Galatians 2:11-21: ¹¹But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood self-condemned; ¹²for until certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction. ¹³And the other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. ¹⁴But when I saw that they were not acting consistently 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 compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?" ¹⁵We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; ¹⁶yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. ¹⁷But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! ¹⁸But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor. ¹⁹For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; ²⁰and it is no longer I who live, but it is 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. ²¹I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

It might come as a surprise that the early church leaders did not always get along. Paul and Peter did not always see eye to eye. Paul is defending his ministry to the Galatians, and his message of salvation by grace through faith. He wants them to know that he got his message from Christ, not from humans. He even stood up to Peter when Peter pulled back from some Gentiles and would not eat with them after the Jewish Christians came to Antioch. Paul tries to make the point that one is to be completely separated from Judaism and never back down.

We face such problems every day. How are we to live Christian lives in the midst of an evil world? Do we just cave in, act like everyone else? Do we have different rules at different times? Are there different rules when we are around believers and around outsiders? Do our actions even matter?

Paul was being accused of cheating on the relationship between faith and actions. The Galatian (eastern Turkey) congregations were insisting on circumcision. Believers were still to perform certain actions to get God to love them. We could turn all of our Christian life into demands and performance, for which we would be rewarded with Heaven. Paul says the life will flow from the faith, but faith is central.

The story with Peter is probably more complicated. Peter knew that Jewish and Gentile Christians could eat together and be in fellowship. But he also knew that the lives of the Jewish Christians were being threatened. He probably pulled back so that the Jewish Christians would not be killed when they returned to Jerusalem. It was not a matter of freedom in Christ for Peter, but living in a complex world.

The situation in the Galatian churches was different. There, it was a matter of denying Christ, not protecting Christians. But Paul uses the story to emphasize here that there is to be no compromise with our new life in Christ. We are not to live thinking we can earn God's love or tell God how life is to be. Our performance is never to be the center of our relationship with the Lord. We are always creatures, inside the relationship by grace. We get to remember that Christ lives in and through us wherever we go. We have been "Crucified with Christ." Now, we live!

In Christ our Lord and Savior,
Pastor Thomas Trapp