◄ What Does Galatians 2:9 Mean? ►

Paul had been entrusted to go to the Gentiles and preach the gospel of grace to 'the uncircumcised' while Peter had been given a responsibility towards Israel, 'the circumcised'. Both were empowered by the same Spirit of God, Who equipped both men for their respective ministries.

It was necessary for both Peter and Paul to receive revelation from the Lord about the post-Cross dispensation of the grace of God, which started with the birth of the Church at Pentecost. Both received revelation about the Body of Christ, which is the Church, a mystery that had been kept hidden for ages and generations, from before the world began.

Jew and Gentile were to become 'one new man' in Christ, despite these two branches of humanity having been segregated for so long. They were to enjoy full membership the same spiritual Body. They were to understand that He chose us (in Him) before the foundation of the world, that we may be holy and unblemished in His sight, in love.

In this current Church age, every believer, both Jew and Gentile, is placed into the Body of Christ the moment they believe on Christ. They are also indwelled by the Holy Spirit of God at the point of salvation. Both groups needed to be taught the same truth, but God in His wisdom commissioned two apostles to address the differing issues and questions that would arise from Jewish believers and their Gentiles counterparts.

It is very telling that at Pentecost, it was only Jews or Jewish proselytes that were saved on that special day. It was only 'men of Israel' that Peter addressed in those early, fledgling days of the Church. Jesus had told them during His time on earth that He "had only been sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," and Paul became a Christian at a time when the gospel was almost exclusively taught to the Jews.

However, the spiritually hungry Gentiles heard the good news and spiritual revival broke out in their ranks, prompting the early Church leaders to agree on the fundamentals of the Christian faith, how it applied to both Jews and Gentiles, and what the foundational principles and practice were.

Paul, who had met with Christ on the road to Damascus and had received direct revelation from the Lord, had been commissioned as His apostle to the Gentiles, and was acknowledged by the foundational Church leaders as a chosen vessel of the Lord.

He travelled to Jerusalem to participate in the early Church discussions with James, Peter (who we also called Cephas), and John, who recognised the grace that God had bestowed on Paul. Although some things that Paul taught remained hard to understand, these three pillars of the Church offered him and his companion, Barnabas, the right hand of fellowship, and they agreed that Paul would take the gospel to the Gentiles, while Christ's other apostles would teach the Jews.

However, it is important to remember that both Peter and Paul taught the same gospel, which some teachers today try to refute. The issues about which Peter spoke in his two letters detail the same truths about which Paul wrote in all his epistles. Areas such as our new birth and the deity of Christ together with the subjects of our justification, sanctification, growing in grace, and our Christian development, are areas that both apostles taught in their writings, together with Christ's sinless life and His eternal power.

Other areas included Christ's rejection, suffering and death, His Resurrection, Ascension, and Glorification, the Rapture of the Church, the great and terrible 'Day of the Lord', His Second Coming, and our blessed hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Both men urged their readers to be diligent to grow in grace, mature in the faith, be found in Christ, and to understand that any perceived delay in Christ's return points to God's long-suffering kindness towards men, for it is not God's will that any should perish but that all come to repentance and find peace in Him.

It is very telling that as Peter draws his final epistle to a close, he draws our attention to all the writings of "our beloved brother Paul" and the godly wisdom with which he was endowed. Both men were given different roles and responsibilities by God in the early Church, but both taught the same gospel of grace and both endured much suffering for righteousness' sake. 

Heavenly Father, thank You for the wonderful way the joint ministries of Peter and Paul, were united in teaching the truth of the gospel of Christ. Thank You for the corrective teachings in Galatians about perverting the gospel of grace by returning to legalistic practices which can so often be permitted in our places of worship. Keep me alert to any deceptive practices and thank You that I am both saved by Your grace and kept by Your grace. Keep me pure in thought, word, deed, and doctrine. This I ask in Jesus' name, AMEN.