Galatians 2

21 verses

Fourteen years later, Paul returns to Jerusalem to present his gospel to the pillars of the church, bringing Titus as a test case whose circumcision the false brothers (ψευδάδελφοι) demanded but Paul adamantly refused—preserving the freedom that stands at the gospel's heart. James, Peter, and John, recognizing the grace (χάρις) given to Paul, add nothing to his gospel but extend the right hand of fellowship, establishing a division of labor: they to the circumcised, Paul to the Gentiles, each steward of the same gospel expressed in different missionary contexts. The Antioch confrontation reveals the letter's deepest tension when Peter withdraws from table fellowship with Gentiles upon the arrival of the circumcision party from James, and Barnabas is carried away by the same hypocrisy (ὑπόκρισις)—a failure to walk in accordance with the truth of the gospel. Paul's public rebuke strikes at the heart of coercion: if you who are a Jew live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews? The theological resolution moves beyond Peter's failure to the affirmation that justification (δικαιόω) comes through faith in Christ (or the faithfulness of Christ, πίστις Χριστοῦ—the disputed genitive pivoting on agency) rather than works of law, culminating in the baptismal union formula: I have been crucified with Christ—it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. If justification could be achieved through law, then Christ's death becomes unintelligible, stripped of redemptive necessity.

VERSES IN THIS CHAPTER

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS