Galatians Chapter 2

NOTE: Links to References are at the end of the study

Key words: “Gospel”, “Law”, “Jewish regulations”, “law”, “Gentile”, “circumcision”, “Peter”, “justify / justification”.

To fully understand this chapter and the controversy over requiring Gentile believers to be circumcised and follow Jewish laws, read Acts chapter 15 regarding the Council at Jerusalem.

Expositor’s Bible Commentary: “The verses that conclude this chapter contain capsule statements of some of the most significant truths of Christianity. In particular, Paul clearly states the doctrine of justification by grace through faith and defends it over against the traditional objection that justification by faith leads to lawlessness. The words “justify” and “justification” occur in these verses for the first time -- the verb, three times in verse 16 and once in verse 17; the noun, in verse 21 -- as Paul now begins to develop the message that is central to the letter, to his gospel, and indeed to Christianity generally… (Paul emphasizes in Galatians 2:20 that) He has died to law so that he might live for God, but this is true only because he has been joined to the Lord Jesus Christ by God the Father.”

John Karmelich’s summation of Galatians 2: “Getting us out of the way, so God can work in our lives”.

Robert Dean: “As we get further into Galatians, what we discover is that Paul has to deal with two aspects of legalism. There are really two categories to legalism: … Soteriological legalism is faith-plus something in order to be saved; sanctification legalism is faith plus something in order to grow or mature in the spiritual life.”

I suggest reading an excellent article entitled “Law or Grace” by Mike Oppenheimer at www.letusreason.org/7thAd7.htm which does an excellent job of explaining legalism versus grace and what the Judaizers were trying to do in the early church and the present-day legalists are succeeding to do today.

(1) Then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along, too.

• Fourteen years later:
  • 14 years after his conversion.
  • Acts 11:27-30: During this time some prophets traveled from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up in one of the meetings and predicted by the Spirit that a great famine was coming upon the entire Roman world. (This was fulfilled during the reign of Claudius.) So the believers in Antioch decided to send relief to the brothers and sisters in Judea, everyone giving as much as they could. This they did, entrusting their gifts to Barnabas and Saul to take to the elders of the church in Jerusalem.
• Jerusalem:
  • Andrew Wommack: The book of Acts records five definite visits that Paul made to Jerusalem:
    1. The visit after Paul left Damascus, approximately three years after his conversion (Acts 9:26-30 and Galatians 1:18-20);
    2. The famine relief visit (Acts 11:27-30);
    3. The visit to attend the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:1-30);
    4. The visit at the end of his second missionary journey (Acts 18:22);
    5. The final visit that resulted in Paul’s imprisonment and trial (Acts 21:15-23:35).
• Barnabas:
• Barnabas is first mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles as a member of the early Christian community in Jerusalem, who sold some land that he owned and gave the proceeds to the community (Acts 4:36-37). When the future Apostle Paul returned to Jerusalem after his conversion, Barnabas introduced him to the apostles (9:27).
• The successful preaching of Christianity at Antioch to non-Jews led the church at Jerusalem to send Barnabas there to oversee the movement (Acts 11:20–22). He found the work so extensive and weighty that he went to Tarsus in search of Paul (still referred to as Saul), “an admirable colleague”, to assist him. Paul returned with him to Antioch and labored with him for a whole year (Acts 11:25–26). At the end of this period, the two were sent up to Jerusalem (44 AD) with contributions from the church at Antioch for the relief of the poorer Christians in Judea.
• Paul later asked Barnabas to accompany him on another journey (15:36). Barnabas wished to take John Mark along, but Paul did not, as he had left them on the earlier journey (15:37-38). The dispute ended by Paul and Barnabas taking separate routes. Paul took Silas as his companion, and journeyed through Syria and Cilicia; while Barnabas took John Mark to visit Cyprus (15:36-41).
• Barnabas is also mentioned in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, in which it is mentioned that he and Paul funded their missions by working side jobs and (it is implied) went without wives and other benefits other apostles received (1 Corinthians 9:6); Paul states that he and Barnabas forsook those benefits “that we may cause no hindrance to the Good News of Christ” (1 Corinthians 9:12).
• Acts 4:36-37: For instance, there was Joseph, the one the apostles nicknamed Barnabas (which means “Son of Encouragement”). He was from the tribe of Levi and came from the island of Cyprus. He sold a field he owned and brought the money to the apostles.
• Acts 9:27: Then Barnabas brought him to the apostles and told them how Saul had seen the Lord on the way to Damascus and how the Lord had spoken to Saul. He also told them that Saul had preached boldly in the name of Jesus in Damascus.
• Acts 11:20-30: However, some of the believers who went to Antioch from Cyprus and Cyrene began preaching to the Gentiles about the Lord Jesus. The power of the Lord was with them, and a large number of these Gentiles believed and turned to the Lord. When the church at Jerusalem heard what had happened, they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw this evidence of God’s blessing, he was filled with joy, and he encouraged the believers to stay true to the Lord. Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and strong in faith. And many people were brought to the Lord. Then Barnabas went on to Tarsus to look for Saul. When he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. Both of them stayed there with the church for a full year, teaching large crowds of people. (It was at Antioch that the believers were first called Christians.) … entrusting their gifts to Barnabas and Saul to take to the elders of the church in Jerusalem.
• Acts 14:13-15: Now the temple of Zeus was located just outside the town. So the priest of the temple and the crowd brought bulls and wreaths of flowers to the town gates, and they prepared to offer sacrifices to the apostles. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard what was happening, they tore their clothing in dismay and ran out among the people, shouting, “Friends, why are you doing this? We are merely human beings - just like you! We have come to bring you the Good News that you should turn from these worthless things and turn to the living God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them.
• Acts 15:36-40: After some time Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s go back and visit each city where we previously preached the word of the Lord, to see how the new believers are doing.” Barnabas agreed and wanted to take along John Mark. But Paul disagreed strongly, since John Mark had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in their work. Their disagreement was so sharp that they separated. Barnabas took John Mark with him and sailed for Cyprus. Paul chose Silas, and as he left, the believers entrusted him to the Lord’s gracious care.
• 1 Corinthians 9:6, 12: Or is it only Barnabas and I who have to work to support ourselves?… If you support others who preach to you, shouldn’t we have an even greater right to be supported? But we have never used this right. We would rather put up with anything than be an obstacle to the Good News about Christ.
• Titus:
  • Titus was an early Christian missionary and church leader, a companion and disciple of Paul, mentioned in several of the Pauline epistles including the Epistle to Titus. He is believed to be a Gentile converted to Christianity by Paul and, according to tradition, he was consecrated as Bishop of the Island of Crete.
  • Paul summoned Titus from Crete to join him at Nicopolis in Epirus. (Titus 3:12) Later, Titus traveled to Dalmatia (2 Timothy 4:10). The New Testament does not record his death.
  • Paul calls him “my true son in the faith that we share” in Titus 1:4.
  • John Piper: “Why did Paul take Titus? Because he is not playing games. His gospel has laid hold on real people. Titus is going to be Exhibit A of Paul’s gospel preaching. Titus is a Greek, and he is not circumcised according to Old Testament laws. Yet he is a brother in Christ by faith. This is the freedom Paul stands for. And Titus is his best case. Will he be forced to be circumcised by the apostles in Jerusalem or won’t he? There was no better way of forcing the real issue than to take along a real person.”

(2) I went there because God revealed to me that I should go. While I was there I met privately with those considered to be leaders of the church and shared with them the message I had been preaching to the Gentiles. I wanted to make sure that we were in agreement, for fear that all my efforts had been wasted and I was running the race for nothing.

• God revealed to me that I should go:
  • Paul was not summoned to go to Jerusalem.
• In agreement:
  • ESV: “Paul is not seriously imagining that he has actually been preaching a false gospel, but he would regard his work as in vain if it were to result in a divided church - a Gentile half and a Jewish half.”
  • John Piper: “Paul did not need to confirm his own gospel; he needed to confirm that the other apostles agreed, and that there was unity.”

(3) And they supported me and did not even demand that my companion Titus be circumcised, though he was a Gentile.

• Circumcised:
  • Timothy was born of a Greek father and a Jewish mother. According to 2 Timothy 3:15, from childhood Timothy had been taught the Old Testament scriptures. In other words, his Jewish mother brought him up as a Jew, but his Greek father had not allowed the circumcision.:
    • Acts 16:1-3: Paul went first to Derbe and then to Lystra, where there was a young disciple named Timothy. His mother was a Jewish believer, but his father was a Greek. Timothy was well thought of by the believers in Lystra and Iconium, so Paul wanted him to join them on their journey. In deference to the Jews of the area, he arranged for Timothy to be circumcised before they left, for everyone knew that his father was a Greek.
  • For Titus, a pure Gentile, the pressure was to become Jewish. Barnabas was a Levite Jew and would, therefore, have already been circumcised.
  • Genesis 17:10, 14, 26: This is the covenant that you and your descendants must keep: Each male among you must be circumcised. … Any male who fails to be circumcised will be cut off from the covenant family for breaking the covenant.” … Both Abraham and his son, Ishmael, were circumcised on that same day,
  • Exodus 12:48: “If there are foreigners living among you who want to celebrate the Lord’s Passover, let all their males be circumcised. Only then may they celebrate the Passover with you like any native-born Israelite. But no uncircumcised male may ever eat the Passover meal.
  • Joshua 5:2, 4: At that time the Lord told Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise this second generation of Israelites.” … Joshua had to circumcise them because all the men who were old enough to fight in battle when they left Egypt had died in the wilderness.
  • Luke 2:21: Eight days later, when the baby was circumcised, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel even before he was conceived.
  • Acts 7:51 (KJV): Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
  • Acts 15:1-2: While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch of Syria, some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers: “Unless you are circumcised as required by the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.” Paul and Barnabas disagreed with them, arguing vehemently. Finally, the church decided to send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem, accompanied by some local believers, to talk to the apostles and elders about this question.
  • Acts 16:3: so Paul wanted him to join them on their journey. In deference to the Jews of the area, he arranged for Timothy to be circumcised before they left, for everyone knew that his father was a Greek.
  • Acts 21:21, 25: But the Jewish believers here in Jerusalem have been told that you are teaching all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn their backs on the laws of Moses. They’ve heard that you teach them not to circumcise their children or follow other Jewish customs… “As for the Gentile believers, they should do what we already told them in a letter: They should abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality.”
  • Romans 2:25-29: The Jewish ceremony of circumcision has value only if you obey God’s law. But if you don’t obey God’s law, you are no better off than an uncircumcised Gentile. And if the Gentiles obey God’s law, won’t God declare them to be his own people? In fact, uncircumcised Gentiles who keep God’s law will condemn you Jews who are circumcised and possess God’s law but don’t obey it. For you are not a true Jew just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the ceremony of circumcision. No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by the Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.
  • Romans 4:11-12: Circumcision was a sign that Abraham already had faith and that God had already accepted him and declared him to be righteous - even before he was circumcised. So Abraham is the spiritual father of those who have faith but have not been circumcised. They are counted as righteous because of their faith. And Abraham is also the spiritual father of those who have been circumcised, but only if they have the same kind of faith Abraham had before he was circumcised.
  • 1 Corinthians 7:18-19: For instance, a man who was circumcised before he became a believer should not try to reverse it. And the man who was uncircumcised when he became a believer should not be circumcised now. For it makes no difference whether or not a man has been circumcised. The important thing is to keep God’s commandments.
  • Galatians 5:2-12: Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace. But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us. For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love. You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth? It certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who called you to freedom. This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough! I am trusting the Lord to keep you from believing false teachings. God will judge that person, whoever he is, who has been confusing you. Dear brothers and sisters, if I were still preaching that you must be circumcised - as some say I do - why am I still being persecuted? If I were no longer preaching salvation through the cross of Christ, no one would be offended. I just wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by circumcision would mutilate themselves.
  • Galatians 6:12-15: Those who are trying to force you to be circumcised want to look good to others. They don’t want to be persecuted for teaching that the cross of Christ alone can save. And even those who advocate circumcision don’t keep the whole law themselves. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast about it and claim you as their disciples. As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died. It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation.
  • Philippians 3:3: For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort,
  • Colossians 2:11: When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision - the cutting away of your sinful nature.
• Gentile:
  • The question was not whether Jewish believers should be circumcised. The question, and controversy, was whether Gentile Christian men had to be circumcised and come under the law.

(4) Even that question came up only because of some so-called believers there - false ones, really - who were secretly brought in. They sneaked in to spy on us and take away the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. They wanted to enslave us and force us to follow their Jewish regulations.

• Believers … false ones:
  • Acts 15:1-2: While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch of Syria, some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers: “Unless you are circumcised as required by the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
  • 2 Corinthians 11:26: I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not.
  • Philippians 3:2: Watch out for those dogs, those people who do evil, those mutilators who say you must be circumcised to be saved.
  • Colossians 2:4, 8: I am telling you this so no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments… Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.
• Freedom:
  • “Liberty” in the KJV.
  • Zach Adams: “In Greek literature, the word Paul uses for “liberty” - “eleutheria” carried with it a very specific connotation. The word spoke of a unique legal transaction by which a slave was purchased and freed not by a man but instead through the intervention of a god. As the slave could not provide the funds necessary, the god paid the debt into the temple treasury and was given a receipt containing the words “for freedom.” What made this transaction so unique was that because the individual was now the property of a god, no mortal man possessed the right or legal standing to enslave that person ever again. … Remember Jesus’ final words on the cross as He’s dying to atone for the sins of the world? We’re told He cried out in the Greek before breathing His last the word “Tetelestai” literally declaring to the world, “It is finished!” Through His death, our sinful debt had been paid in full. His sacrifice was made “for our permanent freedom!” … No man has either the right or the legal standing to re-enslave a person Jesus died to set free! ”

(5) But we refused to give in to them for a single moment. We wanted to preserve the truth of the gospel message for you.

• Preserve the truth of the gospel message:
  • The purpose of this letter to the Galatian believers and the purpose of the meeting in Jerusalem.

(6) And the leaders of the church had nothing to add to what I was preaching. (By the way, their reputation as great leaders made no difference to me, for God has no favorites.)

• Leaders of the church:
  • The 12 and James.
• Nothing to add:
  • Andrew Wommack: “Paul was saying that the greatest leaders of the church in his day didn’t have any additions or corrections to the Gospel that had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit. Paul’s Gospel was accurate and complete, even by the judgment of Peter, James, and John, the leaders of the church.”
• No difference to me:
  • Andrew Wommack: “Paul was not intimidated by men who had walked with Jesus and had been a part of His inner circle of disciples. This was not because of self-confidence or pride; it was because Paul had an intimate relationship with God, and he knew the Gospel he preached came by direct revelation of the Holy Spirit. Those who are overwhelmed in the presence of man have not spent enough time in the presence of the Almighty.”

(7) Instead, they saw that God had given me the responsibility of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as he had given Peter the responsibility of preaching to the Jews.

• Me … responsibility … Gentiles… Peter … the Jews:
  • The 12 limited their orders of Acts 1:8 and restricted their activity only to the Jews, particularly Israel and acknowledged Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles.
  • Robert Dean: “Something we learn from a study of Acts is that Peter is the apostle to the Jews and Paul to the Gentiles. Up to Acts chapter eleven the emphasis is on Peter and to the Jews. Starting from near the end of chapter eleven through the end of Acts the emphasis is on Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles.”
  • Acts 1:8: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
  • Acts 26:17-18: And I will rescue you from both your own people and the Gentiles. Yes, I am sending you to the Gentiles to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people, who are set apart by faith in me.’
  • Acts 28:25-28: And after they had argued back and forth among themselves, they left with this final word from Paul: “The Holy Spirit was right when he said to your ancestors through Isaiah the prophet, Go and say to this people: When you hear what I say, you will not understand. When you see what I do, you will not comprehend. For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes - so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.’ So I want you to know that this salvation from God has also been offered to the Gentiles, and they will accept it.”
  • Romans 1:5: Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.
  • Romans 11:13: I am saying all this especially for you Gentiles. God has appointed me as the apostle to the Gentiles. I stress this,
  • Romans 15:16: I am a special messenger from Christ Jesus to you Gentiles. I bring you the Good News so that I might present you as an acceptable offering to God, made holy by the Holy Spirit.
  • Ephesians 3: When I think of all this, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus for the benefit of you Gentiles… assuming, by the way, that you know God gave me the special responsibility of extending his grace to you Gentiles. As you read what I have written, you will understand my insight into this plan regarding Christ. God did not reveal it to previous generations, but now by his Spirit he has revealed it to his holy apostles and prophets. And this is God’s plan: Both Gentiles and Jews who believe the Good News share equally in the riches inherited by God’s children. Both are part of the same body, and both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus. By God’s grace and mighty power, I have been given the privilege of serving him by spreading this Good News. Though I am the least deserving of all God’s people, he graciously gave me the privilege of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ. I was chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning.
  • 1 Timothy 2:7: And I have been chosen as a preacher and apostle to teach the Gentiles this message about faith and truth. I’m not exaggerating - just telling the truth.

(8) For the same God who worked through Peter as the apostle to the Jews also worked through me as the apostle to the Gentiles.

• Apostle to the Gentiles:
  • Beverly Wages: “Paul was the only person in the Bible who was given the title, “The Apostle to the Gentiles.” Peter was never called the Apostle to the Gentiles. In fact, the Scriptures are clear that Peter’s ministry was to the Jews, or the circumcision. Christ, Himself, ministered to some Gentiles, and yet He says in Matthew 15:24, “But He answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”… As the Apostle to the Gentiles, God revealed a new message through Paul. In Ephesians chapter 3, Paul tells us much about the message for us today. Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 3 that this message was never made known to men of other ages. In other words, the Old Testament prophets never knew about the message that Paul was to reveal.”

(9) In fact, James, Peter, and John, who were known as pillars of the church, recognized the gift God had given me, and they accepted Barnabas and me as their co-workers. They encouraged us to keep preaching to the Gentiles, while they continued their work with the Jews.

• James:
  • Acts 12:1-2: About that time King Herod Agrippa began to persecute some believers in the church. He had the apostle James (John’s brother) killed with a sword.
• John:
  • The only mention of John in Paul’s epistles.
  • Pillars - Greek - “stulos”:
    • Stulos was applied by the Jews to teachers of the law
• Barnabas and me:
• Titus and Timothy not mentioned as co-workers.

(10) Their only suggestion was that we keep on helping the poor, which I have always been eager to do.

• Helping the poor:
  • Andrew Wommack: “Today’s English Version implies that the “poor” being spoken of here were the needy saints of Jerusalem and Judea … Paul had already done this on a previous occasion (Acts 11:27-30) and continued to do so in his missionary journeys (1 Corinthians 16:1-3 and Romans 15:26-27…”

(11) But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong.

• Peter … very wrong:
  • Peter was wrong in how he acted and claimed no authority over Paul - unlike what the Judaizers were contending and what the Roman church would have claimed.

(12-13) When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

• He ate with the Gentile believers:
  • Zach Adams: “Keep in mind the table and the act of sharing a meal in Middle Eastern culture was viewed in a much different way that we do. First, while most of our meals are predicated upon the interesting balance of speed and price, in this society the table was the center of community and fellowship. Eating a meal was a slow and methodical process more focused on the interpersonal connections than the actual food. Aside from this you didn’t share a meal with just anyone. You see the act of eating with someone carried a deeper, more mystical connotation. Instead of each individual ordering their own plate, everyone at the table shared the same meal. As such, the act of consuming the same food was rather intimate. In a sense, you were claiming oneness and commonality. Note: This is why the Pharisees had such an issue with Jesus eating with sinners… In eating with these Gentile believers, Peter was affirming two important realities: (1) Because of grace, there was no distinction between Jew and Gentile, and (2) Because of grace, he possessed the liberty to eat food prohibited in the dietary law of Moses. And yet, when these Jews came from his home church to Antioch, Peter intentionally pulls back from the table of fellowship!”
  • Acts 10:14-17, 28, 11:1-3: “No, Lord,” Peter declared. “I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure and unclean.” But the voice spoke again: “Do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.” The same vision was repeated three times. Then the sheet was suddenly pulled up to heaven. Peter was very perplexed. What could the vision mean? Just then the men sent by Cornelius found Simon’s house… Peter told them, “You know it is against our laws for a Jewish man to enter a Gentile home like this or to associate with you. But God has shown me that I should no longer think of anyone as impure or unclean… Soon the news reached the apostles and other believers in Judea that the Gentiles had received the word of God. But when Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, the Jewish believers criticized him. “You entered the home of Gentiles and even ate with them!” they said.
• Friends of James
  • Peter caves because he is afraid (verse 12), but as the text later says, his refusal to eat with the Gentiles is not just a weakness -- it is hypocrisy!
• Wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles:
  • James A. Fowler: “The issue in the integration of Jewish and Gentiles Christians was more than just circumcision, for the purification food-laws about types of food, killing of animals, food preparation and proper cleansing were regarded as essential by some Jewish Christians. The Judaic concept of table-fellowship regarded eating together as a sign of oneness, equality, acceptance, commonality, and intimacy within the Jewish covenant community. Some Jewish-Christians were having a difficult time giving up their traditional conceptions.”

(14) When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions?

• Not following the truth of the gospel message:
  • The truth of the gospel message is that Christ is the end of the law for justification to everyone that believes.
• Jewish laws:
  • The context tells us that Paul’s not just talking about the Torah, the Ten Commandments or the Old Testament. He’s referring to all the written and “oral” Jewish laws, rules, traditions; and regulations. The word “law” (Greek: “nomos”) can apply to the Ten Commandments, the statutes and decrees given at Sinai, the five books of Moses the entire Old Testament or the “Oral” law (traditions), depending on the context. In Romans 8:4, we are taught that the righteous requirements of the law are “fully satisfied for us.” Jesus was similarly criticized for eating with “sinners” and tax collectors and not following the traditional hand-washing before eating.
  • Charles H. Welch: “According to the teaching of the rabbis, there were 248 commands and 365 prohibitions of the Mosaic law, which formed part of the “Hedge of the law.” These laws and prohibitions, without exception, in letter as well as spirit, and with the almost infinite number of inferences which were deducted from such laws, were to be obeyed. This was the blameless righteousness of the law. The belief was current that if only one person could attain unto this perfection for but one day, the Messiah would come, and the glory of Israel be ensured. This hope then, together with a nature which must spend and be spent upon that to which for the time being the possessor is attached, was the force which actuated Saul of Tarsus, and through him breathed out threatenings and slaughter.”
  • Matthew 15:2: “Why do your disciples disobey our age-old tradition? For they ignore our tradition of ceremonial hand washing before they eat.”
  • Mark 2:16-17: But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?” When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor - sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”
  • Romans 6:14-18: Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace. Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.
  • Romans 7:6: But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.
  • Romans 8:4: He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
  • Galatians 3:1-3: Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?
  • Galatians 3:12: This way of faith is very different from the way of law, which says, “It is through obeying the law that a person has life.”
  • Galatians 3:24-26: Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian. For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
  • Galatians 5:4: For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace.
• Trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions:
  • Steve Lewis: “Paul was especially concerned that the Gentiles (to whom he was called) would be confused by this inconsistent practice. The Gentiles could only draw one conclusion: that as long as they remained uncircumcised they were only “second class” Christians. Paul calls this compelling the Gentiles to live like Jews.”

(15) “You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles.

• Sinners:
  • Paul was apparently being cynical by using a derogatory phrase which was common in rabbinical Judaism and was possibly used by the false teachers. Gentiles were sinners by virtue of their being outside the Old Testament covenant people. The Jews looked upon the Romans as “sinners” and the Romans looked upon the Jews as “barbarians”. Today’s legalists are just as bad. If we don’t follow their long list of do’s and don’ts, we are considered “sinners”, beneath contempt while they are obviously “more spiritual”.
  • Ephesians 2:11-12: Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope.

(16) Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”

• Made right with God by faith:
  • Strong’s Concordance: Greek dikaioó - to show to be righteous, declare righteous. Usage: I make righteous, defend the cause of, plead for the righteousness (innocence) of, acquit, justify; hence: I regard as righteous.
  • “Made right” is “justified” in the KJV and “righteous” is “just” in the KJV.
  • ESV: “This verse was frequently appealed to in the Reformation by Protestants who insisted on “justification by faith alone” as opposed to the Roman Catholic doctrine of justification by faith plus merit gained through “means of grace” administered by means of the Roman Catholic sacraments such as penance and the Mass.”
  • Tim Keller “To be justified is to be seen as clean and beautiful in God’s sight.”
  • Robert Dean: “If adding something to faith is necessary for salvation then we wouldn’t find it anywhere in the Gospel of John. Faith is the absence of works; faith is non-meritorious in itself. There is only one kind of faith. The object of our faith is Jesus Christ and all the merit lies in Jesus Christ who paid the penalty for every single sin in human history on the cross. It is not the faith that secures salvation, it is the work of Jesus Christ on the cross that secures salvation for we are saved through faith; it is merely the means by which we appropriate the work of Jesus Christ.”
  • Zach Adams: “Justification is more than being forgiven. It means there is now no longer any record of my wrong doing. Whereas forgiveness absolves me of the consequences of my sin, justification imparts a right-standing before God just as if I had never sinned. … Today, every Christian has been forgiven and declared righteous (justification) for one reason and one reason alone… Our belief and faith in the work of Christ Jesus!”
  • Stephen F. Olford: “Justification is not only a legal fact in which we are declared righteous by a holy God; it is also a transforming experience through a living identification with Christ (Galatians 2:17). By union with Christ we are radically transformed; we can no longer go back to our old life, for in Christ we are “a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:1).”
  • Romans 1:16-17: For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes - the Jew first and also the Gentile. This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”
  • Romans 3:19-28: But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus. Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.
  • Romans 4:5: But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners.
  • Galatians 3:6-8: In the same way, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God. What’s more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would make the Gentiles right in his sight because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, “All nations will be blessed through you.”
  • 1 Corinthians 9:19-21: Even though I am a free man with no master, I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ. When I was with the Jews, I lived like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ. When I was with those who follow the Jewish law, I too lived under that law. Even though I am not subject to the law, I did this so I could bring to Christ those who are under the law. When I am with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law, I too live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ. But I do not ignore the law of God; I obey the law of Christ.
  • Ephesians 2:8-9: God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
  • Philippians 3:8-9: Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.
• The law:
  • ESV: “In Galatians 2:16, “works of the law” means not only circumcision, food laws, and Sabbath, but any human effort to be justified by God by obeying a moral law.”
  • Andrew Wommack: “Although the Law of Moses was being spoken of here, this can also be understood as any religious law (what day you worship, the length of hair, dress, the mode of baptism, or other religious codes), for by those works no person can be justified. … The phrase “works of the law” is used seven times in the New Testament in five scriptures (Romans 9:32; Galatians 2:16, 3:2, 5, and 10). … What are “works of the law”? Any rule, command, or law that a person observes in an attempt to be accepted in right standing with God is a “work of the law.” In other words, works of the Law are a righteousness produced by one’s self, belonging to one’s self, offered to God as a means of meeting God’s standard for acceptance. Philippians 3:9 says it’s “having mine own righteousness” [a righteousness belonging to me], which is of the law” …Works of the Law have always been man’s attempt to be accepted by God. Paul says, “[Let me] be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ - the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith” (Philippians 3:9, New International Version, brackets mine). It takes a radical revelation of the Gospel of grace to abandon faith in the works of the Law. God’s standard of righteousness is the righteousness of God alone. In stark contrast to the works of the Law, there is the “work of faith,” as referred to in 1 Thessalonians 1:3 and 2 Thessalonians 1:11. These may be the same actions that others do as works of the Law, but the motivation is different. Works of faith are the fruit of relationship with God whereas works of the Law are done to try to obtain relationship with God….”
  • Robert Dean: “Christ fulfilled the Law. The Mosaic Law is not just the Ten Commandments. All of the Law foreshadowed the person and work of Jesus Christ. When Christ came He fulfilled the Law.”
  • Zach Adams: “The perfect law of God was given to man to reveal how far short of God’s glory he had really fallen. The law towered over humanity declaring unquestionably that no man could ever be good enough and that all men are deserving of death and judgment as a result of their rebellion against God. Because the law set a standard no man could ever measure up to the law was by its very nature condemning! Because the law demands a debt no man could ever pay to be justified, the law declares all unrighteous before God and sentences every one of us to hell. And yet, through His atoning death on the cross, Jesus satisfied the debt of death demanded by the law… Meaning, if we’re found “in Christ” - if He’s freed us from a debt we could not pay, we’re now free from both the law’s requirements and its condemnation because it’s the very law itself that now gloriously declares you and I righteous before God. …Grace frees a person to obey God, not because they have to but because they now want to! Whereas as the law demanded that we all work hard to live the right way, God’s grace enables each of us to live the right way as a reciprocation of our personal relationship with His Son Jesus. This is why the accusation that “Grace” is dangerous because it provides a license for sin is not only baseless but reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of Grace itself. Jesus didn’t die on the cross so that we could remain in rebellion against God. He died on the cross so that we could enjoy communion with God. Forced behavioral modification through laws imposed was replaced with the natural behavioral modification yielded in a relationship with Jesus to be enjoyed! The truth is that you can never take Grace far enough.”
  • The definite article “The” does not appear in the Greek text, but it is assumed because of Paul’s continuing use of this phrase for the Mosaic Law. Although he had this primarily in mind, any other human effort (societal norm) serving as a supposed basis for our right standing with God could be implied here. Many expositors try to argue that whenever the words “the Law” is used, it refers to the Old Testament laws and that “Law” without the adjective “The” refers to the principle of “law” including moral laws. But, the original does not agree.
  • Galatians 3:10: But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse, for the Scriptures say, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in God’s Book of the Law.”
  • Romans 7: Now, dear brothers and sisters - you who are familiar with the law - don’t you know that the law applies only while a person is living? For example, when a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he is alive. But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her. So while her husband is alive, she would be committing adultery if she married another man. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and does not commit adultery when she remarries. So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God. When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death. But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit. Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.” But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power. At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life, and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead. Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good. But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes. So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. I have discovered this principle of life - that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.
  • Romans 9:31-32: But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path.
• Believed in:
  • Stephen F. Olford: “The expression in the middle of Galatians 2:16 is (literally) “we have believed into (eis) Christ Jesus.” It is an act of committal, not just assenting to the fact that Jesus lived and died, but running to Him for refuge and calling on Him for mercy.”
• No one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law:
  • Tim Keller: “Tertullian said, “Just as Christ was crucified between two thieves, so this doctrine of justification is ever crucified between two opposite errors.” Tertullian meant that there were two basic false ways of thinking, each of which “steals” the power and the distinctiveness of the gospel from us by pulling us “off the gospel line” to one side or the other. These two errors are very powerful, because they represent the natural tendency of the human heart and mind. (The gospel is “revealed” by God (Romans1:17) -- the unaided human mind cannot conceive it.) These “thieves” can be called moralism or legalism on the one hand, and hedonism or relativism on the other hand. Another way to put it is: the gospel opposes both religion and irreligion. On the one hand, “moralism/religion” stresses truth without grace, for it says that we must obey the truth in order to be saved. On the other hand, “relativists/irreligion” stresses grace without truth, for they say that we are all accepted by God (if there is a God) and we have to decide what is true for us. But “truth” without grace is not really truth, and “grace” without truth is not really grace. Jesus was “full of grace and truth”. Any religion or philosophy of life that de-emphasizes or loses one or the other of these truths, falls into legalism or into license and either way, the joy and power and “release” of the gospel is stolen by one thief or the other.
    “I am more sinful and flawed than I ever dared believe” (vs. antinomianism)
    “I am more accepted and loved than I ever dared hope” (vs. legalism).”
    What do both religious and irreligious people have in common? They seem so different, but from the viewpoint of the gospel, they are really the same. They are both ways to avoid Jesus as Savior and keep control of their lives. Irreligious people seek to be their own saviors and lords through irreligion, “worldly” pride. (“No one tells me how to live or what to do, so I determine what is right and wrong for me!”) But moral and religious people seek to be their own saviors and lords through religion, “religious” pride. (“I am more moral and spiritual than other people, so God owes me to listen to my prayers and take me to heaven. God cannot let just anything happen to me -- he owes me a happy life. I’ve earned it!”
  • Zach Adams: “To be justified is to be declared beautiful in God’s sight because you’ve done all He requires. And Paul says there are 2 ways to try to achieve this status and they are opposites. You can trust in observing the law or you can trust in Christ – and Paul says that “no one” will be declared beautiful by observing the law. But most Christians are living in bondage because they are still trying to do the things they think they need to do for God to really like them. They think God’s grace forgave them for their sins, but they think it is up to them to do the right things now that they’ve been given a clean slate. But being forgiven and being declared righteous are not the same thing! To add anything to Christ’s work is to fail to trust in Christ’s work – it is to fall back into a type of law keeping to cover your bases. David Dickson (Scottish Puritan) was asked on his deathbed how it was with his soul. His answer is classic, “I have taken my bad deeds and my good deeds, and I’ve thrown them together in a heap. And I’ve fled from both of them to Christ, and in Him I have peace.” There can be no real peace if you think salvation is the result of Christ + you - because you are a constant variable! … Jesus is not an “add-on” – the gospel is the news that is incompatible with trusting in yourself.”
  • Acts 13:39: Everyone who believes in him is made right in God’s sight - something the law of Moses could never do.
  • Romans 3:20, 28: For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. … So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.
  • Romans 8:3-4: The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
  • Romans 10:4: For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God.
  • Galatians 3:10: But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse, for the Scriptures say, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in God’s Book of the Law.”
  • Hebrews 7:19: For the law never made anything perfect. But now we have confidence in a better hope, through which we draw near to God.

(17) But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not!

• Andrew Wommack: “There is no consensus among scholars as to what Paul was saying. He may have been addressing a common question that arises anytime grace is taught: “What about those who profess to have a revelation of grace yet are living in sin?” Paul’s answer was that it isn’t Christ who is leading them to sin - their transgression is all their own (Galatians 2:18).”
• John Schultz: “Paul may be referring here to an argument that would often be presented. In Romans, he brings up the same excuse: What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (Romans 6:1-2) Paul speaks about people who try to be justified in Christ. That gives the impression as if it takes human effort of the same kind as observing certain commandments of the law. That gives the wrong impression. Just as wrong is the illusion many have that being justified in Christ is an automatic process in which we have nothing to do ourselves. To work out this justification requires our full cooperation. We have the ability to veto the process and we can do all kinds of negatives things that would hinder the effect of justification in our daily life, or even annul it completely. “Seeking to be justified in Christ,” does not mean conquering new terrain, but holding what has been given to us. It is true that God will judge us according to our acts. What we do proves who we are. If we are justified in Christ our acts will begin to demonstrate our justification. Yet, even if we are justified, we will from time to time take the wrong steps. Paul must have had the example of Peter and Barnabas in mind when he said this. In such a case, we cannot appeal to the work Christ has done in our lives. We cannot do “our own thing” and use Christ as an excuse. We cannot take credit either if the Holy Spirit produces His fruit in our lives. We also cannot blame God for our wrong choices. He can and will keep us from stumbling if we allow Him to do so. We will only stumble if we put something in His way. The reason is that we keep on falling back on our old tendency of wanting to do something; something for which God would have to give us credit.”

(18-19) Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law - I stopped trying to meet all its requirements - so that I might live for God

• When I tried to keep the law:
  • John Stevenson: “If there was ever a man who might have been justified through the keeping of the Law, it would have been Paul. He had been circumcised on the eighth day according to the Law. He had become a Pharisee of the Pharisees - he was a Jew who held to the literal interpretation of the Scriptures. He had been trained in the school of Gamaliel. He had been zealous in his legalism. And yet, the only thing that Paul ever got from the Law was condemnation and death. The very Law that he struggled to keep condemned him because he was unable to keep it perfectly. The penalty for not keeping the Law perfectly is death. Thus, the Law condemned Paul to death.”
  • Philippians 3:6-7: I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault. I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.
• Died to the law:
  • Zach Adams: “An Oft-Misunderstood Idea: What Does It Mean To “Die To The Law”?
    • What it doesn’t mean: It does not mean that the law has no value or role to play for Christians. Paul (and the rest of the New Testament writers) routinely exhort Christians to obey the moral law and use it as a guide for how our love for God is to be expressed. We are not free to live like there are no laws. But we are to live in a new way. Paul is saying that before he died to the law he was unable to live for God! He was doing lots of religious stuff, but he was not able to do it for God until he died to the law. Why? Because until he was set free from trying to earn God’s approval, everything he did was to try to change God and make God like him. His obedience was really for himself – not for God. Illustration: King and Gift Horse
    • Why does Paul say it was through the law that he died to the law? This idea is fleshed out a little more in Romans 7:7-13. There we see that while Paul was outwardly keeping the 10 commandments, he came to a point where he realized that the 10th
    commandment (do not covet) was concerned with internal issues too. This caused him to realize that external obedience is not enough – God requires the right heart attitude as well to count it as obedience. He says that when the law came to life (he understood its implications in a fuller way) he died. He came to utterly despair of being able to please God by keeping the law - and thus was set free to look for another basis for his relationship with God.
    • To “die to the law” means to die to it as a principle for achieving life and approval from God. As long as we are trying to use the law to get to God it controls us and enslaves us. But Christians really are different – we’ve died to the law. In other words, it no longer controls us by its condemnation, we no longer serve it as a slave seeking to earn God’s approval, and thus now we can live for God. Until we died to the law through grace we could only live for ourselves even when it looked like we were living for God. To die to the Law is to quit using it as a principle of life, to quit trying to be your own savior! Until you quit trying to use your performance to please God – you will never be set free from needing to perform for Him.”
  • John Stevenson: “When did this take place? In what way did Paul die to the Law? The answer is found in the next verse.”
  • Romans 7:4: So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God.

(20) My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me

• While preparing this study, I discovered that entire books and on-line studies have been written just covering the concept in verse 20 because it goes to the heart of what Christianity actually is.
• Bruce Hurt: “Note that in the Greek sentence, “with Christ” is placed first, this order throwing special emphasis on ‘Christo’. In other words, Paul’s personal union with Christ became from that time the focal point of His life, entailing a fellowship with Christ’s crucifixion, a very real, albeit spiritual crucifixion of Paul’s heart and will.”
• Wuest translates verse twenty, “With Christ I have been crucified, and it is no longer I who live, but there lives in me Christ. And that life I now live in the sphere of the flesh, by faith I live it, which faith is in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself on my behalf.”
• Stephen F. Olford: “In this matchless statement, Paul the apostle encapsulates the gospel of the grace of God. It is the gospel of the extinguished life -- “I have been crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20).
  We have died to the law. By dying with Christ, who died under the law’s penalty, we find that all the law’s demands were satisfied in Him. They have no more hold on us. Being crucified, moreover, means that we have died to self. The dominating control of the fallen nature has been broken. If we do not understand this, then we are missing something very important. The extinguished life means death to self and sin.”
• My old self:
  • Galatians 5:19-21 shows what the old self produces:
    • “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”
  • Galatians 5:22-23 shows what the new self (Christ in me) produces:
    • “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”
• Crucified with:
  • Greek - Suture - Strong’s Number: 4957 - to crucify along with. GreekLexicon.org: Co-crucified, i.e. in close union (identification).
  • KJV: 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.
  • John Stevenson: “When the Law demanded that the penalty of death be carried out, those demands were carried out against Christ. This means that Jesus was crucified as Paul’s representative. Paul was legally crucified with Christ. He is legally considered to have been put to death. You see, Paul has been identified with Christ through faith. Anyone who has placed their faith in Jesus as their Savior has been identified with Christ. When the Law demanded our death, the sentence of death was carried out in the death of Christ on the cross. He took our place. He died instead of us. The sentence has been carried out. We are considered by the Law to have died on the cross. This means that the Law has no more dominion over us. The Law does not condemn a dead man. The Law only judges the living. The Law can no more judge us than a court could dig up a corpse and require it to stand trial.”
    • However, the Roman Catholic Church did in fact dig up corpses during the inquisition and tried the dead man so they could confiscate his estate from his heirs!
  • Bruce Hurt: “Crucified with Christ - This describes our spiritual death with Christ some 2000 years ago, a very real supernatural, albeit somewhat “mystical” event that occurred in the past in the eyes of God. The “I” that begins this verse is the old self (= the old man), the evil “I” who was crucified and therefore no longer has a valid claim on our life, for we are no longer in Adam but in Christ. This is now our position before God and it should be reflected in our daily practice. When we became a believer by grace through faith there was a decisive death to the old (unbelieving, rebellious) self. Now in newness of life we are to work out our salvation (Philippians 2:12-13) moment by moment by faith in Christ Who loved us and gave Himself for us.”
  • Wil Pounds (The Exchanged Life): “Literally it reads, “With Christ I have been co-crucified.” When I believed on Christ, I was so united with Christ, so linked with Him, that I am now so much a part of Him that His crucifixion positionally becomes my crucifixion. A part of me died there at the cross. My old carnal nature was slain there at the cross. Yet, I don’t live there in that death. The life I now live, I live in resurrection power. Christ’s resurrection has become my resurrection. The life I now live, I live in faith in the Son of God who gave Himself for me.”
  • Wil Pounds (The Exchanged Life): “If I take a 3x5 card and place it between the pages in my Bible that card becomes a part of my Bible. Regardless of where I take my Bible it goes with it. If I lay my Bible down somewhere that 3x5 card goes with it. If I lose my Bible, I lose the 3x5 card. The card is now a part of my Bible. In the same way, I am now so identified with Jesus Christ through His death and resurrection, and the new life the Holy Spirit has imparted to me that I am in Christ. I go with Him wherever He goes.”
  • Wil Pounds (Our Vital Union in Christ’s Death): “We died with Christ in order that the body of sin, or the sin nature, might be set aside as the master that controls us. Because we died to sin and were buried we are no longer obligated to serve our old master. This death and burial does not mean that sin or sin nature has been eradicated. Nor does it mean the believer will no longer commit sin. … We have been set free from the obligation to serve the sin nature in the same way that a wife whose husband dies is set free from the law of marriage so she can marry another. The apostle Paul tells us there is only thing that can break sins’ control over us and that is death. Then he goes on to tell us that we have already died! When Jesus Christ died, you, as a believer in Jesus Christ, died with Him, and that death broke sins’ control over you. Now you can walk in the newness of life through your resurrection with Christ.”
  • Wil Pounds (Our Vital Union in Christ’s Death): “We have been crucified is in the perfect tense indicating it is a completed action in the past with permanent results. Our judicial or positional crucifixion of our sinful flesh took place when Christ died on the cross. Our death dates from the death of Christ (Colossians 3:3). … When Jesus Christ died, I died, and I am now set free. That is my present spiritual status in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of Christ’s death on my behalf as my substitute I am identified with Him by faith. God is not going to condemn me (Romans 8:1). He has just acquitted me! He has already condemned Christ who died in my place.”
  • Wuest: “All believers were identified with Christ in His death, and resurrection and thus have passed out of the realm of divine law as its legalistic aspect is concerned. … The new life is a Person within a person, living out His life in that person … Instead of a totally depraved sinner trying to please a holy God by attempting to live by a set of laws, it is now the saint living his life on a new principle, that of the indwelling Holy Spirit manifesting forth the Lord Jesus”.
  • Henry Blackaby: “The Christian life is an exchanged life. Jesus’ life for your life. When Christ takes control, your life takes on dimensions you would never have known apart from Him. When you are weak, then Christ demonstrates His strength in your life (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). When you face situations that are beyond your comprehension, you have only to ask, and the infinite wisdom of God is available to you (James 1:5). When you are faced with humanly impossible situations, God does the impossible (Luke 18:27). When you encounter people whom you find difficult to love, God expresses His unconditional love through you (1 John 4:7). When you are at a loss as to what you should pray for someone, the Spirit will guide you in your prayer life (Romans 8:16). When Christ takes up residence in the life of a believer, “all the fullness of God” is available to that person (Ephesians 3:19). It is marvelously freeing to know that God controls your life and knows what it can become. Rather than constantly worrying about what you will face, your great challenge is to continually release every area of your life to God’s control. The temptation will be to try to do by yourself what only God can do. Our assignment is to “abide in the vine” and to allow God to do in and through us what only He can do (John 15:5). Only God can be God. Allow Him to live out His divine life through you. He is the only One who can.”
  • Zach Adams: “This work by Jesus stands accomplished… Paul specifically places this work in the past tense: “I have been!” It’s done! What Jesus did for you and me on the cross was a permanent, lasting work! Our debt was paid (atonement) - His righteousness was placed onto our account so that we all now stand today and forevermore justified!”
  • John Schultz: “In the Old Testament, sinners who wanted to come to God had to lay their hands on a sacrificial animal that they brought to the temple. We read in Leviticus: “He is to present the bull at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the Lord. He is to lay his hand on its head and slaughter it before the Lord.” In doing so, the person who brought the sacrifice identified himself with the animal. He confessed that what happened to the animal actually ought to have happened to him. He asked God to accept the animal in his stead. In the same way, we are crucified with Christ. The difference between the image and the reality is that God took the initiative. It was His idea, not ours. It is not only an acknowledgment of guilt, it is also an act of surrender. It is His surrender in our place. We will never be able to surrender our body to God in the same total manner Jesus Christ did. In that respect also, He took our place. Jesus is not only our sin offering, He is also our burnt offering, our grain offering, our fellowship offering and our guilt offering as described in the first five chapters of Leviticus. All these sacrifices Jesus became in our behalf when He died at Golgotha. He is the only factor that determines my relationship to the Father. I can do nothing by myself. I cannot even express my surrender and my gratitude to God without Him. He did this all for me.”
  • John Brown (An Exposition of the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians): “‘I am completely delivered from the law. The law has no more to do with me, and I have no more to do with it in the matter of justification. And this freedom from law is at once necessary and effectual to my living a truly holy life -- a life devoted to God.’ What follows is explanatory of this thought, which was every present in the apostle’s mind -- ‘I consider myself as identified with the Lord Jesus Christ. I am crucified with Christ. I view myself as so connected with Christ, as that when He was crucified, I was, as it were, crucified… I am redeemed from the law and its curse, he having become a curse for me. Nevertheless I live. Christ died, and in Him I died. Christ revived and in Him I revived. I am a dead man with regard to the law, but I am a living man in regard to Christ… The life I have now, is not the life of a man under the law, but the life of a man delivered from the law; having died and risen again with Christ Jesus, Christ’s righteousness justifies me, Christ’s Spirit animates me. My relations to God are his relations. The influences under which I live are the influences under which He lives. Christ’s views are my views; Christ’s feelings my feelings. He is the soul of my soul, the life of my life. My state, my sentiments, my feelings, my conduct, are all Christian… I live by faith… The belief of the truth is the regulating principle of my conduct. It is as it were the soul of the new creature. I no longer think or feel or act like a Jew -- like a man born merely after the flesh. All my opinions, sentiments, habits, are subject to the truth about Him ‘Who loved me and gave Himself for me’ and I live devoted to him who died devoted for me.”
  • Dr. Paul M. Elliott: “The idea of being crucified with Christ emphasizes our union with Him and His death on our behalf. We trust in Christ’s crucifixion as payment for our sin penalty, and we rely on His power to live in a way that pleases God. The emphasis is on what He has done for us, not what we have to do for God. Too often, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is Christ who lives in me” becomes “I need to crucify my sinful desires and try harder to live for God.” When this becomes our perspective, we have slipped out of grace-living and back into law-living, and we minimize the power of Christ’s death for us. We are relying less upon the power of Christ and more upon our own power - and that will never work out well! In short, Galatians 2:20 tells us how we escaped the penalty of sin to live a life that pleases God. Knowing that we are “crucified with Christ” should give us great encouragement in our Christian walk. We have the power to say “no” to sin and “yes” to God.”
  • Romans 6:3-6: Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.
  • Galatians 5:24: Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.
  • Galatians 6:14: As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died.
  • Colossians 2:20: You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as,
  • Colossians 3:3-4: For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.
  • 2 Timothy 2:11: This is a trustworthy saying: If we die with him, we will also live with him.
• It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me:
• Elias Aslaksen: “This, indeed, is the heart of Christianity, the firm foundation of faith in Christ. Until this becomes true in a person’s life, he will suffer continual defeat and failure. As long as we live for ourselves, misery will result, because in us, that is, in our flesh, dwells no good thing. (Romans 7:18) No one can manage to follow in the steps of Christ, do the will of God, and keep His commandments on his own.”
• Wil Pounds (The Exchanged Life):: “The principle of the exchanged life can be simply stated in the words of Paul in Galatians 2:20. Paul says, “... not I, but Christ lives in me.” Again he says, “Christ in you ...the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). The Christian life is the work of God in you. It is your living faith in the adequacy of the One who is in you. He releases His divine activity through you. …
• Wil Pounds (Our Vital Union in Christ’s Death): “We are never called upon to crucify ourselves, but to “mortify” or reckon to be dead. This is only possible by the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:13, “for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Those who are being led by the Spirit are the sons of God. … The crucifixion was accomplished once and for all. In view of this fact, the believer is to “reckon,” “yield,” “mortify,” “count as dead,” “cut off”, “put away”, “put on the whole armor of God”, “set your affections on the things above”, “put on the new man”, “deny himself”, “abide in Christ”, “fight the good fight”, “run the race”, “walk in love”, “walk in the Spirit”, “walk in the light”, “walk in the newness of life,” etc. This is the believer’s responsibility in our abiding in Christ.”
• Zach Adams: “Friend, this is why the Gospel of “Grace” yields holiness, not licentiousness. I not only died with Christ, but was also resurrected with Him! The message of the Gospel is that Jesus lives in me and works through me. In faith I’ve associated myself with His death so that I can now walk in His life! Notice Paul says concerning Jesus that it was He “who loved me… and gave Himself for me.” Once again legalism challenges you to “give your life to Christ, so He can live in you” when the Gospel declares that “He gave His life for you, so you can live your life in Him!” ”
• David Guzik: “Paul realized that on the cross, a great exchange occurred. He gave Jesus his old, try-to-be-right-before-God-by-the-law life, and it was crucified on the cross. Then Jesus gave Paul His life – Christ came to live in him. So Paul’s life wasn’t his own anymore, it belonged to Jesus Christ! Paul didn’t own his own life (that life died); he simply managed the new life Jesus gave him.”
• Bruce Hurt: “Christ Who lives… Now only what Christ does in us and through us merits God’s approval … This is one of the most difficult truths to learn in the Christian life because our culture has so ingrained in us that we have to work for the favor of others. If we work hard enough, we might gain their approval! And yet when it comes to pleasing God, we could never “do” or “work” enough to please Him. Paul learned the secret that only God’s Son living and working through us via His Spirit could please the Father…. What God does desire and what is a manifestation of true faith is our … obedience, for “to obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22). But even our obedience ultimately is initiated and empowered by the indwelling Spirit of Christ (Ezekiel 36:27). It is sad that undoubtedly much “Christian work” that has been done in the name of Jesus is going to burn because it has been carried out not by Christ Who lives in us but in the power and motives of the flesh. Christ now lives in us as the Spirit of Christ overcoming our remaining bent to sinning, this work of the Spirit being referred to theologically as sanctification.”
• Christ lives in me:
  • Zach Adams: “The message of the Gospel is that Jesus lives in me and works through me. In faith I’ve associated myself with His death so that I can now walk in His life! … Paul’s solution to sin in the life of a believer is not law, but a renewed awareness of the presence of Jesus in my life brought forth through and by His amazing grace! ”
  • Andrew Wommack: “The Law focuses on the outer man and tells it what it must do. Grace focuses on the inner man and tells it what is already done through Christ. Those who are focused on what they must do are under Law. Those who are focused on what Christ has done for them are walking under grace. The Christian life is not just hard to live - it’s impossible to live in our human strength. The only way to walk in victory is to let Christ live through us.”
  • John 14:23: Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them.
  • Romans 8:9-10: But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God.
  • 1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19: Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? … Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself,
  • Colossians 1:27: For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory.
  • 2 Timothy 1:14: Through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, carefully guard the precious truth that has been entrusted to you.
• Gave himself for me:
  • Isaiah 53:6: All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.
  • John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
  • 1 Peter 2:24: He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed.
  • 1 John 3:16: We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.

(21) I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.

• No need for Christ to die:
  • Zach Adams: “Do we realize what we are saying to God when we try to earn His love by our own effort? Failure to trust is deeply offensive to God – it is slandering the work of Christ on the cross. To try to earn God’s favor by your own efforts is to make the cross worthless! “If your house was burning down but your whole family escaped and I came to you and said, “Let me show you how much I love you!” and then I ran into the fiery house and died, you would say, “ What an idiot!” But if one of your children was still in the house, and I said, “Let me show you how much I love you!” and I ran into the fiery house and saved your child but died myself, you would say, “Behold, how he loved us.” Now if you can save yourself by works, Jesus death is not loving, it is pure stupidity. If, however, you are lost and dying and unable to save yourself, his death means everything.” (Dr. Roger Nicole)… If what we do or don’t do (the law) played any role in our justification or perfection then Christ died for nothing! His point is that we either need all of Christ or no Christ at all! ”
  • Dr. Bob Utley: “This is the theological climax of Paul’s rejection of the Judaizers’ emphasis on human performance. If human actions could bring right standing with God, then there was no need for Jesus to die!”

Galatians 3:1-4: Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it?

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Galatians Chapter 2 Study References

NOTE: While the following sources contain valuable information, I do not necessarily agree with all the information and opinions presented in the sources.

• A Man Named Paul by Beverly Wages: www.gbcfw.com/study/books/B_Wages/paul/?id=3&publ=24&chap=0
• An Exchanged Life by Henry T. Blackaby: https://sonomachristianhome.com/2016/02/an-exchanged-life-experiencing-god-daily-devotional/
• “An Exposition of the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians” by John Brown
• An Outline to the Epistle to the Galatians by Alfred E. Bouter: biblecentre.org/content.php?mode=7&item=292#Introduction
• Andrew Wommack Ministries - Galatians Commentary: www.awmi.net/reading/online-bible-commentary/#/galatians
• Bible Commentaries - Galatians by John Schultz: www.bible-commentaries.com/source/johnschultz/BC_Galatians.pdf
• Bible Study - Galatians by John Karmelich: biblestudyemail.com/karmelich_galatians/galatians.php
• Book of Galatians Explained by Ken Cayce: www.bible-studys.org/Bible%20Books/Galatians/Book%20of%20Galatians.html#Index
• Bul’s Notes - Galatians: pericope.org/buls-notes/galatians/galatians.php
• Chuck Smith: C2000 Series on Galatians 1-2: www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/smith_chuck/c2000_Gal/Gal_001.cfm?Criteria=galatians
• Coffman Commentaries on the Bible: www.studylight.org/commentaries/bcc/galatians.html
• Commentary on Paul’s Letter to the Galatians by Dr. Peter Pett: www.angelfire.com/ok/bibleteaching/galatianscommentary.html
• David Guzik’s Commentary on Galatians: enduringword.com/bible-commentary/galatians-1/
• Dean Bible Ministries - Galatians by Dr. Robert L. Dean Jr.: www.deanbibleministries.org/new-testament-menuitem/galatians-menuitem
• Does God’s law have any place in the New Testament church? by Dr. Paul M. Elliott: www.teachingtheword.org/apps/articles/?columnid=5437&articleid=59504
• Dr. Constable’s Expository (Bible Study) Notes - Galatians: www.planobiblechapel.org/tcon/notes/html/nt/galatians/galatians.htm
• Expositor’s Bible Commentary: biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/galatians/1.htm
• Four Cities of Galatia by Lorraine O. Schultz: www.mastertoolkit.com/vcmedia/2378/2378037.pdf
• Galatians: Broken by His Cross, Healed by His Cross by John Piper: www.desiringgod.org/series/galatians-broken-by-his-cross-healed-by-his-spirit/messages
• Galatians by Charles Welch: https://levendwater.org/analysis/a2/galatians.htm
• Galatians by Steve Lewis: www.spiritandtruth.org/teaching/3.htm
• Galatians by Zach Adams: www.c316.tv/archive?tags=galatians
• Galatians Commentary Verse by Verse by Bruce Hurt: www.preceptaustin.org/galatians_commentary_verse_by_verse
• Galatians in the Greek New Testament by Kenneth S. Wuest: www.amazon.com/Word-Studies-Galatians-Greek-Testament/dp/0802812325
• Galatians - Introduction by John MacArthur: www.gty.org/library/bible-introductions/MSB48/galatians
• Galatians Study by Tim Keller: https://asucru.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/galatians-full-study-based-on-tim-keller.pdf
• Generation Word - Galatians by Galyn Wiemers: www.generationword.com/audio_series/galatians_audio.htm
• How can I say that I have been crucified with Christ? by Elias Aslaksen: https://activechristianity.org/how-i-have-been-crucified-with-christ-galatians-220
• Jesus Christ: Not I, But Christ (Galatians 2:20) by Stephen F. Olford: www.preaching.com/sermons/jesus-christ-not-i-but-christ-galatians-220/
• Law or Grace by Mike Oppenheimer: www.letusreason.org/7thAd7.htm
• Net Bible: www.bible.org/netbible/index.htm
• Right Division Blogs - Paul Meant Business by Leland Maples: https://rightdivision.com/blog/paul-meant-business
• Spurgeon on Galatians: www.preceptaustin.org/spurgeon_on_galatians_3#1
• Studies in the Epistle to the Galatians by John Stevenson: www.angelfire.com/nt/theology/galatian.html
• The Centrality of the Gospel by Tim Keller: www.newcityindy.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/centrality-of-gospel.-keller.pdf
• The Exchanged Life Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret by Elizabeth de Smaele: www.deeper-devotion.net/exchanged-life.html
• The Gospel versus Religion by James A. Fowler: www.christinyou.net/pages/galat.html
• William Barclay’s Daily Study Bible - Galatians: www.studylight.org/commentaries/dsb/galatians.html

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• Except otherwise noted, the Scripture version used is the New Living Translation, Tyndale House Publishers,Inc., Wheaton, Illinois.
• Index to all our Galatians studies are at paultothegalatianchurch.blogspot.com/2018/11/galatians.html
• Index to all our studies are at oakview-bible-fellowship.blogspot.com/

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