Background: There were two centers of church life in the early church: Jerusalem and Antioch. Jerusalem was the headquarters of the Jewish-Christian Church, and James was in charge. He was straight-laced and conservative. Antioch was the headquarters of the Gentile-Christian Church. Paul and Barnabas were in charge, and they were warm and evangelistic. Technically both shared the same Gospel and had the same theology of justification. But atmospherically these two churches were like day and night. It was like two different denominations. The events in Galatians 2 (in my opinion) occurred just before the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, just before the doctrine of justification by grace was codified and ratified by that Council. So here in Galatians 2, things were still in a little bit of flux. Evidently Peter and Paul got into a tiff over it. It’s a fascinating and honest glimpse into the early church.

It might help to understand this passage if we use an example. Instead of length of hair, let’s consider the eating of meat. A good Jewish man or woman would eat meat, but not unclean meat or meat sacrificed to idols. But the Gentile Christians had no qualms about these cuts of meat. They hadn’t grown up with that mindset. What was a very important distinction to one group was inconsequential to the other. With that as background, let’s begin with Galatians 2:11:

V. 11-13. My paraphrase: Peter came up to Antioch and had a wonderful time. He ate with us, even when we had sausage or served a steak purchased from the markets near the pagan temple. He exercised his liberty in Christ. He was a Jewish Christian, but he lived among us like a Gentile Christian. He felt free to do that. But when a delegation from James arrived, Peter changed tables. He was afraid of offending the men from James, so he sat at the table across the room and gave his approval to those criticizing the Gentile believers. The Judean Christians sat over at their table and clucked their tongues at us and criticized us and said we should still be under law. They didn’t understand the freedom we have in Christ. Now if it were just a matter of eating meat it wouldn’t matter so much, but there were larger implications about the Law. It sent a signal that the Gentile Christians were second-class citizens in the Kingdom.

V 14-15: My paraphrase: I told Peter: You are a Jew and yet you have exercised and enjoyed the freedom of being like a Gentile Christian. You have eaten sausage. Why are you now joining those who are criticizing Gentile Christians for doing what you yourself have been doing until now?

V. 15-16: My paraphrase: Even the Jewish Christians, despite their roots in Judaism, know that we can never really be justified by keeping the Law. We are justified by grace alone and by faith alone.

V. 17: This is the most difficult verse in the chapter. I believe Paul is answering an objection he doesn’t state. One of the lines of logic followed by the Jewish Christians was this: If we do away with the Law, we’ll remove all restraint. People will just run wild. Justification by grace through faith is a doorway to unrestrained sin. We cannot remove the law, because it will lead to unbridled sin. Jesus Christ and His doctrine of justification by grace through faith promote sin. But Paul answered that objection with a strong: “God forbid! Absolutely not!”

V. 18: My paraphrase: If I abuse my Christian liberty, I’m simply proving that I’m a sinner in need of grace.

V. 19: My paraphrase: Understood correctly, Christian liberty will lead to my living a holier life because I’ll want to conform my behavior to what pleases my Savior. I died to the Law so that I could live unto Christ.

V. 20: My paraphrase: I cannot continue deliberately living in unconfessed and ongoing sin as a Christian because I am now identified with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. I died to the law. I died to salvation by works. I died to trying to get into heaven by my own efforts. I have fully yielded to the Lord Jesus who died for me and who lives in me. And the life that I now live is by faith in the Son of God. The Christian life is not my trying to conform to the Law, but Jesus Christ (who perfectly kept the Law) living His life through me.

V. 21: My paraphrase: So grace does not lead to more sinfulness but to righteousness. If the Law could have saved me and given me a holy life, Christ would not have needed to die.

Conclusion: Paul’s speech to Peter, in a nutshell, is: Don’t be afraid of grace. We are saved by grace, not by Jewish law. And furthermore it is a mistake to think that legalism promotes holiness. Legalism simply proves we are sinners; because whatever law we set, we break. Legalism may measure our sinfulness but it cannot restrain it. Grace, on the other hand, leads to holiness because when Jesus saves us and comes to live within us, He begins living His life through us and we begin living our lives to please Him. Now, this may not tell you or me what to do about a haircut or about eating sausage. But here’s the principle: Genuine holiness comes from the inside out, not by the outside in. It’s not the result of our trying to keep a list. It’s the result of the Holy Spirit replicating the Christ-Life through us as we seek to love and please Him in all things. That doesn’t mean we never have rules. It means that rules or not, we understand and emphasize the nature of true holiness, which is rooted in grace and grace alone.

Scripture Text: Nehemiah 2:12: I set out during the night with a few men. I had not told anyone what My God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem.

Introduction: A “vision” is what God puts in our heart for us to do. Notice how Nehemiah put it: “My God…put in my heart to do.” It’s the burden, desire, or dream that He gives us. Someone defined vision as “Hope with a blueprint.”

1. What a Personal Vision Can Do for Us

• A Personal Vision Gives Us Motivation Rather Than Apathy. Why do the quarterbacks and players in the football playoffs work so hard? They are motivated by a vision of the Super Bowl.
• A Personal Vision Gives Us Discipline Rather Than Laziness. It gives us a purpose for living, a reason to get up in the morning and to keep going through the day.
• A Personal Vision Gives us Youthfulness Rather Than Obsolescence. According to Isaiah 40, Psalm 92, Joel 2:28 (quoted by Peter on the Day of Pentecost), a personal vision keeps us young. We’re never too old to have fresh vision.

2. How Do We Develop a Personal Vision? Follow Nehemiah’s example:

• Learn of a Need that Touches Your Heart (Nehemiah 1:1-4). A good example is Chuck Smith, who developed a burden for the California dropouts during the hippy years of the 1960s and 70s. His burden led to his taking in one young man, but it opened the floodgates to thousands of young people coming to the Lord and to the development of a new genre of Christian music—contemporary praise.
• Pray and Fast (Nehemiah 1:4-11).
• Think it Through (Nehemiah 2:1-16).
• Take Each Step as It Comes (Nehemiah 2:17-20).

Conclusion: Don’t worry if your vision or your task seems large or small. Just be faithful.

At first, this hymn was sung to the same tune as “God Save the King.” On the American side of the Atlantic, we use the same tune for “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.” Just as an experiment, try singing a verse of “Come, Thou Almighty King” to this slower, more somber melody.

There’s an interesting story connected with it. During the American Revolution, while British troops were occupying New York City and appeared to be winning the war, a group of English soldiers went to church one Sunday morning in Long Island. The setting was tense. The occupiers demanded the congregation sing, “God Save The King” in honor of King George III. The organist was forced to begin playing the tune – but instead of singing “God Save the King,” the congregation broke out in “Come, Thou Almighty King.”

Point made.

I don’t remember not knowing this hymn. In the mountain church I attended in childhood, it was one of three songs that opened almost every Sunday morning service, the others being “Holy, Holy, Holy” and “O Worship the King.” I love those hymns to this day. After all, what better prayer than a church offer than: “Come, and Thy people bless, and give Thy Word success!”

As it’s given in most hymnals, “Come, Thou Almighty King” is a Trinitarian prayer addressed to God the Father (first stanza), God the Son (second stanza), God the Holy Spirit (third stanza), and to the entire Trinity (fourth stanza).

Since 1769, the majestic tune Italian Hymn has been used as the musical setting for “Come, Thou Almighty King.” It was composed by Felice de Giardini, the Italian composer and violinist.

–From my new book Then Sings My Soul Book 3.

Day by day the promise reads,

Daily strength for daily needs.

Cast foreboding fear away,

Take the manna of today.

***

Oh to be exempt from care,

By the energy of prayer.

Strong in faith with mind subdued

And elate with gratitude.

When children and adults memorize the words of our Christian music, it imparts a lifelong radioactive blessing that heals and helps us from the inside out.

From my new book Then Sings My Soul, Book 3.

So on New Year’s Eve, Cee Lo Green sang “Imagine,” but he changed the line that said: “And no religion too.” He sang these words: “And all religion is true.” Well, Lennon fans are up in arms everywhere. You’ve never heard such outrage. But this controversy is a telling indicator of our popular culture. The modern generation, my generation, Lennon’s generation, those who came along in the 60s and 70s, said: “No religion is true.” The new postmodern generation says: “All religion is true.” The postmodern attitude is: Don’t be judgmental. Don’t tell people they’re wrong. You can believe whatever you want to, I can believe whatever I want to, and we’re both right. You can mix and match your beliefs like clothing on the sale racks.

It reminds us of what G.K. Chesterton once said: “It is often supposed that when people stop believing in God, they believe in nothing. Alas, it is worse than that. When they stop believing in God, they believe in anything.”[1]

Well, in the book of Galatians, the apostle Paul defended the purity of biblical doctrine, the exclusive nature of truth, and especially the doctrine of justification by grace through faith. Galatians has been called the “Magna Carta of the Christian Faith.” It’s also been called the “Little Romans” because in this book Paul introduced some of the arguments he’ll later amply in his epistle to Rome.

Background: There are two theories about the background and dating of the book of Galatians. Some scholars believe that the Galatians to whom Paul was writing were those who lived in the north of Asia Minor, and that the book of Galatians was written much later in his career. The preferred view (in my opinion) is that Galatians was written right after Paul’s first missionary tour and right before the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. In Acts 13 and 14, Barnabas and Paul set out on their first missionary tour and preached the Gospel in some of the churches of Galatia (Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Pisidian Antioch). Paul returned to Syrian Antioch to find a theological firestorm—the Judaizers were claiming one had to keep Jewish law to be saved. He also learned that Judaizers had followed in his footsteps throughout Asia Minor and were corrupting the doctrine of his newly planted churches. He evidently wrote the book of Galatians at about the same time he was defending the doctrine of justification at the Jerusalem Council. That would place the writing of the book at about AD 49, making it and James the first of the New Testament writings.

Outline of Galatians:

Introduction (Galatians 1:1-10)

Salutation and Theme: I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel… Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached, let him (be anathema).

1. The Origination of the Gospel: Where It Came From (Galatians 1:11 – 2:21).

In this section, Paul insists that the Gospel didn’t have its origin in human imagination, nor was it a collaborative effort between the other apostles and himself. It was given by revelation (see Ephesians 3:1-6). He also gives a timeline of his ministry and an account of his argument with Peter.

2. The Explanation of the Gospel: What it Means (Galatians 3:1 – 5:12)

In this section, Paul dissects the doctrine of justification by grace through faith and seeks to show its logic and its biblical consistency. Using the same example he will later employ in Romans, he points to Abraham, who believed in God and was justified. Later, in chapter 4, he uses a complicated analogy involving Hagar and Sarah. He became so worked up he spoke with shocking bluntness in 5:12, which brings this section crashing to a close.

3. The Implications of the Gospel: Why it Matters (Galatians 5:13 – 6:10)

In this precious and favorite section of the book, Paul talks about the kind of Spirit-led life we’re able to lead when our doctrine and our salvation is rooted in the freedom of Christ. He tells us to live by the Spirit and not gratify the desires of the sinful flesh. Here he is answering the greatest criticism leveled by his opponents: If we do away with legalism, what will restrain sinful behavior? Paul’s answer: The indwelling Holy Spirit. Rules and laws can’t really restrain evil behavior; we must be transformed by the Spirit. Walk in the Spirit. Be led by the Spirit. Display the fruit of the Spirit. Sow to please the Spirit.

Conclusion (6:11-18)

Paul said he was underlining everything in this book (v. 11). And he ends with that great declaration of verse 14: God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of Christ my Lord.

Postscript: While the outline above is the best exegesis I have of Galatians, there is a very simple way to remember this book. Divide its six chapters into three parts, and notice the progression. Our ethics and lifestyle are based on our theology, and our theology is based on the historical events recorded in the Bible.

• Chapters 1-2 are Historical.
• Chapters 3-4 are Theological.
• Chapters 5-6 are Ethical.

This is always the order in which truth is actualized in our lives.