Meet the Apostle Paul—Part Thirteen

Sorry for the extended break but I’ve been feeling under the weather. No more excuses, let’s get back to it.

Paul is an angry apostle! He is ticked off because the churches in the region of Galatia are tempted to adopt circumcision and probably a host of other doctrines (e.g., observance of Jewish holidays, a kosher diet, etc.).  As we saw in the earlier post, Paul tells the Galatians that by doing so they are embracing another “gospel”.  The Apostle will have none of it (Ga 1:6-10).

Yet we are told in Acts that Paul had Timothy circumcised (Acts 16:3).  The Apostle also urged the Corinthians to observe a diet that didn’t offend other believers (1 Cor 8).  So, what is going on?

First, Paul defends his own apostleship (Gal 1:11-2:14).  A group may have been urging the gentile Galatians to embrace Judaism.  In doing so, they may have been questioning Paul’s theology. 

The Apostle shoots back that he was called directly by King Jesus.  He even confronted Peter, who had been with the Messiah since the beginning of His ministry, because Paul was just as much an apostle as any of those who walked with Jesus.

Second, he transitions into his main point (2:15-21) but one should not ignore this important bridge to the weighty arguments of chapters 3-4. In this transition, Paul is likely paraphrasing his conversation with Peter (more on all that later…thanks to a cuckoo German scholar, it is a long story!).  The Apostle had confronted his fellow apostle because the latter had withdrawn from table fellowship with gentiles after “certain men from James” arrived.  Paul won’t have any of this either! In short, he would not allow their to be divisions in the church, which naturally follows when you have one group who clusters together. 

Paul writes,

15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not gentile sinners, 16 yet we know that a person is declared right with God not by the works of the law but through the faithfulness of Jesus the Savior. And we have come to believe in and be loyal to Savior Jesus, so that we might be declared right by the faithfulness of the Savior and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be declared right with God by the works of the law. 17 But if, in our effort to be declared right in the Savior, we ourselves have been found to be rebels, is the Savior then a servant of rebellion? Absolutely not! 18 But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a rebel. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with the Savior, 20 and it is no longer I who live, but it is the Savior who lives in me. And the life I now live in this present body I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the divine favor of God, for if right standing comes through the law, then the Savior died for nothing.

Paul is teasing out what will become the heart of the letter to the Galatians in this transition.  The questions at hand are, “who has right standing before God and how?”

But more on that later, so stay tuned.