Today’s sermon audio can be found on Castbox at 169 “The Truth of the Gospel” Galatians 2:11-14.

Our text for July 26 was Galatians 2:11-14. Our first reading was 1 Peter 4:12-19. We read from Peter’s first letter because it contains one of three occurrences of the word ‘Christian’ in the New Testament. The other two occurrences are in the book of Acts (11:26, 26:28).

26bAnd in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

Acts 11:26b, ESV

The believers in Syrian Antioch were the first disciples of Christ to be ‘called Christians’. The word ‘Christians’ could be translated ‘Christ Followers’. It is thought that residents of Syrian Antioch came up with this name to distinguish believers from adherents of all other religions. The designation may have been intended to be derogatory. But we can see that Peter adopted the name in his first letter thereby showing his approval of it.

Today's Text

11But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. 13And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14But when I saw that their conduct was not in step 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 force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

Galatians 2:11-14, ESV

Sermon Outline

"The Truth of the Gospel" Galatians 2:11-14

  1. Luther on Galatians 2:14A
  2. When Cephas Came to Antioch (11-13)
  3. Not in Step (14a)
  4. How Can You (14b)

Scripture References: 1 Peter 4:12-19; Galatians 2:11-14; Galatians 5:16; Galatians 5:25; Ephesians 4:1-3; Ephesians 4:17; Colossians 1:9-10; Colossians 2:6-7; Romans 13:13-14;

1. Luther on Galatians 2:14A

14ABut when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel,

Galatians 2:14A, ESV

On Friday July 31, 1531 Martin Luther lectured on Galatians 2:10-14 at the University of Wittenberg. Luther had obtained his doctorate in theology back in October of 1512. He was then chosen to replace his mentor, Johannes von Staupitz, as professor of theology at the University of Wittenberg. He began to lecture on books of the Bible in 1513. By the end of that decade Luther had lectured on Psalms (1513-1515), then on Romans (1515-1516), then on Galatians (1516-1517), then on Hebrews (1517-1518), and then he resumed his lectures on Psalms in 1519.

In 1517 Luther also posted his Ninety-Five Theses.

Luther claimed that had his ‘tower experience’ (conversion) in 1519 during the time that he was again lecturing on the Psalms. Luther wrote Preface to the Complete Edition of Luther’s Latin Works (1545):

I began to understand that this verse [Romans 1:17] means that the justice of God is revealed through the Gospel, but it is a passive justice, i.e. that by which the merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written: “The just person lives by faith.” All at once I felt that I had been born again and entered into paradise itself through open gates.

Luther accomplished much else before he started a revised lecture series on Galatians on Friday July 3, 1531. The second series of lectures on Galatians contain Luther’s mature theological insights on salvation.

We know when Luther delivered each of his 41 lectures on Galatians that year because three of his students captured each lecture using a shorthand notation. This particular lecture on Galatians 2:11-14 ought to be very well known though it is not. When Luther reached 2:14A he stressed the importance of the Law/Gospel distinction:

Everyone who is able to rightly judge between the law and the Gospel can give thanks to God and know that he is a theologian.

On Galatians 2:14A, Martin Luther’s Commentary on Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians1

This Law/Gospel distinction is one of the most important contributions Luther made to Protestant doctrine. This distinction gives us a clear understanding of the gospel. One of our contemporary Reformed theologians2 has written of the gospel that it is:

the announcement of the unmerited and undeserved salvation of the elect on the basis of the imputed righteousness of Christ received through faith resting and receiving alone.

2. When Cephas Came to Antioch (11-13)

11But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.

Galatians 2:11-12, ESV

‘11But when Cephas came to Antioch,’.
Paul does not use the same adverb (‘Then’) here in verse 11 as he had done three times before (1:18, 1:21, 2:1). However, Paul seems to be implying that Cephas (the Apostle Peter) came to Antioch after the meeting narrated in 2:1-10. That is the likely sense of ‘But then’.

We must note that in the first century of the Christian era ‘Antioch’ was the third largest city in the Roman Empire with a population of about 500,000 people. Antioch was about 300 miles north of Jerusalem3. Seleucus established sixteen cities which he named Antioch4. That is why we have a tendency to distinguish these cities with descriptors. The Antioch Paul writes about here has to be Syrian Antioch.

‘I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.’.
Paul had to confront Peter in person (‘to his face’) because Peter had sinned. Paul uses a harsh verb here (‘condemned’). The verb means condemned before God. The verb translated ‘stood’ by its tense indicates a status that had already existed for a time.

‘12For before certain men came from James,’.
The word ‘For’ indicates that Paul will now explain why Peter stood condemned in verses 12 and 13. Peter behaved one way *before certain men came from James. Then after these men arrived Peter behaved in a different way that was sinful. We should probably be careful about blaming James himself for this problem. We do not know much about these men from James. Paul’s focus is on Peter.

‘he was eating with the Gentiles;’.
Before the men from James came to Antioch Peter regularly ate meals with the Gentiles. I think Paul means that Peter ate ordinary meals on a regular basis with Gentile Christians.

‘but when they came he drew back and separated himself,’.
But when the men from James came Peter gradually withdrew from eating with the Gentile Christians. The end result was that he stopped interacting with them.

‘fearing the circumcision party.’.
This descriptive clause tells us why Peter drew back from eating with Gentile Christians. Probably the circumcision party refers to more than just the men who had come from James. It may well refer to all strict Jews or to all strict Jewish Christians. Seemingly this party insisted on circumcision and much else for anyone who wanted to eat with them. But Paul does not explain why Peter feared these Jewish folks. It seems quite plausible as some scholars suggest that Peter feared that zealous Jews would harm Jewish Christians if they had anything to do with Gentiles. They also may have been driven by pragmatism; perhaps they could reach more Jewish folks if they separated from all Gentiles.

13And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

Galatians 2:13, ESV

‘13And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him,’.
Paul seems to be implying that Peter was the first to act hypocritically. Peter’s actions influenced the other Jewish Christians to also withdraw from table fellowship with Gentile Christians. Paul uses a verb to indicate that the Jews acted hypocritically here in the beginning of verse 13. In the next clause of verse 13 he uses a noun to repeat that hypocrisy was involved in this deviation from the gospel. The hypocrisy in this case was that the Antiochene Jewish Christians believed that it was right to have table fellowship with Gentile Christians. They understood the gospel well enough to realize that they were no better than the Gentile Christians. But pressure of one sort or another caused Peter to withdraw. That response by Peter led in turn to others acting the same way.

‘so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.’.
Timothy George describes the words ‘even Barnabas’ as possibly ‘the most poignant line in the entire epistle’ (kp 242). Paul and Barnabas had been quite close friends for some time when this incident occurred. And Paul would have no doubt thought that Barnabas was more spiritually mature than most Christians he knew. Paul seemed to have expected that even if Peter made such a mistake Barnabas would hold to the truth of the gospel. But the hypocrisy of the Jewish Christians had affected even Barnabas. He had been led to sin by their hypocrisy.

3. Not in Step (14a)

14But when I saw that their conduct was not in step 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 force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

Galatians 2:14, ESV

‘14aBut when I saw’.
Paul may have been away from Antioch when Peter and the rest of the Jewish Christians withdrew from fellowship with the Gentile Christians. He was able to find out about Peter’s withdrawal after the fact by discussing the situation with various people. Peter had withdrawn from eating with Gentile believers after the men from James had arrived. Other Jewish believers had followed his example. Even Barnabas had succumbed. It seems likely that Paul would have confronted Peter sooner had he been present.

‘that their conduct was not in step with’.
Paul uses an interesting verb here in verse 14a.

  • The ESV translates this verb ‘their conduct was not in step’.
    • The negation (‘not’) is provided by a separate adverb.
  • The KJV translates the verb ‘they walked not uprightly’.
  • The NAS95 translates the verb ‘they were not straight-forward’.

I think it is a good idea to retain something suggestive of a metaphorical walk in the translation of the word here in verse 14a because Paul often uses verbs suggestive of walking to depict spiritual maturity or lack thereof. Also, the underlying verb here in verse 14a conveys a sense of a medical deficiency in one’s ability to walk physically (a spiritual gait ataxia). The remedy here is to stay in step with the truth of the gospel.

Here are passages where Paul uses verbs that mean to walk. Paul is writing about our spiritual walk (i.e., how we should live) in these verses.

  • Galatians 5:16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
  • Galatians 5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
  • Ephesians 4:1 1I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
  • Ephesians 4:17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.
  • Colossians 1:9-10 9And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
  • Colossians 2:6-7 6Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
  • Romans 13:13-14 13Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

‘their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel,’.
Though Peter and Barnabas and many of the other Jewish Christians understood the gospel and its implications they had hypocritically abandoned correct, gospel aligned behavior. By this phrase the truth of the gospel Paul indicates that the gospel is true if it is correctly understood. He might have also written the true gospel. We might say the real gospel or the genuine gospel. Peter, Barnabas, and the other Jewish Christians who stopped eating with the Gentile Christians were in this case misrepresenting the gospel to such an extent that it was no longer recognizable. Of course, they could all recite the true gospel message. But the clear implication of their sinful behavior was that in fact there was more to the gospel than what the apostles all taught.

Just how serious this defection was Paul makes clear in verse 14b.

4. How Can You (14b)

14But when I saw that their conduct was not in step 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 force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

Galatians 2:14, ESV

‘14bI said to Cephas before them all,’.
In verse 14b Paul directly addresses Peter publicly. Paul may well have first confronted Peter privately. But this problem had to be brought out into the open. Salvation, based on a correct understanding of the gospel, was at stake. And the unity of all true believers was also at stake.

‘“If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew,’.
Paul tells Peter “You are Jewish by birth”. “But you live without observing the Jewish ceremonial laws just like Gentiles do.”

‘how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”’.
“However, you force Gentiles to become Jews.” “How can you do such a thing?” “You don’t keep the ceremonial laws, Peter.” “Why do you force Gentile Christians to keep them?”

This is the crux of the problem at Antioch. Peter, inadvertently perhaps, was forcing Gentile Christians to become Jews. Otherwise, he would have nothing to do with them. So they would have to be circumcised, they would have to maintain kosher kitchens, they would have to observe all of the ceremonial laws Moses had written down. This is a very serious distortion of the gospel which is in fact not good news at all. No one can keep the law. Paul will go into it in the next two paragraphs. Notice that I am not suggesting that Paul or anyone else including Jesus suggested that the moral law of Moses had been set aside.

The gospel has to be received through faith as a gift from God. We cannot earn salvation. We cannot keep our salvation by good works. We must not let legalism creep into our lives; such thinking and behaving distorts the gospel which is a terrible thing to do.

  1. This quotation is from Camacho’s very useful translation of Luther’s 1531 lectures on Galatians. ↩

  2. Professor R Scott Clark, https://heidelblog.net/2008/10/is-the-lawgospel-distinction-only-lutheran/ ↩

  3. Richard Longenecker, WBC commentary on Galatians. Much of the material I have written about Syrian Antioch is based on Longenecker’s excursis on Antioch. ↩

  4. ibid. ↩