THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL

September 2023

“But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?” —Galatians 2:11-14

When you study Paul’s epistles, you will see four things that can be found:

1. Paul establishing doctrine.
2. Paul confirming doctrine that has been already established.
3. Paul refuting false doctrine.
4. Paul giving instruction regarding the believer’s behavior.

In the book of Galatians, we find Paul confirming the doctrine of justification by faith, and he refutes the false doctrine of the Judaizers regarding the mixing of law and grace.

The purpose of the Galatians epistle is as follows: the Galatian believers, who were gentiles, had been won to the Lord through the preaching of Paul and were greatly devoted to him. However, Jewish emissaries from Jerusalem had come into their midst and began to lead them away from the simple truth of grace and faith by attacking Paul’s apostleship and teaching them that salvation could only be obtained by the observance of the rites of the Jewish religion—namely the rite of circumcision for gentile males. They taught that the law of Moses was binding and necessary for salvation. Simply put, they were mixing law and grace. They were also trying to deny the apostleship of Paul, for if they could turn the Galatians against Paul, then they could easily be seduced into error.

In the text, Paul is relating to these gentiles his confrontation with Peter in a meeting in Antioch Syria. While the confrontation in Antioch was over dietary laws, still, the argument was the same—the adding of religious laws to grace and faith.

In Galatians 2:14, Paul used the term, “the truth of the gospel.” What did he mean? The term implies all that the gospel embodies with special emphasis on the doctrine of justification by faith. Paul was stating that by adding the law of Moses to grace and faith, one was, in fact, nullifying the great gospel of grace and justification by faith.

For clarity, let’s define justification. In his book Knowing the Doctrines of the Bible, Myer Pearlman, defines justification as “an act of God’s free grace wherein He pardeneth all our sins and accepteth us as righteous in His sight.”

To go deeper, justification is a divine act of God that upon the faith of the believing sinner, God declares us first, not guilty; second, innocent; and third, perfect, as though we had never sinned a day in our lives. Now, one may wonder, “How can this be? I know I’m not perfect.” The answer is, at that moment, in the mind of God, we are placed into Christ, whereby He freely imputes to us His perfect righteousness. Therefore, I am not judged by God according to my performance, but I am judged according to the performance of God’s Son, and His performance is perfect. I am righteous because I have been granted the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And righteousness simply means “rightness”—the state of being right with God and only by faith.

Now back to the Galatians. The deception of the Judaizers was an all-out attack on the grace of God and the expression of faith on our part. When one tries to add any other requirements for salvation, i.e., circumcision, dietary laws, water baptisms, church membership, or anything else, you are denying the truth of the gospel. Salvation is by Christ and Christ alone.

The law of Moses was perfect in that it was given by God. It wasn’t given to save but to show man how utterly lost he was and how incapable he was to save himself. Galatians 3:24 says, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that, we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.”

Let us hold fast the truth of the gospel. We are justified by faith and not works.