Will Vaus

We are in the middle of a series on Paul’s letter to the Galatians which I have titled   Plug into the Power of Grace.  Listen for God’s word to you from Galatians 2:11-21… When Cephas   came to Antioch,   I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.  For 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.   The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas   was led astray. When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel,   I said to Cephas   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? “We who are Jews by birth   and not sinful Gentiles   know that a person is not ...

This is a passage you will never see embroidered and hanging on the wall of someone’s home. But it is important, nonetheless. Listen for God’s word to you from Galatians 2:1-10. Paul says… Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever the...

  Listen for God’s word to you from Galatians 1:11-24…  I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days. I saw none ...