Sometimes there are issues behind issues. We are a complicated bunch. And it takes particular skill to be able to identify when the presenting problem is not the real problem.
I believe it can be that way in medicine. I'm sure Dr Adrian will correct me if I am wrong. But a person presents with referred pain down his arm. And it is trouble with his heart. He's having a heart attack (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referred_pain). A person has sciatic nerve pain down his leg. And the problem is with his back.
It is often this way in church life. I've heard of all kinds of fights in church life over things that don't matter. But scratch the surface, and the fight over whether we should do a page 39 Green Prayer Book service, or the colour we paint the church kitchen, is really about power or personality.
And sometimes, church fights that present as one thing really are about another. Fights over women's ordination as Anglican presbyters or bishops present as fights for equality and justice. They are really about the authority of scripture. A further step along this path is fights over the ordination of homosexuals. They present as fights about fairness and equity. But really they are about the authority of scripture.
And there are some fights that look like they are about the food or drink you consume, or ritual washings you undergo, like baptism, or a little, insignificant operation, like male circumcision. But they are really about salvation. They are really arguments about the gospel.
Our passage today shows how arguments about who you have dinner with really have to do with salvation. There is more to this food fight than meets the eye.
After Paul and Barnabas returned from their first missionary journey to Cyprus and South Galatia, they returned to Antioch (Acts 14:26-28). Antioch was the sending church (Acts 13:1-3). And importantly, it was a predominantly Greek church (Acts 11:20-24). And Paul in our passage records that after he and Barnabas returned from their mission to Cyprus and South Galatia, the church in Antioch had a distinguished visitor from head office in Jerusalem[1]. Peter, also known as Cephas. This is like Royalty visiting. Get out the best china. Use the room we never use with the lounge with the plastic cover. And of course, Peter was eating and drinking with them. He had a cup of tea after church and a biscuit, and then came back for lunch.
Now, this is not the first time that Peter has been to a Gentile church. Nor is it the first time Peter has eaten with Gentiles. In fact, Peter’s usual practise since Acts chapter 10. Peter would eat and drink with Christians, whether they were Jews or not. Peter had come to see that all food was clean, even pork chops, lobster and crab sticks. Even rat, dog, cat and whale. In fact, Jesus had taught Peter this same thing during his earthly ministry (Mark 7:18-19). And after Jesus ascended, Peter had received the vision from God that all food is clean, confirming it (Acts 10:9-17). He saw the sheet come down from heaven. Three times, And a voice said, every animal can be eaten. ‘Get up, Peter, Kill and Eat’ Reptiles, birds and animals, once prohibited by the law of Moses, can be enjoyed. Crocodile steaks and kangaroo and shrimps and octopus and rabbit and cat and dog and frogs and weed rat and cockroaches and dolphin are all clean and can be eaten wherever and whenever, as far as God is concerned.
We might not wish to eat them, but that is another story. In some parts of India, their response to eating beef might be similar to our response to eating dog or rat. In Japan, they like whale meat. In China, they like anything that walks on all fours with it’s back to the sun. The Aboriginals like witchetty grubs and snake and kangaroo. All food is clean and permissible, as far as God in concerned.
Peter knew all this. All food is clean. God accepts men from every nation who fear him (Acts 10:35). And he acted upon that knowledge when he first came to Antioch. Verse 12:
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 (NIV).
Here is a very human Peter. I can relate to his weakness. Men came from James, the centre of Jewish Christianity. Perhaps they had a message for Peter. Perhaps it was just their presence. We don’t know. But Peter’s conduct changed. Instead of open table fellowship with Gentile Christians, Peter draws back, and separates. He no longer associates with the Gentile Christians. Even though he knows it is right and good. And the cause? Fear. He was afraid of the circumcision group. He knew what it was like to be criticised. After Peter visited Cornelius, Luke records:
So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them” (Acts 11:2-3 NIV)
Perhaps it was the painful memory of that confrontation, having to explain himself. Or perhaps his fear had more noble causes. Perhaps he was afraid of causing trouble back in Jerusalem, of harming the mission to the Jews[2]. Or worse still, perhaps Peter was afraid of Jewish militants. Perhaps he feared that Jewish Christians in Judea[3] would be physically harmed, when they hear about his fratenizing with uncircumcised Gentiles (compare Acts 16:3, 21:12-22:22).
Perhaps they were good motives. But Paul calls it hypocrisy. Play-acting. Peter knew the truth. Food doesn’t matter. God accepts all people through Christ. And Peter himself doesn’t live like a Jew. Paul reminded Peter of this in verse 14:
You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew.
Peter acted against his own practice and principles because of fear. Peter was acting from expediency, not principle. So he stood condemned (v11).
Peter’s fear of people caused his hypocrisy. Sad thing. I know about this fear. We fear people and want to please people[4], so we compromise. We hold back the gospel. We tone down this here. A nip to the gospel here, a tuck to my practice there. And it ends up being a slippery dip into bigger sins.
Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe. (Proverbs 29:25 NIV[5])
What is the cure for this fear of people, and the desire to please people?
A bigger, better fear. Fear of the LORD.
Do not fear what they fear and do not dread it. The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread, and he will be a sanctuary…’ (Isaiah 8:12-13 NIV).
Notice the effect that Peter’s behaviour has on the other Christians. Verse 13:
The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray…
Playing Follow the Leader. Like sheep. We all like sheep have gone astray. After all, it’s Peter. Keys of the Kingdom, and all that. On this Rock I will build my church. So the other Jews join in. And that’s the way we are too, isn’t it?
And when the leader is playing the hypocrite, even good men join in. Here is Barnabas. Of him, Luke pauses and says: ‘He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith…’ (Acts 11:24 NIV). Who of us would be his equal? Generous, zealous. Yet, even he was led astray.
Hypocrisy is horrible in any of us. But look at what happens if those of us who are leaders play the hypocrite. Hypocrisy is multiplied. Sin abounds.
We mustn’t say, ‘Tut tut, Peter. How could you, Barnabas? And all you sheep-like Jewish Christians.’
We need to pray for help that those of us who are leaders act consistently with our principles.
Well, this wasn’t just a food fight for Paul. Paul picked this hill as the hill to die on. So he opposed Peter. Paul held his ground on this point. It is a loving rebuke. Loving to Peter and the Antioch church.
(i) To his face (verse 11)
We know it is loving because it was to his face. He showed Peter his fault, not everyone else in the church. That takes courage, but that is what being a Christian requires.
(ii) Public (verse 14)
And because the hypocrisy was public, the opposition needed to be public. He couldn’t take Peter aside and have a brief word. It was too late for that. He rather said to Peter in front of them all.
(iii) Plain speaking (verse 14)
And thirdly, Paul spoke plainly. He didn’t hedge his words to try and soften the blow. He said what he meant. You don’t live like this normally. Why are you doing it now?
Friends, this is real Christianity that we need to aspire to. That we will so love one another that we will talk to each other in a plain, open, godly way. It requires courage. And God can give us this. Because courage comes from faith. And this is actually loving. If we care enough for each other we will want to correct each other. Later, Paul will say, in Galatians 6:1-2,
Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. (NIV)
Often in fights in church, the real issue lies hidden behind the presenting problem. The problem looks like a matter of who someone at church invites over to dinner. But at risk here is nothing less than the truth of the gospel. And so in rebuking Peter, Paul is actually defending the gospel. And so then he sets out to define the gospel.
Paul outlines again the gospel he preaches. He defines and describes key elements of his gospel in verses 15 through to 21. And he opens the batting with his assertion that 'works of the law' cannot justify.
The first thing he makes clear is that ‘works of the law’ cannot justify. He says it three times. Verses 15 to 16:
We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’, know that a man is not justified by observing [lit, 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 Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.
Three times he says it. Works of the law cannot justify us. We cannot be acquitted, vindicated before God, by works of the law. By works of the law he means not just circumcision, not just the food laws, not just the 'cultural boundary markers', but everything the law says. That's the thing about circumcision. In these circumstances, if they were to submit to it, they would be placing themselves under the whole law, as Paul says in Galatians 5:3:
'Again, I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law'.
That is the way of the law. The law is all about doing it. So Paul says in chapter 3 verse 10:
'Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law'
The law says many excellent things: do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not covet, do not lie, love your neighbour as yourself, love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And Paul is saying, we Jewish Christians know and have experienced that we cannot be justified this way. We’ve tried and failed. No one is justified by the law. As Peter says at the later Jerusalem council, the law is a yoke that neither the Jews nor their forefathers have been able to bear (Acts 15:10).
So, secondly, what Jewish Christians have done is they have trusted Christ. Three times Paul said ‘works of the law cannot justify’. So three times he says only ‘faith in Christ’ can justify. I’ll say it once, and if you don’t get it, I’ll say it twice, and then if you still don’t get it, I’ll say it again, so you know I mean it. Three times for the dummies. Verse 16 again:
….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….
We need a faith righteousness. One that comes to us by faith, through the instrument of faith. Not one that comes by works. This is what it means to be justified ‘in Christ’. United with Christ and hidden in him. Safe from God’s curse against our lawbreaking.
And this is the only way of justification because sin is universal. The Jews may assume they are not ‘Gentile sinners’. But they are nevertheless ‘Jewish sinners.’ All have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). And it is when the Jews seek justification in Christ that they discover they are sinners.
That’s the point of verse 17:
If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners…
To be justified in Christ, in his person, in his death, mean that it cannot be by what we do. It is all of grace. And grace frees you to 'fess up. To look at ourselves realistically, as we really are. Not worse than we are, not better than we are, but as we are. Jewish people are Jewish sinners. Gentile people are Gentile sinners. I have my particular sins, not yours. You have your sins, not mine. And so neither of us are righteous.
And it is only in Christ that we can say that with any confidence. I am not righteous. Because if we depended on our works, then that statement: ‘I am a sinner, I am not righteous’ crushes us, condemns us. Because under the Old Testament (or Covenant), obedience to the law was to be the people’s righteousness (Deuteronomy 6:25). The righteousness of the righteous man is credited to him (Ezekiel 16, 33) But the whole point of the Old Covenant is the universal failure to achieve that law-based righteousness. No one achieved the righteousness of the law: ‘The man who does these things will live by them’. Even Moses fell short of the law of Moses (Deuteronomy 32:50-52). He broke faith with God and died outside of the promised land.
And Paul is saying, the Jewish Christians of his day also discovered the same thing. We, too, are sinners… So if after all this, the Judaizers bring back the law as a way of justification - and that is what Peter’s actions are doing - all they do is show themselves sinners and breakers of the law.
If I rebuild that great edifice of ‘do this and you shall live’, I will die. To try to be justified by law is to be alienated from Christ and fall away from grace (Galatians 5:4).
No Christian should attempt to re-establish the law for justification, because we have died to the law. Verse 19:
For through the law I died to the law so that I might life for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live…
When Jesus died, God considers that we died with him. And when Jesus rose, God considers that all who trust in him rose with him. Where Jesus went, those who trust him went. When Jesus was crucified, when he was ‘hung on a tree’, he redeemed us from the curse of the law. He became a curse for us. So Jesus died to the law, as a curse bearer. And we died to the law through Christ’s body (Romans 7:4).
But we also have life, because Christ lives. The last part of verses 20 and 21:
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.
We live by faith. Christ dwells in our hearts by faith (Ephesians 3:17). We are united to Christ by faith. That’s what ‘Christ lives in me’ means. Sure, we have mortal bodies which are dying. And our bodies will die. But by faith we are united with Christ. His Spirit lives in us. So we are alive as far as God is concerned. And one day he will raise us from the dead so that we will be forever what he has made us in Christ. Alive.
And what wonderful reasons we have to put faith in Jesus. Paul says: Jesus loved me. Jesus gave himself for me. Paul says: Jesus didn’t just love the world. Though he did. Jesus didn’t just die for the church. Though he did. He didn’t just love sinners. Though he did. He loved me, he died for me. Paul invites me to write your name there. He invites you to do the same. I can take Paul’s words as my own. He loved me, he gave himself for me. He died upon the cross, he died upon the cross, he died upon the cross, for me, for me, just for me’. Well, it wasn’t just for ‘me’. But faith says, if I was the only sinner, love would have taken Jesus to the cross even for me, and then it would have been ‘just for me’.
And you need to put your ‘me’ there. Not just, he died for ‘us’. ‘Us’ is true, but you and I need to move from ‘us’ to ‘me’. Reminding yourself in spite of yourself, that the Son of God loved you in particular, and gave himself for the very ‘you’ that ‘you’ are, in all your individual ‘youness’ and for all your individual sins. So now, every minute of the life you have left to you is lived in response to Jesus’ particular love for you. A death that was planned before God created the world, before death had entered the world, and that happened before you were born, but that had you in particular in mind. It was for you in particular, and not just for the world in general.
Paul’s final nail in the coffin of law righteousness in chapter 2 is seen in verse 21. The famous verse 21:
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!
Now, if we think we can have a righteousness from our works, we not only are deceiving ourselves. We are saying something about Christ’s death. It was stupidity. A dreadful, bloody, unnecessary waste of pain. God didn’t have to send his Son. Christ didn’t have to die. Because we could have done it all ourselves. If a law could have been given that could give us life, don’t you think God would have given it and spared his only Son? (Galatians 3:12) Didn’t Jesus ask his Father this in the Garden of Gethsemane, Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Wouldn’t his Father have done it?
Oh yes, that’s right my Son, they could keep the law if they wanted. Let’s call the whole thing off. Gabriel and Michael, take 3 legions of Angels and get Jesus Christ, my beloved Son out of there. After all, those sinful humans can save themselves. They can keep the law in and of themselves. It is quite unnecessary for my sinless Son to shed his blood for their lawlessness.
That is what follows from thinking our morality and our goodness will get us to heaven. It says that Jesus’ death was a waste of time.
But it was no waste of time. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the climax of the whole story of the bible. It is the culmination of God’s plan from before the creation of the world to gather a people together for his Son, who will worship and praise Jesus Christ as both Creator and Redeemer, as both Lion of Judah and Lamb that was Slain, as both Priest and Sacrifice, as both King and Ransom. Rather than Jesus’ death being for nothing, we will resolve to know nothing except Christ and him crucified.
Let’s pray
[1] For the position that the confrontation occurred before the Jerusalem council, see Bruce, 128.
[2] Fung, Galatians, 108
[3] Fung, Galatians, 108; Bruce, Galatians, 131
[4] Paul says ‘even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good, but the good of many, so that they may be saved’ (1 Cor 10:32-33). But this is not the gospel that he altars, but his practice in matters of indifference where the practice itself has no theological import.
[5] Isaiah 51:12-13: ‘Who are you that you fear mortal men, the sons of men, who are but grass, that you forget the LORD your make, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, that you live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor, who is bent on destruction.’