Transformed Identity

Paul wrote Galatians to a people he knew well. Paul had been in Galatia previously and had been received kindly (Gal. 4:13). This letter was written, however, because the Galatian believers were at risk of following incorrect theological teachings. Someone was leading them away from Paul’s earlier teaching of grace and back to a reliance on Jewish law. Paul was clearly concerned and wrote to draw the Galatian believers back to grace, the ultimate truth of the gospel, and to a reliance on grace alone.

While grace is the primary focus of the gospel, it can be difficult for believers to cling to grace. You can’t point to grace, count it, or store it. For people who need to be able to see and feel their religious experience, grace can seem elusive. For people who are used to succeeding, achieving, or gaining, grace may be frustrating. Law is something that one can practice, increase, improve, and actually do, even if one never fully achieves it. At a time and place when there must have been insecurity about following this new Christian faith, law may have been more attractive than grace. Even for heroes of the church (like Peter), legalism was a trap into which one could easily fall. Peter already knew how to be a good Jew, following that law, and apparently had returned to that way of life.

For Peter and the Galatians, as for today’s believers, Paul brought a warning that the only thing law can do is enslave us in our sin (Rom. 7:25). Rather than die under the conviction of the law, believers themselves must die and become new creatures. While one may be able to follow some of the law, only God can make one new. Making new is not our work, but God’s act of grace.

While it could be easy to slip into the comfort of legalism, believing that we must do something special for God, our Salvation is by Faith Alone. Living life as renewed believers is not the same as earning God’s love by living by the law. No one could ever do enough to earn God’s care and compassion. Whatever God gives is a gift—a gift of grace. There are no works, no rules, no practices, and no worship––nothing that is required along with faith. Faith is partaking in the gracious way that God accepts us into His Kingdom.

This lesson also shows God’s grace to His people because People are God's Treasure.

Galatians 2:15 Many of Paul’s New Testament letters addressed a particular problem or concern within a local congregation. The letter to the Galatians responded to a concern that the believers had been led away from the primary truth of the gospel: that salvation is by faith through the grace of God alone. The congregation was probably a mix of Gentile believers and Jewish believers. Paul had taught these new believers the truth of grace. Gentile believers had not been compelled to take on the rigors of Jewish law or practice. Even the Jews had been freed to set down some of their traditions. However, teachers who came later into the congregation were teaching that it was essential to return to following Jewish law (1:7). This contradiction in teaching created a crisis that moved across much of the early Church. Paul was furious at those who were teaching this error (1:9). He knew that this trouble was too significant to ignore.

As a way of discussing the impact of this theological crisis, Paul recounted two narratives in chapter 2. First, Paul related how, years before, he had traveled to Jerusalem, meeting with the early Church leaders to discuss his calling to preach the gospel to Gentiles (2:1–10). It was clear at that meeting that Church leaders understood that Gentile believers would not be expected to follow Jewish law, including the law of circumcision. The matter at that time apparently seemed settled in the mind of Paul and other leaders.

At Paul’s important Jerusalem meeting, it had been decided that Paul would be on mission to the Gentiles and Peter would focus on reaching the Jews (2:8). The second narrative that Paul told showed his disappointment in Peter, who had begun to act as a hypocrite in the city of Antioch (2:11–14). Although Peter was on mission to the Jews, he was free in not following Jewish law. He could even eat with Gentiles. Suddenly, in Antioch, Peter had left behind that freedom, cutting himself off from the Gentiles in the Church. Paul saw this change in Peter as an example of the damage that this false teaching brought to the Church. By his action, Peter was again imposing the law on those who should be free in the grace of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, it was in his frustration with the Galatian church and his disappointment in Peter that Paul wrote verse 15. Paul used the word we to refer to both Peter and himself, Christian Jews who should know better than to rely on keeping the law for salvation. After all they had been through and all they had learned, Peter of all people should have known better than to fall back into legalism. Paul scolded Peter and once again reminded his readers not to fall into the trap of relying on legalism. Believers can only rely on faith through grace.

Galatians 2:16 Paul carefully stated that only “faith in Christ”—not the law—would justify the believer. Once again, Paul reminded the Galatians that they were “justified freely by his grace” (Rom. 3:22–24). While we can never earn the title of righteous, we can be justified and considered righteous by the act of God through Jesus Christ. Abraham and other heroes of the faith were considered righteous because of their faith in God (Rom. 4:1–5). It is the work of God though Christ Jesus that justifies us. His single “act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all” (Rom. 5:18).

Galatians 2:17–18 One argument against this free and open acceptance of God’s grace exists. Anyone could ask, “Well, since we are justified, or considered righteous, by none of our works but by the grace of God, can we not then live in any way that we choose?” Why not party our way through life once we have acknowledged and accepted the gracious justification of God? If we do that, hasn’t Jesus Christ just allowed us to do so, thereby actually increasing the sin in the world? This argument has surely been around as long as the concepts of faith and grace.

Paul asked and answered this question in verse 17: No! God forbid! By no means! Of course this is not the result of God’s act of grace! Then he turned the question around in verse 18. Paul reminded his readers that all that was proved by going back into a life of sin was that one was a sinner. Sinning says nothing about Christ but only about the one who chooses sin. This argument against grace has failed. Paul made this clear. Grace, not law, is our only hope.

Galatians 2:19–20 Paul explained that believers must cease to exist; at least a part of each believer must cease to exist. The only way to live in the grace of God is to give up the self that falsely relied on law, to allow that old self to die. The bad news is that the old self that lives in the law must die. The unbelievably good news is that a new self is born into the grace of God.

One way to think about this is to consider our old selves as crucified right along with Christ. Who would want to live that old life of law when Jesus Christ offers a life in love? It is a real life, Paul said, lived in a real body. Yet it is a life of faith in a Lord who sacrificially and lovingly gave Himself for us.

Galatians 2:21 Just in case anyone missed the point, Paul made clear to the Galatians that there really was no reason for Christ to have come, lived, and died if the law had been a valid way to attain righteousness. In other words, those who were teaching the Galatians a reliance on the law were denying the core truth of the gospel. Would you want to be accused of denying the core truth of the gospel? By no means!