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 they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—they added nothing to my message. On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised. For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as 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 circumcised. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.
We learn at least three things about Paul in this passage. The first thing we see here is that Paul gave other leaders in the church their due respect.
Paul tells us in this passage about a time he went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus. This may have been the occasion that is chronicled in Acts 15. Here is what we read in Acts 15:1-3…
Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So, Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.
Paul very strategically took with him Barnabas who was a circumcised Jewish believer in Jesus and Titus who was a Greek, uncircumcised believer in Jesus. Paul says he went up to Jerusalem in response to a revelation. We don’t know what this revelation was nor how it came to Paul. But he says he met privately with those esteemed to be leaders (there’s the note of respect I was talking about) and he presented to them the gospel that he preached among the Gentiles. Paul says he wanted to be sure he was not running nor had been running his race in vain. In other words, he wanted to be sure that the Jerusalem leadership of the church agreed with him about the Gospel and supported his preaching of the Gospel.
This required great humility on Paul’s part. Think about it. Paul could have gone on working independent of the believers in Jerusalem. He did not come to faith through them, but directly through a revelation from Jesus Christ. And Paul was carrying on his Gospel preaching in Antioch totally independent of the believers in Jerusalem. So, it took great humility on Paul’s part to seek the help of the Jerusalem leadership to settle this squabble with the Judaizers.
And what was this squabble? There were some Jewish Christians who were saying that unless the Gentile Christians like Titus were circumcised then they could not be saved.
Now this may seem like a very esoteric squabble to us, something very distant from our situation today. But for 2000 years people have been trying to change the Gospel in ways like this. And people still do it.
What do I mean? I mean that the attempt is always made to add something to the Gospel. People always want to say, “Jesus and something else leads to salvation.” Faith plus works is what justifies us.
The first book that made C. S. Lewis a household name was entitled The Screwtape Letters. The book consists of fictitious letters from a senior devil, Screwtape, to a junior devil, Wormwood, about how to tempt his human patient. At one point in the book Screwtape says…
What we want, if men become Christians at all, is to keep them in the state of mind I call ‘Christianity And’. You know—Christianity and the Crisis, Christianity and the New Psychology, Christianity and the New Order, Christianity and Faith Healing, Christianity and Psychical Research, Christianity and Vegetarianism, Christianity and Spelling Reform. If they must be Christians let them at least be Christians with a difference. Substitute for the faith itself some Fashion with a Christian colouring.
You know what Paul says about that? Paul says: “No way! It’s faith plus nothing. Jesus plus nothing. That’s the Gospel.”
Nonetheless, out of respect for the Jerusalem leadership of the church, and seeking their help, Paul goes to them, looking for confirmation, that the way he is preaching the good news is correct.
This leads to a second characteristic of Paul that we see displayed in this passage and that is that while Paul showed respect for other leaders in the early church, he was not overawed by them.
Notice how Paul speaks about these other leaders in this passage…
As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—they added nothing to my message.
Paul respected the leaders in Jerusalem, but he was not overawed by them. We tend to go to extremes in our attitude toward leadership. Either we glorify leaders and put them on a pedestal, or we denigrate them and advocate anarchy. Paul did not do either one of those things. Paul did not go to extremes. He respected but did not glorify other leaders in the early church.
It is interesting to note that there are segments of the church over the past 2000 years that have taught apostolic succession in such a way that it glorifies human leaders and, I think, detracts from the Gospel. There are some in the church who say, “You must be in apostolic succession in order to be a true minister of the Gospel.” In other words, to this way of thinking, the first disciples laid hands on, ordained the next generation of leaders in the church, and that generation ordained the next generation, and so on. For example, following this line of thinking the Roman Catholic Church says they can trace the line of succession from the present Pope all the way back to Peter.
But I believe Paul knew that the true apostolic succession does not come from those ordained by a certain human being. Rather, the true apostolic succession comes from those who preach the apostolic doctrine of the Gospel. I don’t think it matters whether a particular minister in a particular church can trace his succession back to the first apostles in some sort of physical manner. What counts is whether a minister is preaching spiritual truth. Is he or she preaching the Gospel?
This leads to a third characteristic of Paul that we see in this passage. And that is that Paul was committed to the Gospel above all else.
William Barclay says that Paul…
… was convinced that God had given him a task to do, and he would let neither opposition from without nor discouragement from within stop him doing it. The man who knows he has a God-given task will always find that he has a God-given strength to carry it out.
That special task to which Paul felt called by none other than Jesus himself was the preaching of the Good News about Jesus.
It is important to recognize that there is only one Gospel. It is not like Paul preached the Gospel of Jesus plus nothing and that Peter preached Jesus plus circumcision. No. The result of the Jerusalem conference was that the leaders of the church in Jerusalem agreed with Paul. They believed in one and the same Gospel, namely that we are accepted by God through his Son Jesus Christ plus nothing.
Notice what Paul says in this passage…
Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.
… and … they added nothing to my message.
Allow me to diagram Paul’s message this way…
Faith in Jesus Justification
According to Paul faith in Jesus alone leads to justification. In other words, when we put our faith in Jesus alone, God declares us righteous in his sight.
Faith in Jesus Justification Works
Good works follow justification. Our good works are a response to God’s love for us, not an attempt to earn God’s love and forgiveness.
C. S. Lewis put it this way…
That is why the Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to be good. They hope, by being good, to please God if there is one; or—if they think there is not—at least they hope to deserve approval from good men. But the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us; just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright but becomes bright because the sun shines on it.
Lewis is saying the same thing Paul is saying. Good works follow justification as a result, not before justification as a cause.
But some in the church, particularly the Roman Catholic Church, draw the diagram this way…
Faith + Works Justification
I believe one problem with drawing the diagram this way is that it is simply not what the Bible teaches. Another problem with putting works before justification is that we can never be sure we have done enough good works. And our trust shifts from Jesus to ourselves.
The people who put works before justification sort of picture the final judgment like this… They think we are going to stand before Jesus some day and Jesus is going to weigh our good works against our sins on some humongous scale of justice. And if our good works outweigh our sins, then we will get into heaven. But if they don’t, then we will go to hell.
Not only is that a frightening picture… it simply isn’t true. Jesus himself said…
Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. (John 5:24)
And Paul says in Romans 8:1…
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus
If you have put your faith in Jesus Christ alone, you will not be judged. You have already crossed over from death to life. There is no condemnation awaiting you.
Now there is a caricature of these two views of justification that I have diagramed. Some people maintain that what Paul, and Martin Luther, and the Protestants in general, are saying is this…
Faith – Works Justification
But I do not believe that is what Paul, Martin Luther, and the Protestants are saying. I agree with what James says. “Faith without works is dead.” (James 2:17) But that still leaves us with the question: do works lead to justification as God’s declaration of our righteousness, or do works proceed after justification as a demonstration of our righteousness?
Now, just as some people offer a caricature of what Paul was saying, some people offer a caricature of what they think the Roman Catholic Church is saying and they draw the diagram like this…
Works Justification
I don’t think that is what the Roman Catholic Church is saying. But the important question is not: who teaches what? But rather: what is the truth? I believe the truth is … Faith in Jesus, plus nothing, that’s what leads to our justification. That’s the Gospel that Paul taught. That’s the Gospel that the leaders of the Church in Jerusalem confirmed. And that, sadly, is the Gospel that the Judaizers rejected, and that many people have rejected or misunderstood, over the past 2000 years.
Martin Luther once wrote,
Let this be then the conclusion of all together, that we will suffer our goods to be taken away, our name, our life, and all that we have; but the Gospel, our faith, Jesus Christ, we will never suffer to be wrested from us.
Don’t ever let anyone take the Gospel from you.
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