Altar’d.Men’s BS: Controversy in Antioch

Scripture

Galatians 2:11–21 NIV

When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. “But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker. “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

Ok what in the world is going on here?

Make some observations or ask some questions.

The importance of Antioch

Galatians The Lines Begin to Blur (2:11–14)

It is fitting that the flare-up between Peter (Cephas) and Paul took place in Antioch because of that city’s place in the history of the early church. According to Acts 11:19–26, the church in Antioch was founded by refugees from Stephen’s martyrdom. These Hellenistic-Jewish believers in Jesus fled far to the north of Jerusalem to this principal city of Syria. There, they began to proclaim the message of Christ—but at first only to their fellow Jews.

Luke reports that, eventually, this first evangelistic effort was joined by newcomers from Cyprus and Cyrene who took the radical step of proclaiming the gospel to Gentiles as well. (Several important manuscripts read “Greeks” instead of “Hellenists” at Acts 9:20. By whichever reading, the context calls for non-Jews to be in mind.) It was in Antioch, therefore, that the lines between Jewish and non-Jewish believers in Jesus first began to blur. Oneness in Christ began to transcend ethnic and cultural barriers. Believers in Jesus could no longer be classified merely as a particular kind of Jew, and therefore the word “Christian” was coined to describe his increasingly diverse band of disciples (Acts 11:26).

Barnabas brings Paul to Antioch and this was really the first place that Christians takes on a new meaning. From a certain kind of Jewish people to something identified solely by faith in Christ.

Conflict with Paul and Peter

This is not the first time that Peter has crossed this boundary. But it looks to be a breach in what was decided at the Jerusalem Council. The command to the Gentiles was to not eat animals sacrificed to idols, not eat blood, and move away from sexual immorality. They did not have to become circumcised. It wasnt a demand of Jewish ritual adherhence. In other words it was a huge step in the right direction. But to eat with them was eh. Paul is going to be very aggressive in his work to the Gentiles. They are eating together.

Eating together is important.

Galatians The Lines Begin to Blur (2:11–14)

Among life’s everyday experiences, the shared meal is viewed by biblical writers as an especially powerful symbol of how human beings are bound together with one another and with their God. To eat with someone, to share table fellowship, is to foster close association and acquaintance. The result is the establishment of caring and trust, as well as a certain identification by association. Betrayal or unfaithfulness toward another with whom one has shared the table is viewed in the Bible as particularly reprehensible (e.g., Judas’s betrayal of Jesus in Mark 14:17–21). The experience of such fellowship links the participant to God’s saving deeds, both past and future.

Possibly the Lord’s supper is involved but it isn’t explicitly obvious.

So James (authority and representation of traditional or conservative Jewish Christianity) sends people to see about what is happening in Antioch. When they get there, they see what is happening and apparently Peter retreats from table fellowship.

The best example I can think of is the civil rights movement. There were well-intended people or moral convictions that even advocated for rights for people of color and yet would desire that they be seperate. Methodist churches that on paper advocated for the end of slavery and yet would build balconies so that they could sit up there and they would receive communion last.

Still the focus is on Peter here for Paul, especially as he writes this letter to make a point.

Doing the right thing in the face of pressure

Galatians The Lines Begin to Blur (2:11–14)

Peter’s behavior in this episode opens doors to fruitful study of human nature in the face of peer pressure. Even people who, like Peter, presumably know what they ought to do can shrink from doing it if they stop to calculate what others might think of them. Peter’s personal failure had wider repercussions, as Paul reports that even Barnabas stumbled because of Peter’s actions (v. 13). It shouldn’t surprise us, therefore, that Paul was furious that Peter undermined his work in order to appease James’s people.

Think about that….Peter not only saved reputation. It was not a simple and localized problem. It had ripple effects. What we do has ripple effects.

When we shy away from doing hard things. When we run from conflict. When we join in on grumbling about something, we bring others with us. And have an affect on the effectiveness of the gospel in that location.

Paul’s theological response

Galatians 2:19–21 NIV

“For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

and just before that he goes at great lengths to talk about justification in 15-16.

Galatians Justification and the Works of the Law (2:15–21)

For Paul, justification results in a radical transformation of a believer’s life. Paul assures us that this transformation is wholly a work of God, but it is nonetheless a real, observable phenomenon. “Righteousness is new character,” Stagg writes, “not new bookkeeping.”

I think it is possible for us to look at this Jewish conflict and accuse the Jews or works-righteousness and then function in the same way. Meaning we function in a way of thinking that our righteousness is correlated to performance.

Righteousness is new life. new character. For Paul, he is not condemning the law and law observation but he is saying that through the law and the grace of Christ, the old life has been and is being crucified.

Galatians Justification and the Works of the Law (2:15–21)

He has “died to the law” and been “crucified with Christ” so that he might live a renewed and transformed life. The cross penetrates Paul’s life, changing its character and direction so much that he can claim that Christ himself has taken up residence within him, permeating his life, conforming him to Christ’s own image.

Here is a rich mine from which to teach and preach on the nature of salvation. Its source is in Christ alone, it comes to us through faith, and it has implications for how we live. On the one hand, by relativizing our ethnic or cultural identity, it compels us to sit at the table with others who confess Jesus as Lord, no matter how different they might seem. On the other hand, it pulls us ever onward in the direction of Christ-likeness. One need not fall into the overplayed promises of revivalism to confess that an encounter with the crucified and risen Christ is meant to change people from the inside out.

Some concluding comments:

Crucified with Christ

I have missed this nuance and it struck me this week. This usage of Paul is in the perfect tense and that is important.

Romans & Galatians Notes

My old self has been crucified with Christ. The use of the perfect tense here signifies that the crucifixion of Paul’s old self with Christ has continued effects in his life. The Gr. prefix (sun [4862, 5250]) of sunestaurēomai [4957, 5365] means “together”; Paul was picturing himself as following his master in a life of self-sacrifice. He viewed himself as copying or imitating Christ (cf. Phil 3:8,10,17; 1 Pet 4:13). Paul did not thereby exalt himself but accepted Christ’s death as his model for life.

Is our life marked by self-sacrifice or self-preservation?

2. The grace of Jesus allows me to cross barriers

look at Galatians 2:21

Galatians 2:21 NIV

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

It is not in social, cultural, preferential identities that should steer my ship, but the grace of Jesus that compels me to make room for people different than me.

EGR people.

3. The family of faith is difficult

I dont want to flatten this problem into a bible lesson. Living in the family of faith is difficult. It is complicated and messy. Paul and Peter… also Paul and the Jerusalem council and James. Paul and Barnabas. Getting this right with cultural and social implications that promote persecution or difficulty no doubt.

It is a grind even in the healthiest of settings. Those that are continually being crucified with Christ will work in the tension out of humility because of the grace of Christ. When we momentarily are not being crucified with Christ, we will miss this.