This week, we are looking at a section of a letter to the members of the churches of Galatia that shares the story a major conflict that occurred between Paul and Peter, who was the undisputed leader of the twelve closest followers of Jesus and the early church. When some Jewish followers of Jesus from the church at Jerusalem came to Antioch Peter began to withdrawal and hold himself aloof. Peter separated himself from the Gentile followers of Jesus. Peter stopped mixing and mingling with the Gentile followers of Jesus. Peter stopped attending their BBQ’s. Instead Peter only hung out with Jewish followers of Jesus at their BBQ’s and only ate Hebrew national hot dogs. Paul explained that Peter’s change of behavior, combined with the influence that he had as a leader, resulted in every other Jewish follower of Jesus at Antioch following his example. Paul explains that the rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy.
A hypocrite is someone that says “here is the message and teachings of Jesus, and you need to follow them, but I am not going to follow them”. A hypocrite is someone who fails to follow the message and teachings that they impose on others. And that is exactly what Peter had done in Antioch. Previously, Peter clearly and accurately communicated and advocated for a gospel centered life and lifestyle that was based on faith and that strove to follow the message and teachings of Jesus. But now, Peter was clearly communicating and advocating a religious centered lifestyle that was based on faith in Jesus plus keeping a list of rules in order to be right with Jesus. Today, we will look at Paul’s response to Peter, which we see in Galatians 2:14:
But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, "If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?
When Paul saw that Peter was not being straight with the gospel, when Paul saw that Peter was beginning to distort the message of the gospel in a way that resulted in a religious centered life instead of a gospel centered life, Paul responded by confronting the undisputed leader of the Christian movement in front of the entire church. You see, this was not an open handed issue that was open for debate. This was a closed handed issue regarding the essence of the message of the gospel. Is the gospel faith in what God has done through Jesus? Or is the gospel faith in Jesus plus works for Jesus? And since Peter’s distortion of how the gospel is to be lived out had impacted the entire church, Peter needed to be confronted in front of the entire church.
Paul confronts Peter about not being straight with the gospel by asking him a question. This question, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “Peter, if you, being a Jew who grew up as a religious person trying to follow a list of rules to be right with God, but now have embraced a life that is freed from religion and instead follows Jesus by faith, if that is who you are, then why are you trying to make these non Jewish people, who are trying to follow Jesus by faith, live a life that follows a list of religious rules in order to be right with God? Peter, why are you trying to make these people follow a list of religious rules that you yourself have said do not need to be followed in order to be right with God?”
While Paul does not tell us how Peter responded, we know from Acts 15:3-30, that Peter responded to Paul’s confrontation and question by being straight with the truth of the message of the gospel and a gospel centered life. You see, Paul shared this story with the members of the churches of Galatia not to focus solely on what Peter had done. The reason why Paul shared this story was to bring the focus on what the members of the churches of Galatia were doing, because the members of the churches of Galatia were acting just like Peter had acted in Antioch. Paul wanted to use the story of his confrontation with Peter to address the similar error that was occurring in Galatia. We see Paul transition to the addressing the error in verse 15:
"We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles;
At first glance this seems like an arrogant statement, doesn’t it? It is as though Paul is saying “We Jews by nature are better than those sinful Gentiles”. However, Paul is not contrasting Jews and Gentiles in terms of non-sinners and sinners. Paul is contrasting something all together different. This sentence, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today would have sounded like this: “We, as Jews are insiders when it comes to living religious lives while the Gentiles have always lived irreligious lives”.
You see, the Jewish people, as a culture, had always tried to follow a list of religious rules in order to be right with God. By contrast, the Gentiles, as a culture, were irreligious people. Paul here is contrasting the religion of legalism that the Jewish people had embraced with the religion of license that the Gentiles embraced. Paul then takes that contrast and exposes the problem with a religious centered life in verse 16:
nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.
Now, word justified here was a legal term that means to be declared not guilty of having a problem with God. The works of the Law refers to the deeds that the Law, which are the first five books in our Bibles, commanded the Jewish people to do. Paul is saying “since we know that it is not what we do for God that results in us being declared not guilty of having a problem with God, even we have left a religious centered life. Even we, who were formerly trying to do things for God in order to be right with God, now recognize that it is only by placing our confident trust in what God has done for us through Jesus that we can be declared not guilty of having a problem with God.”.
Paul then makes a powerful statement to hammer his point home: “since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.” Paul’s point here is that there is nothing that any human being can do that can cause us to be not guilty when it comes to having a problem with God. Notice that Paul does not say some flesh; he says no flesh; no human being is able to earn their way into Heaven by what they do for God. And that, as we previously discovered, is the definition of religion. Religion is man’s attempt to do things for God in order to be right with God. Paul then continues by responding to a potential objection in verse 17:
"But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be!
Now this objection, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “Does the fact that we have placed our confident trust in what God has done for us through Jesus instead of what we can do for God in order to be right with God mean that Jesus is an agent of sin?” Sin here refers to the destructive and evil power of selfishness and rebellion that causes us to do things that hurt God and others. The religious centered people of Paul’s day were accusing Jesus of being a patsy that was used by sin in order to cause people to fall into sin. Paul responds to this objection with the strongest negative response that is possible in the language that this letter was originally written in.
Tomorrow we will see Paul provides the reason why Jesus is not the agent of sin and reveal another timeless reason why we are to vote no on religion…
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