I'm sure that, as a modern person, I greatly underestimate the potential for spiritual warfare that was present at the Council of Jerusalem, the first scene in Galatians 2, today's text. This meeting took place nearly 20 years after Jesus' ascension, around 50 A.D. The key players were the Gentile evangelists and the Jewish evangelists, that is, those who evangelized the Gentiles and those whose ministry was to the Jews. Truly, this meeting could have blown the whole thing wide open. I am sure that there were many impassioned arguments that went back and forth. It is a testimony to the reality of the changed life, the power of the Holy Spirit, that these men realized the gospel of Jesus Christ: salvation by faith and by grace.
In a month or so, we will have at my church something called GIC (Global Impact Conference). It is a missions conference. Missionaries our church supports, from various corners of the US and the world, will be attending. Some of them will look different from our church people. Some of them will act different. Their methods of evangelization will not all be revealed as the same. However, the gospel they preach is one, and only one.
I am grateful for Galatians 2. This chapter shows how prone we are to devolve back to reliance on our own "self-righteousness". It is our "default setting" as humans. We love to pursue righteousness that comes from following a set of rules because this appeals to our sinful, human pride. (False) righteousness makes us feel good! This type of righteousness is glorified in our American culture. We are surrounded by it; so, it's no wonder that, as Christians, we tend to get tainted by it.
When you read Galatians 2, you realize why God did not choose a Moses to do the job of a Paul. Moses, if you recall, was not a persuasive or even a good speaker. Paul, on the other hand, excelled at persuasive argument; he had been "schooled" in it. The Holy Spirit used Paul to clearly articulate the methods used to share the gospel with the Gentiles. By the end of the Council at Jerusalem, the group of "pillars" of Christianity parted ways in brotherhood and with a renewed commitment to share Jesus with the world.
Later on, however, "the rubber met the road". God put those who evangelized the Jews in a position to see just how dependent they still were on the Law. When they actually met and fellowshipped with an actual group of Gentile believers, the Jerusalem guys fell back to their position of the Law's power over them. It was their safety zone. The Antioch experience was a sanctifying, growth opportunity for them because it opened their eyes in a new way to their justification, the centrality of God's grace and salvation by faith alone. Sometimes, it takes a change of scenery to reveal our most closely-held prejudices.
Probably the most famous verse of Galatians 2 is verse 20. Here it is, in context:
19“For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. 20“I have been crucified with Christ; and 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 up for me. 21“I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”
Galatians 2:19-21 (NASB)
I also love it from The Message version. Take a read.
19-21 What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.
Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.
No longer a "Law Man"!
The Law, here, refers to the set of rules and regulations God gave the Israelites hundreds of years earlier. But, in our lives today, "law" can be any set of religious rules that we glorify above the truth of the gospel. "Law" can be religious rituals that we do out of habit to make ourselves feel more holy. Striving to impress God with our goodness "frustrates" His grace (2:21 KJV)
When I was a teenager, one of the Christian fads was to "claim" a "life verse". It's laughable to me now. At any rate, the one that resonated with me was Galatians 2:20. (I've always been sort of a 190 proof person ...190 proof whiskey is the highest alcohol content which can exist without the spirit evaporating. I looked it up!) The crazy thing that spoke to me this morning, after carefully reading this chapter is that I had made that verse all about sanctification. Now, sanctification is great, indispensable to the resplendent walk. But, Galatians 2:20 is first about justification!
Crucifixion typifies a one-time, irreversible act. "I am crucified with Christ" says that my old, law-loving self has been killed by His justification of my soul. This is the very source of Christ living in me! Paul's statement proclaims my eternal justification. There can be no sanctification unless there is first justification.
"Nevertheless, I live. Yet, not I, but Christ lives in me." I live, but I don't reign. Here comes the sanctification part, you see? The justification has been settled. The Law is dead to me. It is Christ reigning in me Who produces good works, who produces beauty, who works His love through me to the world.
All that sounds so precious. Then, like the leaders of the Jerusalem church visiting Antioch (2:11-13), I fall down. I don't know about you, Galatians 2:20 clashes horrifically with my frequent lost battles to sin. What do we do with that?! Paul says that we should come back to faith. Look again.
"...The life I now live in the flesh, I live by FAITH in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."
Every time I mess up, my prayer of confession should be closely followed by, "Lord Jesus, increase my faith in You." Every time something "unplanned" or "unwanted" occurs, my prayer should be "Lord, increase my faith." We read elsewhere (Hebrews 11:6), all throughout scripture actually, that it is our faith which pleases Him. Our faith is our love offering to Him and the only source, the exclusive well-spring of our sanctification.
I wish I could tell you that I do this perfectly, even regularly. Today's post was spectacularly difficult for me to write; I cannot even express to you...
Whaddya know? After approximately 32 years, that magnificent verse bursts from the heart of God, to speak to me yet again.
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