Introduction
Paul’s letter to the Galatians is somewhat unique in that the tone of the letter is very much heated and the content strong and urgent.
1:6 “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ; for a different gospel;”
1:9 “…if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!” (REPEATED TWICE)
1:10 “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
1:11-12 “For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” (DEFENDING HIS APOSTLESHIP)
Recognizing Grace (2:1-10)
It is not uncommon to hear people in our community talk about grace.
- Thankful they received grace
- Maybe a challenge to believe in grace or give grace
- Or saying that we are saved by grace
However, in verse 9 of Galatians 2 we read of grace being seen, recognized, or perceived.
And in Galatians 2:1-10 the recognizing of grace was the decisive element.
These verses are Paul’s description of an important meeting he’d had with the leaders of the church in Jerusalem. As you see from the first several verses (2:1-6), this was an intense and important meeting; at issue was the controversial question of Gentile circumcision. In fact, some, whom Paul calls “false brothers” (v. 4), were dead-set on seeing Paul’s Gentile traveling companion, Titus, undergo circumcision and thus become a Jew (2:3-5).
But Paul stood his ground:
“But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour” (2:5).
Yet, as he goes on to say, the decisive element was that the Jerusalem leaders: James, Peter, and John recognized the grace that had been given to him.
In fact, Paul explains, when the Jerusalem leadership “saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised” (2:7), and when they “recognized the grace that was given to me” (2:9), they concluded that the only right thing would be to partner with Paul by extending to him “the right hand of fellowship” (2:9).
Thus, as Paul explains, the Jerusalem leadership didn’t add anything to his gospel (2:6). On the contrary, they affirmed the fact that God was using the gospel to save Gentiles (2:7-9). Therefore, they reached a resolution—all because they recognized grace.
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If such an important matter was ultimately decided because leadership was able to recognize, see, or perceive grace being given by God then that begs the question:
How can we, too, recognize grace in this manner and harness the wisdom of the leadership of the Jerusalem church?
Perhaps, we are able to recognize grace in this manner when we are able to recognize the changing of people and their lives by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
When we recognize a person come under the conviction of sin and put his or her trust in Jesus Christ and give themselves over to faithful obedience and watch them become a living sacrifice for our Lord and Savior Jesus we know we are seeing grace.
This is what the Jerusalem leadership saw in Paul.
In fact, as Paul tells the Galatians, these leaders recognized that the fruit of Paul’s ministry was on a par with the apostle Peter’s own: “They saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised” (2:7).
But what precisely had they seen in Paul’s ministry?
No doubt they would have heard about Paul’s early evangelistic efforts shortly after his conversion and his ministry in Arabia (1:17) and then in Syria and Cilicia (1:21).
Surely the pillars of the early church were also hearing what the rest of the churches in Judea had heard: “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy” (1:23). They were probably even receiving reports of conversions as a result of Paul’s gospel ministry, how his preaching came “not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (1 Thessalonians 1:5).
To a degree I’m sure the reports and stories about conversion were of strong evidence, but that is of no comparison to the strength of being able to see and perceive grace in the people who had been converted.
It is like reading those reports back in the foyer. It is one thing to read a report and another thing for the once destroyer now faithful apostle to walk through these doors with people who have been changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And in this passage, we read of that scenario. The Jerusalem leadership was, of course, seeing Paul before their eyes, but also Titus. And I’m thinking Paul brought Titus for a very specific reason. Titus, a Greek, would be living proof of the effect of his gospel ministry.
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Application
For me this passage is a reminder not only to “remember the poor” (2:10), but to remember the essentiality of mentoring or in other words “making disciples” within our discipleship of Jesus Christ.
Do I, like the Apostle Paul, have a Titus? Someone who is proof of the effectiveness of my life as a disciple maker?
For some of us, our Titus is our spouse. For others it’s a child. For some it’s a parent. Still others have a Titus in a neighbor or a classmate or a colleague from work.
And some of us are someone else’s Titus; we are the proof of another person’s gospel-driven life.
It is good to be able to turn to a Titus in our lives and see the grace of God on display.
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BUT THAT IS NOT ALL…. THERE IS MORE HERE IN THIS TEXT
Why had Paul traveled to Jerusalem to begin with?
He tells the Galatians, “I went up because of a revelation” (2:2). But what was this “revelation”?
The Book of Acts tells us: it was a prophecy that a famine would hit all of Judea and thus Jerusalem itself. As a result, many would be hard-hit and without food.
“Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius). So the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul” (Acts 11:27-30).
So Paul was delivering famine relief; he was meeting the needs of the poor saints in Jerusalem. He came bearing a bag of money so to speak, but in the eyes of the leaders of the Jerusalem church this was evidence of the grace of God.
For this money, this famine relief was born of the sacrifices made by the believers in the church in Antioch—not only Jews but Gentiles as well.
This, then, like Titus, became another very concrete and compelling proof of the fact that God’s grace was at work in Paul’s ministry. It made it easy for the pillar apostles James, Peter, and John to “perceive the grace that was given to me” (2:9).
And now we better understand verse 10: “They only asked us to remember the poor—the very thing I also was eager to do.”
Conclusion
For US ALL this passage serves as a two-fold reminder in our strivings to be a true disciple of Jesus:
- We need to be making disciples. Allowing people in our lives (spouses, children, classmates, colleagues, neighbors, and so on) to be influenced and affected by the way the gospel has changed us. Our gospel driven lives should be contagious. They should floweth over and affect all those around us.
- We need to be sacrificially obedient to God. We must open our eyes and hearts and be aware of those in need around us. Be compassionate and give as the Lord has given to us.
And in these two things the grace of God can be seen. This same grace is our saving grace. Without it we perish.
What upon this earth is worth more than the grace of God? Nothing. Therefore, do not give your life for anything other than a gospel driven life with sacrificial obedience to our Almighty Creator God.
Instead, we must give ourselves to the work of making disciples and working diligently so that we have enough to sacrificially give to others.
For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.—Galatians 5:5, 6
