RevoDevos – Day 5

Friday, June 27^th
Read: Galatians 2:11-16

When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain people 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.

When I saw that they were not acting in line with the gospel, I said to Cephas 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?

“We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person 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.”

Discuss questions you have about the passage. Here are some to help you get started:

How could Paul say that Cephas ‘stood condemned’?
Why would Cephas have been afraid of ‘the circumcision group’?
What did it look like when Paul lectured Cephas in front of everyone? What was the reaction?
Write your own questions down, and discuss them:

In this passage, Paul confronts Peter about his hypocritical actions concerning the Gentiles while he was in Antioch. When Peter had first come to Antioch, he was eating with the Gentiles, but when other Jewish Christians came from Jerusalem, he stopped eating with the Gentiles because he feared these men. (They were legalists who still believed in the requirement of circumcision and the necessity of following the Law.)

While staying in Antioch, Peter gave in to peer-pressure from these legalistic Christians, who believed that Jews should not eat with Gentiles, and began to eat only with other Jews. Even though God had possibly already given him the vision of the “unclean animals” on the sheet, and Peter understood this meant that Gentiles were now considered clean (see Acts 10), he did what he was being pressured to do.

Peter knew that what he was doing was wrong. So, by giving in to this peer pressure, Peter was being hypocritical. But his choice didn’t affect him alone—his actions were leading other Christians astray. The issue was so important to Paul, that he called Peter out on it immediately. It wasn’t good enough for Peter to simply understand and accept the Gospel— he needed to practice what he preached! His hypocrisy not only confused others as to how a Christian should live, but it also compromised the Gospel he preached. His behavior demonstrated that he still thought that there was validity to the idea that in order to be saved one must follow certain rules.

In verses fifteen and sixteen, Paul discusses the idea of justification by works versus justification by faith. He argues that neither Jews nor Gentiles are made right with God by what we do, but that we are all justified by faith in Jesus Christ. Faith alone is the indispensable channel of salvation, not anything we can do. Because of Christ’s own righteousness and death on the cross, God then assigns Christ’s righteousness to us who believe—Jew and Gentile. All are justified not based on human deeds, but on faith. Everyone has sinned (see Romans 3:23), but through Christ’s death, we are pardoned, set free, and then reinstated as God’s children and as fellow heirs with Jesus Christ. Amen! So what Paul is saying is that it doesn’t matter whether you are Jew or Gentile—everyone has to be saved by faith.

Process:

– Have you seen someone in your own life that has been hypocritical? How did that make you feel and how did you react?

– How are we justified (made right with God)? What problems do you see with legalism? Have you ever found yourself or seen someone else caught up in legalism?