12. Apostolic Authority Unleashed

Covering Galatians Chapters 1-2:

Galatians is about the ANGER of the Lord Jesus Christ coming through Paul. Make no mistake. Paul’s claim of “my gospel” was nothing other than the Lord Jesus declaring Himself through Paul.

I had thought to do Galatians partly thematically, but in actually delving into the task, I find that it doesn’t work as I had imagined. Each lesson will cover two chapters, except for one verse from Chapter 4 that I might place into the third lesson. That means that this lesson contains the entire layout for Galatians 2:20, that is, Ruling Verse 5. It also means that everything Paul says in Chapters 1 & 2 is driving towards Galatians 2:20, the strongest expression of a defining idea that has been percolating in Paul from the start.

A Mighty Companion. Two significant aspects of Ruling Verse 5 have entered my understanding only recently. The first, over the last few months, is the personal intimacy that is the nature of this union. The second, however, has hit me only as I have begun this study of Galatians. Inherent in Ruling Verse 5 is the absolute assertion that Jesus is Lord, not ought to be, not must be made, but IS.

In fact, this assertion allows us to bring Hebrews 1:3 in as a vital companion verse to Galatians 2:20. – This Son is the shining forth of glory and the character and exact reproduction of God’s substance, bringing forth, carrying, and sustaining all by His power-filled word. Having crafted through Himself the full cleansing away of all falling short, He sat down inside the right hand of exalted Majesty.

Absolutely Lord! Our intimacy is with one who is absolutely our LORD! And the Lordship of Jesus requires me to call every moment, circumstance, and interaction of my life as the Lord Jesus sharing all with me. Union with Christ is not “playing tiddly winks”; it is the authority of God towards us in every way.

Our intimacy with Jesus is found, then, inside of several profound realities, not in any order. (1) The absoluteness of the Cross, (2) Jesus sustaining us every moment, (3) the authority of Jesus towards us, (4) the ability of Jesus towards us, (5) the absolute gone-ness of all that opposes, (6) the all-ness in which Jesus gives us Himself, (7) a deep friendship with a mighty Person, (8) a shared form, and – so much more.

Opposing Fakery. I also find that Galatians 3 & 4 contain more of an intellectual argument, still coming out from anger, but combatting the mental arguments of the false preachers. Then we see that throughout all of Galatians, Paul’s anger is burning against an inherent and uncompromising dishonesty ruling in the fakery of those who say, “But you have to make Jesus Lord by obeying what He said.”

Astonishingly, Paul closed 2 Corinthians with “we are not fake,” and three months later he opened Galatians with the declaration that Peter – “played the fake game of hypocrisy.” When you acknowledge Jesus to be your only life, you cannot be fake, but when you seek to be approved by God in your own doings, FAKE is the only thing you can ever be.

One Who Is Sent. This is how we are to understand the whole of Galatians, union with Christ versus fakery. Union with Christ, then, includes the acknowledgement that Jesus is absolutely LORD of me. Every moment of my life is He giving Himself to me. Thus I acknowledge that this that I am experiencing right now is Jesus as Lord, imparting Himself to me.

Then Jesus Himself sends one of His own to me, one who speaks as the authority of Jesus. Such a one will never impart bondage, but will always call me free. Nonetheless, if I honor Jesus, I must also honor this one Sent of Him. Such a one was Paul. Paul’s declaration, “My gospel,” was absolutely Jesus speaking with Paul’s voice. One cannot regard Jesus without also regarding Paul.

Paul’s Authority. 1:1 • Paul, an apostle, one who is sent, not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and through God the Father, the One who raised Jesus out from the dead.

Nothing could be more plain. An apostle, in this case, Paul, is one who is SENT, which means that it is only the One who sent him who is speaking through him. This sending comes through Jesus and through the Father. It is not acceptable to downplay Paul’s Gospel. In complete contrast, we can know everything else in Scripture ONLY out from Paul’s Gospel – PUT the Lord Jesus Christ upon yourself.

Definition: An apostle is one who is Sent through Jesus and through the Father. In this case, it is Jesus speaking through Paul’s anger. To yield to Jesus is to submit to Paul’s authority.

Two Gospels. • 6 I am completely astonished that, so very soon, you are abandoning the One who called you inside the sphere of the grace of Christ – into a different ‘gospel,’’ 7 which is not another gospel at all.

There are two gospels. One is Paul’s gospel, and the other is not-Paul’s gospel. This continues as God’s pattern from the Garden, Life inside of Jesus, versus determining right and wrong yourself. Nonetheless, most Bible readers do not know Paul’s Gospel.

Covenant: There are two gospels, two covenants, two trees in the Garden of Eden, two minds by which we approach God. One is found in our own doing and is known by outward sight. The other is found in Jesus in us and is known through faith.

Through the Unveiling. • 11 …the gospel that I have preached is not according to man. 12 Neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation, the unveiling of Jesus Christ.

Something extraordinary is happening here. Paul uses the word “apocalupsis-apocalupto” twice. Yet Paul never imagined an “above-you” Jesus, nor any form of “superiority” with God. Whatever was true for him, must also be true for every least little one who believes into Jesus.

• 15 However, when God was pleased – the One who selected me out from the womb of my mother and called me through His grace – when God was pleased 16 to reveal, to unveil, to take the cover off from His Son inside all that is me, that I might preach Him among all the ethnic families, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood.

God Does the Apocalypse. Apocalupto, to be unveiled, is to have the cover taken off of one’s eyes to be able to see what is already True. This experience happened probably during Paul’s three-year sojourn in Arabia. While he was still in Damascus, Paul preached that Jesus was the Christ, no different from anyone else. But something must have troubled him deeply. Then God did the Apocalypse for Paul, which God was PLEASED to do, and he saw Jesus for REAL, Jesus as He is.

Now, Paul is writing this account in Galatians out from a deep way of thinking that has been lost to Nicene Christianity. Thus what he is actually saying is not found by most. But we need look no further than 2 Corinthians, written just three months earlier, to see the force of that Jesus whom Paul saw.

The Jesus Paul Saw. The Jesus Paul saw dwelt INSIDE of Paul, in Person and for real. This Jesus Paul saw filled all of Paul with all that He is, sharing Paul’s every step in intimate union. Paul knew the Scriptures, and he knew that this was the New Covenant prophesied by Jeremiah, that God would inscribe His laws inside our hearts of flesh. And Paul knew, in that moment, that this was Jesus as every Word fulfilled.

Yet Paul was an honest man; thus he knew that if Jesus was inside of him in Person, then that same Jesus was inside of every single believer in the same way. Paul KNEW that when he looked at his brethren, he was looking at Jesus as He is. Then, in a blinding flash, Paul saw the Glory of our Salvation, that as we see Jesus in one another’s faces, so we become just like Him. Not long after that moment, Paul turned around.

The Gospel Is the Apocalypse. Only those who have turned around, giving thanks inside of and for the sake of all things, seeing God in all ways now through them into their world, live as if Jesus is Lord. This whole picture is the only way of thinking that undergirds everything Paul asserts concerning “my gospel.”

Covenant: The Gospel is the Apocalypse, the Unveiling, that is, God taking the cover off of our eyes that we might see Jesus as He truly is, Jesus inside each of us as the Covenant written, Jesus for REAL, and Jesus coming to us as one another.

Covenant: God alone saves us, personally and by His immediate presence. God alone takes the cover from our eyes, and He is very pleased to do this for us. What was true for Paul in his relationship with God is just as true for us.

False Brothers. (Chapter 2) 4 This issue happened because false brothers had smuggled in secretly to plot against our freedom which we possess inside of Christ Jesus, in order to enslave us, to impose abject bondage on us. • 5 We did not yield under subjection to them even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel might thoroughly continue with you.

Paul is identifying himself with every other believer in Jesus, showing that if he does not yield, then neither need they.

• 11 When Peter came to Antioch, however, I opposed him and resisted him to his face because he was clearly guilty of blame. 12 You see… Peter had been eating with the ethnic families. But when these others came, he drew back and separated himself because he was terrified of those who were circumcised, and he played the fake game of hypocrisy.

As Paul Was Smitten. These two bullet points will share a comment. This is a negative, that Peter, and even John at that time, did NOT understand the Gospel. Those today who proclaim “the gospel according to Jesus,” that we must obey the things Jesus instructed us to do in the synoptic gospels, are included by Paul in his charge of “false brethren.” Why? Because they DO NOT! They just lie. That’s not the problem. The problem is that, in their FAILURE to obey, they still will not yield to God’s Salvation.

Definition: Peter and the other disciples, even including John at that time, did not understand the Gospel. This fact is fundamental, especially since they had spent time with Jesus. This fact must strike us as Paul was smitten, that we should place ourselves before God until HE unveils Jesus to us.

Defining “Works of Law.” 15 We… 16 KNOW… that • a man is NOT made justly innocent out of works of law, but through the faith of Christ Jesus; even we have believed into Christ Jesus, that we might be declared justly innocent of all fault out from the faith of Christ, and not out of works of law; because out of works of law no flesh will be declared justly approved.

When people think “works of law,” they think of the ritual requirements that came through Moses. That is not what it means. It MEANS every human attempt to connect with God, or to please Him, or to do God’s “will,” that sets aside the Jesus who fills us full as every Word already fulfilled. One who is filled with Jesus will love his brothers and sisters, also filled with Jesus, and, according to Paul in Romans 13, that is the True meaning of the law.

Coming to God. To be declared justly innocent by God, whatever that might mean, is the pre-requisite of ANY relationship we might have with God. How could anything any human does, in fake “trying to do what God wants,” satisfy whatever God requires in order to present us as someone who has never sinned? If God, in all Love and costliness, Sent Jesus into us that we might come to Him through Jesus, how would He not be angered by those who push Jesus aside and seek to come to God through their own iniquitous and deceitful self?

Covenant: To come to God through Jesus is to surrender to Jesus as absolute Lord. It is to forsake all of one’s own claims of self. Jesus alone CONNECTS anyone with God, the Covenant. Any attempt to come to God through “I got it right” is deceitful iniquity.

Dishonest Union. • 17 If we, however, who seek to be declared justly innocent INSIDE of Christ, ourselves are also found as those falling short of God, is Christ then a minister of sin? It cannot be! 18 Indeed, if I build again those things that I had torn down, I simply establish myself as being contrary. Indeed, having come through the law [and found it ineffective], I died to the law, that I might live to God.

Paul is addressing the accusations laid against union with Christ, which he will do again in Romans. We do know that some concern does have merit. I read a “union with Christ-er” on FB who declared that (my paraphrase), because I like hurting my fellow Christians, then that is Christ living as me. In other words, “my wicked actions that hurt others are caused by Jesus.”

Running into Jesus. Paul will say that the law brings us to Christ. Anyone who knows the law knows that doing wicked things cannot be Christ sharing with us in the doing of those things. I did those wicked things, not Jesus. I have made myself a transgressor, most certainly. What then? Do I turn to my own performance for the solution? Or do I RUN into Jesus? Yet upon running into Jesus, I find again that what I just did was already crucified with Christ, and I rest inside of Him with deep gratefulness, patiently waiting for Him to make me to love my brothers and sisters above my own life.

Covenant: If I do wicked things against others inside of union with Christ, that is NOT Jesus causing me to sin, even though He shares my life with me. Even so, when I see how wrong I was, I run into Jesus, who alone saves me.

An Intimate Union. • 20 I have been crucified with Christ. I live, however, but no longer I. Christ lives inside of all that is me [as me]. More than that, the life I now live inside this sphere of flesh, I live entirely inside the sphere of the faith of the Son of God, this One who loved me and who gave Himself [traded Himself] entirely for me.

I am following a similar layout for the Ruling Verses as before, designed to fit into a two-page spread.

Defining the Rule: We CANNOT save ourselves; we cannot fix ourselves. God alone saves us by sending the Lord Jesus into us as the only way for us to know God. We awake brand new inside of Jesus with the old already gone, we know not how. Now we are one with Jesus in Spirit and in flesh; we live in full and intimate union with Him, sharing every moment.

Expanded and Personal. I have already been crucified with Christ, the old is already gone. I live, for Jesus calls me by name (John 10:3), yet no longer “I” as separate from Him. Rather, Christ lives inside of all that is me, that is, Christ Jesus lives as me. More than that, the life I now live inside this sphere of flesh, flesh of His flesh, one flesh with Him (Ephesians 5:30-31), I live entirely inside the faith of the Son of God, this One who loves me and who gives Himself entirely for me, this One who gives Himself to me in trade, His Life for my life.

Christ Made Personal: Christ is my life; I have no other life. I share with Jesus in all; He gives me His life in trade even as He receives mine. Jesus loves me and calls me by name.

I find that understanding clearly Paul’s discussion thus far has enabled me to see how all the categories must fit.

Life and Covenant. Life: The one who has the Son has the Life (see 1 John 5:12). Christ Jesus, Spirit and Word together, is Life, the Source and Cause of Life. Ruling Verse 5 shows the intimate working by which Jesus makes us part of His Life. Life happens for us as the Personal and intimate action of the Lord Jesus in trading Himself for ourselves, Life for life.

Covenant: The Heart, the living and beating cause of our relationship with God is “Jesus loves me.” This giving of Life for life takes place inside the absolute faith of the Son of God and inside the absolute protection of the finished Cross.

Speak Christ: Paul is giving us probably the strongest example of speaking Christ in the Bible. In every line, Paul is declaring himself to be inside that which is already absolute. By making union personal to himself, he is making that same union to be personal to us.
 
Symmorphosed and Filled! Ruling Verse 1: Synergeoing and Symmorphosed, sharing the same Causative Action and sharing the same Form, is the definition of union with Christ. Yet Galatians 2:20 puts the intimate Love of “Jesus for me” into these mighty “togethers.” Then, “already crucified” and “already glorified” stand together as the beginning of our Christian lives, but Jesus actively initiating union with us is HOW it all happens for us.

Ruling Verse 2: Ephesians 3:17-19 shows us the exact relationship between Christ Jesus living inside our hearts and an entire Church filled with all the fulness of God. Galatians 2:20 shows us HOW that mighty transition happens. “To comprehend God together” requires the stunning realization that if Jesus lives as me, then He also lives as all who are my brethren, including those I do not like.

From Rivers to Intimacy. Ruling Verse 3: That which flows out cannot be anything other than that which flows in. Inflow first, outflow second. “If you thirst, come to Me and drink.” Yet we could not drink except Jesus be pouring Himself freely into us and receiving us wholeheartedly into Himself. Then, Rivers of Spirit will impact every distant place as this same intimacy.

Ruling Verse 4: Victory over the accuser inside our own souls must come before we can cast down all accusation against the Church. The faith of the Son of God is all the faith you need. The cross protects you from all that is not-Christ.

Ruling Verse 5: Union with Christ is the greatest surrender to Jesus as Lord that can be known. Jesus is Lord. “Jesus, You share all of my humanity with me. Jesus, every next moment is You sharing with me.” Like Paul, speak it be already True.

From Boldness to Love. Ruling Verse 6: We possess a BOLD proclamation of entrance. Union with Christ places us already inside of God. Sin is already gone, AND Jesus, our Scapegoat, now lives as us.

Ruling Verse 7: You are part of Christ IF you are confident that you are part of Christ. The faith of the Son of God is all the confidence we need. Everything Jesus is, He gives us freely as our own. And everything we are, Jesus receives from us freely as His own. As He is, so we are in this world (1 John 4:17).

Ruling Verse 8: Our surrender to union with Christ then allows our greatest surrender, that is, to the Father’s Heart, that Jesus has already turned us around upon Mercy. AND WE ALSO – Love, God through us into our world. For 1 John 3:16 to be real, then Jesus must actively share His propitiation with us, that we might share with Him in joining others with God.

The Rock and the Fire. Ruling Verse 9: We are seated upon Mercy, having turned around in full surrender to the Father only because Jesus already shares all with us. Our eyes are now fixed upon the entire Church, for Father’s sake, that she might know LIFE.

Ruling Verse 10: I live, yet not I but Christ. – You in Me and I in you. – One Spirit with Him, one flesh with Him. – Symmorphosed with the image of His Son. – This One who loves me, who gives Himself in trade for me. – He calls me by name. John 14:20 makes Symmorphy personal, and Galatians 2:20 makes it intimate. To know the Father is Life, and we know the Father through the intimacy of Jesus in us. We know that Jesus is absolutely Lord. Then – we put this same Lord Jesus Christ upon ourselves through faith, and upon the entire Church of Christ.
 
A Different Point of View. In all of my teaching until now, I have presented the Cross from a particular point of view. I have said that the Cross is the Doorway into Christ. That metaphor, of entering into a house, can still be useful to us. But now I see also a different point of view that might explain our reality a bit better.

The Cross is absolutely closed. There is no opening, no entrance. There is only burial – into the ground. You were guilty of all and executed; be silent about yourself.

It was your RESURRECTION by which God put you into Christ, in that moment when you asked Jesus into your heart. You were BORN into life, brand new. Your only knowledge of the Cross is that mighty wall all the way around by which you know nothing about that which is gone. Life is the entrance into Life; there is no other Way. You must be born again.

The Kingdom as Father Made Known. Kingdom: Galatians 2:20, intimacy with Jesus, is HOW everything fits together in perfect proportion, for God, for the Church, for us, and for creation. Intimacy is also surrender to another inside the highest respect. Thus Ruling Verse 5 enables the perfect balance between personal and social in all.

The Form for God through Jesus: Inside of Christ, inside of the protection of the Cross and the mighty Faith of Jesus, we find such a wondrous relationship with God and with one another as the dwelling place of God. Everything inside the gathering of the Church FITS God. Everything inside the gathering of the Church FITS us, but in two ways. Everything FITS us personally, and everything FITS our togetherness. It is Jesus the Lamb, in service to all, who makes this happen, the deep and pure intimacy of “the One who loves me.”

An Absolute Cross. • 21 I do not set aside or ignore the grace of God; indeed, if just approval and innocence comes through law, then Christ died for NOTHING!

The Cross is absolute – or it is NOTHING at all. Either “it is finished,” or it never began. All who labor before the cross, weeping over sin, trying to “get back on the cross,” and all who walk by outward sight and the performance of their own human doings, all of these do NOT believe in any cross at all and know nothing of any Grace.

Covenant: The Cross is absolute – or it is NOTHING at all. Either “it is finished,” or it never began. God placed us into Jesus by raising us into newness of life, brand new. We know nothing of what is outside the Cross. Grace is living with God.

How Everything Fits. In order to finish this lesson through several days of reaction to a spider bite, I have had to rely a bit more on my intellect. Because I KNOW that Jesus is Lord, I know that this that I am is He sharing all with me. Christ is all in me.

Yet what has happened as a result is vital, for the two mighty pillars of Galatians 2:20, the personal intimacy of sharing all with Jesus and the acknowledgment that Jesus is absolutely Lord, are now seen to be the core of how everything else fits together. Parts in proportion, everything set to the correct scale, a perfect balance between personal and social, how the impact of the Spirit far away can be just as intimate, how personal deliverance becomes deliverance for others.

Galatians 2:20 is the central HOW of God, the Word of our testimony. Union with Christ makes everything else happen.

Paul’s Authority. Every effort by every preacher of any form of human doing by outward sight, every opposition to Paul’s Gospel, every “hear and obey,” every particle of Nicene theology, is for one purpose only, to drag God’s precious people out of Jesus in their thinking and into that murky swamp “before the cross,” where everyone alternates between fierce wailing and fake trying. Hades is a swamp, not a Fire.

It is apparent that Jesus through Paul would be ANGRY with such perverse mis-representation of the Gospel. Jesus is carrying that last little one inside Himself, and they are the hands reaching up from the muck grasping for control. Paul’s statement, “My Gospel,” contains All Authority upon earth inside of heaven. Inside of Jesus, inside the intimacy of Galatians 2:20, we are absolutely SAFE.

Reading for Next Time. My present hope is to have two lessons completed this next week. I hope to have 13: “Two Covenants” on the website for you to read and listen to prior to the next Zoom meeting, and then share with you 14: “Walk inside of Spirit” next time. I have six lessons penciled in, then, for Romans, which will be followed by two for Colossians and then Ephesians.

Understand, now, that these strongest Gospel books flow across the upcoming season of Tabernacles in this year of our Lord, 2025. I do not imagine that I must be “correct” concerning the critical nature of these next two months, but what I do assert is that I will not be found outside of Jesus as God begins to reveal Jesus as He is to His Church.

Let’s Pray Together. “God, our Father, we know that You have placed Jesus inside of us that we might know You. We know that everything Jesus is, we have become, and that everything we are is found inside of Him. Father, we know that this is for great purpose, that You have turned us around, even as we have given and devoted our lives entirely to You, for Your Purposes.

“Father, we know that You are so eager to unveil the Lord Jesus to everyone whom You have given to Jesus. This is Your great and eager yearning, Oh God. We just pray that whatever role You have for us, that we would be found – we are found, inside of Jesus.

“Father, we pray that Your same intimacy, this intimacy of Life we share together, would now proceed out from us into Your entire Church. We know that this is Your intention, this is what You are doing. And we give ourselves utterly to You, our Father, knowing that we are KEPT. We believe You, Oh God, inside of Jesus’ name. Let it be so; it is so.”