Romans 13:8,9
"Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath (already) fulfilled the law. (the work of the Cross was love epitomized. It was God's Love for mankind that nailed Him to the Cross. And as a result He fulfilled the demands required of the Law perfectly and completely) 9. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shall not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." That obvious enough isn't it? But it's not a legalistic, pressurized system whereby we have to say, "Oh I don't dare do that. I can't do that because there is a law against it." No we've been set free. But like we have said, "That's not license." As soon as we come under this Royal Law of Love we no longer want to break these commandments. But just here we come to another split in the road by a question and that being when does this Royal Law enter the scene and then how? Why, we may ask do we suggest a split in the road because many are under the notion that when we come through conversion we are given all there is as revealed in the full of the second or New Covenant when in actuality it is but our first estate of beginnings. As we said earlier God places us all within the corral or first estate for the same reason that the Hebrews were. And that is to learn obedience. Obedience unto what or for what purpose. First just as with Israel God had to get the spirit of the world out of them and the same holds true of us as well. We have now the indwelling Holy Spirit who directs our thinking and actions, it is He that we're to learn from as He is the Spirit of Truth and the third person of the Godhead that all scripture was written through, so He's our paraclete and teacher or trainer. As a new convert we hold onto allot of old baggage which we need to let go of, just as Israel did. But unlike them we have the Holy Spirits working inside of us both to do and to will the Fathers good pleasure within. He is the one who causes us to grow in the knowledge of God and the Lord Jesus "IF" we allow Him. He is in the feminine gender but defiantly not female but will remain silent and silently working directing our every step when He's allowed. "IF" we remain stubborn to His training and teaching as Israel was, we'll continue roaming around the desert or within the confines of what ever religious system we've placed ourselves in. And He'll just allow us to there remain be it good or bad until like the Prodigal son we come to ourselves and seek the Father and the way into the second Covenant of promise. But along the road to Him we find the requirement just as the Prodigal did when he realized he had to die to self and the things of the world for this is the true obedience required of us as it was of Christ Jesus so it is with us as well. When we willingly surrender to the Will of God the Father and forsake all others and all other things then He'll show Himself strong as the strong man by His Grace and place us into the New Covenant of promise as and heir and it is then He can write the New Royal Law in our inward parts and impresses them on our minds. When we've passed through the gate into the promised New thing of God's doing all for us and in us. Now that is not to say that we're going to be sinless, because we're human. As long as we're here in the flesh we're still have the flesh to deal with and therefore going to fail, but the Lord has made provisions for that. Now coming back to Galatians chapter 2, and again we want to look at verse 5. Let verse 5 just sink into our thinking. Paul is under pressure to give up this Gospel of Grace, and add Law-keeping and circumcision...etc., but he says:
Galatians 2:5
"To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; (today we'd say not for a minute) that the truth of the gospel (Paul's Gospel) might continue with you.". Now just stop and think? What if Paul would have given up? Where would this revelation of Christ be? Gone.....
Remember this little Book was written to clarify that we're not under Law, but rather Grace, and never lose sight of that. It was written to Gentile congregations and so it is just as appropriate for us today. Remember the setting. The Church up in Antioch, which was up in Syria, has become predominately Gentile where Paul and Barnabas have now been laboring as well as moving out from Antioch into the Gentile world of Asia Minor and Greece. But everywhere they go their little congregations are constantly being subjected to the Judaizers who are trying to bring them under the yoke of the Law of Moses. They are claiming that Paul's converts cannot be saved unless they keep the Law of Moses, practice circumcision, and so forth.
So finally after many, many years this all comes to a head, and Paul and Barnabas, by the Lord's own direction sends them up to Jerusalem to confront Peter and the hierarchy there. So this is what Paul is rehearsing in Galatians chapter 2. Now we're going to take just a moment here in Galatians and we're going to go back and pick up Luke's account of this same meeting in Acts chapter 15. Now verse 6:
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