What is the gospel? What is "the truth of the gospel"? What does it mean to "walk in line with the truth of the gospel"? How do we "walk in line with the truth of the gospel" today?
Most Christians know that the "gospel" means "good news" or "good tidings." When Christ was born, an angel announced to shepherds in the fields that he brought "good news of great joy" to them, for this child was the long awaited Savior, the Messiah, Christ the Lord (Lk 2:10-11). Ultimately, the gospel, the good news is that salvation has come to all mankind. This good news, this gospel of our salvation would culminate in Jesus' death for our sins and his resurrection from the dead (1 Cor 15:3-4).
Regarding this gospel of good news, Galatians 2:1-14 speaks of several incidents.
- Jewish Christians compelling Gentile (non Jewish) Christians to be circumcised in order to be regarded as truly Christian (2:1-5). Paul regarded this as enslaving a Christian who should be free in the gospel (Gal 2:4). In 2014, I shared a blog entitled Galatians Set Me Free from Legalism.
- Paul's comment regarding his respect for the church leaders, while declaring and maintaining his own independence (2:6-10).
- Paul, the newest "junior" apostle, publicly rebuking and chastising Peter, the top "senior" apostle, because Peter failed to "walk in line with the truth of the gospel" (2:11-14). This made Paul quite upset, to put it mildly.
Why was Paul so angry? Galatians is Paul's most angry and polemic letter. All Christians say that faith in Jesus and the gospel is all we need for life and salvation. But practically some Christians and churches communicate–explicitly or implicitly–that faith in Christ is not quite enough. In Paul's day, Jewish Christians (the so-called Judaizers) taught the Gentile Christians that in addition to believing in Christ they must keep Jewish traditions–circumcision, Sabbath, dietary laws, special days–in order to become "fully Christian" (2:1-5). This so outraged Paul that he did not express any pleasantries or thanksgiving after his introduction (1:1-5), as he did in his other 11 epistles. Instead he immediately launched into them (Gal 1:6ff) by directly confronting and accusing them of deserting Christ and distorting, changing and perverting the gospel (Gal 1:6b-7). To those who taught that additions to the gospel were needed (which is no gospel at all), Paul cursed them with God's curse…twice in two verses (Gal 1:8-9). Boy was he mad!
Why was Paul so angry with Peter? Compared to Peter, Paul was a "junior" apostle. Yet, in that orderly structured hierarchical Jewish culture, Paul rebuked Peter publicly (not privately). Then he openly shared and circulated this embarrassing and shameful account in a letter to be read in all the churches (Gal 2:11-14). Today it is like sending out a mass email to everyone in the church about how wrong and bad you are! Imagine Peter, the rock of the church (Mt 16:18), committing such a basic sin and getting publicly rebuked by a junior! Peter's sin was that he failed to "walk in line with the truth of the gospel"; he was "deviating from the truth of the gospel" (Gal 2:14). How? When he withdrew from eating together with Gentile Christians. By his behavior he was saying that Jewish Christians were better than Gentile Christians because they kept the tradition of Jewish dietary laws. By making this distinction Peter communicated that the gospel of God's grace was insufficient for salvation and good standing as a Christian. He was stating by his action that justification was not just by faith alone, but also by the works of the law (Gal 2:16).
Some reflections on freedom based on Galatians:
- Freedom from the Fear of Man (Gal 1:10; 2:6).
- Freedom from Racism, Nationalism, Tribalism (Gal 2:15).
- Freedom from Stressing Human Effort (Gal 3:3).
- Freedom from Conceit, Provoking and Envying Others (Gal 5:26).
- Freedom from Comparing Ourselves with Others (Gal 6:4).
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