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GALATIANS - I Have Been Crucified With Christ
Studies in the Letter of Paul to the Galatians
PART 2: THE HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE APOSTOLIC POWERS OF PAUL (Galatians 1:11 – 2:21)
3. The apostles’ conformity to salvation by grace (Galatians 2:1-10)
GALATIANS 2:6-10
6 But from those who seemed to be something--whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God shows personal favoritism to no man--for those who seemed to be something added nothing to me. 7 But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter 8 (for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles), 9 and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10 They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do.
Before the first Ecumenical Council, Paul served the Lord without direct relation with Peter. Yet, when the lawyers had corrupted the mutual confidence between the church in Jerusalem and the churches which belong to Antioch, Paul deemed it advisable to go to the pillars of the church, not to receive from them a favor or a right to preach, but to prove before all the adversaries of salvation by grace that he and the apostles of Christ, were firmly united together in the love and conformity of the teaching founded on the cross and resurrection and not on that founded on the law.
When the elders in Jerusalem heard about Barnabas and Paul, they prayed and exchanged views for a long time. Peter, John, and James the brother of Jesus submitted themselves to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and agreed obediently to the fact of free salvation, acknowledging thereby the validity of Paul’s apostleship, and their union with him before all through the mutual laying on of hands. Love overcame the contradicting opinions, and the Spirit of Christ crystallized the knowledge in the majority. Sinners are saved only by the Lord himself, and not through keeping the law.
The big apostles did not put on Paul and his churches any duty, but they placed before him some brotherly demands that the believers of Jewish origin might live peacefully together with the Christians of Gentile origin. Consequently, the followers of Christ in Greece abstained from the meat of strangled animals and from blood, and they agreed to make voluntary contributions for the poor believers in Jerusalem who were persecuted by the Jews.
In addition to this freedom in the world churches from the yoke of Jewish judgments, the officers in Jerusalem considered the scattered churches in the world, which were founded on grace as true churches, and one with them in the spiritual body of Christ.
The apostles thanked Jesus because he sent Paul to the Gentiles, as he had sent Peter and the other apostles to the Jews. This important Ecumenical Council agreed unanimously on the equality of Paul with Peter, and on that the Lord had committed all the nations into the hands of Paul, who in his humble acceptance of this consideration, deemed it unimportant to confirm the power given to him by Jesus; having gone to Jerusalem only to strengthen the believers in their assurance of grace, and to establish their trust in the office of the apostle of the Gentiles.
The apostles labored for the union of church and for keeping the pure teaching. I would that we too practice these principles in our small meetings that love, faith, and hope may grow in many.
PRAYER: O Lord, you are the head of church, and we are sorry for the divisions of your spiritual body, and for the apparent faults in the teaching of your pure gospel. Give us mutual humility, love, and recognition of the truth that we may come near to each other through coming near to you, and listen to the voice of your Holy Spirit that you may grant, once again, a spiritual revival in our surroundings, and that thankfulness in love may dwell among all brothers.
QUESTION:
- What were the end and result of the first Council of apostles?