Galatianschapter 2
21 verses · Paul · AD 48 or 49 · Paul's letters
know that a man is not justified by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
Introduction
Paul, Paul's letters, Galatians Overview.
Paul continues the account he began in the first chapter, and now the other apostles stand in it by name. He tells of a private meeting in Jerusalem and a public quarrel in Antioch, both over whether Gentile believers must live as Jews. The chapter then moves from story to statement, and its last verses hold some of the most personal words Paul wrote. Listen for the word truth, and for the phrase the truth of the gospel. Watch how a question about who may eat together becomes a question about how anyone is made right with God.
Context
- Who
- Galatian believers being told that Jerusalem's leaders backed the very requirement Paul rejected.
- What
- The account of Paul's second visit to Jerusalem and his rebuke of Peter at Antioch, closing in a statement of justification by faith.
- Where
- Jerusalem, where Paul met James, Cephas and John, and Antioch in Syria, where Gentile and Jewish believers ate together.
- When
- The Jerusalem visit fell fourteen years after Paul's conversion or first visit, about AD 46 to 49; the letter was written about AD 48 to 57.
- Why
- To show that the leading apostles recognized Paul's gospel and that even Peter's conduct had to answer to it.
Historical context
Titus is the test case because he was a Greek. If the Jerusalem leaders had required his circumcision, the principle would have been settled against Paul on the spot. He reports that they did not, and that the pillars, James, Peter, and John, gave him and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
How this meeting relates to the council of Acts 15 is one of the standard cruxes of New Testament study. Some identify the two; others take Galatians 2 as the earlier famine-relief visit of Acts 11, which would let the letter predate the council entirely. The traditional harmonization treats them as the same events told from different angles.
The Antioch incident turns on table fellowship, which was the practical form the whole controversy took. Peter had been eating with Gentile believers until men came from James, and then he drew back, and even Barnabas followed. In a culture where sharing a meal defined who belonged, withdrawing was a public verdict on the Gentiles' standing.
Paul opposed him to his face and says so in a letter meant to be read aloud in churches. Publicly naming a senior apostle's error was itself a claim about how serious the issue was.
Significance
The Galatians learned that the men whose authority was being used against Paul had in fact endorsed him, and that when one of them acted inconsistently, the gospel, not the man's rank, decided the matter.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The chapter ends with the sentence the rest of the letter unpacks: a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And Paul adds the personal edge, if righteousness came through the law, then Christ died for nothing.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Fourteen Years Later: Titus and the Right Hand of Fellowship
Galatians 2:1-2
Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem: Fourteen years after his conversion, Paul goes up again to Jerusalem, this time by revelation rather than summons. He communicated his gospel privately to the leaders first, so his years of labor among the Gentiles would not run in vain.
Galatians 2:1
“Then fourteen years after - My first journey thither. I went up again to Jerusalem - This seems to be the journey mentioned Acts xv, 2; several passages here referring to that great council, wherein all the apostles showed that they were of the same judgment with him.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Galatians 2:1
“But we may readily conclude, that, after they had been brought to believe the gospel, some time must have elapsed before that dispute about the ceremonial law arose. I consider, therefore, that the fourteen years are to be reckoned, not from one journey to another, but from Paul's conversion. The space of time between the two journeys was eleven years.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Galatians 2:1
“Peter was the apostle to them; and the ceremonial law, though dead with Christ, yet not being as yet buried, he connived at the respect kept up for it. But Paul was the apostle of the Gentiles; and, though he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, yet he adhered to pure Christianity.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
I went in response to a revelation: Paul went up at God's direction, by a revelation. He set his gospel before the recognized leaders in private. His fear of running in vain concerned the Gentile churches, whose freedom a public split in Jerusalem could unsettle.
Galatians 2:2
“I went up - Not by any command from them, but by an express Revelation from God. And laid before them - The chief of the church in Jerusalem. The gospel which I preach among the gentiles - Acts xv, 4, touching justification by faith alone; not that they might confirm me therein, but that I might remove prejudice from them.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Galatians 2:2
“His race was the swift-running proclamation of the Gospel to the Gentiles (compare "run," Margin, for "Word . . . have free course," 2Th 3:1). His running would have been in vain, had circumcision been necessary, since he did not require it of his converts.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Galatians 2:2
“What he says [about meeting privately] could be understood as meaning that the grace of evangelical liberty and the obsolescence of the law that was now abolished was discussed in confidence with the apostles on account of the many Jewish believers who were not yet able to hear that Christ was the fulfillment and end of the law. And these men, when Paul was absent, had boasted in Jerusalem that he was running and had run in vain when he supposed that the old law was not to be followed.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Epistle to the Galatians 1.2.1-2patristic
Galatians 2:3-5
compelled to be circumcised: Titus, a Greek, was the test case, and he was not compelled to be circumcised. That settled the principle for every Gentile convert after him.
Galatians 2:3
“But--So far were they from regarding me as running in vain, that "not even Titus who was with me, who was a Greek (and therefore uncircumcised), was compelled to be circumcised." So the Greek should be translated.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Galatians 2:3
“But neither was Titus who was with me - When I conversed with them. Compelled to be circumcised - A clear proof that none of the apostles insisted on the circumcising gentile believers. The sense is, And it is true, some of those false brethren would fain have compelled Titus to be circumcised; but I utterly refused it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Galatians 2:3
“But neither Titus, who was with me - Paul introduces this case of Titus undoubtedly to show that circumcision was not necessary for salvation. It was a case just in point. He had gone up to Jerusalem with the express reference to this question. Here was a man whom he had admitted to the Christian church without circumcising him. He claimed that he had a right to do so; and that circumcision was not necessary in order for salvation. If it were necessary, it would have been proper that Titus should have been compelled to submit to it.”
false brothers had come in under false pretenses: The false brothers were members of the church who held that Gentile believers must be circumcised. Paul calls their entry a spying on freedom, the freedom from the law that Gentile believers had in Christ. Their aim was slavery.
Galatians 2:4
“And that because of false brethren - Who these false brethren were is not certainly known, nor is it known whether he refers to those who were at Jerusalem or to those who were at Antioch. It is probable that he refers to Judaizing Christians, or persons who claimed to be Christians and to have been converted from Judaism. Whether they were dissemblers and hypocrites, or whether they were so imperfectly acquainted with Christianity, and so obstinate, opinionated, and perverse, though really in some respects good men, that they were conscientious in this, it is not easy to determine.”
2 more voices on this verse
Galatians 2:4
“So great had been his desire to be approved and supported by those whom you wish on all occasions to be understood as in alliance with Judaism! When indeed he says, that "neither was Titus circumcised," he for the first time shows us that circumcision was the only question connected with the maintenance of the law, which had been as yet agitated by those whom he therefore calls "false brethren unawares brought in." These persons went no further than to insist on a continuance of the law, retaining unquestionably a sincere belief in the Creator.”
Tertullian · written before 220 · Against Marcion Book Vpatristic
Galatians 2:4
“If they had found that we circumcised Titus through fear of the apostles, they would have made that a ground for insisting on imposing the legal yoke on the Gentiles. bring us into bondage--The Greek future implies the certainty and continuance of the bondage as the result.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
We did not give in to them for a moment: Paul yielded nothing to them, even for a moment. The stake was the truth of the gospel as the Galatians had received it. A single concession on Titus would have made circumcision a condition for every Gentile convert.
Galatians 2:5
“To whom we did not yield by submission - Although in love he would have yielded to any. With such wonderful prudence did the apostle use his Christian liberty! circumcising Timothy, Acts xvi, 3, because of weak brethren, but not Titus, because of false brethren. That the truth of the gospel - That is, the true genuine gospel.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Galatians 2:5
But that Paul acceded to [the request of] those who summoned him to the apostles, on account of the question [which had been raised], and went up to them, with Barnabas, to Jerusalem, not without reason, but that the liberty of the Gentiles might be confirmed by them, he does himself say, in the Epistle to the Galatians: "Then, fourteen years after, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking also Titus. But I went up by revelation, and communicated to them that Gospel which I preached among the Gentiles."
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies Book IIIpatristic
Galatians 2:5
“To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour - We did not submit to this at all. We did not yield even for the shortest time. We did not waver in our opposition to their demands, or in the slightest degree become subject to their wishes. We steadily opposed their claims, in order that the great principle might be forever settled, that the laws of Moses were not to be imposed as obligatory on the Gentile converts.”
Galatians 2:6-7
Paul refuses to let the standing of James, Cephas and John settle a question of truth, since God does not show favoritism. What the leaders gave was recognition: they saw that I had been entrusted to preach the gospel to the uncircumcised.
Galatians 2:6
“And they who undoubtedly were something - Above all others. What they were - How eminent soever. It is no difference to me - So that I should alter either my doctrine or my practice.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
entrusted to preach the gospel to the uncircumcised: The leaders saw a trust God had already given. Paul held the gospel for the Gentiles as Peter held it for the Jews. The one gospel had two fields of work, with the same message in both.
Galatians 2:7
“The gospel of the uncircumcision - The duty of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised part of the world; that is, to the Gentiles Paul had received this as his unique office when he was converted and called to the ministry (see Act 9:15; Act 22:21); and they now perceived that he had been specially intrusted with this office, from the remarkable success which had attended his labors.”
1 more voice on this verse
Galatians 2:7
This intricate passage, full of intervening matter, might be briefly construed as follows: "Those who were conspicuous added nothing to me, but on the contrary gave the right hand of fellowship to me and Barnabas." An alternative sense is hidden to avoid boasting of himself: "Those who were conspicuous added nothing to me, but on the contrary I have added to them, and they have become more steadfast in the grace of the gospel."
Jerome · written before 420 · Epistle to the Galatians 1.2.7-8patristic
Galatians 2:8-10
the One who was at work in Peter’s apostleship: The same God who worked effectually in Peter toward the circumcision worked just as mightily in Paul toward the Gentiles. The two fields divide by audience, not by rank or by a different gospel.
Galatians 2:8
“With regard to those (the Marcionites) who allege that Paul alone knew the truth, and that to him the mystery was manifested by revelation, let Paul himself convict them, when he says, that one and the same God wrought in Peter for the apostolate of the circumcision, and in himself for the Gentiles. Peter, therefore, was an apostle of that very God whose was also Paul; and Him whom Peter preached as God among those of the circumcision, and likewise the Son of God, did Paul [declare] also among the Gentiles.”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies Book IIIpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Galatians 2:8
“For he that wrought effectually - Ὁ ενεργησας Πετρῳ, ενηργησε και εμοι· He who wrought powerfully with Peter, wrought powerfully also with me. He gave us both those talents which were suited to our work, and equal success in our different departments.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the right hand of fellowship: James, Cephas and John were reputed pillars of the Jerusalem church. By the right hand of fellowship they received Paul and Barnabas as partners in one gospel. Each party went to its own people.
Galatians 2:9
Three times above we read that the apostles were "reputed." … And so I was wondering what this word meant. Now he has delivered me from all doubt when he describes them as those "who appeared to be pillars." Therefore it means the apostles, and above all Peter, James and John, two of whom were deemed fit to go up the Mount with Jesus. One of these introduces the Savior in the Apocalypse saying "He who has overcome I shall make him a pillar in the temple of my God."
Jerome · written before 420 · Epistle to the Galatians 1.2.7-8patristic
3 more voices on this verse
Galatians 2:9
“And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars - That is, pillars or supports in the church. The word rendered “pillars” (στύλοι stuloi) means properly firm support; then persons of influence and authority, as in a church, or that support a church as a pillar or column does an edifice. In regard to James, see the note at Gal 1:19; compare Act 15:13. Cephas or Peter was the most aged of the apostles, and regarded as at the head of the apostolical college.”
Galatians 2:9
“And Cephas - Speaking of him at Jerusalem he calls him by his Hebrew name. And John - Hence it appears that he also was at the council, though he is not particularly named in the Acts. Who undoubtedly were pillars - The principal supporters and defenders of the gospel.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Galatians 2:9
“He was called "the Just," from his strict adherence to the law, and so was especially popular among the Jewish party though he did not fall into their extremes; whereas Peter was somewhat estranged from them through his intercourse with the Gentile Christians.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
remember the poor: The one request concerned the poor believers of Jerusalem, many of them reduced by famine and persecution. Paul later gathered a collection for them from Galatia, Macedonia and Achaia, as 1 Corinthians 16:1 records. He had been eager for this work already.
Galatians 2:10
“Only they would that we should remember the poor - They saw plainly that God had as expressly called Barnabas and me to go to the Gentiles as he had called them to preach to the Jews; and they did not attempt to give us any new injunctions, only wished us to remember the poor in Judea; but this was a thing to which we were previously disposed.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Galatians 2:10
“The holy poor, care of whom was specially committed to Paul and Barnabas by the apostles, are those believers in Judea who brought the price of their possessions to the feet of the apostles to be given to the needy, or because they were incurring hatred and punishment from their kin, family and parents as deserters of the law and believers in a crucified man.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Epistle to the Galatians 1.2.10patristic
Galatians 2:10
“Of the poor - The poor Christians in Judea, who had lost all they had for Christ's sake.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Paul Withstands Peter to His Face
Galatians 2:11-12
I opposed him to his face: At Antioch Paul opposed Peter to his face, because he stood to be condemned. Peter used to eat with the Gentiles until certain men came from James, then began to draw back and separate himself.
Galatians 2:11
“But when Peter was come to Antioch,.... The Alexandrian copy, and others, and the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions, instead of "Peter", read "Cephas", who, by some ancient writers, is said to be not Peter the Apostle, named Cephas by Christ, but one of the seventy disciples.”
3 more voices on this verse
Galatians 2:11
“But when Peter was come to Antioch - On the situation of Antioch, see the note at Act 11:19. The design for which Paul introduces this statement here is evident. It is to show that he regarded himself as on a level with the chief apostles, and that he did not acknowledge his inferiority to any of them. Peter was the oldest, and probably the most honored of the apostles.”
Galatians 2:11
“The Christian fathers may be trusted generally as witnesses to facts, but not implicitly followed in matters of opinion. come to Antioch--then the citadel of the Gentile Church: where first the Gospel was preached to idolatrous Gentiles, and where the name "Christians" was first given (Ac 11:20, 26), and where Peter is said to have been subsequently bishop.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Galatians 2:11
“Antioch was one of the chief churches of the Gentile Christians, as Jerusalem was of those Christians who turned from Judaism to the faith of Christ. There is no colour of reason for the supposition that Peter was bishop of Antioch.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
he used to eat with the Gentiles: Peter's habit was table fellowship with Gentile believers, a practice Acts 10 and 11 trace to his vision at Joppa. When men came from James, he drew back and kept himself apart. Paul names the cause as fear of the circumcision group.
Galatians 2:12
“But they themselves, while knowing the same God, continued in the ancient observances; so that even Peter, fearing also lest he might incur their reproof, although formerly eating with the Gentiles, because of the vision, and of the Spirit who had rested upon them, yet, when certain persons came from James, withdrew himself, and did not eat with them. And Paul said that Barnabas likewise did the same thing.”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies Book IIIpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Galatians 2:12
“For before that certain came from James,.... The Lord's brother, mentioned before with Cephas and John, who resided at Jerusalem, from whence these persons came; and who are said to come from James, because they came from the place and church where he was, though, it may be, not sent by him, nor with his knowledge. They were such as professed faith in Christ; they were "judaizing" Christians believing in Christ, but were zealous of the law.”
Galatians 2:13-14
The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy: , and even Barnabas was led astray, Paul's own partner in the Gentile mission. Paul rebuked Cephas in front of them all: how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?
Galatians 2:13
“And the other believing Jews - Who were at Antioch. Dissembled with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their dissimulation - Was born away, as with a torrent, into the same ill practice.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Galatians 2:13
“And the other Jews - That is, those who had been converted to Christianity. It is probable that they were induced to do it by the example of Peter, as they would naturally regard him as a leader. Dissembled likewise with him - Dissembled or concealed their true sentiments. That is, they attempted to conceal from those who had come down from James the fact that they had been in the habit of associating with the Gentiles, and of eating with them.”
not walking in line with the truth of the gospel: Walking in line translates orthopodousin, a word for walking straight along a path. Peter's withdrawal pressed Gentiles to adopt Jewish customs to keep fellowship. Paul's question turns on that pressure, since Peter himself had lived free of those customs.
Galatians 2:14
“That they walked not uprightly - Ουκ ορθοποδουσι· They did not walk with a straight step - they did not maintain a firm footing. According to the truth of the Gospel - According to that true doctrine, which states that Christ is the end of the law for justification to every one that believes; and that such are under no obligation to observe circumcision and the other peculiar rites and ceremonies of the law. If thou, being a Jew, livest - This was a cutting reproof.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Galatians 2:14
“I said to Cephas before them all - See Paul single against Peter and all the Jews! If thou being a Jew, yet livest, in thy ordinary conversation, after the manner of the gentiles - Not observing the ceremonial law, which thou knowest to be now abolished.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
I Have Been Crucified With Christ
Galatians 2:15-16
We who are Jews by birth: Verse 16 states the letter's center three times in one sentence. A man is justified by faith in Jesus Christ, and by works of the law no one will be justified. Even Jews by birth have believed in Christ Jesus to be justified.
a man is not justified by works of the law: Justified is a law court word for a verdict of righteous. Works of the law means the deeds the Mosaic law requires, circumcision included. The verse says three times that such deeds win no such verdict, and it names faith in Christ as the one ground.
Galatians 2:16
“Knowing that a man is not justified - See the notes on Rom 1:17; Rom 3:24 (note), Rom 3:27 (note); Rom 8:3 (note). And see on Act 13:38 (note) and Act 13:39 (note), in which places the subject of this verse is largely discussed. Neither the works of the Jewish law, nor of any other law, could justify any man; and if justification or pardon could not have been attained in some other way, the world must have perished. Justification by faith, in the boundless mercy of God, is as reasonable as it is Scriptural and necessary.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Galatians 2:16
“Some say that if Paul is right in asserting that no one is justified by the works of the law but from faith in Christ, the patriarchs and prophets and saints who lived before Christ were imperfect. We should tell such people that those who are said not to have obtained righteousness are those who believe that they can be justified by works alone. The saints who lived long ago, however, were justified from faith in Christ, seeing that Abraham saw in advance Christ's day.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Epistle to the Galatians 1.2.16patristic
Galatians 2:17-18
a minister of sin?: Paul heads off a slander: does seeking justification in Christ make Christ a minister of sin? Certainly not! Rebuilding the law as a ground of righteousness after tearing it down is what makes a man a lawbreaker.
Galatians 2:17
“The whole sin lies, not with Christ, but with him who would necessitate such a blasphemous inference. But his false theory, though "seeking" from Christ, we have not "found" salvation (in contradiction to Christ's own words, Mt 7:7), but "have been ourselves also (like the Gentiles) found" to be "sinners," by having entered into communion with Gentiles (Ga 2:12).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verse
Galatians 2:17
“But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ - The connection here is not very clear, and the sense of the verse is somewhat obscure. Rosenmuller supposes that this is an objection of a Jew, supposing that where the Law of Moses is not observed there is no rule of life, and that therefore there must be sin; and that since the doctrine of justification by faith taught that there was no necessity of obeying the ceremonial law of Moses, therefore Christ, who had introduced that system, must be regarded as the author and encourager of sin.”
If I rebuild what I have already torn down: Paul puts the case in the first person to soften the charge against Peter. To tear down the law as a way to righteousness and then rebuild it is self-condemnation. The rebuilding would prove the first demolition a sin.
Galatians 2:18
“Greek, "For if the things which I overthrew (by the faith of Christ), those very things I build up again (namely, legal righteousness, by subjecting myself to the law), I prove myself (literally, 'I commend myself') a transgressor." Instead of commending yourself as you sought to do (Ga 2:12, end), you merely commend yourself as a transgressor.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
3 more voices on this verse
Galatians 2:18
“Justly, therefore, did he refuse to "build up again (the structure of the law) which he had overthrown." The law, indeed, had to be overthrown, from the moment when John "cried in the wilderness, Prepare ye the ways of the Lord," that valleys and hills and mountains may be filled up and levelled, and the crooked and the rough ways be made straight and smooth -in other words, that the difficulties of the law might be changed into the facilities of the gospel.”
Tertullian · written before 220 · Against Marcion Book Vpatristic
Galatians 2:18
“As if he had said, The objection were just, if the gospel promised justification to men continuing in sin. Therefore if any who profess the gospel do not live according to it, they are sinners, it is certain, but not justified, and so the gospel is clear.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Galatians 2:18
“For if I build again the things which I destroyed - If I act like a Jew, and enjoin the observance of the law on the Gentiles, which I have repeatedly asserted and proved to be abolished by the death of Christ, then I build up what I destroyed, and thus make myself a transgressor, by not observing the law in that way in which I appear to enjoin the observance of it upon others.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Galatians 2:19-20
through the law I died to the law: Verse 20 states the union, I have been crucified with Christ, and answers that death with a life: Christ lives in me. He lives that life by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
Galatians 2:19
“For I through the law - On this passage the commentators are by no means agreed. It is agreed that in the phrase “am dead to the law,” the Law of Moses is referred to, and that the meaning is, that Paul had become dead to that as a ground or means of justification. He acted as though it were not; or it ceased to have influence over him. A dead man is insensible to all around him. He hears nothing; sees nothing; and nothing affects him.”
1 more voice on this verse
Galatians 2:19
“For--But I am not a "transgressor" by forsaking the law. Proving his indignant denial of the consequence that "Christ is the minister of sin" (Ga 2:17), and of the premises from which it would follow. Christ, so far from being the minister of sin and death, is the establisher of righteousness and life.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
I have been crucified with Christ: The perfect tense says a past death with Christ goes on holding. The old self died, and Christ now lives in the believer by faith. Paul claims the Son's love as his own.
Galatians 2:20
“I am crucified with Christ - The death of Christ on the cross has showed me that there is no hope of salvation by the law; I am therefore as truly dead to all expectation of justification by the law, as Christ was dead when he gave up the ghost upon the cross. Through him alone I live - enjoy a present life, and have a prospect of future glory. Yet not I - It is not of my natural life I speak, nor of any spiritual things which I myself have procured; but Christ liveth in me.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
4 more voices on this verse
Galatians 2:20
“The Apostle goes on to describe how he is freed from sin; how far he is from continuing therein. I am crucified with Christ - Made conformable to his death; "the body of sin is destroyed." Rom. vi, 6.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Galatians 2:20
“Paul looks at the matter of salvation from the point of view suggested by Grace. If any man might have said, "The Son of God, whom I have loved, and to whom I have given myself," it would have been the Apostle. On another occasion, speaking of the Lord, he said, "Whose I am, and whom I serve." But here he thinks not of himself, or of what he had been led to do for the Lord, but only of what the Lord had done for him!”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2370: “"Christ First, Me Last—Nothing Between But Love"” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
Galatians 2:20
“I live by the faith, &c.--Greek, "IN faith (namely), that of (that is, which rests on) the Son of God." "In faith," answers by contrast to "in the flesh." Faith, not the flesh, is the real element in which I live.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Galatians 2:20
“I am crucified with Christ,.... Not literally, for so only the two thieves were crucified with him, but mystically; Christ was crucified for him in his room and stead, and so he was crucified with him, and in him, as his head and representative. Christ sustained the persons of all his people, and what he did and suffered was in their name, and on their account, and so they were crucified and suffered with him, as they are said to be buried with him, and to be risen with him, and to sit together in heavenly places in him.”
I do not set aside the grace of God: The chapter's argument closes on one stroke: I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, Christ died for nothing. It is the hinge into chapter 3, since a righteousness open through law-keeping would have made the cross needless.
Galatians 2:21
“The grace of God - The free love of God in Christ Jesus. But they do, who seek justification by the law. For if righteousness is by the law - If men might be justified by their obedience to the law, moral or ceremonial.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Galatians 2:21
“I do not frustrate the grace of God - The word rendered “frustrate” (ἀθετῶ athetō) means properly to displace, abrogate, abolish; then to make void, to render null; Mar 7:9; Luk 7:30; 1Co 1:19. The phrase “the grace of God,” here refers to the favor of God manifested in the plan of salvation by the gospel, and is another name for the gospel. The sense is, that Paul would not take any measures or pursue any course that would render that vain or inefficacious.”
Galatians 2:21
“THE idea of salvation by the merit of our own works is exceedingly insinuating. It matters not how often it is refuted, it asserts itself again and again and when it gains the least foothold it soon makes great advances. Hence Paul, who was determined to show it no quarter, opposed everything which bore its likeness. He was determined not to permit the thin end of the wedge to be introduced into the Church, for well he knew that willing hands would soon be driving it home!”
How this psalm is built
The form: A narrative that turns into argument, the rebuke of Peter running on into the doctrine it defends, as Chrysostom classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The truth of the gospel, said twice | The phrase stands at verse 5, where Paul refuses to yield to the false brothers, and again at verse 14, where he rebukes Peter. The same test decides both scenes, and in both the question is whether Gentile believers must take up the law.John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament, on Galatians 2:5 and 2:14. | Galatians 2:5, Galatians 2:14 |
| Justified three times in one verse | Verse 16 states the same claim three ways in one sentence: a man is justified by faith in Jesus Christ, believers have believed in order to be justified by faith, and by works of the law no one will be justified. The last clause echoes Psalm 143:2.Albert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament, on Galatians 2:16. | Galatians 2:16 |
| The turn to I | The chapter moves from we who are Jews in verse 15 to I in verses 18 to 21. Paul places himself inside the argument, and verse 20 speaks of the Son of God who loved me. Jerome reads the verse of the person who once lived under the law and persecuted the church, in whom Christ now lives.Jerome, Commentary on Galatians, on Galatians 2:20. | Galatians 2:15, Galatians 2:18, Galatians 2:20 |
The structure
7 more paragraphs on the patterns
The chapter has three parts. Verses 1 to 10 tell of the private meeting at Jerusalem and the right hand of fellowship. Verses 11 to 14 tell of the public rebuke at Antioch. Verses 15 to 21 give the substance of what Paul said, and they read as the thesis of the whole letter.
Where the chapter stands in the letter
This chapter closes the letter's defense of Paul's gospel by his history, begun at 1:11. Its last verse states the problem chapter 3 takes up: if righteousness comes through the law, Christ died for nothing. Chapter 3 answers from the Galatians' own experience and from Abraham.
The debate: the rebuke at Antioch
The early readers divided sharply over verses 11 to 14. Jerome taught that Peter and Paul acted by a kind of arrangement, as a man with healthy feet may pretend to limp for a reason, so that the rebuke served to teach the Gentiles (Commentary on Galatians, on Galatians 2:14). John Damascene held the same view and called the whole event an economy (Commentary, on Galatians 2:14). Augustine of Hippo answered that such a reading makes Scripture approve a pretense, and held that Peter truly erred and was truly corrected (On Lying 43; Epistle to the Galatians 15). The two men argued the point in letters to each other.
Which visit to Jerusalem
Readers divide over whether verses 1 to 10 describe the council of Acts 15 or the famine visit of Acts 11:30. The site's exposition of verse 1 records both views with their holders, and the choice bears on the date of the letter.
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The context
J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistle to the Galatians and John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament.
The form and classifications
Augustine of Hippo, Epistle to the Galatians 15, on Galatians 2:11 to 16; John Chrysostom, Homily on Galatians 2, on Galatians 2:11 and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Galatians, on Galatians 2:6.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament; J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistle to the Galatians; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on Galatians; John Chrysostom, Commentary on Galatians; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.