Think about the annual National Day Parade with the marching segment. For it to be counted a success, every member of the contingent has to get in step. The same lesson applies to every attempt at functionality as a coordinated, coherent whole. You have to get in step.
The gospel calls us to the same truth. To be in gospel step is to be coherent and consistent. It also means first that you belong to Jesus. If you truly believe that you are not your own, but bought with a price, then it would do you good to consider how the Bible calls us to be in gospel step.
This might sound uncool and totalitarian to our modern, "enlightened" minds that tell us that we are self-appointed sovereigns of our souls. We instinctively feel uncomfortable and might be tempted to brush it off. But the main point tonight is that being in gospel step is belonging to Jesus. We are not our own but we belong to the One person that it is probably safe to belong to.
(A) Out of step: when other gospels seem more real (Gal 2:11-13)
Chapter 2 was basically Paul's life story and he has been talking about his past to make a few key points. Let’s remind ourselves of the key events and what took place at each point. Paul goes twice to Jerusalem (Gal 1:18, 2:1), and goes back one time to Greece (2:11). In his first visit, he highlights that he only saw Peter and James. This was to drive home the authenticity of his gospel by showing that his gospel was not from any man, but through a personal revelation of Jesus Christ (Gal 1:11-12).
In his second visit, he tells of his visit to Jerusalem where he meets with James, Peter, and John (Gal 2:9) in order to make sure that his gospel was correct (Gal 2:2). This is Paul’s way of saying that his gospel was authentic, correct, and in step with the pillars of the faith then. It is also Paul’s way of saying that Cephas, otherwise known as Peter, was completely in agreement with the one, authentic gospel.
This frames the confrontation in Gal 2:11. Here, something very different happens in Antioch. Peter, who is a Jew, has left Jewish territory to a Gentile environment. When Peter came, Paul opposed him to his face for something he did which made him stand condemned.
The word “opposed” tells us that there stood on two separate grounds and were in complete disagreement. It reeks of friction! The phrase “to his face” sends a clear message that this disagreement was severe, public, and clearly stated Paul’s displeasure. This surge of heightened emotions seems contradictory when we remember that Paul is the man who tells us later about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control (5:22-23). Does this confrontation strike us as odd? Does it grate against our standards of a “no judgment zone”? If so, it would be worth considering if our standards different form the Apostle’s?
The passage gives us a hint of how this all began by telling us that Peter “drew back” (Gal 2:12) from eating with the Gentiles because of the circumcision party. Some context is needed here. The circumcision party were a group of Jewish Christians who believed that Gentile Christians had to be circumcised according to Jewish law. Essentially, they were saying this: if you want to be a Christian, you have to enter through the Jewish door. However, we know that Peter lived like a Gentile because he knew that living like a Jew does not work out your salvation (Acts 11:1-3, 2:14). Peter knew that there should be no such barriers for the Gentiles to know God. However, he still caved in to their demands.
Something fundamental has changed in Peter’s heart. Fear has taken over (2:12). Peter now fears what he can see because it is in front of him. The things that he knows and has heard became less real for him relative to what he saw, and this led him to be out of step with the gospel.
This is the principle at play - what you fear and what you desire shapes your behaviour. Your fear/desire which causes behaviour is either in step with the gospel or not. Like it or not, the truth remains that we never do anything apart from our heart! At any point of time, either the gospel is more real to you, or some other gospel is more real to you. Peter professed and lived gospel truths, but when push came to shove, he acted differently from his convictions. The bible has a word for this: hypocrisy (Lk 12:1-4). Are your actions in step with your convictions and professions? It doesn't matter who you are, if you are out of step, you are out of step.
Things get worse as we learn that the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him (Gal 2:13). Peter, the apostle whose ministry is to the circumcised (Gal 2:7-8), lead the Jews around him down that path! His acts set a new precedent that lead the ones who should have known better - the people of privilege, -away from the gospel. There is a profound lesson here about leadership and imitation. Prov 29:25 reminds us that fear of man proves to be a snare, but whoever trusts God is safe. Peter’s fear of man was a terrible thing not only because he got caught up in its snare, but because it led others to be entrapped by the same snare! 1 Tim 5:17 tells us that leadership is difficult, and the elder who does well is worthy of double honorur. The inverse is also true. the leader who does not lead well is worthy of double shame! Are you a leader? Are you one with some measure of influence? What you do either confirms or denies the truth of what you are saying, and others will follow you where you go.
Paul doesn’t tell us what the Gentiles felt, but we can imagine how painful it must have been to have personally witnessed an Apostle reject and deny you because his fear of man was greater than his conviction about the gospel. Friends, this scenario is not distant and far away! There will be times when culture and comfort become other gospels that seem more real than the true gospel. For Peter, the most real gospel at that juncture was the gospel of Acceptance, of Tradition, and of the Law. What might it be for you? We must never ever send the message that to be Christian means to have a good job, be upper-middle class, receive a university education, stay healthy, or anything more than to be bought with the blood of Jesus. Does your conduct reflect that?
(B) In step again: “living” and “not living” in gospel step (Gal 2:14)
The next section opens with the word “but”, which tells us that there is a different direction now. There might come a time in your life when you are faced with the possibility of acting against a majority’s sentiment for the sake of truth. Let’s see how Paul acts in such a time as this.
3 noun clusters here link together what Paul saw, what all of their conduct was like, and what the truth of the gospel is. They tell us that the gospel sets a trajectory and points to a certain behaviour. What Paul saw was behaviour that was not in that trajectory. Do you know what the gospel is? What the truth of the gospel is? What trajectory it points to? Whether you are in step with it? And whether there is anyone who will help you to see if you are in alignment with it? Remember that the gospel points to a way of living that is specific, not general, and your conduct is to be measured and lived.
We learn that the specific reason why Paul was unhappy with Peter was because he changed his lifestyle in a way that is not in conformity with the gospel. Normally, Peter “lived like a Gentile" (Gal 2:14), but now he has walked out of step and his life denies the gospel. This reflects a truth about our lives. Some of us are living in line with the gospel, some of us are not, and some of us don’t know the difference. For Peter, his life and behaviour portrayed a higher standard of morality as if it were true! It was a life out of freedom and not in step with the gospel.
Friends, the manner of living that we are called to is not morality, it is freedom. What is the gospel fundamentally opposed to? While it is true that we are called to turn away from sin and we turn to the gospel, the gospel tells us that we don’t merely flee our sins to come to Christ, but also flee our own righteousness to come to Christ! We flee anything our righteousness could ever afford us because there is no joy in our sin and in our works. There’s only joy in Christ - the reformation joy of the gospel -and it’s about the standard that was attained for us!
We can learn something here about how Christians ought to be in relationship with one another. When Paul confronts Peter, he’s calling his brother in Christ to live the way he ought to live based on how he understands the gospel. You can only do this to someone who understands the gospel. This tells us that we should go to Christians, neither to tell them to “shape up or ship out” nor to “moralise” them, but to always point them to the immense freedom that we have in the gospel.
Paul reminds Peter that he is out of step with the gospel. Do you have someone like that in your life? Paul reminds us later in this letter to bear one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ (6:1-2). Bearing another’s load means that you share their load and it comes at a cost. It doesn’t mean that you take their load and put it on the ground. It means that you take part of it and put it on yourself! It came at a cost to Paul, and it’ll come at a cost to you. Because your life is not your own, and it belongs to Jesus, your friend’s burden is yours too! To belong to Jesus is to belong to the only person it’s safe to belong to, because it calls us to a family in Him that will never fail. Do you have that kind of person in your life? If you don’t, the way to start it is to be it. So fulfil the law of Christ.
The gospel is the good news that none of us needs to stay in our sin, and none of us needs to stay in our righteousness. when you lay it at his feet, you have the profound joy of saying that my righteousness too is but filthy rags, and i lay them at your feet. There is a freedom that comes from confessing that we have no other hope but that which is in Christ.