Threats to the Gospel - Part Two

The other day I was looking for something in the kitchen cupboard when I happened to notice a box tucked way in the back that I hadn’t seen before. So I asked my wife what was in it.

She said to me “Peter, I want you to promise me that you will never look in that box.” Well, that got my curiosity! Over the next several days, I just couldn’t stop wondering what might be in that box. So finally, my curiosity got the best of me. One day, when Carolyn was out, I fished the box out of the cupboard and opened it.

In the box were three eggs and several hundred dollars. Well, I didn’t know what to make of that. When she returned home, I said to her “Carolyn, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have looked into that box, but I did. My curiosity just got the best of me. And it’s even worse now. I can’t understand it. Three eggs and several hundred dollars? What does that mean?

“Well,” she said, “we’ve been in the ministry for about 20 years now. And every time you preach a bad sermon, I go ahead and put an egg into that box.”

“Well, I guess that’s not so bad.” I thought. “Twenty years of sermons and there’s only three eggs in the box. But where’d you get all that money?” I asked her.

She just smiled and said “Every time I get a dozen eggs, I sell them.”

I hope that this sermon doesn’t end up putting another egg into the box!

We’ve been studying the book of Galatians, and today we find ourselves in the middle of chapter 2. Paul has been talking about the Good News of God’s grace, and how there are certain threats or influences that can pull us away from that grace.

Last week, we discovered that there are people who look like Christians, and sound like Christians, but who want to dilute the Gospel of Grace with other things. They want to get you so preoccupied with other issues that you lose sight of what being a Christian is really all about.

Now this week, Paul is going to tell us about something that happened between himself and Peter in Antioch. Let’s look at the text, beginning in v. 11…

When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

Now Paul uses this episode with Peter to teach us several important truths about grace. I have divided this section into six parts, as you can see from the study notes.

1. The FREEDOM of grace - v. 12a

When Peter first arrived in Antioch, he enjoyed fellowship with the Gentile Christians there. They ate together. It was the custom of the early church to have a communal meal—they called it a love feast—at which they also celebrated the Lord’s Table. Paul has a great deal to say about this in 1 Corinthians. So there was beautiful fellowship and worship together around the table.

This was no problem for Peter because although he had been raised an orthodox Jew, he was now quite comfortable in the company of Gentiles. An observant Jew would never eat with Gentiles, because he would be afraid of breaking the dietary laws of Judaism which called for the food to be prepared a certain way, and so forth. The Gentiles ate pork and other foods that the Jews considered unclean.

But back in the book of Acts, chapter 10, God taught Peter a lesson. Peter had been up on the roof of the house where he was staying in Joppa. It was around lunchtime and he was hungry. And as he was praying, he had a vision of heaven opening, and a sheet being lowered in which there were all kinds of animals which the Jews considered to be unclean.

And he heard the voice of God saying “Rise, Peter, kill and eat.” But Peter said “No way, Lord. I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” But God said “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” And this happened three times.

Just then, there was a knock on the door. It was some men from Caesarea who wanted Peter to come with them to their master’s house. A Roman centurion named Cornelius needed to hear the Gospel. And Peter went there, and preached the Gospel, and they believed, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. And Peter learned that, in God’s sight under the Gospel of grace, there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles.

So there was no problem when Peter came to Antioch for him to sit down with these Gentile Christians and partake of that love feast with them. Maybe there was ham on the table, maybe pork chops. Didn’t make any difference.

He enjoyed complete freedom to fellowship with those brothers and sisters because he knew that a person’s standing before God doesn’t depend on trivial things like what you eat. It depends on God’s grace. So Peter enjoyed the freedom of grace. But then something happened to take away his freedom…

2. The FEAR of men - v. 12b–13

Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.

Now the James that Paul is referring to here is James the half-brother of the Lord Jesus. He had been an unbeliever prior to Jesus’ crucifixion, but after Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to him, he became a disciple.

And he also became a very influential leader in the Jerusalem church. He was known for being very devout. They called him “old camel knees” because he knelt in prayer so much that he built up callouses on his knees.

Now James himself was not the problem. He was a godly man. He didn’t support the views of the Judaizers. But some of the people around him did. They were super-strict. They were zealous to maintain the Jewish Law. And when they came to Antioch, guess what they found? They found Peter—one of the leaders of the Jerusalem church—sitting down and eating ham sandwiches with the Gentiles.

Have you ever felt the disapproval of someone because you’re not measuring up to their standard of proper conduct? Have you ever felt that ice-cold stare of reproof; that frown of criticism? Well that’s what Peter felt.

And how did he respond? He responded like a whipped puppy. With his tail between his legs, he withdrew from fellowshiping with the Gentiles and he went over to a separate kosher table that these Judaizers had set up. Because he was afraid of them. Even though he knew better, he was afraid of their opinion. He was afraid of being accused by them of not being spiritual enough because he wasn’t dotting his i’s and crossing his t’s the way they thought he should.

That’s exactly what the Pharisees accused Jesus of—they accused him of not being spiritual enough. They accused him of hanging around with the wrong crowd, and eating with sinners, and disregarding the traditions of the elders.

Legalists are always pointing the finger at others. I remember a time in Buffalo when our church was invited to be involved in a big evangelistic rally. But we were told that we couldn’t be on the platform committee because we allowed our women to wear pants to church.

Another time when I was serving on the organizing committee of the Billy Graham Crusade in Long Island. And I called up the pastor of a Bible church in the neighborhood to invite him and his people to be involved in the Crusade. And he said “Oh no. We don’t support Billy Graham. He allows people of all different denominations to help out with his crusades.”

When legalism creeps into the church, it brings division. When Christians start setting up artificial standards of spirituality and firing pot-shots at other Christians over them, you get exactly what happened at Antioch—division, disunity, separation, hypocrisy. Imagine how these Gentile Christians felt when they saw Peter turn his back on them.

This was not Peter’s finest hour. He was wrong for doing what he did. And he set a bad example, because Paul says in verse 13 that “The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.” When you sin, you don’t do it alone—your sin affects other people. It has a ripple effect.

Thank God for…

3. The FAITHFULNESS of Paul - v. 11, 14

The book of Proverbs says “faithful are the wounds of a friend.” He rebuked Peter. And he did it to his face, not like some people in the church who criticize you behind your back. It was a public sin, and it needed to be dealt with publicly.

Paul says in verse 14 “When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?” He says in verse 11 “I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong.”

Sometimes we need somebody like Paul to stand up and tell us to our face that we are wrong. We are wrong to cave in to the legalists who want to reduce the Christian life to a list of do’s and don’ts. We are wrong to treat fellow believers like second class citizens just because they don’t measure up to an artificial set of standards that somebody has set up as a test of how spiritual you are.

Paul really did Peter, and the church, a favor here. His courageous stand resulted in three things in Peter’s life.

1. Repentance - we know that Peter had a change of heart about this issue because of what he said about it at the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15.

2. Peter gained a new appreciation for God’s grace - in his epistles, Peter wrote about how we need to “stand fast in the grace of God”. Don’t let anybody pull you away from grace into legalism.

3. Peter and Paul remained solid friends and co-workers in the church. In his second letter, Peter commended Paul to the believers and said “Now you listen to my dear brother Paul because he has some important things to say in his letters.”

I’m glad that Paul was courageous enough to stand up and speak the truth in love in this situation. Now he goes on to talk about…

4. The FELLOWSHIP of the Gospel - v. 15–16

“We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

Among other things, the Gospel of grace brings all people together under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. When you get on an airliner, you’ll find first-class, business-class, and economy class. Well that’s not like the church! There’s no such thing as first-class, second-class, or third-class Christians. We’re all sinners, whether Jews or Gentiles, black or white, male or female, and we all need God’s grace. Because we can’t get to heaven by observing the law. That’s…

5. The FOLLY of legalism - v. 17–19

If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not!

Remember, the Gospel has two components—good news and bad news. The bad news is that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23). “We all like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way.” (Isa. 53:6) That’s bad news!

Now the Jews were convinced that this bad news didn’t apply to them. They did not regard themselves as “sinners” like the Gentiles. They were convinced that if they just tried hard enough to obey the Law, that would be good enough for God. And there are many people who believe that today. They don’t believe that they are sinners. They believe that they’re going to get to heaven by their good works.

But when you begin to really understand the Gospel, you begin to understand that, yes indeed—you are a sinner. There’s no way that you can work your way into God’s favor. No way you can ever do enough good deeds. No way that you can ever perfectly keep God’s Law. So the Gospel, in a sense, adds to the number of sinners in the world by making it obvious to people who previously thought they were OK that they’re not OK.

Does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not. If you go to a doctor and he pokes you and probes you and tells you that you are sick, does that mean that he is promoting illness? Absolutely not. You’ve got to know that you’re sick before you’ll be ready to take the cure.

When you finally realize that you can never get to heaven by keeping the Law, you will finally be willing to turn your back on the Law, and on legalism as a way of salvation. It’s a dead-end street—it doesn’t work. You know you can’t prop yourself up before God by standing on the Law. It won’t hold your weight. And so, in that sense, you have destroyed it. You found out that it doesn’t work, so you throw it away.

Now Paul says something very important in the next verse. He says…

If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker.

If, after having come to God through faith in Jesus Christ, I then go to the trash heap pick up the Law, dust it off, glue it back together and try to use it as the basis for my standing before God, all I will succeed in doing is just proving that I am a lawbreaker all over again.

For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.

As Christians, we are to live our lives not by a system of law-keeping; not by a list of do’s and don’ts; not by the folly of legalism. We died to the law when we came to God through Jesus Christ, so that we might live day to day by simply trusting in him. And this is what Paul explains in verses 20–21:

6. Our FAITH-UNION with Christ - v. 20–21

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

When Jesus died on the cross, he was dying for me. The Law says “That guy Peter McKnight is a sinner. He has broken God’s holy standards by his words, by his thoughts, and by his actions. He is guilty. Therefore he must bear the penalty and be separated from God forever.”

But Jesus stepped forward in my place and said “I will take the penalty for this guilty man.” And when Jesus died, in a sense, I was dying too, because he was my substitute. He took my record on him.

So in that sense, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live. As far as the Law is concerned, I’m dead and buried. Dead men don’t get summonses. You’ll never see a process-server knocking on the gates of a cemetery. The Law doesn’t have a claim on me anymore. My debt has been paid, my penalty satisfied.

And now, I live day to day—not under obligation to the Law—but by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. He’s living in me, you see. And it’s my job to be sensitive to his leading, to listen for his prompting, to let him live through me. And that’s not a dry duty; it’s a privilege.

When I was a little boy of five or six, I can remember the times when my Dad would let me drive the car. (That’s not as bad as it sounds!) We were usually out somewhere on a deserted country road on our summer vacation. And I would climb up on his lap behind the steering wheel of our old blue ‘49 Pontiac.

My feet couldn’t reach the pedals, so he’d take care of the gas and the brake. And he’d let me steer. I remember taking it very seriously, as any little boy would. My knuckles were white on that steering wheel as I peered over the dashboard, concentrating on guiding that great big car down the road. I’m sure we never exceeded about 10 mph!

But sometimes, I would begin to get a little too far over to the side of the road, or maybe try to take a turn too sharp. And that was when, with an unseen hand on the steering wheel, my father would gently nudge us back to the center.

And that’s a pretty good illustration of Galatians 2:20. We’re not driving the Christian life alone. We’re sitting in the arms of the Savior. And he’s providing the motive power. Our hands are on the steering wheel, to be sure, but so are his. And we just need to be aware of his input, and not fight it, but yield to it.

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Maybe you’ve been trying to live the Christian life according to legalism. You’ve got this list of do’s and don’ts that you carry around in your head. I don’t know where you got it. Maybe you got it from the way you were brought up. Maybe you got it from something you heard or read.

But it’s stifling you, and it’s strangling out the joy in your life, and it’s causing strife between you and other believers. Maybe what you ought to do right now is just take that list and lay it at the foot of the cross.

And say “Jesus, I want to live my life in dependence upon you. I want to listen to your voice, not somebody else’s list. I want to do what you want me to do. Steer my life, Lord. Take hold of the wheel. Guide me. Live your life through me.”