Galatians | 2:11-21

Apr 28

About this series:

Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia is a heartfelt defence of the gospel of God's grace; a fervent appeal to keep the gospel front-and-centre and to not allow anything to detract from it.

In this letter Paul sounds exasperated at some points - for example, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel - which is really no gospel at all” (1:6) and, “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” (3:1), which The Message renders as, “You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a spell on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it’s obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives.”

Paul’s frustration and anger stem from a passionate concern that the churches he planted return to a full confidence that it is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone that a person is justified by God and is included in God’s family. Nothing else is required. The message he preached to the Galatians, and which they had believed, is not so much a departure from their Jewish heritage, as the fulfilment of it. Thus, in this letter we have a window into life in early Christianity and especially some of the challenges the churches faced from false teachers as the church grew from its Jewish roots.

So in this series we’re going to get a big view of what the life, death and resurrection of Jesus has achieved for mankind. And some very practical help on how we can stay true to Jesus, trusting him alone to put us in a right relationship with God, to keep us in that right relationship and to qualify us for membership among God’s people. ‘The central message of Galatians is that the freeness of God’s grace and love is not only the gateway but also the pathway of the Christian life’ (Dane Ortlund).

About this talk:

In this section Paul details his confrontation with Peter because of what he believed was Peter’s anti-gospel action of withdrawing from eating with Gentile Christians.

The occasion is, “When Cephas (Peter) came to Antioch.” It may be that by this time Paul was based in Antioch (see Acts 13:1-3), which would make strategic sense given that it was the third largest Roman city of that time, after Rome and Alexandria. Again there is debate about the timing of these events, particularly where this fits in the book of Acts. Was it before Acts 13:1-3, during Paul’s extended stay at Antioch after his first missionary visit (Acts 14:26-28) or during Paul’s stay in Antioch after the Council’s letter to Gentile believers had been delivered (Acts 15:35)? The options are varied and complex, but if the visit to Jerusalem mentioned in 2:1 refers to the famine visit of Acts 11:30, then I think it most likely that Peter’s visit to Antioch should be placed during Paul’s time in Antioch mentioned in Acts 14:16-28.

Either way, the Jewish Christians who came (or claimed to come) from James somehow persuaded or pressured Peter to withdraw from fellowship with uncircumcised Gentiles. There appears to have previously been no requirement from Peter for Gentile Christians to adopt Jewish practices, but there may still have been sharp disagreement in the churches about how Jewish Christians should relate to Gentile Christians. Peter, though, had been perfectly happy to have fellowship with Gentile Christians. And what is at stake is not mere preference, certainly not just cultural expression, but, v 14, “the truth of the gospel” (cf. v 5). ‘We must assume that Paul viewed the sharing of meals between Jewish and Gentile believers as a critical indication of the status of the Gentiles within the people of God’ (Douglas Moo).

Paul says the conduct of Peter and “the other Jews,” and of Barnabas was:

v 13: “Hypocrisy,” acting in a way that is not the real deal.
v 13: Being “led astray.”
v 14: “Not acting in line with the truth of the gospel,” not walking straight regarding the gospel.
v 14: Not even consistent with Peter’s former conduct.

‘Even Barnabas! Barnabas had been with him through the joys and the trials of the mission in Galatia. They had shared everything; they had prayed and worked and celebrated and suffered side by side. They had themselves welcomed many non-Jews into the family. And now this’ (N. T. Wright).

So, in v 15ff, Paul gets to the heart of the matter in this letter and the heart of the specific incident he has just related: justification. All were agreed about the universal predicament of mankind’s sinfulness in light of God’s holiness. The question, of course, was: how, then, can one be justified, put into a right relationship with God, included in his covenant people and inherit the blessing to Abraham? The Old Testament was clear: God had chosen Israel and had then commanded certain ways of living that acted as identity markers of inclusion in God’s family. The Judaizers were happy enough to accept that Jesus was the Messiah, but said that to live as a member of God’s people one needed both Jesus and the law; or to begin with Jesus and continue with the law. Paul’s argument, though, is that we are right with God through Christ alone and that to add any other requirement (including the law of Moses) means that salvation is, in reality, not through Christ alone. To then make a distinction between what is required of Jewish Christians and of Gentile Christians is to make something other than Christ alone the defining mark of inclusion in the people of God and to drive a wedge between parts of the family of God, who are in fact entirely united on the basis of Christ alone.

The rest of this section contains some complex theology and some phrases that require a great deal of understanding - eg. “But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin?” (v 17); “If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a law-breaker” (v 18); “For through the law I died to the law” (v 19). The commentaries do a good job of working through this.

But the essential message is clear: Jew and Gentile are justified on the same basis: Christ and Christ alone. All other requirements have been put to death in Christ, in whose death we too have been crucified, so that we “might live for God”; a life of “faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” and who “lives in me.”