found a handle wherewith to rob him of his commission and us of the gospel of free

grace, and so the chapter ends with the simple yet full words:

After the very thorough defence which the apostle has put up in the first chapter, one

might have reasonably expected that he would have proceeded forthwith to the exposition

of the great doctrine which was at stake, namely "Justification by Faith". This, however,

does not come into prominence until we reach Gal. 2: 15, and a further series of historic

happenings that have the independence of Paul and his gospel as their central theme are

brought before us. From other epistles we know how foreign it was to Paul's spiritual

nature to appear to boast, and how reluctant he was to say anything derogatory to the

character of another servant of the Lord. Yet in the section now before us, he shows

quite plainly that the church to-day owes, humanly speaking, the full gospel of grace to

his lone stand against the prevailing views of many in authority, and not only so, but he

shows as in marked contrast with his own loyal stand, the defection of Peter and

Barnabas and a company of Jewish believers who were associated with Peter. If we seek

a word to justify such an exposure and such a record, we shall find it in the one word

"gospel". If it had been a matter of defending his own personal honour, Paul would have

suffered in silence; but silent he could not be when the very "truth of the gospel" was

at stake.

The structure of Gal. 2: 1-14 is so lucid, so transparent and so clearly puts the

apostle's argument before the eye, that we shall be doing a disservice to the truth by

holding it back from the reader another moment.