(Audio for the sermon is available below, or for download here.)
Sermon for midweek of Reminiscere
Isaiah 45:20-25 + Galatians 2:11-21
Galatians 2:11–21
11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles. But when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision party. 13 And the other Jews behaved as hypocrites along with him, so that Barnabas also was carried away by their hypocrisy.
14 But when I saw that they were not walking properly, in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, though you are a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, why do you compel the Gentiles to live like the Jews? 15 Although we are Jews by nature and not Gentile sinners, 16 we know that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, and so we, too, have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law, for by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified. 17 But if, while seeking to be justified through Christ, even we ourselves were found to be sinners, then Christ would be a minister of sin. God forbid! 18 But if I build up again the things which I tore down, I make myself a transgressor. 19 For through the Law I died to the Law, that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; I live, yet it is no longer I, but Christ lives in me. For the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God. Indeed, if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died in vain.
In St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, we have one of the clearest testimonies in the New Testament of the doctrine of justification by faith, which has been called the doctrine on which the Church stands or falls. Where it is taught and believed correctly, the Church stands. Where it is mangled, the Church falls. So, not only is it a very important doctrine, THE foundational doctrine; it’s also a very practical doctrine, as the exchange between Peter and Paul, recorded by Paul in Galatians 2, makes very clear. Let’s walk through this text this evening.
The Gospel of Christ had reached the city of Antioch in Syria, to the north of the land of Israel, where believers in Jesus the Christ were first called “Christians.” The church there was made up mostly of Gentiles, non-Jews, men who had not been circumcised on the 8th day after they were born; men, women, and children who had not grown up under the Law of Moses at all. They ate things like pork and shellfish, as you and I do, things which the Jews, under the Law of Moses, hadn’t been allowed to eat. And when they became Christians, no one told them they now needed to go back to the Old Testament Law and follow the Jewish practices of circumcision and dietary restrictions. They were free to eat pork or not eat it, free to be circumcised or not be circumcised. The Old Testament had been fulfilled by Christ, and a New Testament in His blood had been instituted. They knew that being counted righteous before God didn’t depend on keeping the Law; it depended on faith in Christ Jesus. Whether Jew or Gentile, we’re all justified only by faith in Christ.
That’s what Isaiah had prophesied centuries earlier. You heard one of those prophecies in the First Lesson this evening: Surely in the LORD I have righteousness and strength. Notice what he says. Not, in the Law I have righteousness and strength. Not, in circumcision, or Kosher eating, or in doing good works. But “in the LORD.” Righteousness comes from Him. I have righteousness and strength by being connected to Him by faith.
That was all well and good, except there were still some Jewish Christians at that time, within the first 15 years after Christ’s ascension, who thought that living according to the Old Testament Law was still necessary for salvation. Yes, you have to believe in Christ Jesus. You have to be baptized. But once you’re baptized, Jew or Gentile, you have to go back and not only learn the Old Testament, but live under the Old Testament Law. You have to live like the Jews if you really want to be pleasing to God. They were members of the “circumcision party.”
Now, Peter had learned directly from Jesus that the Gentiles could be saved without having to live like the Jews. He received a special vision about it. He taught it. He championed that truth in Jerusalem, and when he visited Antioch he was glad to sit down at the table and eat with the uncircumcised Gentile Christians there, even though their meals weren’t Kosher. In that sense, even though he was a Jew, he lived like the Gentiles. But Paul tells us that certain men came from James, the leader or maybe bishop of the Church in Jerusalem, to Antioch, and they belonged to that circumcision party. For some reason, Peter was afraid of them, afraid of offending them, afraid of opposing them. So he withdrew from the Gentile Christians and stopped eating with them.
That was bad enough, but because of who he was, his position among the apostles and his firsthand experience with Jesus Himself, the other Jewish Christians there went along with him and stopped eating with the Gentile Christians. Even Barnabas, Paul’s companion on his First Missionary Journey, went along with this “hypocrisy.”
Paul couldn’t just sit back and watch it happen. Too much was at stake. If you want to eat pork, fine! If you don’t want to, fine! If you want to be a vegetarian or a vegan or a meat eater, fine! But the minute you start to believe or lead others to believe that eating or not eating makes you more acceptable to God, you have gone astray. Even worse, you have broken away from Christ. And Peter, by his behavior, was leading both Jews and Gentiles to believe that their relationship with God depended on keeping the Law. The Jews thought, “Clearly believing in Christ is not enough. We still need to eat the right foods and avoid the wrong ones.” And the Gentiles thought, “Clearly believing in Christ not enough. If I want to have God’s favor, I have to keep the Old Testament Law and become, not just a Christian, but a Jew.”
So Paul confronted Peter, not in private, but “to his face” and “before them all,” because his was no private sin. Private sins should be confronted privately. But public sins—sins which have the potential of leading others astray—are to be confronted publicly.
If you, though you are a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, why do you compel the Gentiles to live like the Jews? Peter, you know that you’ve abandoned the Old Testament Ceremonial Law. You’ve been living like the Gentiles for some time now. Why are you now teaching the Gentiles that, to be a true Christian, you need to live like the Jews? It doesn’t make sense.
Although we are Jews by nature and not Gentile sinners, we know that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, and so we, too, have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law, for by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified. Paul says, Peter, you and I are Jews by nature. We were born among the Jewish people, sons of Abraham, circumcised on the eighth day. We lived most of our lives under the Law of Moses, unlike those “Gentile sinners” who didn’t even know the true God before. We were the “good people,” the “decent people,” the “righteous people.” Still, we know that the Law of Moses doesn’t make us righteous before God, because we’re sinners; we’ve already broken the Law. We have learned that justification comes only by faith in Christ Jesus, and so we’ve believed in Him to be justified, not in the Law, because “no flesh,” no human being, will be justified by doing the works of the Law, since all have sinned. Again, one of the clearest passages in the whole Bible, making it clear that there’s one and only one way for anyone to be judged as righteous before God: by trusting in Christ.
That’s also what Isaiah had said: In the LORD all the descendants of Israel shall be justified, and shall glory. Not “in themselves” or “in their own works,” but “in the LORD” they shall be justified. And who is the “they”? “All the descendants of Israel.” But he’s not talking about physical descendants. Because what had God just said? “Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth!” All who look to Christ Jesus for forgiveness, for God’s favor, for righteousness, for justification—all who seek to be justified through Christ—are the true descendants of Israel.
But Paul continues the argument: But if, while seeking to be justified through Christ, even we ourselves were found to be sinners, then Christ would be a minister of sin. In other words, we have been seeking to be found righteous before God through faith in Christ. But, what? Is that not enough? Do we also have to keep the Law in order to be justified? Is it not by faith alone, as we have believed and taught up until now? If we’re not righteous before God by faith in Christ, if we believers in Christ are still counted as sinners before God, then Christ would be a minister of sin, just another Lawgiver, not a Savior at all.
God forbid!, Paul says. But if I build up again the things which I tore down, I make myself a transgressor. I tore the Law down as a way to be justified, as God instructed us all through Christ. I stopped trusting in the Law and in my own works and trusted only in Christ. What? Should I build the Law up again? Should I rely on it to be found righteous? If I do that, I make myself a transgressor, but while I may be able to eat Kosher or even be circumcised, I can’t keep the whole Law perfectly, as God demands, and so I will not stand before God as innocent, but as a transgressor, a condemned sinner.
For through the Law I died to the Law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; I live, yet it is no longer I, but Christ lives in me. For the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. The Law required me to lead a sinless life. It told me I would be righteous before God if I obey the Law, always, perfectly. But I know I haven’t done that, so the Law pronounced a death sentence on me. But Christ Jesus took the Law’s condemnation on Himself, bore my sins, and then was crucified while bearing them. Through the Law, a death occurred: Christ’s death. That means that all the Law’s requirements were satisfied in Christ, by Christ. And now I have been baptized into Christ, united with Him by faith. So tightly are we bound together that I have been crucified with Christ, as far as the Law is concerned. I died to the Law. I died to sin. The Law can no longer condemn me, because I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. Yes, I’m obviously still alive, but it’s really no longer my life. It’s Christ’s life, His goodness, His righteousness, that count before God, His love that is at work in me. He did all the works the Law required; He paid the penalty the Law required; and I reap all the benefits that He earned.
How? Through faith alone. Otherwise, it’s by works, and if it’s by works, then I have nullified grace; I’ve made grace count for nothing. And Christ has died in vain. He might as well not have come at all, if we can earn God’s favor by our works. But that’s nonsense. Christ came into the world precisely because it was the only way for us poor sinners to be saved: not by keeping the Law, but by fleeing from the Law and running to Christ for refuge.
Even though it meant opposing and rebuking the Apostle Peter, the Apostle Paul had to get this doctrine across to the Christians in Antioch and to the Galatians as well, who were starting to fall into the exact same error, thinking they had to go back to the Law of Moses, to the Law of circumcision, if they wanted to be saved. Human nature and human reason always tend to think that you satisfy God by keeping the Law. So learn the lesson from the Apostle Paul and relearn it again and again: you don’t satisfy God by keeping the Law or by avoiding sin. You satisfy God by trusting in Christ, who satisfied the Law for you.
As Luther wrote in his commentary on Galatians, Faith takes hold of Christ and has Him present, enclosing Him as the ring encloses the gem. And whoever is found having this faith in the Christ who is grasped in the heart, him God accounts as righteous. This is the means and the merit by which we obtain the forgiveness of sins and righteousness. “Because you believe in Me,” God says, “and your faith takes hold of Christ, whom I have freely given to you as your Justifier and Savior, therefore be righteous.” Thus God accepts you or accounts you righteous only on account of Christ, in whom you believe. Amen.
