If you turn please to the epistle
of Paul the apostle to the Galatians in chapter 1. Galatians 1 I'd
like to draw your attention to verses 11 and 12. Galatians 1
verse 11 and 12. But I certify you brethren that
the gospel which was preached of me is not after man For I
neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation
of Jesus Christ. I certify you, brethren, that
the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I
neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation
of Jesus Christ. The gospel which Paul preached
that message of salvation, that message of the grace of God towards
sinners in sending his only begotten son into this world to die in
the place of sinners, to give himself for their sins as it
says in verse four, that he might deliver them from this present
evil world according to the will of God and our Father. This message
which Paul preached to the Gentiles has sent forth of God this message
of salvation, this gospel. Paul says plainly, he received
it not of man. This was not after man, he received
it not of man, neither was he taught it. But he was taught
it by the revelation of Jesus Christ. by the revelation of
Jesus Christ. Now this revelation of the gospel
to Paul, his call by grace, his sending to preach, his experience,
his account later in this chapter of how he went following the
salvation of his soul when God appeared to him when Christ appeared
to him on the Damascus road, when he was separated unto the
gospel, when he was called forth by grace, when God sent him. And he gives his account of how
he learnt the gospel from his Lord. largely in private, how
he did not go to Jerusalem straight to the other apostles, he did
not go down there to be taught by the others who had seen Christ
in the flesh and to learn of them what Christ had taught them
in person. No, he was separated, he was
separated unto God and God taught him. This gospel which he was
taught, this gospel which was revealed, was not of man. And this experience and this
declaration really is the very opposite of what you will commonly
find in religious circles today. And the very opposite of what
is generally expected and revered in religious circles today. Most
preachers today will say that they learnt their gospel, they
learnt their message, in this seminary or this college from
this tutor, this doctor, this professor. If a man wants to
go to preach the gospel in the churches today, the churches
will say, what's your qualification? Where have you studied? Who has
recommended you? If one was to appear, as Paul
did, and say, I didn't receive this gospel from man, neither
was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ, they'd find
a closed door. They'd have people saying, well,
yes, that's all very well, that's what everyone would say, but
anyone could be preaching anything and claiming that God has taught
them. We need some reference point, we need some way of confirming
that you're orthodox. We need to know that you've been
well taught, recommended by others. We can't just let any old one
in here. How do we know? Paul would have
met a closed door. Religion today very much has
received its gospel of man, and very much teaches it and will
not receive a gospel from anyone except it has been taught them
by man and received of man and except they have been sent forth
by man. The opposite of Paul's experience. Of course it is true that any
can say I've been sent of God, I've been taught of God, hear
me. And many come with many varying
messages. There are many cults and sects
that rise up where the leaders would claim to have divine inspiration,
divine authority, and lay that as their only reason to be heard.
But of course the simple test of these is that their message
invariably no longer agrees with the message that Paul preached,
taught, and set down for us in these epistles. We may know that
a man has received his gospel by the revelation of Jesus Christ
when we heard the same message that Paul preached by the revelation
of Jesus Christ. It accords with the truth in
the scripture and it accords with the witness of the Spirit
of God in the hearts of God's children when their spirit is
confirmed by the Spirit that what this man preaches is the
truth. There is one gospel and it has
one source and that source and origin is Jesus Christ in heaven
above. It can only be the true gospel
and a preacher can only preach the true gospel if he has received
it by the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now this is not to say
that we will not hear the truth from other men. And this is not
to discard all books or preaching or teaching of other men. For there are many faithful preachers
throughout history. There are those who have preached
the gospel faithfully, who have expounded the word of God, who
have written down many things in books from which we may profit. And this is not to say that we
should not read these books or learn from these things. But
the fact of the matter is, is that you will know nothing from
these books and nothing from the scriptures themselves. unless
God, by the revelation of Jesus Christ, opens up your eyes and
your ears and your minds to understand and to know the truth and the
reality of the gospel. Except there is this revelation,
then all is just head knowledge and all is subject to the blowing
of every wind of doctrine from the left and from the right.
A man goes to this college and hears this great teacher teach
him these things. He says, yes, the doctor taught
me my Calvinistic theology. Oh, that's it. That's the truth.
And for a while he goes on according to that course. Then the times
and the seasons change and that theology is not readily received
in the churches which he will go to to try to preach. But there
are other things being taught and other winds of doctrine coming
in. And in order to prosper in the
church the preacher must accept this teaching and that teaching.
And so easily they are persuaded of this and persuaded of that.
And those who once held to this truth now cling on to this error. And those who once went that
way now go the other way. The teaching of man has no root. However right it is on paper,
however in accord it is with the scriptures, if there's no
revelation of God, if there's no opening of the understanding
by the Spirit of God, if there's no leading of God, then the preacher
will go astray and will lead his hearers astray. He will turn
from the gospel of grace. He will turn from that gospel
which Paul preached unto another. And that's what had happened
at Galatia. Another gospel had come in. The Galatians had heard this
gospel from Paul. They knew the truth. They knew
that salvation was by grace through Christ alone. But some came in
and said, yes, but. That's all true. Not a doubt
about it, that's all true. But that doesn't mean that you
shouldn't also be doing this. You don't really think that that
means that you're no longer under the law, do you? You don't really
think that these traditions and the teaching which was given
by Moses to the children of Israel of these ways in which they walk
before the Lord God for hundreds of years, you don't think that's
all disappeared, do you? God doesn't change, does he?
And yes, he has sent his son and his son has died for our
sins, but we're still to live godly. and we're still to live
righteously? And does not the law teach us
how we should live? Did not the law, did not the
covenants given by God to the Israelites of old, were we not
commanded to be circumcised? Then should not you too be circumcised? And should not you too walk according
to the commandments of the law as given by Moses? We're not
against the gospel, we believe the gospel. But it would be foolish
to throw these other things away, surely they're part of it. An
essential part. And oh so subtly, the gospel is perverted. Oh so
subtly, the saints at Galatia were persuaded by those to whom
they looked up to, those who came from Jerusalem, those who
would know, those who were well taught, those who had been with
the other apostles, the best men, the best scholars,
the best preachers, those who came from the top, if these were
convinced that this was true, then who are we to question them?
Who are we to say they're wrong? We're just Gentiles, we've heard
Paul, we've heard his gospel, we received it, we received it
gladly. We own him to be sent of God.
But on the other hand, he was never there when Christ was crucified,
was he? He wasn't like Peter and John
and the others. And we've got this message coming
from some people that come from Jerusalem where Peter and John
are. And they're saying something
else. They must be right. See a perversion of the gospel
does not come in, obviously. It is not easy to discern. And
the turning away from the truth into error is not something we
do in a moment. It's something that we do gradually,
imperceptibly. We think we're following the
truth. We think we're in fact becoming more solid and grounded
in the truth. We think we're growing when really
we're beginning to slip away. This is why Paul makes such an
emphasis that the gospel is not after man. For that which easily deceives
us is what comes from man. And the desire not to be shipwrecked,
the desire to follow the truth, the desire to have those whom
we can trust and follow, And therefore it is so easy when
great names, respected preachers, influential teachers say one
thing, it is so easy to follow that even though we may look
to the scriptures and remain slightly puzzled about whether
what they say is really what the scriptures say. Paul took this very, very seriously.
Paul took the shift that he had discerned at Galatia very seriously. Paul took the error, the dreadful
error at Galatia very seriously. For the gospel which had come
in at Galatia, the perversion of the gospel, was no slight
deviation, it was no slight corruption of the gospel, it was not simply
a different point of view or a different way of looking at
it, it was not simply a discussion of semantics It wasn't that these
Judaizers that had come into the Galatian church and started
persuading the Galatians to do this and to do that, it wasn't
simply that they, in essence, were saying just what Paul was
saying, but coming at it from a slightly different angle. No, Paul knew that, in essence,
what they were saying was the complete opposite. that behind
all the similar sounding words and all the right sounding words
and persuasion, all the scriptural sounding words, their gospel
was not a gospel. Their gospel was another which
is not another. Their gospel would damn its hearers. Their gospel corrupted the gospel
at its heart. it attacked it at its foundations,
it destroyed it at its source. Though we or an angel from heaven
preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached
unto you let him be accursed says Paul. As we said before
so say I now again if any man preach any other gospel unto
you than that ye have received let him be accursed Paul uses
the strongest of words in opposition. If you come preaching any other
gospel, any deviation from this gospel of grace, which I have
preached, which you have heard, which you have believed Galatians,
if you receive any other gospel, if anyone comes preaching any
other gospel, let that man be accursed. You may say well he's
a Christian isn't he, he's a fellow believer, he says many right
things. Be that as it may, the fact is
if he preaches another gospel let him be accursed. He's either
never known the truth himself, he's either not a believer despite
the words or he's one that's embraced error as you're embracing
error and the fruit of that is deadly. deadly. Now Paul's gospel has
a foundation, it has something at its heart which is absolutely
fundamental and should you corrupt it in the slightest it ceases
to be it and that foundation is grace, grace. The gospel, the message of salvation
is fundamentally, entirely based upon the free mercy, the free
grace, the free and sovereign grace of God towards sinners
that deserved it not, that asked not for it, that could not earn
it, that deserved condemnation. it's of grace, it's of grace
from start to finish, it's entirely of grace. Paul opens the epistle,
Paul an apostle. And all the brethren which are
with me unto the churches of Galatia, grace be to you and
peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace,
the gospel is that which brings grace. Grace from God to undeserving
guilty sinners. Grace. It has nothing to do with
works. Salvation is nothing to do with
anything that man has done to earn it and nothing to do with
our decision to choose it. It's all of God's doing. God purposed to save Paul. When it pleased God, he says,
who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace
to reveal his son in me. When it pleased God. There was
a time in history when God determined to save Saul, Paul, who until
that point went about with all his might, beyond measure, persecuting
the Church of God and wasting it. That's what Paul did. That was his will, his determination,
and his works. That is the point at which God
saved him, when he was heading to Damascus to condemn and to
persecute believers at Damascus. He hadn't come to a point where
he had heard the gospel preached several times, where he had had
people reason with him for several weeks, where gradually his understanding
was becoming open, where gradually he was changing his mind about
these things, where oh so slowly he was beginning to work it all
out and recognize he had it wrong and now in reality it's like
this and suddenly I see it. He hadn't come to a point where
he had changed his mind about things, where he had decided
that once he was going that way and now he's going to go this
way. He hadn't reached the point where he started reforming his
life and had reached the point where his life was now at a level
of purity that God would be pleased with him whereas once he was
a rotten sinner. No, it was when he was absolutely
violently opposed to God, his gospel, his son and his people,
it was there and then that God spake from heaven above, that
Christ Jesus called out to Paul on the Damascus road, Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me? That point, at the will of God,
Not Paul's. Paul was called by grace. At that point he heard the savior's
voice. At that point he heard the gospel
and believed. That brought the change of mentality. That brought the change of will.
And that brought thereafter the change of conduct. Till that
day, Saul's conduct, according to the law outwardly, was excellent. Pharisee of the Pharisees. If
you take anyone and compare them with Saul, you'll find none better. If you think that by your works
or efforts that you're gonna reach a point where God will
be pleased with you, well you're gonna have to do better than
he did. And at his best, It brought him to persecute the Church of
God. It was worthless. It was nothing. But that voice he heard from
heaven above, that voice of the Son of God, that call by grace
in the Gospel was that which transformed, changed, saved,
delivered Saul and brought him to be this preacher of the Gospel.
which he received, not of man, neither was he taught it, but
by the revelation of Jesus Christ. So his message which he preached
had at its heart, for he knew it, it had at its heart the grace
of God. the grace of God, as he says
in Ephesians 2, for by grace are ye saved through faith, and
that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. The gospel is of grace. It's
of grace from start to finish. It's on the principle of grace,
it begins with grace, it continues with grace, and it ends with
grace. It's entirely grace. and it makes
known the fact that by grace in mercy Jesus Christ, our Lord
Jesus Christ, gave himself for our sins that he might deliver
us from this present evil world according to the will of God
and our Father to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. That's where the gospel starts.
In their respects that's where the gospel ends. That is the
gospel. That's what Paul begins this epistle with. For he will
write to the Galatians in the strongest possible terms to deliver
them from this error of which they have become so easily persuaded
and to bring them back to that message which he preached so
powerfully to them in the beginning. The gospel. The gospel. This epistle, of
course, deals fundamentally with the contrast between law and
grace. For that is what is at the heart
of this corruption of the gospel which the Galatians were subject
to. The reintroduction of law, of
works, of the will of man, of the effort of man, into the gospel. It's not about law in and of
itself contrasted with gospel. But it is of that corruption
of the gospel by the introduction of law and of works, which makes
something that claims to be the gospel, but is a mixture. And as a mixture, it has ceased
to be the gospel and has become entirely works. It is a message
which speaks of Christ, of his death, of his salvation, of justification,
of justification by faith, of the work of God, of the work
of the spirit, of election, and yet it brings us back once saved
under the law. It brings us back to works. It
brings us back to the flesh. It brings us back to the will
of man. Paul says to the Galatians, I marvel, I marvel that ye are
so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of
Christ and to another gospel which is not another. but there
will be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel
of Christ. He wonders that they've heard the gospel in truth in
power and yet so quickly, so easily have they been persuaded,
have they been turned from the grace of Christ into another
gospel. And yet so easily is it done.
So easily. This is Paul's strongest of epistles. By far the strongest. uses very
plain language, he's very determined, he's determined because he knows
how bad this error is and he'll root it out. His love for these
people is so great that he will not leave them floundering, he
does not write this rebuke to condemn but to deliver from that
which condemns and bring the hearers back under that which
makes known grace and mercy and the love of God. It's the strongest
of epistles. And how we may say error in this
area, error in the area of law and grace, Error respecting the
reintroduction of law into the gospel in any way, shape or form. How strong a rebuke it demands. How strong an answer. We may
say, well let's not get too worked up about things. Everybody comes
to see the truth at different rates. Some of these things are
complicated. Not everyone understands so clearly. Yet Paul writes this strongest
of epistles. because this is an error which
is really inexcusable and which we must guard against. For if
you add works to grace, as he says in Romans, it's no more
grace. It's either grace through and
through or it's works through and through. Any shift from this
gospel will bring you back under condemnation. If any man teach
any other gospel, let him be accursed. let him be accursed. So to address this error Paul
writes this epistle across six chapters here. We've seen his
introduction in the first five verses, he introduces himself,
he speaks of the grace of God, he points us to Christ's death
upon the cross, And he tells us that, unto God and our Father
may the glory be forever and ever. He introduces it. He introduces us by setting the
scene. The cross. This is the gospel. This is where it starts and ends.
The preaching of the cross. The preaching of Christ and him
crucified. This epistle begins at the cross
in chapter one. It has the cross in view throughout. And it concludes with the cross
in chapter six, verse 14. But God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the
world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. The cross is
what is fundamental here. The preaching of the cross. It
is the preaching of the cross, what happened at the cross, what
occurred at the cross, which delivers us from sin, which delivers
us from condemnation, and which delivers us from the law. Nothing
else does and nothing else can. It's the cross. The cross and
what Christ did upon the cross is that which slays the flesh.
The flesh. For that really is the issue
in this book. The contrast between the flesh
and the spirit. The contrast between works and
grace. Between faith and the works of
the law. The believer is him who having
heard the gospel, having been born again by God, now walks
in the spirit. He no longer walks in the flesh.
The flesh has been crucified. The flesh has been done away
with. He's risen again. He's been delivered from the
law and been brought under grace. He's been delivered from works
to live by faith. He's been crucified to the world
and is now alive to Christ. It's about a new man. He was
a man once, a man born of Adam. But now the believer is a man
born of Christ. He has a new head. There is a
new posterity, a new life. The old is dead, is slain. And
in Christ, the new is risen from the dead. The believer is a new
man, a new man of grace. And the law That which once condemned
him, that which condemned him as he was in Adam, a fallen sinner,
a rebel. One who was born hating God,
hating his son and hating his gospel. One who was born loving
sin, loving self, living for self and self-glory. The old
man, the law respects the old man. The law was given for man
in the flesh, born of Adam. As 1 Timothy 1.9 says, the law
is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient,
for the ungodly and for sinners. The law was given, it was made
for man as he is in Adam. fallen man, the ungodly, sinners,
lawless, disobedient, that man, that's whom it is made for, that's
its lawful use, to say to that man that you are ungodly, that
you are a sinner, that you are under condemnation, that you
are lost and you need salvation. That's its only use, its only
lawful use, that's why God gave it to teach sin. to bring in
condemnation. He gave it to Israel to show
Israel that Israel was lost and that they needed to look for
a sacrifice to come. The sacrifices ordered under
the law under the Old Testament priesthood were given as a picture,
as a pointer for him who would come. They wouldn't deliver but
the one to whom they pointed would. The law is for the old
man. the gospel brings in a new man
and the law is not made for this new man because this new man
is righteous, he is in Christ, he is alive in Christ, he is
risen from the dead in Christ, he is righteous, he has the righteousness
of God in Jesus Christ. The believer is a new man, a
new man of grace, a righteous man and the law is not made for
a righteous man. then what were these people from
Jerusalem doing? And what are any today doing? When they say to those who are
righteous in Christ, when they say to those who are new men
and women of grace in Christ, when they say to believers that
Christ and his gospel and his grace is not sufficient, that
you must look to the law, that you must add the law to grace. What are they doing when they
say that the law should be your rule, your guide, your rule of
life? They're taking that which was
made for the ungodly and putting it before the godly. They're
taking that which was made to condemn sinners and putting it
before a righteous man. And all that law does which condemns
sinners is condemn. And you put it before a righteous
man and all it does is remind that righteous man of the condemnation
in his flesh. which he still has to the day
he passes from this earth into glory, but which cannot be bettered,
cannot be improved, and which in the gospel is reckoned dead,
is reckoned to be crucified with Christ at the cross. What are
you doing trying to instruct the flesh, when the flesh Paul
says has been crucified? All you're doing is bringing
people back under condemnation. All you're doing is bringing
them back under a bondage, a bondage of spirit. You're bringing them
back under guilt. You're making them live this
slavish life day by day where every day they feel they should
be living better, they feel they should be a better Christian,
a better believer. And every day they feel the condemnation
of the law upon their head that finds them out. They know they
failed from the beginning of the day until the end of it.
And they go to bed miserable. There's no rejoicing in Christ,
no rejoicing in their salvation. They strive and strive and fall
and fall and are constantly under condemnation. Never able to rise
up, never able to rejoice in the grace of God. Oh what folly
this is. No wonder Paul marveled that
the Galatians which had heard the Gospel and the power of the
Gospel from his own lips by the Spirit of God, they'd heard this
Gospel, he'd seen such a transformation in these lawless disobedient
Gentiles. These superstitious Gentiles,
these people who had known nothing of the truth of God, they'd never
heard the Old Testament Scriptures, they'd never heard of this God
before. They'd been wicked idolaters. and they'd come a time when they'd
heard the gospel and been transformed by it. The entire work was grace
and yet so soon are they taken in by this need, by this persuasion
to go back to works and back to the law. And yet the reality
is that they are new men, new men of grace. They're not in
the old man anymore. The flesh is dead, it's crucified. Adam has been slain at the cross. Christ is alive and all his people
are alive in him. That's the foundational truth
throughout this epistle, that we're no longer in the flesh,
we're in the spirit. And that is why we're no longer
under the law. because the law is not made for
the righteous man. The spirit does not need its
instruction. The new man of grace is righteous
in Christ. The law is simply given to condemn
the flesh. So this epistle begins and ends
with the cross, where the flesh was slain, where the deliverance
was wrought. If you read the epistle carefully
you will note that there is no mention of the blood of Christ
anywhere in this epistle. There's no mention. There's a
couple of epistles where there's no mention at all of the blood
of Christ. There are other epistles where there are. There's a very
particular reason because there is a distinction between the
blood and the cross. between sins and sin, between
what we are and what we do. The emphasis in Galatians is
about what we are by nature, the flesh and our deliverance
from the flesh, from that in which indwelling original sin
dwells, from the fallen nature Our deliverance from condemnation
and from the law is by being delivered from the flesh. And
at the cross, doctrinally on the cross, the flesh was nailed
to the cross. At the cross Christ's blood was
shed. There was a twofold work. His
blood was shed to wash us from our sins. His body was slain. as that in which we were delivered
from the flesh, and from the sin which indwells us. It's the
slaying of the old man in Christ, as performed at the cross, that
which was nailed to the cross, that which was taken away, taken
down, taken out of sight, it is that which we need to be delivered
from. And being delivered from the
old man, from the flesh, from Adam, we rise up in the spirit,
the other side of the grave, alive in Christ, a new man of
grace. There's no mention of the blood
because the blood is that which testifies to the washing away
of our sins, everything we've done, that which comes out of
us. As Christ says in the gospels,
he speaks of the heart, and about it's not that which goes into
a man which defiles him, but that which comes out, and it's
that which comes out of our heart, everything we do, that which
flows out of us. Those deeds are our sins. And blood flows out of the hearts. So blood is seen to be that which
washes our sins, everything we've done. It's the testament to all
of our sins, past, present and future, having been washed and
cleansed. But as well as our sins, that
which we are needs to be dealt with. We need to be delivered
from that evil heart. We need to be delivered from
that fallen nature. We need to be delivered from
the flesh. and it's the deliverance from that flesh which Galatians
centers on. So Paul doesn't speak throughout
the epistle of the blood because it's not central to the aspect
in which he's dealing. He's dealing with that which
was nailed to the cross, the flesh, and to the deliverance
from all that is in the flesh and all that respects the flesh,
the law. There's only one way in which
we may be delivered from the flesh and that's if it's slain
and it was slain at the cross in Christ by grace. Following his introduction Paul
of course as we've noted identifies the problem at Galatia that the
law has corrupted grace. This perversion of the gospel
has nullified it. It's made it nothing. It set
it at naught. His response in verses eight
and nine to such error could not be stronger. As we noted,
he says, let any that come teaching such things be accursed. Paul
then in chapter one from verse 10 through to the end of the
chapter, demonstrates that his gospel came not of man but of
God. He received it not of man. Neither
was he taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. He shows this
how after he was saved, he conferred not with flesh and blood. He
didn't go up to Jerusalem to the other apostles. He spent
years being taught these things. He shows that this is not of
man. And he does this, he shows this.
He's careful to point this out. to try to show his hearers that
they should not go to man and they should not be influenced
by man or man's teaching. They should not set this gospel
at naught because there are these other great teachers whom they
have such respect for and whom others say are so great and who
they should listen to. They should not be influenced
by such things and follow such things. What is vital is to have
these things revealed by God. Paul's gospel came of God, all
of it. So he demonstrates the work of
God in him, how God revealed his Son in him, how he separated
him, how he separated him under the preaching of the gospel,
how he did not learn it from man. It was all of God, all of
grace. The Spirit came upon Paul, the
Spirit separated him, the Spirit took him, the Spirit sent him
forth. God had done it all. by revelation,
by revelation. In chapter 2 he continues with
this, he continues to show that he would not, he did not go to
the other apostles, he would not give way to them. When he
came and met with them, they saw, they saw the work of God
in him, they could see that this man was not taught of man, but
he had been taught of God. When James, Cephas and John,
who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto
me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship,
that we should go unto the heathen and they unto the circumcision.
They had to recognize that God had dealt with Paul, that God
had dealt with him. that he had not learnt this of
man. But it was true. He had heard the gospel. What
he preached was what they had heard from Jesus Christ. It was
true. They knew it was true. How may
we know that a preacher who comes preaching the gospel is true?
Because he'll preach just what Paul preached. And if we know
the gospel, when we hear that gospel from another, we'll say
that man sent to God. That's the truth. but Paul would
not be influenced even by the other apostles if he saw that
what they were preaching was wrong or what they were bringing
in was wrong he was ready to stand withstand them to the face
and that's exactly what he did with Peter here he says when
Peter was come to Antioch I withstood him to the face because he was
to be blamed for before that certain men from James he did
eat with the Gentiles but for before that certain came from
James he did eat with the Gentiles But when they were come, he withdrew
and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him, insomuch that
Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. But
when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth
of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being
a Jew, liveth after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the
Jews, why compelst thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? Yeah
he was prepared, he was so zealous Paul was for the truth of the
gospel and the grace in the gospel that when he saw even Peter influenced
by the other Jews around him to separate from the Gentiles
and to only eat with the Jews, influenced to go back to the
law and the customs and works of the law, he was stood him
to the face. Peter you're going wrong. You're
bringing works and law back into it. You're getting back under
condemnation. You're coming back under that
which will bring condemnation upon believers. You're going
to say, oh, I can't walk with you because you're not doing
this. Or if you want to be with us, you must do that. He withstood
him to the face. Paul could have been influenced
by who Peter and the other apostles were. So many today are. These were, after all, men of
God, the disciples, the apostles who were with Christ. But he
says, of these who seem to be somewhat, verse 6, whosoever
they were, it maketh no matter to me. God accepteth no man's
person. For they who seem to be somewhat
in conference added nothing to me. But contrary wise when he
saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me as the
gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter, James, Cephas and
John recognized it. He accepted no man's person.
He could have said perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps I'm wrong. There's these coming from Jerusalem
who say something else. They've been with the other apostles.
Perhaps I've got it wrong. But God has so taught him, God
has so rooted him in grace that he could stand up and point out
Peter's error to his face and say, no, no, this is no longer
grace. It might be subtle, it might
seem small, but it attacks the gospel at its root. And so at
the end of chapter two, he reminds them of that foundation of the
gospel. We who are Jews by nature are
not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ.
Even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law. For
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. We're
not justified by works, we're justified by Christ, by the faith
of Christ and as such we've believed, we too, us Jews as well as the
Gentiles, we've believed on Christ that we all might be justified
by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. for
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified not at
all for if while we seek to be justified by christ we ourselves
also are found sinners is therefore christ the minister of sin god
forbid for if i build again the things which i destroyed i make
myself a transgressor if i go back to the law If I go back
in any way, if I try to rebuild that which has been destroyed
at the cross, it's been done away with, my flesh has been
crucified, what are you doing going back and trying to build
again under the law? If you go back under it you make
yourself a transgressor, you go back under its condemnation
and you're slain by it. But the reality is that I and
all believers through the law am dead to the law. that I might
live unto God. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. That's the gospel. I am crucified
with Christ. Yet I live, yet it's not me that
lives, not me in the flesh, but Christ in the spirit in the new
man liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, Then Christ
is dead in vain. Amen.