Galatians 1:10 to 2:15

The Book of Galatians is quite often a misunderstood book or epistle. And for us to better understand or comprehend its context, why it was written, it is important to understand what was the influence of the society during that age. Basically, as you read through history, you can see that the Greeks had been a world-dominating power and Greek philosophy spread throughout the world, which I usually just call it human reasoning apart from God. Brethren, human reasoning apart from God is very dangerous. Well, it became known as Gnosticism, but that Greek philosophy then spread to the rest of the world through the Roman Empire. And it affected all religions, affected Christianity, but also affected Judaism. At that time, Gnosticism itself was not known as a teaching. And even though many dictionaries define Gnosticism as an heretical movement in the Christian Church in the second century, it actually was a concept of Greek philosophy that infiltrated into all religions. So it infiltrated into Judaism, it infiltrated into everything. Basically what it means, it's a fusion of Greek philosophy with whatever religious teaching you have. So it's kind of a reasoning around, a human reasoning around a religion. So it that affected the Christian Church, and therefore by the second century already had perverted the doctrine of Christ. And that's why most booklets refer to it as Gnosticism is something preeminent in the Christian Church in the second century. But as I said, it was a spirit or attitude that was prevailing and affecting people throughout a number of centuries already. This twisting, let's call it twisting of pure doctrine, is called in the Bible a mystery. If you turn with me to Revelation 17 verse 5, it is defined as a mystery, and it says, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Holids, and of the abominations of the Earth. So this mystery is none other than Babylon the Great, because this Greek philosophy, they took the basic pagan concepts of Babylon and did some reasoning with that, and there those concepts got infiltrated into Judaism and into Christianity. So let's go back to the main problem in the early church, and particularly in the church in Galatia.

But what was happening in the early church is that new believers came to church and dragged with them their old beliefs, their old ideas, and had difficulty in letting go of their old ideas.

That's basically what happens today in the church. Brethren, as a minister, I see people coming from this religion. Maybe they come from the Catholic Church, or maybe they come from some other Protestant church, or maybe they come from an evangelical church, and you can see certain traces of that background coming through that they themselves don't see it. I also came from a Catholic Church for many years. I didn't see it, and we have to overcome and change. So I'm not criticizing, please. I'm just stating a fact. It basically takes time. When you and I get baptized, or are baptized, it's not the end of the road.

It's the beginning of the road. That means you've got a lot still to learn. You've got a lot to learn. So this is a challenge, is that as you come into the church, you have to unlearn things that you had learned from the youth. Now that's a blessing that second generation Christians maybe don't have to go through, because they don't have to unlearn that.

But then they've got to be careful that those things are not thrown at them, and they are caught unawares. But going back to the problem in the society, in the early church, as the church started forming, let's just call it that, started growing, we had new believers coming in, and they basically came from two basic pools of people. Pools as in groups. Two basic groups of people. First, from the Jewish community, because the Bible says to the Jew first, and then to the Gentile.

And then secondly, mostly from Gentiles around areas like Greece and other areas, and then it spread out to others. And that's why the Bible says to the Jew, and to the Gentile. To the Jew first, and then to Gentile. Now, what were the ideas or concepts that these people brought in with them as they came into the church? Well, the Jews brought with them approaches or ways of seeing things which were predominant in the Jewish community, which diverged or deviated from the teaching of Christ. For instance, they had various psycho ideas, which as you know Christ criticized.

And those ideas were particularly related to the ceremonial law. For instance, identifying a number of do's and don'ts on the Sabbath. And you saw a number of times that Christ criticized them because of the do's and don'ts they had about the Sabbath. Christ said, now you can heal people on the Sabbath. There's nothing wrong with that. And things like that. And also examples of circumcision, because that came from that which we know as we see in the New Testament that it's now a circumcision of the heart.

So they brought these concepts or those ideas that they felt that people needed to do that in addition to believing in Christ. So basically what you have is you and I are justified by Christ's blood and these ideas are saying, yeah but you need to do this as well. It is as if saying Christ's blood is not sufficient. We'll look at that a bit more later. That's one group of people coming into the church. The other group of people were the Gentiles. They came with this ideas and concepts of pagan, pagan religions which are basically of Babylonian origin.

So understand both the Jews and the Gentiles who were coming into church brought their ideas and some of them already had kind of been twisted with these Greek philosophies. And amongst these Greek philosophies that came in from the pagans, from the Gentiles let's call it, they had different concepts of so-called divinities that had fallen to the world of matter.

For instance, the mother of gods which today you would relate to virgin or astartic etc. They also had another idea of that the spirit quote-unquote which they said then is the soul is good, it's light, but material things are bad, darkness. Therefore, we need to free the soul from the body. You see, because they say the soul is good, the body is bad, so we need to free the soul from the body.

You see, therefore the concept of when you die you go to heaven and then the soul is freed up and all that. That's all pagan teaching, infiltrating new people. And now many people when you read in a Bible, soul you immediately think, oh well, soul. You have to continuously re-educate yourself that the word soul means a living being, a person that is living in a Bible. It's a living being.

And so this concept of being liberated or freed also would have the wording of being illuminated. You know, you have this greater knowledge, secret knowledge. They were the word Gnosticism, which is knowledge. And from there you get ideas that you see prevalent still today. Which side? Once you're saved, forever saved. Because it means once your soul, quote unquote, between quotes, is liberated, you're saved. You see how these things are infiltrated into Christianity today. That's what people call universal salvation. Another concept is, well, because there's the separation between soul and body, and your soul is good and whatever, and you're liberated, you've accepted Christ, so it doesn't matter what you do with the body. You can go ahead and sin as much as you want. On the other side, there's the other extreme, which is asceticism, which is a branch of Gnosticism. Now, as you can see, Gnosticism is not this idea. Gnosticism is a whole menu of different ideas, or human philosophies, that you can twist the truth with. So, don't think, what exactly is Gnosticism? Because what it is, is ideas. It could be this, could be that, could be the other. It's all these pagan ideas, philosophies that twist the truth. So, another one of those ideas is what they call asceticism. Asceticism basically says, the body is bad, therefore treat the body badly, therefore avoid any physical pleasure.

Oh, sounds good, doesn't it? But therein, you have scriptures up in Colossians 2, 21, that says, don't touch, don't taste, don't handle. That is asceticism. That's what Paul in Colossians chapter 2, 21 was referring to, was this Gnostic concept, or this branch of Gnosticism, called asceticism. So, I'm giving you this background for you to understand what were the influences affecting the church at the time of the Apostles. So, in summary, Christians, new Christians came into the church with a Judaic background of Judaism. I'm not criticizing the Jews, brethren. I'm just saying that was the approach they had.

And so, they had these concepts of the ceremonial laws that were necessary to be justified. And obviously, they did also have some Gnostic ideas into them. On the other side, Christians coming into the early church, they came with pagan religions mixed with these Greek philosophies, Gnosticism, which basically originated from Babylon. So, in both cases, they were going beyond the truth of Christ. Because, yes, they came into the church, they believed Christ, but they brought with them these other little appendages, other little things that just deviated from the truth. And therefore, it's exactly what happens today. And it's very difficult to unlearn. You see new people coming into the church, and they come with little ideas or whatever it is. And we, that have been in the church a little longer, we've got to be careful when we correct them. Because if we correct them, in an unkind way, they might not see love in there. We need to gently, lovingly show them, hey, this is not quite correct, and then they'll accept it. But it is a challenge for us not to injure the babes in Christ. So, that's something that we've got to be careful. Now, as far as the Galatians, so this is generic what was happening everywhere, but as far as Galatians, because it's like central Turkey area mostly, it was very near Palestine, and it was one of the first areas to be preached. So, most of the influence in the area of Galatia came from the Jewish community. So, the Book of Galatians is mostly addressed at this problem that the church was having, but particularly from those that came from Judaism.

And the main problem with those, once again, is that justification is by faith, but we need to do a few other things to be justified. That was the basic problem. What we understand is justification is by faith, by the faith of Christ, and not by our own works.

Whilst those people coming into the church, which were predominantly from Jews, because Galatia was near Palestine, and therefore that was one of the first areas to be taught the truth, they had a bigger problem with this concept coming from Judaism. Therefore, if we now go to Galatians, so you might just want to put a marker in Galatians when we get to it. I'm going to put mine as well there. If we're going to go to Galatians and we read chapter 1 verse 7, and he's talking about in verse 6, he says, he marvels that people are turning your way so soon from the grace of Christ to a different gospel. Verse 7, which is not another.

You see, it's not another. It's still Christ who's justified, but you need a little twix here and a little twix there. You know, you see, that's how subtle that was. You see, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. So it is a gospel of Christ, but they want to pervert it by adapting a little bit. In other words, saying that we need certain things like need to be circumcised or other certain ceremonial approaches.

If you look at Galatians chapter 2 verse 4, if you look at Galatians chapter 2 verse 4, we read there, he says, and this occurred because false brethren. Do you understand that? They were brethren. They were brethren in the church.

But the reason being false is because even though they were baptized, they had this concept of adding something more to the faith of Christ to be justified. In other words, to be just before God. And they said, secretly brought in, secretly brought in. You know what secretly is? It means that it's very subtle. It comes in, you don't even notice it, it's like in stealth, like a stealth fighter jet, it comes in, you don't even notice it's in, but it's secretly the parrot-rater, infiltrated to spy out our liberty. So, this is brethren in the church of that background that are infiltrating into the church and subtly wanting to change the gospel of Christ. If you look at Acts 15, verse 1, Acts 15, verse 1, that is the beginning of the section which talks about the Jerusalem Conference. In 15, verse 1, it says, "...and certain men came down from Judea..." So, they had come down from Judea, in the area of Judea, Palestine, is at a higher altitude, so they came down, even though they came from Judea, which was further south, then areas further north, but they came down to areas which are of a lower latitude. In other words, they were near the sea, while Jerusalem was up on a mountain. So, they came down to these areas and taught brethren..." So, these are certain men who came down from Judea and taught the brethren, "...unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." So, yeah, we see the problem is, I mean, obviously saved. It's the final stage of the whole process of conversion. So, you first are justified and this and that. So, basically, they were just saying that in the end point, you will not be saved unless you are circumcised. And so, therefore, they were saying, you need to cut a certain part of your flesh.

Now, Paul addresses that head-on in Galatians chapter 6. Turn with me to Galatians chapter 6. And look at it in verse 12. We'll come back to this section a little later on. But in Galatians 6 verse 12 says, "...as many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ." And yeah, and it says. And we'll see that. These people were saying, be circumcised. And other people, other people that saw that, they didn't want to object. They said, oh well, I'll just get circumcised. It's just a small thing. So what? Just let it go. Right? Why? Because they didn't want to, as it says there, suffer persecution.

And brethren, we are going to be approaching days soon ahead where we will have to stand up and we'll be persecuted. And some people may say, oh well, this is just a small thing. Then let it go.

In other words, say we're not suffering persecution for the cross of Christ. Brethren, we got to be careful. So, Paul here is saying, these people are putting pressure on you to be circumcised. And some of you are just saying, oh well, I'll be circumcised. So, I don't have any more stress. So, I don't have any more stress in my life. Look at Galatians chapter 4 verse 8 and 9. Galatians chapter 4 verse 8 and 9.

But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. In other words, you are Gentiles and you did not know the true God. So, you served those that are not by nature gods. In other words, they're not gods. In other words, they're pagan gods. They're just figments of human imagination. Verse 9. But now, after you have known God, it was now that you are in the church and you know the true God, or rather, you are known by God, how is it that you turn again to do weekly and daily elements to which you decide again to be in bondage? Why, how is it that you want to go back to these pagan things or to things that are not of God? And you can see that example. And this word, beggarly elements, is the same word that is used in verse 3 of the same chapter. They say, even so, we, when we were children, we were in bondage under the elements of the world. That same concept, those elements of the world, those pagan things. So, the attack to these Christians was basically one of infiltrating into the pure doctrine of Christ, a false teaching. And the false teaching was, you are not justified by Christ's blood alone, but you also need to be saved to be circumcised, or other ceremonial things. And because Paul was telling them that that's not the case, the first point was to attack Paul's authority.

So, their first point was to say, who is Paul anyway?

And therefore, they were attacking or speaking bad of Paul's apostolic authority. And that we see in chapter 1 and chapter 2. Then, once they had discredited Paul's authority, then they started invalidating or disputing Paul's explanation about what justification is all about. And therefore, they were saying that Christ's death by itself was not sufficient to free the Gentiles from post-sin. In other words, to be justified or to be made right before God, they also needed to be circumcised.

All right, let's look at Galatians chapter 6, where we read a moment ago. I said I would come back to it in verse 11. Galatians chapter 6 verse 11. Yapol is saying, see with what letters I have written to you with my own hand. He had a problem with sight. He couldn't see properly. Probably that was one of the thorns in the flesh that he had. And understanding he had been beaten to death and things like that. So maybe something affected his sight and therefore he could not see properly. But he wrote this on his own hand in large letters. In verse 12, as many as desired to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to circumcise, only that they would may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For not even those who are circumcised keep the law. You see, these people that come to you and tell you to be circumcised, they themselves don't keep the law. What do you mean? Well, we see many times that Christ said to them, you invalidate the law of God by your traditions. Remember that people will do some things and he says, oh well, we want to do this because it's common, or we'll give the money, we'll give the money that we're supposed to give to the widows or to our mothers or all that. We give that to the church and because we're given it to God, we can't give it to you. And therefore, and Christ said, hey, you're breaking God's law with your tradition. You're breaking God's law because you are not giving it to the ones with the need. So they themselves did not obey the law, but they desire that you to have you circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh. So they say, oh yeah, you look at it, I help them to be true Christians because look at them. Now they circumcised and it was because of me and I'm a bearer. I helped save this man. I'm saving more souls or whatever it is. Look how great I am. So this was the problem that was happening.

So what we have here is that Paul in the letter to the relations defends his authority. He explains the value of true justification, explains what it is, and then he explains the superiority or the greater value of the new covenant versus the old covenant because the new covenant is through Jesus Christ. So he then therefore says that only those that are freed from the slavery of sin through Christ's blood, so only if you freed from the slavery of sin through Christ's blood, through his faith, is that is how you can inherit what was promised to Abraham. So that is basically the story of the relations. So the theme of justification is basically the core of the book of relations.

We are justified by faith without works of the law.

Now this is difficult to understand, but I want you to understand it very clearly. And before I'm going to turn to Romans chapter 3 verse 28. Romans chapter 3 verse 28.

Romans chapter 3 verse 28.

Now when I said this is difficult to understand, it's because I'm talking about the full understanding of this, Romans 3, and of the other scriptures I'm going to read to you in a moment in Romans 2. Let's read Romans 3 verse 28. And it says, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith, in other words, made right with God by faith, apart from the deeds of the law. A man is declared righteous, apart from the deeds of the law. That's what it says, and that's what it means. Do we get it? Now read Romans chapter 2 verse 13. Romans chapter 2 verse 13. The same author, the same book, just a few paragraphs earlier. Paul says, not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, in other words, are made right or declared righteous in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified. Is Paul contradicting himself?

Of course not, but let's look at it. In 3 verse 28 says, a man is justified by faith, apart from the deeds of the law. You are made right, declared right with God, apart from the deeds of the law.

Therefore, justification is by faith, by the blood of Christ, by the faith of Christ, what is done for us. That's what makes us right with God. As I've read Hebrews 10 verse 14, we are perfected by one sacrifice.

But Hebrews 10 14 says, for those that are being sanctified. You see, you are perfected, you are made right with God, you now have access to God, but now that you have access to God, you have to walk the right way to remain in that state, so that you will be justified at the end of your road. And that's what he says in Romans 2 verse 15, for not the errors of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified at the end of the race.

Let me put it in a very simple example. I've given this example many times. Some of you will probably remember it, but I'll just give this example. You have broken a law of traffic. You went through a red light, and the traffic officer says, the eyes of ticket is going to cost you 300 dollars.

You are not clear of that until you pay, right or wrong. Well, think of it. You have sinned in not this example. Now I'm looking at the example of Christianity. We have sinned, and we, the wages of sin is death, and therefore the penalty, the fine that we have for breaking the law is death. So in this example, you broke the law, you went through a red light, you got to find x number of dollars. In this God's law, you've broken the law, and you got to find what you'll find, death. Now, you can pay the 200 dollars, and you can pay the death by dying, but then you're dead.

What else can you do now? You're dead. Christ's blood resurrects you, sacrifice resurrect you, freely.

And symbolically, that's what happens at baptism, but really that's what happens after we die, and then we get resurrected. But symbolically, that's what happens at baptism. Now that we are free, let's look back at the example of the traffic. Now that you have paid your fine, are you now free to cross through more red lights? Because you are free now, you're liberated. Therefore, I can go through as many red lights as I want. No, because otherwise, you're going to get more fines, or more fines, and things like that.

Now, in this example of dying, you've been freed by sacrifice of Christ, you can't continue now breaking the law, because then Christ is not going to die a second time for you and I. So we then have an accountability, a responsibility, a gratitude towards God of saying, because of what you've done to me freely, I want to now live the right way. And if you, therefore, as it says in Romans 2 verse 13, if you, therefore, are doing the law at the end of the race, you will be justified. So indeed, justification is freely by Christ's faith without these of the law. But now we have to, now that we're being made right with God, we have to walk the line. We have to obey God. Look at example in Romans chapter 4 verse 3 to 13. Romans chapter 4 verse 3 to 13. It says, what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. We had a very good sermonette about being so jauntous. But what happened? Well, what happened was, Abraham was in his uncle town, quite a happy man, living quite happily in a nice house, whatever it is, with his parents and his wife. And God came to him and says, get out of your house, go into temporary dwellings, and you're going to live in temporary dwellings the rest of your life, because I'm promising you something that you will inherit. And he believed God.

He trusts God. That's what we're going to do. We're going to trust God. God is telling us, Jesus Christ's blood has saved you. You're going to trust him. But now, what did Abraham have to do? Because he trusts God, because he believes in God, because he had faith in God, he then went ahead and did what he had to do.

Likewise, we have to have faith in God, believe that what he's doing is sufficient for us, and therefore walk the road, walk the way. That led to Abraham being, what it says, to him, it was accounted to him for righteousness. That act to him was considered as righteousness. Did Abraham sin after that? Well, we know that he kept God's laws and all that, but he did sin. You know that he lied about his wife being his sister. Well, I was barking through partly not, but you know he was bearing false witness, because that was not what they were asking him. So, the point here is that Abraham's trust in God was imputed to him for righteousness. To you and I, our trust in God is imputed to us for righteousness. But it is the faith in Christ that gives us the road to be able to be forgiven. So, yeah, it's double faith, from faith to faith. It's both faith. And so, what we have is faith in the circumcision for the purpose of being justified reduces the value of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Because basically saying Christ's sacrifice is not enough. You need to be circumcised. And that basically says that his death is not sufficient.

That is the whole point of the book of Galatians. And so, if we go to verse 10, Galatians chapter 1 verse 10, it says, Do I now persuade man or God? Do I seek to please man? If I still pleased man, I would not be a born servant of Christ. So, I am telling you this, Paul says, to please man? No. And then he goes on in verse 11 and 12 about his conversion. That he says, But I have made known you, brethren, the gospel, which was preached by me, is not according to man. The gospel, the teaching that I am teaching you, I do not get it from other man. For an item that I receive it from man, or as I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. He had personal, one-on-one teaching from Christ.

You see, he was called. He says in Acts 26 verse 16 that ministry is a calling. He was called, and he came and he learned this. But you have to realize that his former religion was incorrect.

Look at verse 13. For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism.

In other words, he's saying he was a zealous Jew practicing Judaism. He was very zealous.

But it was ever slightly perverted. You see, just a little bit of something wrong with it is wrong. A nice, good, clean glass of water with a drop of arsenic looks fine, but it's poisonous. So there it is. And in verse 14, I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more zealous, exceeding me zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But here's the problem. Those traditions of the fathers were incorrect. Now, there's nothing wrong with tradition. Some are good. In 1 Corinthians 11, verses 1 and 2, he says, it may take Christ, follow me as I follow Christ, and as I follow the tradition. Follow this tradition we give you. There's nothing wrong with traditions provided they are godly. But they had traditions which were not godly. You see, they had very serious examples, like the washing of hands. Remember in Matthew 15, they had to wash hands. And Christ said, and he was eating without washing hands. Now, he was not specifically talking about lack of hygiene. He was talking about a ritualistic special way of washing hands. And he says, no, that's not going to make you just before God. So, there were various things, various traditions. There were of Judaism. They were not correct. Another one you can see in Mark 7, verse 3, and others, you know. So, there are many. But then he continues here in verse 15, but when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through his grace. So, he was called all the way while he was still in a mother's womb. To reveal his name in me that I might preach him, Christ, among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood. In other words, I did not go and find out about the teachings from other men. Nor did I go to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. But I went to Arabia and returned after that, returned to Damascus. So, during that period in Arabia, the conclusion we can have, filling in the dots, is that Christ appeared to Paul in vision somehow and taught him. Because that's what he said in verse 12. I do not receive it from man, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. Then, continue in verse 18 through 23. Then, after three years, so he probably was in Arabia for three years, I went to Jerusalem to see Peter and remained within two weeks, 15 days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. Now, concerning these things which I wrote to you, indeed, before God, I do not lie. At that specific instance, he only saw those apostles there. There are other instances that he went after that, that he saw an apostle. But in this instance, that's what we saw afterward, I went in the regions of Syria and Cilicia, and I was known by face to the churches of, I beg your pardon, and I was unknown by face to the churches in Judea. In other words, he wasn't present with the churches in Judea, which were in Christ, but they were hearing only. And they heard that he who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith, which he once tried to destroy. So they knew of his fame that he was now preaching the faith, but they had not personally met him, the brethren in Judea. So it shows that that's what he was for a period of about 14 years. For 14 years, after he was converted, he was taught by Christ, he did go to Jerusalem once to see a few of the apostles' admissions there, to see Peter, and he saw James the Lord's brother as well, and then he came back. And during that period of 14 years, he was teaching the gospel of Christ. And then in chapter 2, it says, then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem of Barnabas and also took Titus with me. So now you went to Jerusalem. Why? This was for the Jerusalem Conference of Acts 15.

This was for the Jerusalem Conference of Acts 15, about year 49. And he took Titus with him. Why Titus? To prove a point, because Titus was Jew. We'll get to that. Verse 2, And I went up by revelation and communicated to them that the gospel which I preach amongst Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I might run or had run in vain. So he was going out. He was, and he went to the Jerusalem Conference, and he went to Titus. And in verse 3, there is the reason why Titus went with him. Yet, not even Titus, who was with me being Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. So, Titus was in the church, went with Paul, went to headquarters Jerusalem. They had the Jerusalem Conference, and Titus himself, that was Greek, was not told to be circumcised. So, Paul is emphasizing his authority, and really gets that authority of what he's saying in his data. And verse 4, and this occurred because of false brethren. So that's the scripture I read early on. Secretly brought, who came in by stealth, to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that might bring us into bondage. So he's explaining there his faith, and he's saying that these Pharisees came in to spy the liberty in Christ. When you read Acts 15, verse 1-5, you can see there were Pharisees that came, and they were putting that pressure.

And the question is, he says, yeah, the liberty in Christ. Our liberty, to spy our liberty. What is our liberty? What is our liberty? Is it to do what pleases me? That's not liberty. That's pain and suffering. Because you do what pleases you, sooner or later, you're going to get a lot of pain and a lot of suffering to others. So what is true liberty? True liberty is to live as we should, not to live as it pleases us.

So, from what are we liberated as Christians? From the law? Oh, so that we can kill? So we can murder? So we can steal? To what were we slaves? We were slaves to sin. You don't read in Romans 6 verse 16. Let's read that very quickly. Romans 6 verse 16. Romans 6 verse 16, it says, Do you not know that to whom you present yourself slaves to obey, you are that one's slave whom you obey, whether to sin, leading to death, or of obedience, leading to righteousness. We were slaves to sin.

You know that certain sins are difficult to overcome, and we have to overcome them. It's as if we slaves to this slave master, and we have to overcome, and we've got to make the effort and the self-control to overcome.

So, in verse 4, yeah, is like what I'll call it in SBS. It's like the purpose of the letter. Purpose of the letter is to be careful of these people who come in by stealth and twist you and take you to the wrong direction. You see, God's law is the law of liberty. You read in James chapter 1 verse 22 and 25, that God's law is the law of liberty, and in James chapter 2 it enumerates a number of those points of liberty. It was the Ten Commandments, a number of them. So, what is the bondage? So, what is the bondage? The bondage is works of law and works of sin. Yeah, it could be works of law, which you don't need to do, which wear a bondage. You read how some people, it says in Romans, come to you and put bondage on you, weights on you, and they themselves don't even do that. You know, it says that. And basically, yeah, he's saying these people are putting things on you that you don't have to do. Continue now in verse 5. 2, we did not yield submission even for an hour, but the truth of the gospel might continue with you. In other words, we did not agree with those people, not even for a second, you know, for an hour of the expression today said, well, I don't agree with you just for a minute or so, whatever it is. I don't agree at all. So that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. In other words, I am not going to allow the perversion of the gospel of Christ, as we read in chapter 1 verse 7. But from whom these who seem to be something, you know, they seem to be important, they seem to have all the knowledge, they came there with all authority and says, you know, you gotta be circumcised, we are Jews and whatever, no better, whatever they were, it makes no difference to me. God shows no favoritism, no partiality to no man. For those who seem to be something add nothing to me. God shows no favor to man. What does God look for? God looks to the heart. God looks to the heart. You remember in 1 Chronicles 28 verse 9, when Solomon is dedicating the temple and then he prays and he says, you God, you look to the heart.

Continuing in verse 7, but on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me. He's again defending his apostolic authority. The gospel to the gentiles had been committed to me, as the gospel to the circumcised was to Peter. So he's comparing himself in authority to Peter. For he who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship of circumcision also worked effectively in me towards the gentiles. You know, it was just like God, blessed the work through Peter. God is blessing the work through me, Paul, for the gentiles. So he's basically saying, I'm of equal rank as Peter. His defending is apostolic authority.

And we saw by the fruits, verse 8, the fruits. God blessed that. Verse 9, and when James Cephas, it was Peter, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace had been given to me. So when the pillars of the church, namely James, Peter, and John, perceived, understood that God had given him that position, given their pole, they gave me Barnabas, they gave me and Barnabas, the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the gentiles and they to the circumcised. So they said, well done, Paul, you go to gentiles while we go to the to the Jews, to the Israelites, but you go to the gentiles. They gave him the right hand of fellowship and said, well, we're working together. We as a team say, again, Paul is our defending, his apostolic authority. They decide only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I was eager to do.

So, yeah, we see in continuing in verse 11. But then it explains, yeah, when Peter made a mistake, publicly, he made a mistake, and he says, now when Peter had come to Antioch, I have stood into his face because he was to be blind. For before certain men came, before certain men came from James, he would eat with the jettiles. But when they came, he was through and separated himself from the gentiles, fearing those who were of the circumcision.

Verse 13, and the rest of the Jews also played the same played the same hypocrisy or the hypocrites with him. So what that when even Barnabas was carried away with the hypocrisy, even Barnabas thought, oh well, that's what it is. And therefore Paul had to confront him head on. Now, there are times when people do something wrong, what do we do? We speak to them privately and take them aside and sort it out. But now Peter was doing something in front of the whole church, conducting himself incorrectly, and therefore it required to correct Peter in front of everybody. That was the circumstance. And verse 14, but when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before they were all, you, if you being a Jew, live in a manner of gentiles and not as Jews because, you know, you're practicing justification by the faith of Christ, so you don't have to do all these Jewish things. Why do you compel gentiles to live with Jews? We who are Jews by nature, you know, it was by birth, by descent, and not sinners of the gentiles. And then he goes on in more detail about the center part, the actual kernel of this argument about the justification being of Christ. And that, brethren, we will do in the next Bible study in this series.