This week we have been looking
at a section of a letter that is recorded in the New Testament of the Bible
called the book of Galatians as a man named Paul shared the story a major
conflict that occurred between himself and Peter, who was the undisputed leader
of the twelve closest followers of Jesus and the early church.
This conflict was so heated
that Paul states that Peter stood condemned. In other words, Peter was
convicted of wrongdoing. We talked about the reality that when Peter first came
to Antioch, he was mixing and mingling with the members of the church at
Antioch, which was primarily composed of Gentiles. And as Gentiles, these
followers of Jesus did not follow the Jewish dietary laws; they enjoyed BBQ
ribs and pulled pork sandwiches. And Peter was going to their church dinners
and eating some pulled pork and BBQ with them.
However, things changed when some Jewish followers of
Jesus from the church at Jerusalem came to Antioch to visit. Peter stopped
mixing and mingling with the Gentile followers of Jesus. Peter stopped
attending the BBQ’s at the church. Instead Peter only hung out with fellow
Jewish followers of Jesus at their BBQ and only ate Hebrew national hot dogs.
Since the Jewish followers of Jesus viewed themselves as
being superior to the Gentile followers of Jesus at Antioch, they would not
hang out with the Gentile followers of Jesus. And Peter, who did not want to
get on the wrong side of his fellow Jewish followers of Jesus, changed his
behavior so as to no longer hang around the Gentile followers of Jesus. 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.
Previously, Peter clearly and accurately communicated and
advocated for a gospel centered lifestyle that was based on faith and that
strove to follow the message and teachings of Jesus. Previously, Peter had no
problem hanging out with Gentile followers of Jesus who were different in their
customs as a result of being from a different ethnic and racial background.
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. Now, Peter was clearly
distancing himself from other races so as to hang out solely with those who
were of the same race and who had the same customs
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. Instead this was a closed handed issue
regarding the essence of the message of the gospel.
Is the gospel faith in what God had done through Jesus
regardless of race? Or is the gospel faith in Jesus plus works for Jesus as a
result of being a part of the Jewish race? Is the gospel open to every race? Or
do other races first have to become like the Jewish race before they can be a
part of the community of faith? And since Peter’s distortion of how the gospel was
to be lived out had impacted the entire church, Peter needed to be confronted
in front of the entire church.
The issue for Paul then led him to confront Peter in
front of the entire church at Antioch was that his behavior was not lining up
with what he said he believed and had been proclaiming. There are things that
we believe about the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel and those
beliefs should drives us to behave in a gospel centered way. Here, however,
Peter’s behavior was clearly contradicting what he said he believed about the
gospel.
And because of that reality, Paul called Peter out in
front of the entire church because of the disconnect between his beliefs and
his behavior when it came to how he was engaging the different races with the
gospel. While Paul does not tell us how Peter responded, we know from the
subsequent church council that is recorded for us in 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 what happened with the members of
the churches of Galatia not to focus solely on what Peter had done. The reason
why Paul shared what happened 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 what
happened with his confrontation with Peter to address the similar error that
was occurring in Galatia. We see Paul transition from sharing what happened to
the addressing the error that the churches were making in Galatians 2:15:
"We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles;
At first glance this seems like an arrogant and even
racist statement, doesn’t it? It is as though Paul is saying “Us who are Jews
by race are better than those sinful Gentile races”. However, Paul is not
contrasting Jews and Gentiles in terms of being non-sinners and sinners as a
result of race. 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 race and 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 race and 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 then exposed 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, the word justified, in the language that this letter
was originally written in, 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, which were referred
to as the Law or the Torah, 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, regardless of race,
that can cause us to be not guilty when it comes to having a problem with God.
No human being, regardless of race, is able to earn their way into Heaven by
what they do for God. And that is the
definition of religion. Religion is man’s attempt to do things for God in order
to be right with God.
And it is here that we discover another reason why the claims of Christ and the message
of the gospel provide the only solution to the problem of racism. And
that timeless reason is this: The gospel best addresses the issue of racism
because the gospel produces a community of faith that walks in step with Jesus
and embraces all races. You see,
our belief in the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel should produce
behavior that walks in step with the claims of Christ and the message of the
gospel. And the behavior that walks in step with the claims of Christ and the
message of the gospel will produce communities of faith that embrace all races.
As followers of Jesus we are to embrace all races because
we are all declared not guilty of having a problem with God the same way,
regardless of race. We are declared not guilty of having a problem with God not
because of our performance for God, or our racial background or religious
activity. Instead, we are declared not guilty of having a problem with God as a
result of placing our confident trust in what God has done through Jesus,
regardless of race.
But the message of the gospel does not simply address how
we are declared not guilty of having a problem with God so that we can
experience the relationship with God that we were created for. The message of
the gospel also addresses how we are to live out our day to day lives as
followers of Jesus in community with one another. And the message of the gospel
is clear that we are to live in a community of faith that walks in step with
Jesus and embraces all races.
Yet while Peter had initially understood and embraced
that reality, over time and under the influence of those who viewed their race
as the better race, Peter ended up reverting back to the beliefs and behavior
that had dominated his life prior to encountering Jesus and the message of the
gospel. And as a result, Peter needed to be confronted about the reality that
his behavior was clearly contradicting what he said he believed about the
gospel.
So here is a question to consider: if you were to find
yourself in this event from history as a character in this event from history,
who would you be? Would you find yourself in this event from history as Peter?
Would you find yourself as a person who believes one way when it comes to how
the gospel impacts our relationship with the races, but behaves an entirely
different way?
Or would you find yourself in this event from history as
Paul? Would you find yourself as a person whose belief in the message of the
gospel has transformed how you relate to people of different races?
Because the timeless reality is that the gospel best addresses the issue
of racism because the gospel produces a community of faith that walks in step
with Jesus and embraces all races.
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