Chap 2:

Once again Paul opens up defending his authority and the truth of the Gospel. He brought the Gospel before the Saints seeking their approval of what he was teaching the Gentiles. Again, there seems to be an on going attack against the Gospel where other believers push those who believe the theology of Paul towards the law instead of the freedom Paul evangelized. In the end, even though the Saints are held in high esteem they didn’t add anything to Paul’s message.

One of the many keys of Galatians is found in (Gal 2:8), “For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles.” Looking back to Acts 15 we are shown how hard it was even for the Saints to accept that the law did not need to be followed, the law of circumcision, in order for believers to be saved. Indeed Acts 15 opens up many freedoms for the Gentile believer, and calls for the respect of Jewish believer in Christ; it was insisted upon that each not offend the other by calling each other out on perceived sins due to numerous laws including: eating, fasting, how to interact with pagans, etc.

For further reference this verse (Gal 2: 15-16), “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles, know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.” Simply, those who work to show themselves worthy by the laws laid out in the Old Testament will not find justification unless they also have faith in Christ and understand that the law is not their savior for everyone falls short.

1. NIV Study Bible: Kindle Version: (Acts 15), (Gal 2: 8, 15-16)