Chapter 2 – The Law vs. The Gospel

The age old battle – Law verses Grace. Is righteousness by faith or by works? Can following the Law after believing in Christ bring you to a higher righteousness and draw you closer to God? Do we seek the favor of God or man? Do those who seek righteousness by faith make allowances for and compromise with those that seek righteousness through works? What are the answers? We find them in chapter two and we can jump ahead by looking at the last thought of chapter two.

Galatians 2:20-21
“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!”

To look anywhere else for righteousness before God but in Christ makes a mockery of the death of Christ and therefore the wisdom of God. If we seek any way to righteousness other than or in addition to faith in Christ, from that point on we are only pleasing man.

I Corinthians 1:18-21
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

Galatians 2:1-10
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. 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. 6 As for those who seemed to be important-whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance-those men added nothing to my message. 7 On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews.   8 For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9 James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. 10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

Paul is explaining how he went to Jerusalem to compare his Gospel with that of the other Apostles. There was no conflict with the pillars of the church and they even recognized that Paul had indeed been entrusted with the Gospel and had received a fuller revelation of Christ than they had! (This is the retelling of the decision in Jerusalem on Law and Grace from Acts 15.) This decision was so strong in favor of grace that Titus, a gentile believer, was not made to be circumcised which was the mark of relationship with God among the Jews! By not demanding that Titus be circumcised, the leaders of the Church were stating loud and clear that righteousness is by faith and is in no way by works. The message of the Gospel of Christ was so strong in Paul that he did not offer compromises in any form, not even giving in to circumcision of Titus for the sake of peace. The peace that God’s word asks of us with others has nothing to do with compromising the grace of God!

Paul again shows his lack of compromise in confronting Peter over how he tried to please men over living the truth.

Galatians 2:11-14
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?”

Remember that God has already dealt with Peter on the subject of Law and Grace through a vision of clean and unclean animals and had given Peter His word of the subject! (See Acts 10:9-10:18) Peter had already stood up to the Church at Jerusalem to show that God had also made provision for the Gentiles in Christ. Yet in compromise due to his fear of others, Peter took a dangerous step away from the grace of the Gospel!

Now take in Paul’s words to Peter and let their force touch our hearts.

Galatians 2:15-16
“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.”

Compare with Peter’s words from Jerusalem in Acts 15:7-11:
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.”

Galatians 2:17-21
“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 continues recounting his rebuke of Peter and punctuates the whole argument by stating that if after believing in Christ he still needed the Law to stop being a sinner, then Christ would not be the minister of righteousness but of sin as faith in Christ would take the believer away from the Law! In fact, if anyone turns to the Law they show they see themselves as lawbreakers as they show they still believe in the Law, judge themselves by the Law, and do not believe that righteousness comes by faith in Christ! Paul states that everything is worked through faith in Christ; even his daily life was lived not by observing the Law but by believing on Christ!

There is no measuring scale. There is only faith in Christ. There is not Law and Grace; there is only faith in Christ.