Faith Plus Nothing

Where did Paul get his authority to teach such a radical message to the Galatians? Was he one of Jesus’ original 12 disciples? No.

When the Judaizers wanted to discredit Paul’s message, they attacked him personally. “He’s no apostle,” they said. So Paul shared three scenes from his life that proved God’s hand was on him.

Paul didn’t go to school to get his apostleship like other teachers. Nor did other apostles lay hands on his head. Paul’s apostleship and his understanding of the gospel came directly from Jesus Christ, he said.

“You remember who I was. I systematically destroyed followers of Christ. But then Jesus called me out of that life. He sent me to the desert—to Arabia. I didn’t talk with anyone before I left, but there Jesus taught me the gospel. Three years later I went to Jerusalem and compared what I knew with Peter and James.” (See Galatians 1:13-17; Acts 9:26-29.)

But when he went to Jerusalem, the church couldn’t believe he was saved. But Barnabas vouched for him. “But is he preaching the same gospel as us?” Even Paul wanted that verified. Eventually, the church concluded, “Yes, Jesus taught us both.”

Another story, 14 years later, also happened in Jerusalem. Paul went to the first great council in Jerusalem (Acts 15) that was settling the issue of how people are saved: By God’s grace or by obeying Moses’ Law? Paul brought with him Titus, a young Gentile preacher.

The false teachers taught that Gentiles should live like Jews. They asked, “So why hasn’t Paul forced Titus to be circumcised?” “Titus doesn’t need to be circumcised to be saved and neither do you!” Paul took a courageous stand for grace.

We are saved by grace, not by anything else we do to please God.

Finally, his third personal experience was with Peter in Antioch, where most people were Gentiles. Each week after the Lord’s Supper, the church ate together. The Jewish Christians had always eaten kosher and had never eaten meat that had been sacrificed to idols. The Gentiles weren’t raised with either of these sensitivities. So, they set up two tables. When Paul visited, he ate from the gentile table. When Peter visited, he ate from the kosher table. Until one time, he was willing to embrace his new freedom in Christ and eat from the Gentile table. Just as he approached the table, he saw elders visiting from the Jerusalem church and turned away to the kosher table. Paul saw the whole thing and called him on it. “You are free under grace, Peter.”

Again, Paul took on the heroic challenge of changing the way people think. Jews thought they had a birthright advantage over everyone else. “But remember,” Paul said, “keeping the rules doesn’t save you. Only a personal faith in Jesus Christ saves you.”

When you come to Christ, He gives you everything you need in this life. Believe that what He did was enough. We live this life by faith—saved by faith, live by faith, walk by faith “in the Son of God who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (2:20).

Jesus Christ loves you, but He can’t love you into heaven. He had to pay the entrance fee with His own blood. Paul remembered the day he received that gift. “There was ridiculing Him, hating Him, but He loved me, and He gave Himself for me!”

“So, what’s wrong?” Paul asked the Galatians. “You’ve taken your eyes off Jesus and what He’s done for you. You’ve forgotten the Cross."

“Remember where you came from,” Paul told them. You heard the gospel and responded in faith, and a miracle happened—you were born again. The Spirit of God made you new and began to live in you.

“Yes,” the people agreed. “Our experience testifies that all this is true.”

The gospel is enough to save us and keep us and helps us live by faith believing it—our experience confirms that what Jesus did for us is enough. It’s all true.

Next: What do we gain in Christ?