The Apostle Paul has been a Christian for about 15 years (since the time our Lord ascended to His Father’s throne, A.D. 49). He writes to refute tradition, ceremonial law, and legalism. He wanted to emphasize the freedom in Christ every true believer has by faith in the cross of Calvary.

He writes to remind the Galatians that salvation is a gift from a loving Father, not a reward for doing good deeds. The Roman province of Galatia is the modern country of Turkey. The letter was written after the apostle’s first missionary journey (with Barnabas) to Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. Most Galatians were Greek (Gentiles), so the apostle is telling them that God’s salvation includes everyone. (Genesis 12:3 NLT), "All the families of the earth will be blessed through you."

(Galatians 2:1-5), "Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2 I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain. 3 Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4 [This matter arose] because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. 5 We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you."

The apostle had very little contact with other disciples after his conversion and had just preached the gospel of Christ as it was revealed to him by God. Jewish legalists in Judea went to Antioch to teach that a Gentile had to become a Jew before becoming a Christian. They began saying that unless Gentile converts followed Jewish customs, they would not be saved (Acts 15:1-2). After much discussion the issue was to be resolved in Jerusalem.

The Apostle Paul took his Jewish companion Barnabas, as well as his young Gentile friend Titus (who had not followed Jewish customs). He was the one the Jewish legalists were speaking about. They were saying that the Apostle Paul’s doctrine was wrong, but he stated emphatically that salvation is by God’s sovereign grace and a person’s continuing faith in Christ alone.

The Apostle Paul explains that God makes no distinction between Jews and Gentiles for there is no favoritism with Him. Both can receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and both be saved by their faith in Christ. He said (Acts 15:10-11), "Why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are."

The apostle is saying that it is impossible to be a legalist and a Christian. He said in Galatians 5 that if anyone insists on following Jewish customs, "Christ will be of no value to you." Then to the Romans (8:2), "Through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." There is total freedom from ceremonial law by our faith in Christ. (John 8:36), "If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." Freedom in Christ is not a license to sin, but causes us to lose our freedom to sin (to which we were once enslaved). (Romans 6:18), "You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness."

(Galatians 2: 6-8), "As for those who seemed to be important--whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance--those men added nothing to my message. 7 On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews. 8 For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles."

Who they were made no difference to him. God, he said, knows the heart of everyone and he (the apostle) would continue to speak the true grace message of freedom in Christ wherever God led him to do so. Anything that he was able to do for Christ was entirely by God’s grace that was given to him. He said that he was the least of the apostles because he opposed God’s church (1 Timothy 1:15). By the grace of God he was given an important task and his message would be the same as the other apostles.

(Galatians 2:9-10), "James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do."

To give their right hand of fellowship, was to give their full support. The Apostle Paul ministered primarily to the Gentiles, but it was the same Gospel because they served the same Lord in the power of the same Holy Spirit. The only request made of Paul and Barnabas at Jerusalem was that they should remember the poor, which they were glad to do. There are many Bible verses that remind us to remember the needs of others.

(Leviticus 19:10), "Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God." (Leviticus 15:7-8), "If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs."

In the early days of the church, the brethren were willing to share their possessions with others. (Acts 2:44-45), "All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need." And (2 Corinthians 9:7), "Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."

For seventeen years the apostle has preached the gospel of Christ and when he finally went to Jerusalem, he wanted to help those who may have been confused by ‘false brothers.’ Seeing the grace that God had given him, the other apostles had to conclude that he was sent by God to tell of the freedom in Christ they have through faith in the atonement.

(Galatians 2:11-13), "When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12 Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray."

The Apostle Paul felt that he had to confront Peter on the issue of his worrying about what other people might say if he associated with Gentiles. Both Peter and Paul were chosen by Christ to give His message of salvation by grace through faith, so this inconsistency on Peter’s part had to be addressed. Those of the circumcision party placed some merit on ritual (which would be a false or another gospel).

(Galatians 2:14-16), "When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? 15 ‘We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ 16 know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified."

God’s true people cannot make distinctions between one group and another, because everyone is equal in His sight. Before being born again, everyone is equally separated from God, and after accepting Christ as their Savior, everyone is equally reconciled to God. (Galatians 3:26,28), "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

The Apostle Peter, however, was making distinctions between groups of believers. He should have known that in Christ all believers are equal because he was shown the vision of the unclean animals and had visited Cornelius (who was a Gentile). Peter said (Acts 10:34-35), "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right."

A believer who refuses to share the Lord’s table with other believers because of fear and prejudice falls into the same error as the Apostle Peter. Acting like a hypocrite ruins the unity of the body of Christ (the church). Peter not only withdrew from the Gentile believers himself, but he influenced others and Barnabas to join him. Barnabas had heard the Apostle Paul preach the gospel of salvation by faith alone many times, and had preached it himself, but he was still influenced by the hypocrisy of others.

(Galatians 2:17-19), "If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. 19 For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God."

By their behavior, Peter and the other Jewish Christians had given their approval to the legalists’ idea that it is necessary for a Gentile to follow Jewish rituals to become a Christian. In Acts 10 (through the vision of the unclean animals and the conversion of Cornelius) the Lord had given Peter direct evidence that Gentile believers are equal to Jewish believers in His sight. All who belong to Christ are one with Him and therefore one with each other. (John 17:20), "I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you."

Then the Apostle Paul includes himself (Galatians 2:18-19), "If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God." He is saying that if anyone (including himself), falls back into legalism after they once destroyed it by believing in salvation by grace through faith in Christ, they prove that they are still a sinner and a hypocrite because they abandon grace for law.

Now that he accepted the grace of God and died to the Law, he could never go back to a system of rituals and ordinances. If he depended on rituals to be right with God, he could not live for God. The Law is not the believer’s master, God is. It is not our relation to the Law that saves us, but our relationship with God (through Jesus Christ His Son) who save us.

(Galatians 2:20-21), "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"

If a person is convicted of a capital crime and is put to death, the law obviously has no more claim on them. They have paid their debt to society. In the same way, the believer who is crucified with Christ is free from the claim of Satan and sin. They have a new life in Christ. Their old life no longer lives, but Christ is living through them.

To go back to laws, rituals, ceremonies, and outward works would cancel one’s union with Christ’s sacrifice on the cross (and put them back in sin). The two pillars of the gospel are the grace of God and the death of Christ. Anyone who insists they can earn their salvation by their own efforts, undermines the foundation of Christianity and nullifies the shed blood of Christ. The apostle is saying that the old life is dead and the new life (in Christ) is alive. The life he received by faith, he now lives by faith. We are alive to God and dead to sin.

Anything we do that is good, and right, and proper is done only because Christ loves us and delivered Himself up for us. All obedience on our part is our gratitude to a gracious and loving Father. The apostle said, He who loved me, which refers to why God wants to save us by His grace. It is all in harmony with John 3:16, Romans 5:8, and Ephesians 2:4-5, "Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved."

It all goes back to Galatians 2:20 which is the gospel message in two sentences. "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."