The Great Grace Debate Galatians 2/Acts 15
In the first chapter of Galatians, Paul defends himself as a legitimate apostle whose message of Grace was from God Himself. He establishes that this Gospel of Grace is the only true Gospel. He identifies the grace killers as those who would add any rules, regulations, or any other thing to the precious blood of Christ for salvation.
In Chapter 2, we see the defense of the gospel of Grace brought to Jerusalem. Many scholars believe that Galatians Chapter two lines up with the Jerusalem Council found in Acts Ch. 15. Though there is some debate about this, the two story lines line up nicely, and the terms of debate are similar. Paul, Barnabas, and Titus (an uncircumcised Greek convert) went to Jerusalem because Paul was led by God’s revealed will to go up there.
Galatians 2:1-2 (NIV)
1 Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2 I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders; for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain.
Because of the Judaisers, Paul had concern that there might be a split in the young church, or that there would be a confused doctrine set forth. He had not gotten his gospel from man, so Paul was not there to debate if His gospel was right. However, it was important that the leadership of the young church was in agreement, and aware that Paul’s Gospel was from God and it was authoritative.
Wiersbe suggests that there are four different meetings involved where the future of the Gentile church is being discussed.
(1) a public meeting, at which Paul recounted what God had done among the Gentiles,
Acts 15:4 (NIV)
4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.
(2) Paul’s private meeting with the leaders, Gal. 2:2;
Galatians 2:2 (NIV)
2 I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders; for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain.
(3) the public debate of Acts 15:5 and Gal. 2:3–5;
Acts 15:5 (NIV)
5 Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses.”
Galatians 2:3-5 (NIV)
3 Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4 This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves.
5 We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.
(4) The council session at which the matter was finally settled, Acts 15:6ff.
Acts 15:13-20 (NIV)
13 When they finished, James spoke up: “Brothers, listen to me.
14 Simon has described to us how God at first showed his concern by taking from the Gentiles a people for himself. 15 The words of the prophets are in agreement with this, as it is written: 16 “‘after this I will return and rebuild David’s fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild and I will restore it, 17 that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things’
18 that have been known for ages. 19 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.
At the end of all these meetings, there was a united front presented. Paul was affirmed in his ministry to the gentiles, and Peter was affirmed for his ministry to the Jews. All were agreed that the Gospel that gave salvation by Grace alone was the one true Gospel. Even Peter, who was called to bring the message to the Jews, stood up and gave a stirring report:
Acts 15:7-11 (NIV)
7 After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.9 He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.10 Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? 11 No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”
But what makes this more bizarre, and more important for us to hear, is that this is where the debate got personal. Peter stood up and declared that the Gentiles are saved by Grace-the same way that the Jews are! He really took leadership and let the other leaders know that He himself had been called out of his own comfort zone, and was called to minister to a gentile, Cornelius, by a vision from heaven. He declared that the Gentiles were accepted, as is, based on God’s grace and the gentiles’ faith. He demanded that the Jewish Christian leadership not put the yoke of legalism on the Gentile converts- after all, we are all saved the same way- by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ!
Peter had it all down, didn’t he? He could have written the book of Galatians for Paul because he understood the whole point. Verse 11 sums it all up; we believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that we are saved, just as they are. If we could freeze that moment for Peter, and the rest of the church, all would be fine. The conference was over, the gospel was affirmed, and Paul and Barnabas were blessed and sent out. They went on to Antioch to minister, and Acts 15 says that the people received the news with gladness. But like the Jerusalem conference, where there were those of the circumcision who were trying to infiltrate, the same followed Paul up to Antioch, and they were hanging around. Peter also followed and visited Antioch while Paul was there. When Peter, the judaizers, and Paul met, this is where the next great debate happened, because when the rubber met the road, Peter and others fell from the grace that they had so earnestly declared:
Galatians 2:11-14 (NIV)
11 When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12 Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.
13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. 14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
I notice three things here where Peter really made a serious error:
1. Where there is legalism, there is a spirit of fear; Perfect love (grace) casts out fear. Peter acted out of fear of man, not the love of God.
2. We know that Peter knew the truth, we heard him speak the truth but he was not living the truth. He was pleasing man, not God. His actions were full of hypocrisy.
3. When leaders follow wrong doctrine, their error is multiplied. When you or I, calling ourselves Christians today error, it is multiplied.
So Paul was forced to rebuke Peter’s actions. Peter was a major leader in the early church. When Peter spoke, people listened. I am sure when he spoke with his actions, his communications was amplified greatly. This is what so frustrated Paul. They had just come out of a meeting where Paul and Peter and the rest of the leadership agreed that salvation was by grace alone! Now Peter was screaming with his actions that the words that were spoken in Jerusalem were no good! They were not true! The minute that the possibility that the judaizers were present, he withdrew from his gentile buddies!
What did Peter’s actions communicate? First of all, that Gentiles and Jews were not equally accepted by God on the basis of grace. Peter was committing a slur on fellow believers, thus the stinging rebuke:
Galatians 2:14 (NIV)
14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
Peter was acting contrary to his convictions that he had spoken and acted in the past out of fear. He was standing in opposition to Christian liberty. He needed this stinging reprimand. Paul called him out- Hey buddy, I have seen you living like a gentile, but the minute these other Jews come around, you act like one of them, and turn your back on your gentile friends! That is wrong! Even worse, you change your tune; you want to put the burden of the law on them!
Galatians 2:15-16 (NIV)
15 “We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’
16 know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.
Peter was acting out of character, because he knew this! He declared this himself! He had not been justified by anything he had done, but by faith in Jesus Christ! But he was giving the enemy a foothold by abiding by their rules not to even eat with a gentile, much less eat their food! He was saying by his actions that the legalists were right-that justification comes by faith and by works of the law!
It reminds me of a time that I went fishing with a guy I’ll call Jimmy. Now Jimmy is a straight out pre-Christian. (That is the new way of saying non-believer) He smokes, he drinks, he sleeps around, he cusses, and he even does drugs. His wife warned him that he was to do NONE of those things around me when we went fishing out of respect for me. Now, I was not expecting any certain type of behavior, I had no expectations on him at all. I just wanted to make a friendship, looking to win the right to share about Christ. The whole time we were fishing, he was miserable! I finally asked him what was wrong, and he explained the rules his wife had put on him for the fishing trip. I released him from that law- I explained to him that he was free to do what he wants, but there was consequences- not the least of which was the tongue lashing from his wife. But it also gave me the opportunity to share a small part of the Gospel message. I went fishing with Jimmy, not to change his behavior, but to be his friend. There were no conditions on my friendship, nothing he had to be or do. All I wanted to do was to be his friend. When Jesus came into this world, he came to seek and save that which was lost by offering us the free gift of his grace- with no conditions attached. Boy did Jimmy light up with that first cigarette-he was enjoying freedom. The conversation opened up to, not leading to his salvation on that Saturday, but leading at least to an open dialogue.
The law brings with it misery. It is a schoolmaster, teaching us about our sin, and our innate sinfulness. The wife’s law brought Jimmy misery, shutting him down, not allowing him to enjoy his day of fishing. Adding the law to grace brings misery, it brings fear, and it even brings pride and self into the salvation picture. It focuses in on what we do for God, not what He has done for us. And the law, and living according to the law does nothing for our salvation except call into question the need for the death of Christ to pay for our sin!
Galatians 2:17-21 (NIV)
17 “If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. 19 For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, 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 could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
Paul is explaining very simply here that we are not sinners because we do not live by the law, or because we live by grace. In fact, in breaking the law, we are fulfilling the law. Sounds confusing? The purpose of the law has always been to make us very aware of our need for salvation. When we receive the free gift of salvation, we are fulfilling the law! The law has done its job, not in saving us because we kept it, but in pointing us to our need for God.
But if the law has been fulfilled, Paul says, why do we go back to it for justification? Verse 18 says that if we rebuild what we have destroyed, we are lawbreakers. In other words, if we begin again to rely on the law or a set of standards other than grace for salvation, then we are again breaking the law! Through the law, verse 19 says, we died to the law- that is the law has pointed us to Grace, so that we could be free to live for God.
Verse 20 is a major verse in the scripture. In it Paul explains it all. We are crucified with Christ- we have been unified in His death as we have identified with him by faith. We no longer live- we no longer have any need to pay for any sin, past present or future. We have been saved by his death and resurrection- But Christ lives in me- he indwells me and empowers me by his grace. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God- faith that his grace is sufficient for me- that I do not need to do anything to earn this grace, all I need to do is humbly receive it! Who loved me and gave himself for me- He loved me- not because of who I am or what I could do for Him- but because of who He is. Isn’t that verse a freeing verse? I can live the Christ life because Christ dwells in me! I can do the right thing because Christ lives in me! I can be free to fail, but be forgiven, because Christ lives in me! The law has done its job- and I don’t need it any more because Christ lives in me!!
Verse 21 is a closing, a warning, and a transition. Don’t set aside the grace of God. How do we do that? By doing works of righteousness, or setting a standard for yourself and others that may line up with scriptures, but is adding to requirements for salvation. Righteousness does not come by the law, or by following the law, because if it did, we are saying that Christ’s death was unnecessary- worthless.
Today, let us examine ourselves. Are we truly people of grace? I know we know the language, we can sing the song amazing grace from memory, but are we a people of grace? Does it spill out of our being like rivers of living water? Or are we still holding on tight to our standards of ‘righteousness’ by works that we expect ourselves and others to adhere to? Have you been set free by the law, or by grace? Are you righteous because of what you do, or what Christ has done? Do you, like Peter, change your behavior for fear of what others might think or say, even though you are free by grace to act in that way? I want to be a person of Grace.
Let us all sing this chorus together:
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind but now I see
