Paul Withstanding Peter

It is good to remember the theme of this first chapter, which is, that the gospel which Paul preached was not of men, nor did he receive it from men. He received both the gospel, and his apostolic call from the risen Lord Christ Himself. It appears to me that one of the lines of argument being used by the Judaizers against the apostle Paul was that Paul had not come under Peter's authority; that is, he didn't come under his authority as representing of all the 12 apostles. The Judaizers were asserting that since this was so, the gospel which Paul preached was in error. They were asserting that Peter and the other Apostles were really on their side; that they believed that the works of the law were necessary to be added to the gospel if people were really going to be saved from their sins. But Paul knew that this was not true at all. He knew that what he needed to do was to show the churches at Galatia the truth of 2 things about apostolic authority. 1st of all – The truth that there was parity among the Apostles of our Lord. And 2nd – The truth that even the apostle Peter had fallen into hypocrisy in his thinking and actions at one point. This is what we want to look at this time. May the Lord help us to have good views of apostolic authority, church authority, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.