Galatians 2:9
"And when James, Cephas (Peter) 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, (Gentiles) and they unto the circumcision, (Hebrews). The difference between Peter's message and Paul's message, for goodness sake, there's so much difference it's like daylight and darkness. Maybe it just takes us common lay people to see that because we're learning to be dependent on the Holy Spirit. Now, as we're going to see later on in this chapter there was that difference of opinion between Peter and Paul and that Peter had a hard time with Paul's writings and especially salvation as he tells us in II Peter chapter 3.
II Peter 3:15-16a
"And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; 16. As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things in which are some things; (salvation in verse 15) hard to be understood,..." Why was it hard for him to understand? Well, Peter came out of that Jewish background under the First Covenants promise, and under the Levitical Law. Nothing had changed except the Hebrew's Messiah had made His appearance, and had presented Himself to Israel as their King, and their Redeemer, their kinsman and the Nation of Israel had rejected Him and His offer of the kingdom (not once but a total of four times). Sure, several thousands came around to it, but on the whole the whole Nation of Israel rejected Christ at His First Advent, they crucified Him. In the Book of Acts Peter and Stephen appealed to the Nation of Israel to still repent of the fact that they had crucified their Messiah. They just did not get it they were tied up in all the external-ism and the materialism (of their precious Judaism and its accompanying legalism, it had become idolatry because it holds first place before Christ and God) of the spirit of the world and he has blindsided them and the "Christian" church ever sense.
Acts 2:36-38
"Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. 37. Now when they (the Hebrews) heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? 38. Then Peter said unto them, `Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.'" Peter also told these Hebrews that God had raised Him from the dead, and that He was alive and still in a position to come back and be their King. Now did we catch that, what we may ask? they were pricked in their heart indicating that they had remorse for their taking that action. But still the nation of Israel rejected that offer. Israel went on in unbelief until finally in Acts chapter 9 God did something again that was supernatural when he saved that arch religionist and legalist, that zealot, Saul of Tarsus. Now stop here a moment why did God choose Saul of Tarsus do we think? The answer we poss should be obvious to us all, He has changed the whole program as shown in the second Psalm. God then immediately made the announcement:
Acts 22:21
"And he said unto me, `Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.'" And that's when everything began to change and he had to make that graphic statement in Romans chapter 6:14:
Romans 6:14
"For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace." But the moment Paul started having Gentile converts under his Gospel as outlined in I Corinthians 15:1-4, and Romans chapter 8 the believing Judaizers from Jerusalem began to undermine it and were still trying to convince these Gentiles when they told them that they also had to keep the Laws of Moses, you have to be circumcised along with the rest of it. (Does that sound familiar, it should as it has not changed any in over 1965 years now but with this one exception its among the rank and file within the churches) So the Galatians were falling for that line of thinking, and Paul even makes the stringent statement in Galatians, in fact let's look at that statement. This statement is just as applicable today as it was the day he wrote it. Because even though it may not be circumcision that we're dealing with, we still have all those other aspects of Jewish legalism and the Messianic Law-keeping that Paul had to confront here, especially to the Galatians. It is these we feel he is addressing also in the Hebrew Epistle but on Jewish grounds and in Jewish persuasion or language of arguments. Which causes most westerners problems of understanding.
We're so thankful that we have the Holy Spirit who set Romans before I and II Corinthians and before we came to Galatians. We know that's the way it sits in the format, and that's the way the Holy Spirit intended it, we can see why it's that way. Because all the things that he wrote in the Corinthian Church letters were not so much a failure in their doctrine as it was a failure in their practice. When we get to Galatians its not the practice, but rather the doctrine, and so it is in the Epistle of Hebrews. Now look what he says in verse 6.
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