Reflections on the book of Galatians

8 Jan 2023

(A)

Today, the church embarked on the preaching and study of the book of Galatians. One major aspect of this epistle is to bring us face to face with the gospel; many of us as believers may feel that the subject of the gospel is only for non-believers, but we are mistaken.

The gospel deals not only with the way to enter the kingdom of God, but also with the way to live in the kingdom, as well as the way Christ transforms His people and His churches. Hence the gospel deals principally with the truths of how our hearts can be transformed, and also the approach Christians need to take in the outworking of our Christian life. In effect, the gospel reveals that we are more wicked and depraved than we dared believe, but also that we are more loved and accepted in the beloved (Christ) than we ever dared hope and appreciate.

Regarding the plight of man – man is not merely guilty of sins, but also of pollution in sin and bondage (slavery) to sin.

Regarding the issue of sin, God is hostile to sin not just in the present but also in the future – hence the condemnation and severe judgement awaiting man – for sin and wrong relationship with God is intolerable here and now.

The goal of grace is the glory and praise of God, and our salvation is a means to this end – God has decided to save us, not for our sake, but for His own name’s sake. It is God in Christ who saves us, and God alone. There is no merit on our part and it is by grace (unmerited favour) that we are saved through faith – it is not of ourselves, but entirely of, and by God alone.

Hence we see Apostle Paul crystalling the truth of the gospel, and defending the gospel in Galatians; Paul was angry with the perpetrators of the false and wrong gospel, for they were preaching a wrong gospel and no gospel at all, and the consequence is eternally disastrous for those who receive this false message. Paul was also angry with the Galatian believers for turning away so quickly from the true gospel; it is tantamount to deserting Christ personally, and it actually means that Christ died in vain.

So Paul’s anger and distress was not personal; his defence of his apostleship and the gospel he preached was directly connected with his concern for the truth of the gospel. Paul knew that a different gospel brings condemnation and a curse (anathema). This means ultimately that to alter the gospel is to play with eternal life and death – the stakes are high – our knowledge of Christ, the truth of the gospel, and the eternal destiny of the souls of men and women. These are areas worth fighting for; worth speaking out over; worth reminding ourselves and others of over and over again.

Paul’s bluntness and ‘strong words’ are in fact loving; he loves the Lord Jesus and he loves the gospel and God’s people. If we do love as he did, we will understand and appreciate why he wrote as he did, and we should be grateful that he did.

As we study Galatians, we must be keenly aware that we, as believers, understand and appreciate the true gospel; it affects how we preach and share the gospel as well as how we live out the gospel in our lives as Christians; it also has a bearing with our sanctification and transformation in Christ our Lord. The true gospel is primarily concerned with giving glory to God; it is always and essentially a proclamation of divine sovereignty in mercy and judgement, a summons to bow down and worship the Almighty Lord on whom man depends for all good, both in nature and in grace.

(B)

When we read the book of Galatians, initially, we might be wondering why Paul was so ‘strong’ in his language, and why he did not refrain from showing his anger against the false teachers, the Judaizers; and also how he rebuked the Galatian believers, expressing his astonishment at their abandonment of the true gospel and the Lord Jesus, even calling them “foolish’ and ‘bewitched’.

We might even be perplexed as to why Paul seemed to appear ‘aloof’, claiming that he did not receive his gospel from the other Apostles and he even kept away for some time from the leaders in Jerusalem and spent much time alone after his conversion experience. What is even more disconcerting to some is to read in chapter 2 how he confronted Apostle Peter as well as Barnabas for being ‘hypocrites’.

Can such a behaviour be consistent with one who is an Apostle? What are the underlying reasons and issues that matter so much that Paul reacted the way that he did?

We have seen earlier that the main issue is the preservation and defence of the true gospel of the Lord Jesus.

Looking deeper, we begin to understand a little better why Paul reacted and wrote in the above manner.

The Judaizers accused Paul of preaching ‘easy believism’ because he did not include the law as grounds for salvation. They claimed Paul watered down the gospel, by omitting the law, to increase his popularity among the Gentiles. Paul dismissed this by affirming his concern to preserve truth, not increasing his approval ratings – hence his statement that if he were to please people, he would not be a servant of God.

Paul refutes the idea that his gospel came about through his own reflection, reasoning and thinking. He shared his testimony and cited the fact that he was initially zealous in persecuting the Christians because he did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah until he was stopped short on the road to Damascus and his life took a complete U-turn after his encounter with Jesus. Hence it would be ridiculous to claim that his dramatic turn about resulted in his thinking and reasoning, and the emergence of his gospel. It would be more probable that the encounter with Jesus and the revelation of the Lord caused him to reevaluate his Pharisaic background and understanding.

With regard to circumcision and the keeping of the Torah, Paul revealed that he had already been there and knew all about the subject; he further added that one cannot make oneself acceptable to God by the most zealous and detailed following of moral, ethical, or cultural codes and rules.

Paul took pains to dismiss the claim that his gospel was derived from others, specifically from the Christian leaders in Jerusalem. He did not consult any man, nor did he go to Jerusalem to see the other Apostles straightaway. In fact, he started preaching the gospel very soon after and subsequently, after some time had passed, his God-given gospel was found to be identical with the gospel the other Apostles preached, and he was given the right hand of fellowship and approval by the other Apostles.

What is clear is that Paul was defending the gospel, and, in the process, he was making it clear that his gospel was a direct revelation from the Lord Jesus, and not from man or from his own reasoning. The issues involved with the Judaizers preaching the wrong gospel concern the eternal well-being of many souls of individuals; they also will result in the splitting of the church of God into Jewish church and Gentile church, which is contrary to God’s desire to form a people of His own from many tribes and nations. They also indicate that Jesus’ sacrifice to save us is not sufficient – it requires something else (Gospel-plus). Incidentally, preaching a Gospel-minus gospel is also preaching a wrong gospel – it also would incur the “anathema” pronounced by Paul. The gospel specifically proclaims salvation by grace alone, by faith alone, in Christ alone, to God’s glory alone!

At this juncture, we can understand why Paul reacted and wrote as he did; it has to do with his love for God, for Christ, for the gospel, and for the people of God. It has eternal consequences; his declaration of not pleasing men as a servant of God also implies pleasing God always in his life, and faithfulness to God as His messenger, even though it might mean being misunderstood by men and being persecuted by men for the sake of the gospel of Christ.

We shall see later that the fear of men may lead to compromises in our service to God (even for Apostle Peter and Barnabas) and our faithfulness to what is entrusted to us by God. Loving God and others might sometimes involve correcting others in love and not being afraid to be misunderstood, if necessary. Christians, in the name of love, refrain from judging others and particularly those who are supposedly Christian leaders; but let us not forget that the Lord Jesus, while He was on earth, judged the Pharisees with very strong words – using “brood of vipers”, “white-washed tombstones”, among others in His condemnation of them and what they stood for.

Our fear of man, our lack of faithfulness to God and His Word and Gospel, would matter greatly in these last days. In fact, in the last book of the Bible, Revelation, with the appearance of the AntiChrist, is written:

“If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of His wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name. This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep His commands and remain faithful to Jesus: (Revelation 14:9-12 TNIV).

(C) Gospel-Minus

We have seen in the previous two sharings how the book of Galatians brings us face to face with the gospel.

The Apostle Paul was angry with the false teachers, the Judaizers, for preaching a wrong gospel, in fact no gospel at all as far as Paul was concerned; he was also upset with the Galatian Christians for abandoning Christ and the gospel so quickly. The issue of the true gospel is so important that Paul pronounced ‘Anathema’ on those who preach the wrong gospel. Irrespective of their status or claim (even angels and apparent apostles), the condemnation and curse would apply to them. We noted that the Judaizers were insisting that for the believers in Galatia, they need to be circumcised and even keep the Jewish laws to be true believers of Christ. This is tantamount to adding to the gospel (gospel-plus) and distorting the true gospel. We also referred in the last sharing to the problem of preaching a gospel-minus, which also is not the true gospel and ‘anathema’ also applies to those who preach such a gospel.

But the reality is that, currently, in the world of Christianity today, gospel-minus is being preached. An elaboration of what this means may be very helpful for genuine believers to know that this amounts to.

It is customary to hear the gospel preached as God’s answer to human problems – problems of our relation with ourselves and our fellow humans and our environment. It is true that the gospel does bring us solutions to these problems, but it does so by first solving a deeper problem – the deepest of all human problems, the problem of man’s relation with his Maker. And unless we make it clear that the solution of all these former problems depends on the settling of our problem with our Maker, we are actually misrepresenting the message of the gospel and becoming false witnesses of God – for a half-truth presented as if it is were the whole truth becomes something of a falsehood by that very fact. We then become sharers of gospel-minus and we are guilty of not preaching the true gospel – and we must realise the serious consequences of doing so.

Some preachers today suggest that we should not preach about the law and sin for such things mean nothing to modern hearers; instead we should just appeal to the needs which they feel already and present Christ to them simply as one who gives peace, power, and purpose to the neurotic and frustrated.
But take note: if we do not preach about sin and God’s judgement on it, we cannot present Christ as Saviour from sin and the wrath of God. If we are silent about these matters, and preach a Christ who saves only from self and the sorrows of this world, we are not preaching the Christ of the Bible. We are, in effect, bearing false witness and preaching a false Christ – an imaginary Christ who will not bring a real solution to sinful mankind – we are again guilty of preaching a gospel minus.

It is no wonder that the churches today are ‘flooded’ and ‘inundated’ with so-called converts who have never repented before God and who became ‘Christians’ in order to find solutions to their man-made problems! They claim they have responded to the gospel; they even insist that they have prayed the ‘sinner’s prayer’, but in effect, there is no real conversion and they certainly are not born-again.

Matthew 7:21-23 ‘carries’ a sober warning:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of the Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?” Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”

Do take note that the basis of being real believers and being born-again is a real UNION with Christ, a genuine relationship with Him as our Lord and Master. It is not measured by our deeds and activities which may look outstanding and spiritual; he who has the “Son” has ‘life’. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Are we ‘in Christ’ and is ‘Christ in us’? Have we become children of God with a new nature, a nature which delights in holiness, and abhors wickedness and evil? Notice that in Matthew 7,the Lord Jesus, in telling them to go away from Him, He addressed them as evildoers. All their ‘activities’, ‘service’s and ‘so-called miraculous deeds’ do not make a difference – there is no real relationship with the Son, and there is no spiritual birth and union with the Master. The nature is still that of the ‘old man’, a nature which delights in sin, pride and rebellion, although the external seems so spiritual – it is difficult to spot the ‘tares’ and to distinguish them from the ‘wheat’ in the churches.

But like it or not, all these can be traced to preaching the wrong gospel, whether it be gospel-plus or gospel-minus and the consequences will be eternal!

So we see that in the book of Galatians, we come face to face with the true and only gospel. Only in preaching the true gospel can we bring about conviction of sin in the hearers and ‘open the door’ for the Holy Spirit to bestow true faith, accompanied by repentance and regeneration. Remember what the Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again.” (John 3:3).

(D) The Purpose of the Law

We have come face to face with the true gospel of Christ in the previous sharings. Paul has shared that we are saved when we stop trusting in our own moral efforts (i.e. the law) and trust instead in the work of Christ. We cannot save ourselves by our own moral efforts (and in keeping the Law) – the gospel is the way we enter into the kingdom of God.

But we are not just saved by the gospel, but we are also to grow by the gospel – we do not just begin our Christian life by faith and then seek to grow through our works – we are also sanctified and transformed by faith in Christ. Faith and grace ‘accompany’ us throughout our life on earth until we meet the Lord – hence we never leave the gospel behind. But what about our effort and the role of the Law in our sanctification and transformation?

The gospel requires faith in order to receive the grace of God; the Law demands work. The Law is like a mirror showing us our sin and sending us to Christ; it tells us simply what we ‘owe’ God, giving us no hope of life unless we fulfill every part of the Law. In that sense, the Law holds all men under its curse.The Law in fact did not come to tell us about salvation, but about sin. Its purpose is to show us our problem, that we are sinners and law-breakers, and to prove that we cannot be the solution since we are unable to be perfect law-keepers.

The Law shows us that we do not just ‘fall short’ of God’s will, requiring some extra effort to do better, but that we are completely under sin’s power and that we need to be rescued and saved. Although the Law does show us that we are not righteous, it does not have the power to make us righteous. Hence the Law does its work but leading us to recognise that we need salvation by grace. specifically salvation-by-grace-through-Christ.

Our efforts to gain God’s approval by obedience to His law show us that we must go beyond the law to find that approval. When we see this and allow Christ to be our Saviour, we have learned the lesson the law sought to teach us as our tutor and supervisor. However, for the Christian, does it mean that we can now forget about the law? Although we no longer view the law as a system of salvation and note that the gospel means that we no longer obey the law out of fear of rejection, yet if we truly grasp salvation-by-promise, our hearts should be filled with gratitude and a desire to please God and be like our Saviour – and the way to do this is through obeying the law.

Nevertheless, even as believers, we must be vigilant in distinguishing the law and the gospel, or we will fall back into reliance on works – even the justified and renewed believer can appeal to the law as the basis for assurance of God’s favour. On the other hand, no one can rightly infer that the law is superfluous for believers, since it does not stop teaching and exhorting and urging believers to do good, even though before God’s judgement seat, believers will not be judged on how well they have fulfilled the law as a work-performance. The law is good, it reflects the standards and requirements of God for His people; it tells us what God’s holiness demands, but gives us no power to fulfil those demands. It reveals God’s righteousness but it cannot justify or sanctify; it cannot assure our conscience that God is favourable toward us, since we always fall short of its perfections.

If the law is used as a way of becoming right before God, it is pure condemnation (a curse); the gospel remains the wellspring of Christian security throughout one’s life, in assurance and sanctification as well as in faith and justification.

But the law can function as a moral guide for our lives. We are no longer “under the law” in the judicial sense; the law no longer acts toward believers as a strict rigorous enforcement officer who is not satisfied unless the requirements are met, but the law points out the goal and objective toward which throughout life we are to strive. In this sense, the law is the best instrument for learning God’s will for our lives and it also exhorts and arouses us to obedience. Even its threats remind us of the gravity of our sin, so that we will flee to Christ and, holding fast to Him alone, be reminded of our duty as God’s children. The law can now serve as a constant guide for grace-filled gratitude. Thus for those who find their justification in Christ alone, the law is now a friend rather than an enemy.

Law and grace work together in Chrisitian salvation. Many individuals want to have a sense of joy and acceptance but they will not admit the seriousness of their sin. They will not listen to the law’s searching and painful analysis of their lives and hearts. Unless we know how great our debt is to God, we cannot have any idea of how great Christ’s sacrifice and payment amounts to. If we think that we are not that bad, the idea of grace will never change us.
The law shows us in no uncertain terms who we really are. And so the law points us to see Christ as He really is: our Saviour, the One who obeyed the law on our behalf and then died in our place so that we might receive the promised blessing. The law allows us to love Jesus, and enables us to show our love in grateful obedience to Him. Here is where grace-enabled-effort comes in, in our Christian living, and the chief role of the Holy Spirit becomes prominent in the Christian life. The subject of living in the Spirit versus life in the flesh is a discussion subsequently in the book of Galatians.

(E) Life by the Spirit vs Life in the Flesh

In the closing chapters of the book of Galatians, Paul spent some time distinguishing Life by the Spirit from life in the flesh (sinful nature): this has very much to do with believing the true gospel and living out our salvation in Christ. Take note that Paul brought up this subject as early as in (Galatians 3:3-5 TNIV):

“Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by human effort? Have you experienced so much in vain – if it really was in vain? Does God give you His Spirit and work miracles among you by your observing the law, or by your believing what you heard?”
Note the relationship between faith (believing), the Spirit, and regeneration (associated with miracles in the ministry of Apostles). Also see the relationship between human effort, observing the law (which is closely associated with the sinful nature (flesh)).

Before we consider ‘Life by the Spirit’, it may be helpful to recollect and ‘summarise’ the Person, and ministry of the third Person of the Godhead. The chief role of the Holy Spirit in the process of our salvation is to make us one with Christ (1 Corin. 12:13). The whole of the new life, in its origin as well as in its realisation and communication, is attributed to the operations, powers, and gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who unites us to Christ. When one participates in Christ, therefore, he or she also participates in the Spirit. To be in Christ and to be in the Spirit, therefore, are not two different things but the same thing (Rom. 8:9).

Regeneration or the new birth is the work of the Spirit (John 3:5). Conversion, or turning to God, commonly thought of as involving repentance and faith are described in the BIble as gifts of the Holy Spirit (Acts 11:15). Faith is also a gift of the Spirit (1 Corin. 2:9,12; 12:3). The Spirit also gives us the assurance of salvation (Rom. 8:16). Our justification is inseparable from the work of the Holy Spirit (1Cor. 6:11). One of the benefits of our justification is our adoption as children of God and this is closely linked with the Holy Spirit (Gal. 4:4-6; Rom 8:14,15).

Finally, our sanctification is ascribed to the Spirit – this does not come as a surprise (2 Thess. 213; Rom. 15:16). Also, the Spirit is indispensably involved in our perseverance in the faith. The Spirit is said to be the seal of our final redemption (Eph. 4:30) as well as a pledge (deposit guaranteeing our inheritance Eph. 1: 13-14).

We are familiar with the gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Corin. 12 and Rom. 12 with the emphasis on edification of the body of Christ), and we will not deal with these in detail at this juncture. But we need to examine the fruit of the Spirit: this has very much to do with living by the Spirit and we will also be able to realise the contrasting features of life in the flesh (sinful nature).

“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature” (Gal. 5:16 TNIV). In Galatians 5, Paul pointed out that the key to the believer’s newfound freedom or liberty is the Holy Spirit. The Chrisian life is now to be lived, not first of all in obedience to a set of rules (though the rules and law of God are still important guidelines for believers), but in the strength of the Holy Spirit.

After listing a number of ‘works of the flesh’ in verses 19 to 21, Paul went on to describe the fruit of the Spirit by way of contrast.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Against such things there is no law” (Gal. 5:22-23).

Although the works of the flesh are many, the fruit of the Spirit is one (although with many facets). Perhaps Paul is suggesting that though a life of fleshly indulgence lacks unity and integration, there is harmony and unified purpose in a life lived in, or by the Spirit. In 1 Cor. 12 and Rom. 12, we see many gifts of the Spirit, there is only one fruit. Not everyone has all the gifts, but what Paul teaches in Galatians 5 is that every true believer should bear the entire fruit of the Spirit. We can be saved without many of the Spirit’s gifts, but we cannot be saved without the Spirit’s fruit.
Growth in spiritual maturity is nor a matter of practicing this virtue (facet) of the fruit this week and then that one the next week in piecemeal fashion. Spiritual growth means yielding ourselves habitually and totally to the Holy Spirit, being led by Him, walking and living in the Spirit day by day and hour by hour. When we do so, we shall be growing in all these virtues together.

Producing the fruit of the Spirit must not be thought of as a single, climatic, datable happening, or as a kind of ‘second blessing’ experience, but rather as a continuing process of spiritual growth. This growth is not a process in which we remain passive; it involves a lifelong discipline of prayer, trust, and spiritual warfare.

The facets of the fruit of the Spirit are nine in number: conveniently divided into three groupings: virtues involving basic dispositions, virtues relating to others, and virtues relating to ourselves.

We can go into much detail with regard to the characteristics of these virtues but perhaps highlighting the main ones at this point may suffice.
The first group is concerned with basic dispositions toward God and man: love, joy and peace. We must love God above all, and others as ourselves. Our joy is involved in being in Christ (1 Peter 1:8). Our joy in God should spill over into fellowship with others and this joy will be our strength (Neh. 8:10).
Peace is the peace which flows from the knowledge that we have been reconciled to God in Christ, that all our sins have been forgiven, that we can now call God Father, and that we are now heirs of everlasting life. It is a peace that transcends all understanding (Phil. 4:7). Such peace with God is bound to affect our total life-style – it means contentment instead of complaint, trust instead of worry, serenity instead of constant anxiety.

The next group involves our relationship with others: patience (longsuffering), kindness, and goodness.

Patience means being slow to anger, willingness to forgive others who wrong us, ready to bear with those who annoy us.

Kindness involves courtesy, friendliness, and concern for the other person’s feelings.

Goodness or ‘benevolence’ implies not just being concerned with our individual happiness but also concerned about the spiritual needs of others.

The last three virtues involve our relationship with ourselves. Faithfulness means conscientiousness in performing the tasks God has given us. It includes reliability.

Gentleness is the opposite of arrogance, rebellion, and violence. It flows out of humility and involves a willingness to submit to others when such submission is not contrary to God’s will. The gentle person does not always insist on his or her own way, but is willing to do all he or she can to cooperate with others.

Self-control means literally “power within”. It involves the art of ruling ourselves. It means not being at the mercy of our appetites, impulses, or moods, but being able to control ourselves. This virtue cannot be maintained by our own strength but only in the strength of the Spirit.

As we yield ourselves more fully to the Holy Spirit, we shall be growing nor just in some but in all of them. Such yielding to the Spirit is the best antidote to self-centred living. For this is God’s promise: “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Gal,5:16).
In summary, we need both the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit. But we should not seek the gifts apart from the fruit. Exercising the gifts of the Spirit while at the same time revealing the fruit of the Spirit is bound to bring great blessings. Exercising the gifts without the fruit would only lead to strife, conceit, malicious talk, and evil suspicions.

Living by the Spirit: living by His guidance means waiting on the Spirit, asking what the Spirit would have us to do, and where the Spirit would have us go. This entails daily study of the Bible since the Spirit does not lead us apart from the Word of God. The better we know the Scriptures, the better we shall know how to live by the Spirit. Negatively, living by the Spirit’s guidance means to silence the clamor of fleshly voices, to quell the energy of fleshly haste, to restrain every impulse until it has been proved to be of God. Positively, it means to be guided by Him, to listen to Him as He reveals Himself in His Word, and to yield to Him continually.

Living by the Spirit’s strength means leaning on Him for the necessary spiritual power. It means believing that the Spirit can give us strength adequate for every need, asking for that power in prayer whenever we need it, and using that power by faith in meeting our daily problems. The only way we can live by the Spirit’s strength is to keep in constant touch with Him – we need Him every hour.

(F) A closer look at the ‘confrontation’ between Paul and Peter in Galatians

In our reflections on the book of Galatians, it is needful to take a closer look at the ‘confrontation’ between two Apostles – Paul and Peter. Some may wonder why two Apostles of Christ could disagree in such a manner publicly and more importantly, what are the underlying principles involved which are also relevant to us as believers today.

We have already seen that we are not saved by keeping the law; we are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. Paul was ‘combating’ the Judaizers who insisted that the Gentiles can only be recognised as Christians if they not only believe in Jesus, but they also must be circumcised, and follow the law of the Jews. This is not the true gospel – it tantamounts to gospel plus, and not the gospel at all – hence Paul was fervently trying to correct this false teaching.

Apostle Peter also was in agreement with Paul regarding what the true gospel is . Peter himself received a vision from God to show him why the ceremonial law was finished (Acts 10: 34-35), and Peter himself went to the house of Cornelius (a Gentile) subsequently and was instrumental in bringing Cornelius to Christ.

After that, Peter also ate with the Gentiles despite criticism (Acts 11:2), and he argued that the Gentiles have been ‘purified by faith’ (Acts 15: 7-9).

However, in Galatians 2, it was recorded that Peter withdrew from eating with the Gentiles, with the coming of some Jewish believers from Jerusalem. What were the reasons causing him to do so, and Barnabas also was led to follow suit.

Peter at that point of time did not change his convictions – he knew that food and dress were only ‘Jewish customs’ and yet he simply stopped acting according to his convictions. Paul had to ‘intervene’ publicly because what happened was publicly noted. Peter was afraid (vs 12) of criticism from ‘those who belonged to the circumcision group’. In addition, racial pride might have entered into the picture – Peter was actually allowing cultural differences to become more important than gospel unity.

Paul saw something deeper: to him, Peter was not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, and Paul realised the implications – it could cause a split between Jewish believers and Gentile believers and it also undermined the true gospel and in fact gave ‘fire-power’ to the false teachers among the Judaizers to continue to insist that the Gentile believers must be circumcised and must follow the Jewish law and customs.

What we must realise is that believers and the church must bring everything in our lives “in line” with the truth and emphasis of the gospel of Christ; in every area of our lives, we must take care that our thoughts, emotions and behaviour are “in line” with the truth. And when we notice something amissed in this outworking, we must prayerfully and lovingly ‘defend’ the truth’, for the implications and consequences are eternal and serious, and the progress and development of God’s kingdom and the church would be negatively affected. More than that, the glory of God is involved, and we cannot afford to ‘tarnish’ God’s glory by compromising the truth.

Notice the approach of Paul: He did not simply say that Peter was breaking the rule (although Peter was), but he focused on the sinful attitude of self-righteousness underlying it, and he refrained from highlighting the sinful behaviour. He wanted Peter to realise that he was not acting according to his convictions and in line with the truth of the gospel the Lord Jesus had entrusted to him.

Peter’s failure was grounded in fear and also in the need to be approved by others. When we serve God, we need to be vigilant not to compromise the truth and God’s glory because of fear and the need to be approved by others. Doing this may in fact be most displeasing to God although we may maintain our ‘comfort zone’ and seek to be apart from the conflict and confrontation. What is at stake is God’s glory, His kingdom, the eternal well-being of believers, and the call by God to faithfulness in the battle against evil, the ‘world’ and her negative influences and the devil. This would be most significant in the last days and in the ‘end times’ when intense pressure will be exerted to make us choose between Christ and Antichrist. Only those who remain faithful and true would receive approval and vindication by God. Fear and the desire to remain in the ‘comfort zone’ may be our undoing when such a time arrives.

(G) The relationship between law, love and the Spirit

In the study of the book of Galatians, the subjects of law, the flesh, the life in the Spirit, are all brought up; even Paul’s correction of the believers was governed by his love for Christ, for the gospel, and for God’s people. But what is the relationship between law and love, and how are these related to life in the Spirit?

We have to be clear that the law is fulfilled by love; the law is not replaced by love. Love was always at the heart of God’s law. It was given by love to be received in love and to be obeyed through love – this was in fact the purpose of the law given to the Israelites, God’s people in the Old Testament.
This is precisely the reason the Lord Jesus, in the New Testament, summed up the divine comandments in the great commandment to love God with all our hearts, souls, and strength, and to love our neighbours as ourselves. It is love that provides the motivation for obedience, while law provides direction for love. So the Lord Jesus told His disciples that if they love Him, they should keep His commandments and obey Him.

Notice that in the new covenant promise, the declaration is that the law of God would be written on our hearts, and not on tablets of stone (like the Ten Commandments given to Moses). In the new covenant, obedience to God’s law is driven by the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
Nonetheless, the law of God – in the sense of the Ten Commandments – was an expression of the will of God for the people He had delivered from bondage in Egypt. However, in a deeper sense it gave expression to the original design for the lifestyle of men and women made in His image. Hence, in one sense, the commandments expressed God’s original will for His image, it reflected His own character which He wanted His people to emulate and reflect.

In the new covenant, the law has not changed – it still shows us how God’s image bearers have always been meant to live. There is a difference though – for now we receive the law from the hands of the One who fulfilled it for us and has given us His Spirit to fulfil it in us. The law that had formerly been a burden we feel unable to carry now seems transformed. Instead of feeling the law pressing down heavily on our shoulders as we tried to keep it, the burden has been lifted. Has the law changed? Not so; Christ has come down to us in the power of the Spirit and written the law in our hearts (in the new covenant: Hebrews 8:10). This is the difference the gospel makes. Spirit-filled affections, love, and desires, on the one hand, and God’s revelation of His will in His law on the other hand, have, at last, become friends in us. By the Spirit, we can now fulfil the law of God in our lives through His enabling; by the Spirit, we can now love through obedience to God and His will.

If we are born-again and become children of God, we have a new nature in Christ, a nature which delights in pleasing God and obeying Him (and His law). As children of God, we would seek to please our heavenly Father – hence the desires to obey, to love, and to walk in the Spirit are all compatible with our new life which is patterned after the life of Christ. As children of God, we long to reflect the likeness of our Father in heaven. Hence, it is only natural for believers to love God and others, to obey Him and to walk by the Spirit of God. Not doing so is unnatural; in fact, it may be an indication that we are not born again, and we are still the ‘old man’, and now the ‘new man’ in Christ!