The Apostle Paul said that God had called him to preach the gospel of the grace of God to the Gentiles. He also said that his message was not something he had learned from the leaders of the Christian Church in Jerusalem.

Gal 1:15-19
15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace,
16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,
17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days.
19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. (NKJ)

In Galatians, Chapter 2, Paul spoke of another trip he made to Jerusalem to meet with the leaders of the Jerusalem Church. That meeting is known as the Jerusalem Council, and its events are recorded in Acts 15. In that meeting it was decided that the Gentiles did not have to observe the rituals of the Mosaic Law to be saved.

When Peter mentioned that God had saved Cornelius (Acts 10) even though Cornelius was uncircumcised, Peter, James, and John agreed that Paul’s ministry among the uncircumcised believers was a legitimate ministry of God. Consequently, they agreed that even though the Jews would continue observing the rituals of the law, the Gentiles would not be required to do so.

Gal 2:9
9 and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. (NKJ)

After explaining these things in Galatians, Chapter 2, Paul revealed that real spiritual power can only come through a spiritual identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.

Gal 2:20
20 "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (NKJ)

The Holy Spirit of God, living within him, had given him something that the Law of Moses never could: deliverance from the bondage of sin.

Gal 2:17-19
17 "But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not!
18 "For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
19 "For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. (NKJ)

When Paul thought about the tremendous change that Jesus Christ had made in his heart and in his life, he declared that he would never frustrate the grace of God by giving up on the pure gospel of the grace of God.

Gal 2:21
21 "I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain." (NKJ)

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