In my last blog I shared about the background of Galatia. I did this to reveal possible reasons why these converts to Jesus Christ gave heed to the “Law keepers” false doctrine. You can read that blog in the following link.
https://kimbalogh.online/2024/07/16/galatia/
In this blog I will share what happens when one embraces the false works based gospel.
In order to do this we must understand what is the works based gospel.
Paul explains in Galatians Chapter 2 what this false gospel is. He does this by relaying to the Galatians a confrontation that once took place between him and some false brethren who had snuck in the church. The motivation of these false brethren was to bring the church into bondage.
These false brethren Paul says were confronted and then driven out.
Paul explains to the Galatians why they were thrown out.
First of all he tells them the authority in which he does this.
He says that while Peter was given the apostleship to the circumcision he was given the apostleship to the uncircumcision.
Paul explains the assignment in which the Lord himself had commissioned him. He tells the Galatians that through the Spirit he received revelation of the gospel of grace.
May I point out that Paul was a teacher of the law. A scholar. He knew the Torah like the back of his hand. Through revelation of the Spirit Paul was able to understand the purposes of God. He understood the first coming of Christ predicted in the Torah.
Paul saw through the scriptures Christ’s death and resurrection. He also saw through the scriptures the rejection of Christ by his own nation as well as the promises of God given to other nations. Paul saw the conversion of the Gentiles to the one true God.
(Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 9:6, Micah 5:2, Zechariah 9:9, Isaiah 53:3-7, Isaiah 50:6, Zechariah 12:10, Genesis 12:3,Psalms 22:27, Isaiah 42:4, Isaiah 49:6, Jeremiah 16:19-21, Zechariah 2:11, Malachi 1:11, Hosea 3:23)
Paul goes on to tell the Galatians about a particular incident he had with Peter in Antioch.
Paul observed Peter being inconsistent with his faith. He then confronts him.
Paul witnessed Peter eating with the uncircumcision when the “law keepers,” were not around but when these law keepers came around he separated himself. That is he ate at a different table with the “law keepers” and not with the Greek converts.
This separation occurred because those under the law considered any man not circumcised to be unclean. That is not a part of the covenant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
In other words this act of separation was a snub. It denied the converted Greeks the right to be considered children of God. This was done in order to “bring them into bondage,” or back under the law.
The law keepers wanted to shame the Greeks. That way they would agree to circumcision. Peter had in effect gone back under the Old Covenant by his actions.
Paul tells the Galatians that he confronted Peter with his inconsistencies and preached to him the gospel of grace.
“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” Galatians 2:16
The law keepers were circumcised in the flesh and lived by the law of Moses. The gospel of grace Paul tells us requires circumcision of the heart and not the flesh.
“For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” Romans 2:28-29
Under the New Covenant circumcision of the flesh is not required. What is required is to be circumcised in the heart by the Spirit of God. This occurs at the new birth.
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. 1 John 5:1
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26
The act of circumcision of the flesh is a rite that initiates one into the covenant of Abraham which then requires obeying the law of Moses. This is done away with in Christ.
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. Hebrews 8:13
Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you. Luke 22:20
And he (Abraham)received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also. Romans 4:11
Circumcision of the heart is an act of God which births the new man in Jesus Christ to walk in the Spirit of life. Not under Old Testament laws. (Hebrews Chapter 10, Jeremiah 31 )
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. Romans 8:1-4
Paul calls this a “new and living way” or the New Covenant.
This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:16-22
To go back to the law whether through physical circumcision, Sabbath keeping, stoning sinners, or any other Old Testament practice that tries to make one righteousness before God is to deny Christ. To deny his death and resurrection.
That’s what Peter was doing. He not only denied the Lord at his arrest before a crowd of people but by separating himself from those saved by grace in order to sit with the law keepers was to deny the New Covenant of Grace.
Paul calls this adhering to ‘another gospel.” A gospel of grace mixed with works.
To read my blog on works and faith click link below.
Paul goes on to say that through the law he was now dead to the law.
In other words the law was ineffective to redeem because no one can keep the law perfectly. Therefore the law declares all sinners. No one is righteousness. (Romans 3:10-12)
Now because Paul is set free from the law of sin and death through the grace of God by Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection he can now live for God in a new and better way. (Romans 8:2)
Paul can live for God because his old man under the law has been crucified with Christ. (Galatians 2:20)
The new born again man has the Spirit of Christ dwelling in him. Therefore the born again person can live by faith in Jesus Christ because God lives in him.
But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. (Romans 8:10)
Because the God who said, Out of darkness light shall shine, is the One who shined in our hearts to illuminate the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not out of us. 2 Corinthians 4:6,7
I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. Galatians 2:20
This is the New Covenant appropriated. Circumcision of the heart and not the flesh. Jeremiah foretold this New Covenant.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 31: 31:34
What happens when one embraces a false works based gospel?
Paul tells us that those who add works to the gospel in effect reject the grace of God.
To reject the grace of God and add works, good deeds, or law keeping to the gospel is to deny Christ. This act makes the death of Christ of none effect.
Those who reject the gospel of grace by faith without the deeds of the law, deny Christ.
I do not frustrate (reject, set aside,)the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Galatians 1 :27
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