THE UNITY OF THE GOSPEL
Probably the most earth-shaking letter ever written in history was dashed off by hand by a man with poor eyesight—God’s apostle, Paul. The impassioned epistle was sent to the “Galatians” to correct a fatal error threatening to poison the young church that Christ and His apostles had just raised up. The subtle deception came from the then-headquarters of the church in Jerusalem: the idea that the gospel of Christ is a revival of Old Covenant “righteousness,” supposedly by faith, but in reality by a counterfeit of it. The problem has plagued Christianity ever since.
Even the most astute of Christian scholars confess just this year that “a haze” of confusion about the Old and New Covenants still covers “the landscape of the church.”
The principal idea Paul made was that “God . . . preached . . . the gospel unto Abraham” (3:8). Still today a suspect doctrine! The usual concept is that the gospel came later than Abraham—for example, 430 years later at Mt. Sinai.
Paul’s idea is that Abraham’s unusual response to God’s New Covenant promises (Gen. 12:2, 3) was genuine faith—the kind that appropriates the much more abounding grace that saves us (Gen. 15:6; Eph. 2:8, 9). Abraham’s faith therefore was like turning on a switch that allows the electricity to flow through the house. It’s a simple idea: faith doesn’t save us, but it closes the circuit so that God’s grace is free to flow through us and save us. But that idea has created theological explosions all through history.
Abraham’s descendants at Sinai were the first of countless generations to brush off the gospel truth; they have wanted the Old Covenant as their belief—“all that the Lord hath spoken we will do” (Ex. 19:8), they have promised vainly.
The great Day of Atonement is now—when it’s time for God’s people to overcome every trace of that Old Covenant confusion and recover the pure love for the gospel that Abraham knew when he “believed in the Lord, and it [his faith] was counted to him for righteousness” (Gen. 15:6). True obedience to God’s law is possible only through the New Covenant. Thank God He has given you a “hunger and thirst” to understand it.
What if God made a video of Jesus so that we could watch it and feel close to Jesus? The video would be no different than making an image only the degree of sophistication in technology. It would be idolatry and that is the sin of paganism.
The issue of circumcision in the early church threatened to split the church. The rites and ceremonies of the law of Moses as a means of salvation assumed an idol-status in the minds of certain “false brethren” (Gal. 2:4) who came to the Antioch church from Judea (Acts 15:1). They taught “unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1, NKJV). They succeeded in gathering to themselves the support of the Jewish Christians in Antioch creating no small stir.
The Apostle Paul felt obliged to confront this matter head-on for it was an issue over “the truth of the gospel.” Is it the power of God’s grace that saves sinners; or, is it circumcision that saves, and hence the power of man’s obedience to the law that saves?
Galatians 2:1: “Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.”
It had been some time since Paul had paid a visit to Jerusalem. The church of Antioch thought it would be a good thing for Paul to go to Jerusalem to discuss this matter with the other apostles and brethren assembled there.
Galatians 2:2: “And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.”
Paul’s visit to Jerusalem was a divine mandate—“by revelation.” God’s purpose for him going was to preserve the unity of the church leadership regarding the gospel. Obviously the “false brethren” were seeking to unsettle the minds of the apostles and create an intentional division between the churches and an internal conflict among the apostles over the gospel. Paul’s purpose in going was not to see whether his gospel was in harmony with the brethren. He was clear that “the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Gal. 1:11, 12). His purpose in going to Jerusalem was to proclaim the gospel to the apostles in order to preserve the unity of the church. That which creates disunity in the church is “another gospel” which is not real the gospel. Satan knows this and seeks to bring in the principle of self-reliance, and self-love, in every possible way in order to create dissension and disunity.
Galatians 2:3: “But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised:”
The entourage that accompanied Paul to Jerusalem were Barnabas and Titus. Titus had a Greek mother and a Jewish father. The significance of this detail is that the apostles in Jerusalem didn’t require Titus to be circumcised in order to fellowship with them. This was a confirmation of the unity which prevailed among the apostles.
Galatians 2:4: “And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:”
It was a deliberate concerted attempt on the part of the “false brethren” to enslave the Gentiles to the yoke of bondage—the old covenant. Peter said: “Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” (Acts 15:10). This yoke was a yoke of bondage. Whoever induces people to trust in the law for righteousness without Christ simply puts a yoke upon them and fastens them in bondage.
There are six gospels within the Seventh-day Adventist Church:
1. Historic Adventists are “obey and live, disobey and die.” Strictly old covenant faith motivated by self-love in fear of hell and hope of reward in heaven. It was historic Adventists who rejected the 1888 message at Minneapolis.
2. Social Gospel—humanitarianism. They want to forget about the theological squabbles regarding righteousness by faith. Just feed the world and fight for social justice.
3. Evangelical Adventists/Arminian gospel—justification by faith is merely a legal transaction initiated by faith in God’s offer of the sacrifice of Christ. Such a legal manipulation of heavenly records does not affect the heart-reconciliation problem with God.
4. Pentecostalism—revival and reformation occur with more lively worship formats. The health and wealth and prosperity gospel can be prayed down from above if we earnestly seek for it.
5. Calvinistic gospel holds that God always gets His way. He will finally force the gospel solution in resolving the great controversy with Satan. God has a great prophetic time clock on the wall and when the hand strikes midnight, He will send Jesus whether his people or the earth are ready or not. Agape is absent.
All of the above are “gospels” that are anti-law.
There is only one true gospel that is in harmony with all God’s ten commandments and that is the “most precious message” which uplifts and honors the sacrifice of Christ presented in the setting of the cosmic Day of Atonement. That is, it is God’s love that reconciles alienated hearts to Himself by means of Christ’s High Priestly ministry. This gets to the taproot of unconscious sin so that the soul identifies with Christ and Him crucified. Justification by faith and the cleansing of the sanctuary truth become one grand truth which lightens the earth with God’s glorious true character.
I used the word “grasp” in connection with the everlasting covenant: ‘Here are they which keep [grasp] the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” In other words, “believe” God’s promise. “Cherish” it. Do as our father Abraham did when God gave him those seven fantastic promises of the everlasting covenant. Abraham believed and it was counted for righteousness. Abraham simply responded by saying, “Amen”—so be it!
Galatians 2:5: “To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.”
“The truth of the gospel” (Gal. 2:5) which is revealed in the cross of Christ. From now on our very life is understanding and sharing that special “truth of the gospel” that comes with this grand Day of Atonement! Surely the Holy Spirit is preparing the way for the full truth of the gospel to lighten the earth, as Revelation 18:1-4 says must happen soon. Worship mixed with paganism is in vain, for Jesus said, “In vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Mt. 12:9). But another reason is that invariably when we mix pagan customs with Christianity, we end up losing “the truth of the gospel” (Gal. 2:5), and as soon as we lose “the truth of the gospel,” we lose the salvation that only the gospel can bring (Rom 1:16); “the third angel’s message in verity” that “the Lord in His great mercy sent” to us about a century ago. It pierced through the fog into the bright sunlight of what Paul was pleased to speak of as “the truth of the gospel” (Gal. 2:5, 14). We’d better humble our hearts before the Lord and understand it ourselves, or we’ll never have a message that can “lighten the earth with glory” (see Rev. 18:1-4). Are we content to join our forebears of the past six millennia and await a future generation who will be willing to experience complete reconciliation with God?
The pope, in his recent encyclical in which he argues for Sunday sacredness, is employing cleverly stated reason and logic (or illogic) to support the idea that Sunday is now the true Sabbath of God. He reasons that the seventh-day was the Sabbath of the “old covenant,” and Sunday is the Sabbath of the “new covenant.” Thus the Bible doctrine of the two covenants is now seen to be integral to the final issue of the mark of the beast versus the seal of God. What has been thought to be a minor theological squabble turns out to be an issue of tremendous importance.
The two covenants are not matters of time or dispensation; they are timeless. There were some people in Old Testament times who were living under the true new covenant; there are people living today who are still in bondage to the old covenant. Where you stand depends on your understanding and your belief of “the truth of the gospel” (Gal. 2:5, 14), or your willingness to believe un-truth, that is, the falsehood of a counterfeit or what Paul said was “another gospel” (Gal. 1:6, 7). Serious business! One will lead to the seal of God, the other to the mark of the beast.
Hardly a day goes by but what we hear of some “amazing” new medical discovery, some new pill that will help arthritics, cancer or heart disease patients. Huge amounts of time and money are spent on these researches. Many owe their very lives to this increase of knowledge.
Is there a corresponding increase of knowledge in what the pure, true gospel is—that alone can bring deliverance to addicts? Such increase of knowledge is impossible for any people or church that feels “rich and increased with goods” in their understanding of the gospel. Only those who sense their spiritual poverty can begin to learn.
There is a “truth of the gospel” that is refreshingly different than the perversion that Paul says is “another gospel” of Babylon (Gal. 2:5; 1:6-9; Rev. 14:8; 18:1-4). There is no “power” in Babylon’s “gospel,” but there is in the truth (Rom. 1:16). “The truth of the gospel” is identical to what God said is “the truth about Me” that Job’s friends had perverted with their false gospel (Job 42:7, GNB).
That “truth about [God]” is the truth of what His Son accomplished on His cross, for Paul says, “By means of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . the world is dead to me, and I am dead to the world” (Gal. 6:14, GNB). “Through [that] death” Christ paralyzed “him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver[ed] them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:14, 15; the Greek word translated “destroy” means to disarm or to paralyze). Somewhere there is some “most precious” Good News either awaiting discovery or awaiting our faith to believe it!
Galatians 2:6: “But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man’s person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me:”
He did not go up to learn the truth of the gospel, but to maintain it; not to find out what the gospel really is, but to communicate what he had preached among the heathen. Those who were important in the conference imparted nothing to him. He had not received the gospel from any man, and he did not need to have any man’s testimony that it was genuine. When God has spoken, an endorsement by man is an impertinence. The Lord knew that the brethren in Jerusalem needed his testimony, and the new converts needed to know that those whom God sent spoke the words of God, and therefore all spoke the same thing. They needed the assurance that as they had turned from “many gods” to serve the one God, truth is also one, and that there is but one gospel for all men.
Galatians 2:7: “But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter;”
(vs. 6): “. . . God accepteth no man’s person. . . .” Your position means nothing to God. “They who seemed to be somewhat in conference added [didn’t do one thing] anything to me. . . .” Paul says. They didn’t teach me one thing I didn’t already know. What I learned those three years out in Arabia was the gospel. And the brethren in Jerusalem had nothing to add.
Verse 7: “But contrariwise [just the opposite], when they saw [when they perceived] that the gospel of the uncircumcision [the Gentiles] was committed unto me. . . .” He said God had given to me an understanding of the gospel that opens the hearts of the Gentiles as Peter was able to preach to the Jews.
Galatians 2:8: “(For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:)”
So verse 9 these brethren had been prejudice against Paul. Fourteen years ago since Paul’s conversion. And during these fourteen years the brethren at the headquarters in Jerusalem had heard these rumors: this Paul is out there. He’s got wild ideas. He’s raising up churches and they don’t circumcise people. They’re departing from time-honored customs that we’ve had as Jews. And they were thinking: This guy Paul. He may be a heretic.
Galatians 2:9: “And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.”
They “seemed to be pillars” in the church. And they understood, the word is “perceived”, their hearts were convicted of “the grace that was given unto me, they” finally relented and they humbled their hearts and “they gave to me” “the right hand of fellowship.
Paul, thank God, you are preaching the true gospel. We’re with you. That made Paul happy, of course. And they said you must go to the Gentiles and we will go to the Jews. Even there I don’t think they went far enough. They didn’t go far enough.
What they should have said, Paul, we want you to go to the Gentiles, but go to the Jews also and we will go to the Gentiles also. But even then, Peter, James and John weren’t clear that it was their job to go to the whole world. Even at this point. And this will be evident now in what happens next.
Galatians 2:10: “Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.”
Take an offering for the poor. It seems almost silly, doesn’t it? And Paul says, We always did that anyway. You didn’t have to tell us that. We did it anyway.
Galatians 2:11: “But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.”
In other words, I confronted Peter. “He was to be blamed.” He had taken the wrong position. Now why didn’t Paul say, “Now Peter, let’s go over here and talk a bit. I have a little private matter to discuss with you.” Why didn’t Paul do that? Isn’t that what he ought to do? If you’re pastor says something, shouldn’t you take him off privately? It was public. And that’s what made the difference. And Paul “withstood him to the face.” Just like Luther would have withstood the pope to the face. And Peter accepted what Paul did, thank the Lord.
Galatians 2:12: “For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.” Because he was sent to Cornelius’s home there, remember? And he learned the lesson. Yes, God loves Gentiles too. And Peter knew that.
And so up there in Antioch. He was happy. He would get his tray and he would sit down and eat. He would eat with the Gentiles. Everything went fine until he looked up and saw, “There comes the brethren from church headquarters.” And Peter picked up his tray and moved away from the Gentiles.
Paul said this sent the wrong signal. Verse 12, “But when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.”
All of us who are pastors must plead with God, Father in heaven, please take away our fear of the brethren. That’s the most awful fear that there is—the fear of the brethren. God’s work can never be finished on the earth when there’s fear of the brethren. We must have men like Paul who fear the Lord only and they’re willing to stand up for truth no matter what the price may be.
Galatians 2:13: “And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.”
“And the other Jews” also picked up their trays and they moved over to eat with Peter leaving the Gentiles by themselves. And so the Gentiles over here are thinking. “I guess we are second class citizens after all. Maybe we don’t even belong here. Maybe Christ is only the Messiah for the Jews. Maybe we are lost like the Jews have been telling us.” And they were sick at heart. How would you feel if you had been ostracized like that by the leaders of the church? See.
And Paul had baptized these Gentiles. And so Paul kept his tray there and ate with them. But he’s got to do something to help them. Because he can’t see these people led away from the gospel. And Paul stopped eating. I’m sure he must have prayed before he did it.
Even Barnabas, big-hearted Barnabas, who was kind to Mark when Mark runs away from his ministry. Barnabas is the guy that stands with Mark and helps him. He’s always helping people. But even Barnabas got carried away with this hypocrisy.
Verse 14: “But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to. . . .” There’s that phrase a second time “truth of the gospel.” That’s a solid rock foundation. You’ve got to understand “the truth of the gospel.” And we’ve got to overcome all these dissimulations [concealing the truth or half-truths].
As we near the end, for now on in the year 2011, between now and the close of probation, we’re going to hear all kinds of “dissimulation.” We’re going to hear all kinds of new gospels. The Lord Jesus has promised that if we will repent before God, we can have eyesalve. You’ve got to get the white robes. You’ve got to get gold tried in the fire. You’ve also got to get eye salve. And the Lord’s promised to give us the eye salve to penetrate, to see through these dissimulations, these compromises of the gospel. In order to understand the “truth of the gospel.”
And the Lord will give us grace to speak up in the Sabbath School class, or in church board, or in the school board or wherever it might be for “the truth of the gospel.”
Verse 14, “. . . I said unto Peter [not privately, but] before them all [this could have been at lunch time. I don’t know when it was], If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles. . . .” And, Peter, you have ever since you met Cornelius. “. . . And not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?”
Galatians 2:14: “But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?”
