SSL 2 - Galatians 2:11-21
Last week: In Galatians 1:1-12, we heard Paul's initial reaction to the Galatian's departure from the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. Here are two of the four main points of application: 1. In contrast to the true Gospel Paul received by direct revelation from Jesus Christ, the false gospel taught by the Judaizers was man-made and man-pleasing. Any teaching that adds legalistic requirements to the doctrine of salvation by faith is a false gospel that effectively nullifies the principle of grace. The best way to discern what is false is to know what is true, and the Bible is the only source of truth. 2. It's important for us to understand the error in the Galatian churches so that we can recognize similar false teaching today. It might come in the form of "legalism,' which adds requirements to salvation or sanctification that aren't supported by apostolic teaching; or it could be "liberalism," which bends to secular social pressure and allows moral behavior that is contrary to the Biblical standards affirmed over centuries by apostolic interpretation of OT and NT Scripture.
This week: In today's lesson, Gal 2:11-21, we will hear Paul's public rebuke of Peter for not only tolerating attempts by certain Jewish Christians-i.e., the "Circumcision Party"-to impose legalistic requirements of Mosaic Law on new Gentile Christians, but actually joining-in with the Jews to act with prejudice towards them. In vv. 1-10, immediately prior to our text, Paul talks about false disciples who compelled Titus, a Greek Gentile, to be circumcised. He accused these false disciples of sneaking in "to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into slavery" (v. 4), by which he meant placing them back under the Jewish Law. The major thrust of today's lessen can be boiled-down to two important choices: (1) We can choose to live by faith in Christ and experience God's grace; or (2) we can turn our backs on the idea of grace and try our level best to achieve righteousness under the Law (or by works), which, by the way, isn't possible.
Read Gal. 2:11-14 - PAUL'S OPPOSITION OF PETER
11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. 13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?"
v. 11: "But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned" - Antioch a major city in Syria, (see map) had been Paul's base of operations during his first missionary journey. Peter (Cephas, Aramaic) apparently had been visiting there for some time when this event occurred. The Greek word for "condemned," katakriná½¹, means to judge decisively, which in Paul's eyes, he was convinced that Peter was guilty of serious duplicity-two-faced.
v. 12: "For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party" - Peter's custom, when he was among Gentiles, had been to live like them and eat their food. This wasn't new to Peter, because this was the way he had been instructed (in a vision) to interact with the Centurion Cornelius and other Gentiles at his house at Caesarea as reported in Acts 10. In time, however, a party of Jews arrived at Antioch from Jerusalem, whom Paul referred to as coming "from James." We don't know whether James actually instigated the visit or if it was simply a reference to the Jerusalem church led by James. But after the arrival of the party from Jerusalem, Peter disassociated himself from the Gentile believers and stopped sharing meals with them, and from that point, only socialized with the Jews. The "circumcision party" were Jewish Christians who still observed Jewish dietary laws and celebrated Jewish festivals and holidays. They were free to do that, of course, just like any other ethnic groups who like to keep their traditions alive, but they weren't free to impose their lifestyle on others and turn it into a form of prejudice.
v. 13: "And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy" - The Greek word for "hypocrisy," hypokritēs, literally means to act under a mask, as in two-faced. In this verse we see Peter, as an influential leader, not only guilty of hypocrisy, but Paul's missionary partner, Barnabas, also falling into the same error. Insofar as Peter and Barnabas were both ethnic Jews, we might classify this as "peer pressure."
v. 14: "But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?" - When Paul recognized the seriousness of this situation, he confronted Peter toe to toe, eyeball to eyeball-both personally and publically. We need to note that Paul wasn't actually accusing Peter (or the other Jews) of preaching a false gospel, but what he and the other Jewish converts were doing, Paul correctly identified as sin. By no longer socializing with the Gentile believers, Peter and the other Jews had relegated them into a second-class status. If they wanted to associate with Peter and the Jewish Christians, they would need to adopt the Jewish practices. And Peter was clearly a hypocrite because he had only reverted to the Jewish practices after he had been pressured by the "circumcision party." Peter may not have violated the Gospel in so many words, but he did violate it in principle by his behavior, which showed prejudice toward Gentile Christians. To this extent, it was a man-made and man-pleasing distortion of the Gospel.
TRUTH 1: Paul's rebuke of Peter in this lesson should teach us that doctrinal error can be implied by our behavior and shows us to be hypocrites. Peter had no idea he was, in effect, denying the Gospel. He did it, not by his spoken statements, but by setting himself apart from the Gentile believers and thereby implying that they needed to keep the Law in order to be righteous. By doing this, acting with obvious hypocrisy, he compromised his Christian witness with Gentiles.
Read Gal. 2:15-16 - MAN IS NOT JUSTIFIED BY WORKS
15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
v. 15: "We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners" - By this statement, Paul emphasizes his Jewish origins in two ways: (1) he identifies himself among the people God choose as His nation starting with Abraham; and (2) by labeling Gentiles as "sinners," he's explaining that he understands the traditional attitude that religious Jews have toward all Gentiles. So, from his extensive Jewish heritage, he can identify with the Judaizer's point of view, but most importantly, he fully recognizes how the Judaizer's efforts to infuse the Mosiac Law into the Christian faith constitutes a perversion of the true Gospel.
v. 16: "yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified" - The Greek word for "justified," dikaioó, literally means to be made righteous, and in the context of salvation, can be understood in two ways: (1) God, in His grace, forgives the sin of those who have faith in Jesus Christ, cleansing them of sin so that they appear as if they never sinned; and (2) by our faith in Jesus Christ, we are reconciled to God and may now enjoy an intimate relationship with Him. The point Paul makes here is real simple: we are justified, not by keeping the law (or any other legalistic requirements), but solely by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. This is a key verse of Galatians we should memorize.
TRUTH 2: Paul conclusively establishes the principle that one can be or will ever be saved by works. The Greek word for "justified," dikaioó, literally means to be made righteous, and in the context of salvation, can be understood in two ways: (1) God, in His grace, forgives the sin of those who have faith in Jesus Christ, cleansing them of sin so that they appear as if they never sinned; and (2) by our faith in Jesus Christ, we are reconciled to God and may now enjoy an intimate relationship with Him.
Read Gal. 2:17-19 - I DIED TO THE LAW
17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.
v. 17: "But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!"- In this statement, Paul seeks to entirely discredit the warped idea that Jewish Christians somehow become "sinners" if, in the process, they give up the OT Law. The point that Paul drives home here, which totally invalidates the Jewish religious prejudices he referred to in v. 15, is that the Gospel is based on two undeniable facts: (1) all men and women stand equal before God and (2) acceptance of the Gospel is an admission of sin and the human inability to save ourselves whether you are a Jew or a Gentile Finally, Paul replies to the ridiculous idea that Jesus is somehow responsible for encouraging sin; namely, the contention of the Jewish Christians that Gentile converts were basically still living in sin because they were not keeping the law. No! This is clearly a man-made distortion of the Gospel based on religious prejudice. Amen?
v. 18: "For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor" - In this verse, Paul demonstrates that the Jewish Christians who attempt to keep the Law in reality have it backwards.
When he says to "rebuild what I tore down," he means a return to righteousness by Law-keeping. This is exactly what the Jewish Christian were doing when they tried to combine a system based on merit-Law-keeping-with a system based on grace-salvation by grace alone by faith alone in Jesus Christ. Main point: the two systems are completely incompatible. Do we have to keep on being saved and re-saved? Certainly not. We are saved once and for all. Amen?
v. 19: "For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God" - Paul's point is that by accepting Christ as Savior, a person "dies" to the Law, so that the guilt that the law places on the sinner is fully taken on by the sinner in Christ. The result is that the sinner "dies" to the law so that it can no longer condemn him or her. In Mt. 5:17, Jesus said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." Thus, Paul reminds us that the Gospel is a complete fulfillment of the Law. We now "live" forever.
TRUTH 3: The Jewish Christians in Galatia who were attempting to keep the Law in reality had it backwards. What they were trying to do was combine a system based on merit-Law-keeping-with one based on grace-salvation by grace alone by faith alone in Jesus Christ. Main point: the two systems are completely incompatible. Simply stated, once you're saved, you don't have to keep on doing other things to be re-saved or to otherwise complete your salvation. Its' done once and for all.
Read Gal. 2:20-21 - I HAVE BEEN CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness[a] were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
v. 20: "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" - This is probably the best known passage in Galatians, but we need to understand it in the context of Paul's rebuke of Peter, whose behavior contradicted the Gospel this verse summarizes.
The reason the Gospel repealed the Law is that the work of the Law was finished, by Christ. The Law showed man his sin and promised him salvation, not by keeping the Law but through the shed blood of a coming Savior/Messiah. When a person is saved by faith in Christ, he or she has died in Christ to the Law, and because Christ now lives within us, we are able to live righteously. We are now able to live a new life by faith. Because we are both saved and sanctified-made righteous-Christ has fulfilled the law in us.
v. 21: "I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose" - Paul concludes his argument here, saying, basically: you can't have it both ways. You have only two choices in the final analysis, and both are exclusive of each other: (1) you can live by faith in Christ and experience God's grace; or (2) you can turn your back on the idea of grace and try your level best to be righteous under the Law, which, by the way, isn't possible. Some things like east and west, lock and key, or love and marriage may go together, but not Law and grace.
TRUTH 4: Once a person is saved by faith in Christ, he or she has died in Christ to the Law. Because Christ now lives within us, we are able to live righteously and continue in a new life by faith. More- over, since we are both saved and sanctified-made righteous-Christ has fulfilled the law in us.
ANALYSIS: As Christians, this lesson shows us that we should expect to be tested on those very points which we believe most emphatically and espouse without exception. What happened to Peter can happen to any one of us under testing. You've all heard the cliché, "talking the talk but not walking the walk," but there is a lot of truth in that statement. John summarized this way: "If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth" (1 Jn. 1:6). As Christians, we must constantly guard both our speech and our behavior. Both Peter and James learned their lesson from Paul's rebuke as subsequently shown their strong support of the true Gospel and their opposition to the Judaizers at the Jerusalem Council. Later, James said it best in the following statement: "But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves" (James 1:22 ). A lost world, hungry for the truth, is watching us.
