Running the Race in Vain
2: 2b
Running the race in vain DIG: Why was Paul’s salvation equals faith plus nothing so radical in Paul’s day? How did Peter use his “keys to the Kingdom?” What did “binding and loosing” mean for the apostles? Why was Paul uneasy going up to Jerusalem? How did Paul show great wisdom in the way he dealt with the leaders of the Messianic community in Jerusalem? Why was it important that James, Peter and John endorse Paul’s gospel?
REFLECT: Who are you accountable to in your ministry? Have you ever had to change what you were doing? How did you handle that discipline? What race have you run in vain in your life? What did you learn from that experience? How have you helped others not get off in the wrong direction in their life?
Paul went up to Jerusalem to submit his gospel of Gentile inclusion to the authority of the James, the other apostles and the Messianic community.
48 AD
Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus with me. Because of a revelation, I went up and presented to them the Good News that I proclaim among the Gentiles (2:1-2a).
Paul’s salvation equals faith, plus nothing gospel does not sound too controversial today, but he had a sinking feeling in his stomach as he, Barnabas, and Titus approached Jerusalem. He knew that he was teaching something outside the apostolic norm. Special revelations from heaven are good, but Paul had not yet cleared that teaching with the authority in Jerusalem. He had never submitted his gospel (Romans 2:16 and 25; Second Timothy 2:8) to the apostles. Up until then, he was the only one teaching salvation equals faith plus nothing. But he had been teaching on his own initiative, without authority and without sanction from those to whom our Master gave the power to bind and loose and to govern the Body.
Yeshua had said to Peter: I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 16:19). Whenever the words key or keys is used symbolically in the Bible, it always symbolizes the authority to open or close doors (Judges 3:25; First Chronicles 9:27; Isaiah 22:20-24; Matt 16:19a; Revelation 1:18, 3:7, 9:1 and 20:1). Peter will be responsible to open the doors of the Church. He will have a special role in the book of Acts. In the Dispensation of the Torah, humanity was divided into two groups, Jews and Gentiles. But in the Dispensation of Grace, because of what went on in the intertestamental period, there were three groups of people, Jews, Gentiles and Samaritans (Matthew 10:5-6). Peter would be the key person (pun intended) in bringing in the Jews in 30 AD (Acts 2), the Samaritans in 34 AD (Acts 8), and the Gentiles in 38 AD (Acts 10) into the Church by receiving the Holy Spirit. Once he opened the door it stayed open.
Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven (Mattityahu 16:19b). The perfect tense is used here, meaning that whatever is already God’s decision in heaven will be revealed to the apostles on earth. It literally says: Whatever you prohibit on earth will have already been prohibited in heaven. The terms binding and loosing were common in the rabbinic writing of that day. From the Jewish frame of reference, the terms binding and loosing were used by the rabbis in two ways: judicially and legislatively. Judicially, to bind meant to punish, and to loose meant to release from punishment. Legislatively, to bind meant to forbid something, and to loose meant to permit it. In fact, the Pharisees claimed binding and loosing for themselves, but God really never gave it to them. At that time, Yeshua gave this special authority to Peter alone. After His resurrection Messiah gave the unique authority to bind and loose in legislative matters and in judicial punishment to the other apostles. Once the talmidim died, however, that authority died with them.
As the apostle to the Gentiles, Paul’s three years (35-37 AD) in Arabia (to see link click An – Arabia during the Time of Paul) came after salvation to the Jews and the Samaritans, but before salvation came to the Gentiles in 38 AD (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Fx – On This Rock I Will Build My Church). Therefore, Paul was preaching his gospel of salvation equals faith plus nothing before Peter opened the keys to the Kingdom to the Gentiles. But that also meant that for more than ten years Paul had been preaching his gospel without the official approval of the apostles in Jerusalem.
That is why Paul probably felt uneasy as he went up to Yerushalayim, because he knew that he had not confirmed his calling, his ministry, or his gospel had not been confirmed by those in authority. So, Paul took advantage of the famine-relief trip to Jerusalem (see Au – After Fourteen Years, Paul went up to Jerusalem, and took Titus and Barnabas with Him) to seek a private audience with James, Yeshua’s half-brother, Peter, the first of the Twelve, and John, the son of Zebedee, the disciple whom Yeshua loved. He sought confirmation of those three pillars, and whoever of the other apostles might be available. He said: I did so privately to those who seemed to be influential, to make sure I would not run – or had not run – in vain (2:2b). The private meeting set the stage for the public council that followed (see Ax – False Brothers slipped in to Spy Out our Freedom in Messiah). It was of the greatest importance that the believers in Galatia, and everywhere else, understand that Paul’s gospel of grace was identical to that of the other apostles and that it was the Satanic message of the Judaizers that was the counterfeit of God’s saving truth.43
What does Paul mean by, I might be running, or had run, in vain? Paul uses his favorite metaphor, borrowed from Greek athletics, the stadium foot race, in speaking of his missionary career. He had been taking his salvation of faith plus nothing to God-fearing Gentiles for more than ten years. Suppose he came to Yerushalayim and said, “Shalom, I have good news. Multitudes of Gentiles had embraced the faith, and I told them that they don’t even have to become Jewish to enter the Kingdom of heaven, to merit the resurrection, the world to come, and a right standing within the people of God. In fact, I’ve been telling them they don’t even need to be circumcised or follow the six-hundred-and-thirteen commandments of Moshe. Isn’t that great?” And suppose James and the apostles replied, “Paul, are you out of your mind? That’s heretical and contradicts the teachings of Messiah entrusted to us. You cannot do that!”
If they said that, Paul would have been running his race in vain. It’s like a runner in a footrace who takes off from the starting line, running as hard as he can to win the race. He runs for miles. He sees no one around and assumes he must be in the lead. But then someone tells him, “Hey, you are off the race route. You’ve been running in the wrong direction.” It has happened to me before.
Paul did not want to run his race in vain. He once wrote to the God-fearing Gentile believers in the city of Philippi, beseeching them to prove their faith and commitment in Yeshua so that I may boast in the day of Messiah that I did not run or labor in vain (Philippians 2:16). He regarded the Gentile believers as proof that he had not run, or labored, in vain. They were the first-fruits of his gospel message.44
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