Living by Faith - Galatians

The Council of Jerusalem

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Living by Faith

Lesson: 4-19

Genre: Talk

Track: 04

Dictation Name: Tape 02B

Location/Venue:

Year: ?

Let us worship God. Blessed is the man that walketh not after the council of the ungodly, but his ways are the ways of the Lord. Let us pray. Oh Lord our God, we thank Thee that as the heathen nations take council together against Thy Son and Thy people, and rage against Thy kingdom, Thou art on the throne, and it is Thy will that shall be set forth and shall prevail. Give us grace therefore in the day of battle to walk in the confidence of Thy victory. Bless us this day by Thy word and by Thy Spirit, that we may be empowered for Thy service, that we may be strengthened in hope, in patience, and in the confidence of Thy government. In His name we pray, amen.

Our scripture is Galatians 2:1-10, our subject: The Council of Jerusalem. Galatians 2:1-10, our subject: The Council of Jerusalem.

“2 Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.

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.

3 But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised:

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:

5 To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.

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:

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;

8 (For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:)

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.

10 Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.”

Fourteen years after his first visit to Jerusalem, Paul returns to attend the council of Jerusalem, of which we have an account in Acts 15:4-33. The issue we are told in Acts, was created by Pharisees who had come into the church, and whose stand concerning the Gentile converts was that entrance into the church required that they first become Jews, that they be circumcised and keep the law, and then they could become Christians. This meant that baptism and God’s sovereign grace was replaced by the requirements of the Pharisees, that works replaced grace, that salvation was redefined.

Now Peter very early witnessed against this, when he was responsible for the conversion and baptism of Cornelius, he challenged the Pharisees: “Can any forbid water,” (that is, baptism) “that these should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?” Peter then commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Peter was aware of the hostility of the Judaizers, of the Pharisees in the church to such baptism, and hence he commanded it.

When Peter then went to Jerusalem, he faced there opposition. We are told in Acts 11:3 the charge was: “Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised and didst eat with them.” But he won, but this was the issue. The Judaizers were for evangelizing the Gentiles, but for them this meant making them Jews first. After that they could be converted to become Christians.

In other words, for the Pharisees within the church, for the Judaizers, Judaism was the mediator to Christ. For Paul and others salvation was not through Judaism, but through Christ. The Judaizers said: “Be circumcised, keep the law, then you can come to Christ.” But Paul said: “No man can keep the law without Christ and the Spirit, only when he is a new creation can he obey.”

The council of Jerusalem agreed to avoid offense to the Jewish converts, to make clear that faith requires the law, that it requires a different way of life; the council said that those coming forward to be baptized on conversion, be required as necessary things, as the first steps to prove that they were ready to be moral and godly, that they were ready to obey God’s law now that they were God’s people, that they abstain from meat offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication. Three of these four requirements had to do with diet, the fourth was sexual. All four were simple matters. If a person coming forward to be baptized were unwilling to be faithful in these four elementary requirements, then it would mean that he was unwilling to grow in grace, that he would be unwilling to obey any commandment of God.

It is sad that even those today who insist on seeing the council of Jerusalem as freeing them from the law, are unwilling to obey even these four simple rules. At the council of Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas simply report on their work, on the miracles, the wonders wrought by God. The council commended them both, and sent not only letters to the churches, declaring that Paul and Barnabas were totally in accord with apostolic practice, but they sent men out to tell them: “This is the way, walk ye in it, and do not criticize Paul and Barnabas.”

Now we are told in Acts 15:2 that the church at Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas to the council of Jerusalem. Paul tells us in Galatians 2:2 that he went by revelation. Paul was not defiant of the church authorities at Antioch, but he had to have the Lord’s permission. In Jerusalem Paul and Barnabas first of all communicated with the men of reputation, of eminence in church; and he does so he says: “Lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.” His question was not ‘Perhaps I’ve been wrong,’ but his question was: “I have been so isolated from the leadership in Jerusalem, from the other apostles; I have been on my own fourteen years, and before that only briefly I met with Peter and James. Is the leadership in Jerusalem worth following?”

Well, he met privately, had a secret meeting when he arrived, with the apostles and with these leaders in particular; and it was clear that they went into the council agreed on their strategy, and they made it clear they were not going to require the circumcision of Titus, who was a Greek. And this was going to be the first point of attack on the part of these Pharisees: “How dare Paul and Barnabas bring into the church and uncircumcised man, Titus?” Looking back now as he writes this letter to the Galatians, Paul says he knows the Judaizers were and are a conspiracy against Christ and the church. They came in privily, he says, secretly, with a secret agenda, and he never yielded to them, not for a moment.

We have the same thing today. The church is full of men who are really humanists, and who are determined to subvert and destroy the church. It is also full of many men who are unwilling to listen to the scriptures, who are saved by foolish. In verse 6 Paul makes clear that some of his opponents were very prominent men in Judea. He is not referring there to Peter, James, or John. He is referring to his opponents. They were so important, leading men of Judea, of the Pharisees who had come into the church, that the apostles moved carefully; knowing the prestige of these men.

After Jerusalem these Judaizers took a different and a more subtle strategy, and as we shall see before we are through with this chapter in our study next week, that for a time they effected Peter, they also effected Barnabas, as well as others. They effected apparently James, or at least came in the name of James, they may have been lying there. But at the council of Jerusalem, Peter and James who played a prominent role, as well as John, gave to Paul and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. Openly before all the council, they made it clear they stood with him 100%, that his gospel was their gospel. This made it possible to have a unanimous vote, because no one dared disagree then.

Paul subsequently stood alone, but he carried the day and won the victory, when these others by the subtle strategy of these Judaizers were temporarily effected.

Verse 9 is one that is often used by people, both evangelicals and modernists, to say that Paul and Peter and the other apostles were at odds with each other, and that Paul did not like them. It reads: “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;”

Now, the word “who seemed to be pillars” in modern English doesn’t quite carry the meaning it does in the original. “Those who by reputation were looked upon as pillars, those who were commonly recognized as the leaders of the church, they stood with me 100%.” He says. So Paul is saying here: “If you disagree with me, then you are disagreeing with Peter, James, and John. You are disagreeing with the council of Jerusalem.” In other words: “I had public support, and you know it. I had a unanimous decision, and there was no open dissent.”

Now I cited the fact that before the counsel there was a private meeting. The leaders, the apostles, with Paul and Barnabas, went into the council ready for opposition. This was not church politics, it was done to protect the integrity of the gospel from men. The one stipulation Paul says was: “Only they would that we should remember the poor, the same which I also was forward to do.” ‘which I was already doing.’ In other words, according to the law, Paul was already doing this. He was in faithfulness to the Old Testament requirement, to the requirement of the synagogue and of the temple. Charity is basic to the law and the prophets. No group in Israel dared depart from it. The Pharisees taught that almsgiving or charity, the study of the law, and the temple service, were the three pillars on which the world stood. What the apostles were saying to Paul was: “You are already making clear to so many how strong you are in the law by the charity which you are active in. Continue to remember the poor. This is a good way of confounding them in their opposition, because you demonstrate yourself to be a better Jew and a better Christian than any of them.”

Paul speaks of these, his opponents, as false brethren. Not that he recognized them as such at the council of Jerusalem, but in time he came to recognize them as such. At that time, they were treating them as Christians in error. Paul was the first to recognize their falsity. This is why Paul is so important to the faith, why God called him. It was Paul’s intelligence and high order of learning that God used. Paul had more trouble than the other apostles. His work everywhere was always troubled by hostility and opposition, divisions and conflict; so his was in his lifetime not a very successful work. As a matter of fact, most of the converts were in Asia Minor, and to the East, and in North Africa. Paul’s work in Europe was small by comparison, but it laid the groundwork not only for the great expansion in Europe that came subsequently, but also through the battles and through the letters which reflect those battles; where God by His Spirit gave him the wisdom to see and write down in inspiration the way for the church. We are still guided by Paul, and without him the church could not have stood. So God saved on the Damascus road Paul the enemy, and made him Paul the apostle; and we reap the benefits to this day, and to the end of time.

Let us pray. Oh Lord our God, Thy word is truth, and we give thanks unto Thee that out of the afflictions and the sufferings of the prophets and saints of old, the apostles and the evangelists, we have the word of truth. Give us grace to hear and to obey, and to know that even as Thou dot put us through trials and afflictions, it is that Thy word may be purified in and through us, and that we may be cleansed of our errors, made strong by Thy word, and made more than conquerors through Christ our Lord. In His name we pray, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson?

Well, if there are no questions, let us conclude with prayer. Oh Lord our God, we rejoice in Thy mercies, and we rejoice that Thou hast called us to be Thy people, and has given us the assurance that under all the tribulations are Thy everlasting arms. We pray for Thy persecuted saints behind the Iron Curtain and the world over, deliver them and give them a victory in the face of the enemy, and bless us ever in Thy service.

And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep, guide and protect you, this day and always.