Galatians 2:11-21: a reflection

11But when Peter came to Antioch, I resisted him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12For before some people came from James, he ate with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. 13And the rest of the Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. 14But when I saw that they didn’t walk uprightly according to the truth of the Good News, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live as the Gentiles do, and not as the Jews do, why do you compel the Gentiles to live as the Jews do? 15“We, being Jews by nature and not Gentile sinners, 16yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law. 17But if while we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found sinners, is Christ a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18For if I build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a law-breaker. 19For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. 20I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. 21I don’t reject the grace of God. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing!”

Paul recounts a tense moment when he had to confront Peter to his face. Peter had been eating freely with Gentile believers until certain people arrived, and then, out of fear, he drew back and separated himself, and others followed his example. Paul saw that this was not in step with the truth of the gospel, and he challenged Peter publicly. At stake was not a minor matter of manners but whether grace or law-keeping defines who belongs to God.

From that confrontation Paul rises to one of the clearest statements of the gospel in all his letters. A person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And then the words that have anchored countless believers: I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. The old self has died with Christ; a new life, Christ's own, now lives in the believer.

This is the heart of the Christian life. You are not accepted by God on the basis of your performance but on the basis of Christ, who loved you and gave himself for you. Your task is not to earn a standing you can never achieve but to live by faith in the Son of God who already lives in you. Let this free you from the exhausting effort to justify yourself, and let it become deeply personal: he loved me, and gave himself for me. Rest there, and live from it.

Lord Jesus, I have been crucified with you, and it is no longer I who live but you who live in me. Free me from the exhausting effort to earn a standing I can never achieve. Let me live by faith in you, the Son of God who loved me and gave yourself for me. Make that truth deeply personal, and let my whole life flow from your grace and not my performance. Amen.