Galatians 2:1-10: a reflection

1Then after a period of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus also with me. 2I went up by revelation, and I laid before them the Good News which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately before those who were respected, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain. 3But not even Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. 4This was because of the false brothers secretly brought in, who stole in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage, 5to whom we gave no place in the way of subjection, not for an hour, that the truth of the Good News might continue with you. 6But from those who were reputed to be important—whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God doesn’t show partiality to man—they, I say, who were respected imparted nothing to me, 7but to the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the Good News for the uncircumcised, even as Peter with the Good News for the circumcised— 8for he who worked through Peter in the apostleship with the circumcised also worked through me with the Gentiles— 9and when they perceived the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, those who were reputed to be pillars, gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision. 10They only asked us to remember the poor—which very thing I was also zealous to do.

When false brothers slipped in to spy out the freedom the believers had in Christ and to bring them back into bondage, adding the requirements of the law to the gospel of grace, Paul did not compromise for a moment. We did not yield in submission even for an hour, he says, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. On this, the freeness of the gospel, that we are saved by grace through faith and not by law-keeping, Paul would not bend at all, not for an hour.

Notice how much was at stake for Paul, and how firmly he held the line. This was not stubbornness over a minor point; it was the very truth of the gospel, the difference between grace and bondage, salvation as God's free gift versus salvation as something we must earn by keeping rules. Compromise here would have surrendered the heart of the good news. So Paul, usually so willing to accommodate, would not yield an inch, precisely so that the truth of grace might be preserved for the believers who would come after.

There is a lesson here about what to hold firmly and what to hold loosely. On many things, Paul was flexible, accommodating, willing to become all things to all people. But on the gospel of grace itself, the truth that we are saved by Christ's finished work and not by our own performance, he would not compromise at all. That truth is worth guarding just as fiercely today, because the pull to slide back into earning our standing with God, adding our own works to Christ's grace, is always present. Hold the gospel of grace firmly. Do not let anyone add law to it and rob you of the freedom Christ bought for you.

Lord, when others tried to add law to the gospel of grace, Paul would not yield even for an hour, to preserve the truth for us. Thank you that I am saved by Christ's finished work, not by my own performance. Guard me from the constant pull to slide back into earning my standing with you. Help me hold the gospel of grace firmly, and not let anyone rob me of the freedom Christ bought. Keep me resting in your grace alone.