2 Corinthians 11:22 Commentary and Bible Study

Paul now gives us this formidable list of his sufferings. The false teachers appear to have been saying to the Corinthians, ‘We should know, we are Jews; salvation is of the Jews. You are quite right to believe in Jesus Christ,’ they would have said. ‘How we need Jesus Christ. You are quite right to believe in him but you shouldn’t let Paul of Tarsus mislead you and you shouldn’t let him say to you that the law, the Jewish law is now not relevant for you. You have got to obey that too. You have got to obey the ceremonial law of the Jews.’ Of course, the moral law, the Ten Commandments are always binding on us but they were saying to these churches, Gentile converts, ‘You need to be circumcised, you need to worship like Jews worship. Christ is good, Christ will help you but to say it is all Christ: no, that is nonsense. You have to be like the Jews to a great degree and have Christ, both.’Well, of course, that completely undermined the gospel. The message of the gospel is Christ has come, fulfilling the ancient Jewish law and all the prophecies and he has suffered and died for his people on Calvary’s cross and trusting only in him we come to God and what he has done. No performance of ours counts for anything. ‘Fifty percent it is me, meticulously keeping certain ceremonials, and fifty percent it is Christ’ – there is no salvation in that. It is Christ alone. Of course, by his help, having been saved, I will do my utmost to keep his law but my work cannot save me. Only his atoning death, his suffering the eternal weight of punishment on my behalf when he died on Calvary’s cross.‘Are they Hebrews?’ Are they telling you that they must know best because they are Jewish? Well, so am I. Are they Israelites? Well, so am I? Are they the seed of Abraham? Yes, so am I. I am the apostle to the Gentiles. I am more Jewish, in a sense, than any of them.