Paul’s Opposition to Peter — Standing Firm for the Gospel (Galatians 2:11–21)

So this is two Galatians, or Galatians two, sorry, starting at verse 11.

And in my Bible, this is entitled Paul's opposition to Peter.

But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.

For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles, but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.

And the other Jews disassembled likewise with him.

Insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.

But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, if thou being a Jew lived after the manner of the Gentiles and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?

We who are Jews by nature are not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ.

Even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law.

For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

But if whilst we seek to be justified by Christ we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin?

God forbid.

For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

For I through the law am dead to the law, though I might live unto God.

I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live.

Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I live I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I do not frustrate the great grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

May the Lord bless this reading of his precious word.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and I pray that you are in Christ this time.

There are times in the Christian life when it becomes necessary to stand up to people.

Even someone who may seem to be on the same side, and especially those who are on the same side.

Not because we dislike them, not because we want to win an argument, but because the gospel itself is at stake.

And that is a situation before us in the reading that we've heard.

We see two great pillars of the early church, Paul and Peter, standing opposed to each other.

Some people read this passage and imagine a falling out, an argument that nearly split the early church, fracturing it beyond repair.

But that's actually not what is going on here.

Paul is not attacking Peter's character by any means.

He is defending the truth of the gospel.

This was a moment when the gospel was being blurred, and Paul loved Peter and the church enough to speak plainly.

And we know from the rest of the New Testament that their relationship was restored and strong.

Peter later refers to Paul as our beloved brother Paul and treats his writings of Scripture.

So this is not a break in fellowship, it is a stand for the gospel.

You see, the problem is in the church, peer pressure can subvert the gospel.

The disagreement begins because Peter shows weakness.

Not in faith, but in consistency.

Peter is a wonderful picture of the sincere believer who sometimes wobbles.

That's why I like to describe myself more of a Peter than a Paul.

I'm a sincere believer, but I wobble.

This is the same Peter who confessed, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God, at Caesarea Philippi.

And the same Peter who denied Christ three times, he's human, just like you and me.

When the Judaizers were absent, Peter lived freely in the gospel.

He ate with Gentiles.

He enjoyed the fellowship of Christ, that Christ had opened to all.

But, but when the Judaizers arrived, men who insisted that Gentiles must obey the law of Moses, Peter drew back.

His actions began to say, perhaps Gentiles do need to be circumcised after all.

Peter hadn't changed his theology.

He hadn't changed his behavior.

He hadn't changed his theology, but he had changed his behavior under pressure.

And I know I've done that.

And I wonder if any of you had that item in your life where you had to change what you believe.

Not because you disbelieve what you believe, but because of external pressures, how you act.

And that's a warning to us.

Peer pressure can make us act in ways that contradict what we know to be true.

We can affirm the gospel on Sunday and then live as it were not enough on Monday.

We see it, don't we?

We see people trolling to church on a Sunday morning and a Sunday night.

And then it's almost as though, right, we've done Sunday, we've done the Bible, close it, put it away in a cupboard, and then they just live in ways Christians shouldn't live throughout the week.

They pay no attention to what was said.

You see, Peter is confronted by Paul, and rightly so.

Paul sees what's happening, or hears of it, and he confronts Peter publicly.

Not to shame him, not because Peter's actions were public and were leading others astray.

Paul writes in verse 18, if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

In other words, if I go back on the gospel, I have preached, I condemn myself.

There's a warning for people in the pulpit.

If I act differently to the gospel that I can preach, that I preach to people, the free gospel to all people, Jew and Gentile and Heathen alike, and then I go back on that by refusing to speak to those people when I see them otherwise, I condemn myself.

And let me give you an example.

And this is one I think you'll recognize.

I often encourage you to bring your Bibles into the pulpit, into the pews.

I say to you, make sure you've got a Bible.

When we get new people in, I make sure they have a Bible.

And I say to you, have them open on your lap to test what I say against Scripture.

Yeah, I have said that constantly, I think.

If I then stood here one Sunday and I said to you, put your Bibles away.

You don't need them.

Just listen to what I have to say.

I would be contradicting myself.

I'd also been putting you in great danger as well as myself, but I would be contradicting myself.

I would be rebuilding what I've torn down.

I would make myself a transgressor.

And this is what Peter's done.

His actions contradicted the gospel he believed.

And Paul did what Paul had to do.

Paul stood firm for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Verses 19 to 21 give us Paul's closing argument.

And what an argument it is.

In verse 20, he declares, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Has to be one of the greatest statements of Christian identity.

We live because Christ loved us and gave himself for us.

Our righteousness, our acceptance before God, our hope and our joy all rest on Jesus Christ alone.

And then Paul goes on and he adds, if righteousness comes by the law, if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ died in vain.

His death meant nothing.

You see, if we can make ourselves righteous by our own obedience, then Christ died for nothing.

Because we can be obedient to the law, but we Christ doesn't die in vain.

His death is our life because we know we can't obey the law.

His righteousness, his total obedience to God is our hope.

His grace is what lets us stand before God.

Paul, the Hebrew of Hebrews, sees this clearly.

And unlike Peter in this moment, he refuses to be cowed by the Judaizers.

He stands firm for the gospel of grace.

See, Peter and Paul are two very different men, but they serve the one gospel.

And to help understand their actions, it helps to remember who they were.

Peter, simple fisherman, working man, not formally educated.

He followed Jesus with a simple, sincere faith.

He was there at the start.

He spoke to ordinary people.

And he could do that because he was an ordinary man.

Paul was a very different character.

Paul wasn't simple.

He sat at the feet of Gamaleo.

I've always struggled with that name, Gameleo.

He was trained in argument.

He was steeped in scripture.

He was zealous for the law.

He was also a Roman citizen.

But before Christ saved him, he hunted the Christians at the early church.

After Christ saved him, he defended the gospel with the same intensity.

So when these Judaizers, these ultra-religious people that were going around following the disciples and fixing, he says in quotes, who were they?

Who were they?

We have no names.

Well likely they were educated.

They might have been of the Jewish elite, the the either the Pharisees or Sanhedrin or Sadducees or Scribes.

They were confident they were sure of what they were doing.

And they were forceful men.

And they arrived.

And Peter under pressure.

He knew who they were.

He knew that they knew more than him.

They knew they could dance rings around him when it came to the law and the prophet.

Many of us would have done the same thing.

I get tongue-tied when there are people around me that I know of far better ahead of me, understand more than me, are better educated than me.

And you go quiet, don't you?

And when they say sit down, you sit down.

Paul, however, was not to be intimidated by these people.

You see, Paul had the same training, if not better.

He had the mind and the calling to stand firm.

And this matters very much so.

Paul is not cruel to Peter.

He is not belittling him.

He is not defending the gospel, he's not attacking a brother.

And Peter receives it.

And that is the mark of a godly man.

We talk about speaking the truth in love.

Ephesians 4 15 calls us to speak the truth in love.

And that's what we see here.

It's not wrong, you see, to correct a brother or a sister in Christ when the gospel is at stake.

What matters is how we do it.

If we do it in love, with humility, with the aim of restoration, that's fine.

If we do it with the idea of browbeating somebody, of making them feel stupid, of making them feel useless, of forcing a view on them that they're not actually ready to accept.

Doesn't matter how correct the view is, if it's not worded in a way that they can understand, it's not worth just saying it to them.

If it doesn't restore them at all, it's the wrong way to do it.

Now we do not know the tone of the conversation between Paul and Peter.

Neither do we know exactly what was said.

But we know the character of both men.

They love Christ, they love the church, they love the gospel.

And I suspect it was more a firm discussion than a shouting match.

It was a debate, not a quarrel.

Paul could stand before kings and priests, and Peter could speak to fishermen and families of different gifts, different backgrounds, different strengths, but one gospel.

And in the end they were reconciled.

They preached the same Christ, they died for the same Lord.

And may we learn from them.

May we learn to stand firm for the gospel.

May we correct one another with love.

May we recognize that different people have different gifts.

And may we work together as brothers and sisters, not as enemies, united in the liberty that we have in Christ.

Amen.