Don’t Be a Hypocrite

We Can Preach the Gospel With Our Actions

11-14

Paul took Peter’s behavior seriously

It was important enough to Paul that he opposed him to his face

Peter was acknowledging the gospel by eating with gentile believers

This is something the law would not allow

But Peter’s willingness to place the law under grace was evidence of the gospel of grace

When the men from James came, he quit eating with the gentile believers

Often we deny the gospel out of fear of other people

It could be their opinion of us, becoming an outcast or persecution,

but, often the reason we deny the true gospel is other people

But it is important that we act according to the Gospel

First we see the men from James influencing Peter, then we see Peter influencing the rest of the Jews

including Barnabas

Our actions influence other’s

Paul believed this to be a serious enough issue to call Peter out publically

Paul explained that their conduct was not in agreement with the Gospel

Though peter had preached a Gospel of salvation by faith, he was not living as though the law was needed for salvation

By refusing the eat with the gentiles, Peter was requiring of the gentiles a sticking to the law that even Peter himself was unwilling to accept

The Law Does not Save

15-16

To the Jewish mind, there were two types of people

Jew’s who were righteous and gentiles who are sinners

in order to overcome this thinking Paul has to explain that justification does not come through the law

Paul doesn’t start making the argument that gentiles are saved by Christ, but instead makes the argument that Jews are saved by Christ

Jewish Christians are saved by faith in Christ

He begins by explaining that people cannot be saved by the works of the law

no amount of good works will get you to Christ

he then goes on to tell the Galatians that it is only through faith in Jesus Christ that anyone can be saved

Gentile Christians are saved by faith in Christ

he drives this point home by explaining how he and the Galatians came to salvation

he ends this paragraph by reiterating that no one is justified by the law!

Don’t Turn Back to the Law

17-18

In verse 17 Paul starts to lay out that we cannot both be saved by Christ and works

We cannot be saved by Christ and works

What paul is saying is if we try to be justified by Christ through the law we prove ourself to be sinners

By trying to keep the law, all we can do is prove that we don’t keep the law

and if we are saved by the law, then Christ is subservient to the law

requiring us to keep the law, would strip Christ of his power over death and sin

Paul has worked hard to this point to preach a message of grace

If he were to go back to preaching the law he he’d be rebuilding a house he already tore down

But the end results would be that he’d only prove himself to be a sinner

Live for Christ

19-21

Since our justification is through faith and not works, is how we live important?

Paul says it is.

But if how we live does not affect our salvation, why is it important?

If how we live is important, it is important because who we live for

To die to the law, is to be no longer under the law

When we come to Christ, we die to the law and it no longer has power over us

Calvin said, “To die to the law is to renounce it and to be freed from its dominion, so that we have no confidence in it and it does not hold us captive under the yoke of slavery.”

Philip Graham Ryken, Galatians, ed. Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2005), 72.

our death to the law, or freedom from the law, isn’t without a purpose

It is so that we might live to God

If we are no longer bound to the commands, we can now live a righteous life not for the purpose of our own benefit, but for the benefit of God.

In other words, since we are dead to the law and it has no power over us

we don’t have to live every moment keeping the law in order to be justified

Our freedom from the law frees us to live righteously so that our life will glorify God

For when we were saved, our life ended and we were crucified with Christ

In Romans we are told to present our bodies as a living sacrifice

At the moment of salvation, our life ends and Christ begins to reign in us

So the way we live and the things we do are no longer a reflection on who we are, because we are sinners

Our life is now a reflection of Christ

Don’t Be A Hypocrite

We must avoid hypocrisy not because it harms us, but because it steals glory from Christ Himself

Being a hypocrite steals the glory from God

Paul ends his this part of his argument by explaining that even the idea that the law can bring a man to righteousness, Christ would not have needed to die

If we had the ability to work our way to God, the cross would be meaningless

this is where Catholicism falls apart

While they claim faith in Christ, their faith is not in Christ, but the sacraments

this is where legalist fall apart, for they claim faith in Christ, but place faith in their ability to follow the rules

Being a hypocrite is to require something of someone else, you won’t require of yourself