Paul Confronts Peter with Grace; Gal. 2:11-15
After Paul had spent
fourteen years in relative obscurity the next thing we see about him is when
Barnabas comes and recruits him to help him with the ministry in the church at Antioch which was primarily a Gentile church. But during this
time what was going on in Jerusalem?
Remember the Lord’s command in Acts 1:8 that the disciples were to take the
gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria
and the uttermost parts of the earth. They are to go out and do missionary
activity. But they don’t understand and they still have problems with legalism.
Their background is heavy ritual and religion, and one thing we always discover
when people come out of a background where they have been saturated with legalism
is that it is very hard for them to come to grips with principles of grace.
They may talk a lot about grace, use grace terminology a lot, but they don’t
always understand it because they have been influenced so much by their
legalistic background. That was the problem with the Jerusalem church and the only thing that got them out of Jerusalem was persecution that arose after the martyrdom of
Stephen. That forced them out; that is how God used persecution in the early
church. It forced the believers to carry out the task that God had assigned
them. This is generally the outline for the book of Acts. It is to see how God
forced them to fulfil the mandate of Acts 1:8.
About this time, probably
two or three years after the crucifixion, Peter as the leader of the church in Jerusalem finally has to have a direct revelation from God so
that he gets the point about grace and the Mosaic Law. This is given in Acts
chapter ten. We get the same story two or three times in three chapters where
the Holy Spirit is knocking on their forehead and saying: Get the point here;
you have to understand the principle of grace and that the Mosaic Law no longer
has any validity in the church age.
First of all there is a
Gentile centurion by the name of Cornelius who lived in Caesarea. He was a man who exercised positive volition at the point of
God-consciousness. He is not a proselyte, he hasn’t converted to Judaism, but
he is very interested. He wants to learn some truth. At the same time the scene
shifts to Peter. He is on the sea coast at what is now called Haifa and he is very hungry. He falls into a trance—this is
revelation with very specific content. The Holy Spirit gives him specific
directions in this. Peter applies that and everything is validated by the
circumstances that unfold. Peter was told to no longer consider anything
unclean because the cross had occurred in human history now which is what all
of the ritual of the Mosaic Law looked forward to. Now that the cross has
occurred the Mosaic Law no longer had any validity in the new church age. This
had to happen three times because Peter is a little slow. While he is there a
messengers from Cornelius arrived, and they take Peter to Caesarea where Peter makes it clear to Cornelius that there is no longer to be
a distinction between Jew and Gentile. Under the Mosaic Law there was this
strict division between Jew and Gentile. The Jews could not have anything to do
with the Gentiles because that would make them ceremonially unclean. But now
Peter has gotten the point and he has dinner with Cornelius and his household
and he gives them the gospel which they believe.
Acts 10:44 NASB “While Peter
was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were
listening to the message.”
Obviously they had all responded positively at the point of gospel hearing and
had trusted Christ as their saviour. [45] All the circumcised believers who
came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been
poured out on the Gentiles also.” Circumcision was a sign of the Abrahamic
covenant; it was a theological issue, it had to do with their covenant
relationship to God. What we have here is what is called the Gentile Pentecost,
because the event here mirrors what took place on the day of Pentecost. What we
have here is the baptism by means of the Holy Spirit. This is not indicative of
a normal series of events because what has happened here is that under the
leadership of Peter the Gentiles are going to be experiencing something that is
identical to what took place at Pentecost.
What is the background? It
is that when we read the book of Acts what is critical is that this book is a
book that was transitional in nature. The second thing that must be understood
is that it is a historical book. You never develop doctrine from historical
literature. Historical literature may illustrate doctrine but it is never to be
the source of doctrine. Historical literature simply relates what happened, it
does not tell us what is to be normative. What happened in Acts is that there
were three situations. On the day of Pentecost the church age began when God
the Holy Spirit baptized all believers there instantly. Then when we get over
to Acts chapter seven we have Peter and John going up to Samaria where occurred
the Samaritan Pentecost. The same kind of thing happened. The Holy Spirit comes
down on the believers there. Why does that happen? The Samaritans were part Jew
and part Gentile and they were completely rejected by the Jews. So what this
had to show was that the same event under the same leadership occurred with the
Samaritans. We don’t have two different groups, e.g. a Jewish group and a
Samaritan group. They are all one and the same. The point is that there was a
separate event that happens at the beginning with the Samaritans in order to
show that they are completely united with the original group at Pentecost. It
is one and the same thing. The next thing that happens is with the Gentiles in
Acts 10. Here the person involved is Peter again, so this shows that the Gentiles
partake of the exact same thing. At the beginning of each of these groups, not
with anyone after, we have this happen. The fourth time this happens is with
the followers of John the Baptist is Acts 19, and they represent all Old
Testament saints. So what this shows is that the church is unified; there is
only one body of Christ, it is not made up of different groups and ethnic
distinctions. The Old Testament distinctions in relationship to ritual or the
distinction between Jew and Gentile is no longer significant. That is the
thrust of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
This is what takes place
in Acts, and they speak in tongues. Tongues is a sign
of judgment coming to Israel because of their rejection of God and their negative
volition. This is announced in the prophecy in Isaiah 28. Paul refers to that
prophecy in 1 Corinthians 14 to show that this was the purpose of the gift of
tongues; it was a sign of judgment. Even though it didn’t occur everywhere
everybody heard about it. Acts 11:1 NASB “Now the
apostles and the brethren who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had
received the word of God.” So even
though speaking in tongues only occurred in a few places and a few times,
people heard about it; word spread. That was testimony to all the Jews that God
was doing something and this was a sign of divine judgment coming on the nation
Israel. Once Israel was judged by the Roman legions in 70 AD when Jerusalem was destroyed and the nation was taken out under the
fifth cycle of discipline, from that point on there has been no legitimate use
of the gift of tongues. Today there is no speaking in tongues,
there is just the baptism by means of the Holy Spirit, and so it is not
consistent. This is not setting up a normal pattern; it is just telling what happened
in order to demonstrate the unity of the body of Christ.
The issue here is the
relationship of the Mosaic Law to the church age. After Peter does this he has
to go back to Jerusalem and report. They are up in arms about this but here
we see that Peter has tremendous courage against their legalism. Acts 11:1 NASB “Now the apostles and the brethren who
were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of
God. [2] And when Peter came up to
Jerusalem, those who were circumcised [still holding to the
Mosaic Law and rituals] took issue with him, [3] saying, ‘You went to
uncircumcised men and ate with them’.”
So he is being challenged by these legalists. What does he do? He stands
his ground and explains exactly what happened and rehearses the whole situation
to them. Acts 11:18 NASB “When they heard this, they quieted
down and glorified God, saying, ‘Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles
also the repentance {that leads} to life’.” This
is background to Galatians chapter two.
Then we have the growth of
the church in Antioch. This is the new Gentile church and it is going to
overshadow the Jerusalem church which has become ingrown and still has
problems with legalism. As the church in Antioch grows they hear about it in Jerusalem and send Barnabas up there to find out what is going
on. He sees that God is doing a tremendous work among the Gentiles and goes and
gets Paul from Tarsus and they begin their ministry in Antioch. At the end of about a year the
prophesy of Agabus comes true and there is a
famine in Jerusalem. Barnabas and Paul are sent down to Jerusalem to carry a gift of money to help the Jerusalem believers during this crisis. After they return to
Antioch Peter decides to come up and check out the situation. This sets up a
very important pivotal event that is the background for this chapter, and this
is what Paul has been driving to. He is giving this to show that his authority
is not only recognised by Peter but he has to really chew Peter out in front of
everybody because the issue is the importance of grace alone—faith is based on
faith alone in Christ alone, not faith plus works.
Galatians 2:11 NASB “But when Cephas
came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood
condemned. [12] For prior to the coming of certain men from James,
he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he {began} to withdraw
and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision.
[13] The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even
Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. [14] But when I saw
that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, ‘If you, being a Jew, live
like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how {is it that} you compel the
Gentiles to live like Jews? [15] We {are} Jews by nature and not
sinners from among the Gentiles.’”
One of the interesting
things here is that Paul calls Peter Cephas. In the
Greek that is spelled kephas [Khfaj]. The correct pronunciation is really Kephas. Verses 11 describes a
public confrontation. There are some times when this is what has to be done
when a person is making a public statement and gets into false doctrine in
front of everybody, and this is time to make an issue out of it and stop it
right there before it goes any further. That is what Paul had to do here. There
had to be a public admonition because of the seriousness of the problem. One
thing we ought to notice is how Peter responds. He responds in grace. Peter
knows that he is wrong and he has the maturity and the grace orientation to be
relaxed in the situation and to evaluate himself
honestly. The sign of true maturity is the person who can relax in the midst of
criticism, listen to it and weigh it. If it has value to accept it, if it doesn’t
have value reject it. Peter shows some real humility here. Humility doesn’t
mean you are a doormat, humility recognises your role and position in the plan
of God. You recognise the authority of God and the authority of doctrine in
your life and so you are always going to be evaluating yourself by that
absolute standard of Bible doctrine. Peter doesn’t let his ego get in the way
and he responds correctly to the apostle Paul.
Cephas is the Aramaic word for a rock and the equivalent to
the Greek word petros [petroj] for “Peter”. This recalls what happened in Matthew
chapter 16:15-18 NASB “He [Jesus] said to them, ‘But who do you
say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the
living God.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Blessed are you,
Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal
{this} to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to you
that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My
church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.’” His name was Simon Barjona but the Lord gave him a new name, Peter. There is
an interesting word play here in the Greek. He goes from petros, which is like a small rock or a
stone, a chip off the block, to petra which is like a large immovable block. So Jesus says,
“I say to you that you are Peter, a small stone, and upon this large stone, the
petra…”—which is the principle that Jesus Christ is the Messiah,
the Son of the living God. It is the foundation stone that Jesus is the Christ.
He is not talking about Peter being the foundation of the church, He is talking
about the principle that Peter recognised as being the foundation of the church—“I
will build my church…” They keys
mentioned refer to the message that salvation is by faith alone in Christ
alone, and the apostles were given these keys, the message of the gospel, so
that whatever they would bind on earth would be bound in heaven. Something that
was bound on earth would be those who rejected the gospel. Binding and loosing
has to do with acceptance or rejection of the gospel message. Peter is called
Simon Peter after that. The Greek word emphasises the point that the Lord made.
In Galatians 2:11 Paul uses the name Cephas
because he is just getting Peter’s attention. Peter is not acting like Peter
the rock because he is violating a doctrinal principle here. Paul is
emphasising the fact that Peter has gotten away from doctrinal purity. “I
opposed him to his face.” Here we have the Greek word anthistemi [a)nqisthmi], a culmination of two Greek words histemi, which means to stand, and anti, which means against. It means to oppose,
to resist, to withstand; it means sometimes to
confront someone face to face and oppose someone. Paul has to set his heels in
and he is going too oppose Peter face to face because he stood condemned on the
basis of his very own behaviour. Galatians 2:12 NASB “For prior to the coming of certain
men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he
{began} to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision.”
The men from James were still tied into the Mosaic Law.
This issue is so great
that it is splitting the congregation into two camps. Galatians 2:13 NASB “The rest of the Jews joined him in
hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their
hypocrisy.” So now there were the Gentiles on one hand who are for grace and
recognise that God has included them in the body of Christ, and on the other
hand were the Jews who thought that this inclusion in the body of Christ must
be based on the Mosaic Law. The influence was so great that it even swayed
Barnabas. The word “hypocrisy” is from the Greek word sunupokrinomai [sunupokrinomai], referring to those who to act insincerely with
someone, someone you couldn’t trust, someone who acted one way in one situation
and another way in another situation. Paul is saying here that those who get
caught up in this kind of legalism are hypocrites. They are two-faced; they used
a gospel of grace and the issue of grace at one time but now they have lost it.
They have fallen into the trap of public opinion and are trying to please these
legalists who have come up from Jerusalem. Proverbs 29:25 NASB “The fear of man
brings a snare, But he who trusts in the LORD will be exalted.”
Galatians 2:14 NASB “But when I saw that they were not
straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas
in the presence of all, “If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not
like the Jews, how {is it that} you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?” The
words “not straightforward” comes from the Greek word orthopodousin [o)rqopodousin], from which we get out English word orthopaedic, a doctor
who deals with bones and straightens the bones. It has to do with walki8ng in a
straight line.
The Mosaic Law
1. The Mosaic Law can be divided into three sections.
Section one has to do with the ten commandments. These
were for believer and unbeliever alike. They were never designed to be a way of
living the spiritual life or a way of salvation. They were guidelines for the
Law of the Old Testament. [Tape runs
out]