Galatians 2:1 Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.
2 And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.
3 But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised:
4 And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:
5 To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.
In this book God directed the apostle Paul to write about his testimony as a child of God. His testimony is not unique. There are some unique things that he dealt with and things he learned, but every person is born a lost sinner as Paul/Saul was. Every saved person will have put up resistance against the truth for a time. Some are saved as younger children and some put it off until later in life. All need to be broken and come to the place of trusting only in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.
After salvation, there is a learning curve that every child of God is on. Some learn quicker than others, but we all need to learn to submit more fully to God and be willing to serve Him where He wants us.
In Galatians 1 Paul gave the background to his being adopted into the family of God. He was chosen by God and the Lord Jesus Christ to be an apostle. That was a unique calling. He was the last of the apostles. He was also called to focus on the Gentiles. He was a Jew, but God wanted him to spend the bulk of his time with Gentiles. That is not hard to understand when we are surrendered to the Lord. The Jews often looked down upon the Gentiles as being less significant than they were. Through salvation, that barrier will be removed. We will see that Peter struggled with this longer than he should have, but he would also come to see that it was wrong to build a wall where there should be none.
In chapter 2:1 Paul continued to write about his journey as a child of God. He skipped ahead to fourteen years after the three years he spent being trained by the Lord Jesus Christ for his ministry as an apostle. In this chapter Paul was speaking of the Jerusalem council which took place at approximately A.D. 49. Calculating this with the time in chapter 1:18, we have about seventeen years from the time of Paul’s conversion. Historical calculations puts his salvation as about A.D.32
The Jerusalem council as recorded in Acts 15 was a very important council in the early life of the churches. There was a constant challenge that the true churches faced at that time. That challenge was whether a person was saved by grace through faith alone, or whether works had some place in salvation. That was a challenge then and it is still a challenge today. The Jerusalem council settled the issue for the first century true churches and really it settles the issue for all true churches in any generation.
The Pharisees and their friends were the main opposition to the truth at the time of this writing. They had been the main opposition during the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus exposed their hypocrisy and heresies, but they did not go away. Jesus reminded us of what the truth is and left it to man to choose whom he would believe.
We read in verse 1 that as Paul traveled back to Jerusalem, he brought with him Barnabas and Titus. As we mentioned before, the work of church planting and church growth is not a one man show. It is a team effort of those whom God chooses to put together in that team. Those assembled need to be surrendered to the Lord.
In verse 2 Paul reminded the readers that he went up by revelation. We must keep in mind that Paul was an apostle. The Scriptures were not completed yet, and there was special guidance granted to the apostles to see them fulfil God’s call for their lives.
Today, a pastor still needs to be led by the Word of God and the indwelling Holy Spirit. This is important to lead us to where God wants us to serve, but also in how God wants us to serve. As we noted in chapter 1, men did not have any input into the message that Paul was going to preach. He was saved as a work of God and he was trained for the ministry by the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. No one added anything to what he was taught by the Lord.
A true servant of God must be trained by the Word of God and no man can add anything to that training. We can learn from men, but ultimately Godly men will just be the tools that God chooses to help the true servant of God to see the necessity of being grounded in God’s Word.
Paul needed to remind the other leaders at that council that his calling was to the Gentiles. As we noted already, some of the saved Jews did not believe the Gentiles were that important and that reaching out to them was secondary to reaching the Jews. There was also the misunderstanding of the place of circumcision. In Paul’s private meetings with men who had a reputation, men who were looked to as leaders, he also showed them that his calling was legitimate and just as important as the call of other apostles to the Jews.
The apostle Paul was not looking for the approval of men to legitimize his call. He was looking to the men of reputation to understand his call and not interfere with the work of the Lord.
The Jerusalem council was an intense meeting that was necessary to clear away the resistance that some were putting up to the simplicity of the Gospel. God was going to work through that council to make sure that His Gospel was not corrupted. God, through the apostle Paul was concerned that if the Jewish Christian leaders did not submit to the will of God, his work, under God’s authority, would be hindered.
In verse 3 we see that the major issue that needed to be addressed was the matter of circumcision. God gave the law of circumcision to Abraham. He commanded Abraham to be circumcised as well as all males in his house. From that time forward, all Jewish males were to be circumcised on eighth day.
We see in our text that Titus was a Greek. He was not a Jew. There was no Biblical reason to try to force him to be circumcised. Circumcision was not a requirement of salvation. It was a requirement for the Jews.
In verse 4 we read that there were false brethren who were trying to interfere with the Work of God. These men had crept in unawares. These unsaved men did not understand nor appreciate the liberty that there is in Christ. They wanted to bring the true saints into bondage. They had already been set free from bondage, but the false professors refused to believe the Gospel themselves, and they were trying to hinder the walk of those who were truly saved.
In verse 5 we see that the Godly leaders at the Jerusalem council did not give any legitimacy to these promoters of a false Gospel. We see again how important it is to know the true Gospel. It is essential to have the truth. We cannot overemphasize the need to accept the fact that God has preserved His Word from “this generation and for ever”. God’s Word is God-breathed. There is a source of absolute truth and everything must be examined in the light of that absolute truth.
That absolute truth was still being written down at the time of the apostle Paul. We have the completed absolute truth now. It is God who determined that this Truth would be kept in the King James Version for the English speaking world. That book has proved itself to be the true Word of God over the centuries. All subsequent perversions fall short of that mark.
Today as well, we do not give place to false doctrine. We expose it as false doctrine and we continue to teach the truth.
This truth has been lost for many. Modern day Christendom, which is made up of all kinds of heresies, has adopted a very liberal stance toward the Gospel. True Christianity, must hold to the authority of the Word of God. We are not puzzling over what is truth and what is not. We know that because we have a Bible. It is only when the Word of God is rejected as Truth, that there is confusion and indecision.
As we have mentioned in the past, there is a small book, called “The Trail of Blood” that shows the progression of true Christianity through the centuries. It is called the trail of blood because it shows the persecution and slaughter of true Christians through the centuries. The devil has been busy trying to destroy the truth. God is greater than the devil, and He has seen to it that in every generation there would be a few who would yield to the Truth and would be the voice of reason. God has also seen to it that in every generation, His Word is still available.
Currently, Bill C9 is an attempt to silence the truth. God’s Word is not one of many religious texts to follow. God’s Word is superior to all other religious texts. False religions will be around until Jesus Christ purges the world of them, but false religions are just that; they are false. We have the sure Word of God. It is not rude or cruel to reject the falsehoods that are so common. It is loving to remind people that the Truth is available and will never be destroyed. It is essential to bow to the Truth, and reject the lies that are so common.
Pastor Bartel