11 But when Cephas (Peter) came to Antioch, I protested and opposed him to his face [concerning his conduct there], for he was blamable and stood condemned.
12 For up to the time that certain persons came from James, he ate his meals with the Gentile [converts]; but when the men [from Jerusalem] arrived, he withdrew and held himself aloof from the Gentiles and [ate] separately for fear of those of the circumcision [party].
Here we are shown the problem that Paul had with the leadership of the Jerusalem church. James sends people to Antioch who are of the circumcision party. James sends people that believe in the law and works over Grace. They have a belief that mixes in the old with the new. They try and have it both ways and Paul absolutely puts the lie down. This is not the Gospel of the Kingdom and the Holy Spirit will not allow Paul to tolerate it for one minute, even from Peter, who Paul knows that our Father is using. James as a leader is allowing a false Gospel to be taught and he sends his people to places around the region to try and enforce it. James, by allowing a party to exist in the church that requires circumcision, supports a gospel that is not the Gospel of the Kingdom. Then for him to send these people to check up on Paul, really shows us where his heart was.
This is the same thing that happens so often today. People try to live their life’s by laws: wear this, do this, don’t do that, make this day holy, keep these rules, try to live the Ten Commandments, and keep these other man made laws. It all sounds very religious, but it all brings the attention and power to man. It is a false Gospel, it is carnally minded and it is death.
And you who were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh (your sensuality, your sinful carnal nature), [God] brought to life together with [Christ], having [freely] forgiven us all our transgressions, Having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This [note with its regulations, decrees, and demands] He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to [His] cross. [God] disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it [the cross]. Colossians 2:13-15
Through Christ all of the old laws have been completely cleared away from us. No one is being saved by the Ten Commandments or any other laws. We are only sanctified by Jesus, not by us keeping or not keeping laws. It is all Christ within us. He is our power and He is our only strength. Jesus is our perfection. If we are mature or not mature in no way limits our Father’s ability to use us. If we are young and seem to be making mistakes, it doesn’t mean that we are not perfectly united with our Father, it just means that we are young and immature. It just means that Jesus hasn’t brought us to where we are going to be, yet we still are every bit as saved as someone who He has been brought to a mature state by Christ. In Christ we live in eternal liberty, that is the law of freedom that our Savior gave to us.
DO YOU not know, brethren--for I am speaking to men who are acquainted with the Law--that legal claims have power over a person only for as long as he is alive? For [instance] a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is loosed and discharged from the law concerning her husband. Accordingly, she will be held an adulteress if she unites herself to another man while her husband lives. But if her husband dies, the marriage law no longer is binding on her [she is free from that law]; and if she unites herself to another man, she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brethren, you have undergone death as to the Law through the [crucified] body of Christ, so that now you may belong to Another, to Him Who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. Romans 7:1-4
For God has done what the Law could not do, [its power] being weakened by the flesh [the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit]. Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh [subdued, overcame, deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice], So that the righteous and just requirement of the Law might be fully met in us who live and move not in the ways of the flesh but in the ways of the Spirit [our lives governed not by the standards and according to the dictates of the flesh, but controlled by the Holy Spirit]. Romans 8:3-4
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom). 2 Corinthians 3:17
Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the [Holy] Spirit as the result of obeying the Law and doing its works, or was it by hearing [the message of the Gospel] and believing [it]? [Was it from observing a law of rituals or from a message of faith?] Are you so foolish and so senseless and so silly? Having begun [your new life spiritually] with the [Holy] Spirit, are you now reaching perfection [by dependence] on the flesh? Galatians 3:2-3
Beware of teachers and doctrines that tell us what we have to do. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we welcome the Gospel of the Kingdom which proclaims what Jesus has to do through us.
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