LIVING BY FAITH ALONE
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Opening Prayer
Help me to grow in grace, Loving Father, as I read your Word that overflows with words offering me truth and hope.
Read GALATIANS 2:11–21
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Paul Opposes Cephas
11 When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For 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. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of 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?
15 “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 know that a person is not justified by the works of 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[a] Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
17 “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? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.
19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”[b]
Footnotes
- Galatians 2:16 Or but through the faithfulness of … justified on the basis of the faithfulness of
- Galatians 2:21 Some interpreters end the quotation after verse 14.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Are there any places where you tend to be a people pleaser before being a God pleaser?
These are some of the most awkward verses of Scripture. Paul’s public rebuke of Peter (Cephas), whom he’d just referred to as a pillar of the church (v. 9) seems quite remarkable. The specific issue under debate here is what, and with whom, one eats. Paul here accuses him of hypocrisy, seemingly leading to Galatia having both gentile and kosher groups of believers. This seems all the more remarkable given the vision Peter had received from God on this very issue.1
However, the bigger issue Paul is addressing is ‘the truth of the gospel’ (v. 14). Paul uses this phrase for the second time here in a few verses (see also v. 5) and it is a thread that we’ll see throughout the letter. Paul wants the reader to know beyond any doubt that one is accepted by God (justified) by the sheer grace of God alone, through faith alone. This is the primary issue of deep concern to Paul and should be for us today. I recently heard someone say that they were exhausted from the pressure of trying to impress others. Paul would urge us to die to such expectations of ourselves and find our value in Christ.
Paul’s exposition (vv. 15, 16) moves to argument (vv. 17–21), in which he lays out the fallacy of our attempts to please God, in contrast to the wonder of finding our identity in Christ. Paul describes this in termsof a death and a resurrection and how, astonishingly, we share in the redemptive acts of Christ. In contrast to those who had insisted on strict observance of the law, Paul contends that the new creation is now dead to its demands. As Paul writes to the Colossians, Christ has nailed the law, which was contrary to us, to his cross.2 This is wonderful news for us all.
Apply
Take a moment to consider anything that you need to hand once again to Christ and allow him to nail it to his cross.
Closing prayer
Father, give me eyes to look at myself in the same way as you view me—redeemed by the sacrifice and victory of your Son— altogether forgiven and fully accepted.
1 Acts 10, 11 2 Col 2:14, 15; Gal 3:13; Eph 2:14–16
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