veritas vos liberabit

“But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery—to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.” - Galatians 2:3-5

Paul in this passage is in the process of defending his apostleship and has just completed verifying his credentials based on direct revelation from Jesus Christ. The church in Galatia is in a very vulnerable situation. The Judaizers had infiltrated the church and were declaring a different gospel than the one presented to them by Paul. They were proclaiming that one must adhere to the Mosaic Law in addition to the grace found in Jesus Christ. Paul adamantly states that this is not the case and goes back to the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15 which declared that salvation is by grace alone and not by works in any case or sense.

According to John MacArthur, “Titus was a Gentile, and to have had him circumcised would have undercut the gospel of grace and made him a monument of victory for the Judaizers.” This being the case, it is probable that Paul intentionally brought him along to Jerusalem to make this point. Jerusalem was the home for the apostles of the early church and if they did not require him to be circumcised, then the Judaizers had nothing to stand on.

It is obvious that the false brothers were planted in the church by Satan. The Greek word for false brothers is pseudadelphos which has been interpreted as “sham Christians” (NEB) and “pseudo-Christians” (Phillips). In fact, these “brothers” had developed a sort of hybrid faith that was neither Judaism (because they pledged allegiance to Christ) nor were they Christians (because they demanded circumcision and obedience to the Mosaic law for salvation.).

Later in the same letter, Paul would declare that “if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” (Galatians 5:2-4)

Is it possible that we as a church have fallen away from this grace? Is the gospel that we live out on a daily basis truly built on grace or do we opt to add stipulations of our own in order to appease those that we deem worthy. To add a single work or deed to the gospel, living or spoken, is to nullify or vitiate grace.

I believe that the Judaizers really did believe that they were teaching the right thing, but it became a “man” centered gospel rather than a “Christ” centered gospel. It was based not solely on the grace of Christ, but required action and observance in order to maintain that salvation. That in turn enslaved the believers in a works based salvation which is futile and never enough to please a God that requires nothing less than righteousness.

So, where is it that true freedom lies? Liberty and freedom are a major theme of the entirety of the New Testament. Romans 7:6 says that “…Now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.” Again, in 2 Corinthians 3:17 states that “the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” And finally, Jesus Christ, our Messiah, says himself that, “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36)

You see, once we are set free by the grace of God, we are no longer in bondage to the slavery of sin. The freedom does not lie in the fact that we have a license to sin, rather we have the freedom not to sin but to become slaves of righteousness.

In conclusion, the part that I love about the passage I opened up with is where Paul says that “we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel may be preserved for you.”

There are certain things that we as believers and the church must be willing to stand for and not yield even for a second. This includes pillars of our faith and the gospel. But, in the same note, we must be wary of legalism which was displayed in the days of Paul in the Judaizer camp. But I know that there are issues that we can very easily fall into that will bring out this biased system based gospel. May we be vigilant and humble when it comes to proclaiming and living a pure gospel that is not tainted by false motives and corrupt teachings. Stand firm!