Jesus said to take up your cross daily and follow him. This means it isn’t a one-time decision, it’s a choice we make every day. Wake up, get out of bed, and take up your cross.
That is the life of someone who follows Jesus, and it’s the entire focus of Galatians 2.
I hope you enjoyed my latest Post on Galatians 2. Don’t forget to comment and subscribe below for the latest updates on my Blog. Have a great day!