The Gospel and Dinner: How Justification by Faith Intends to Tear Down Barriers and Unite Us Together | Galatians 2:11-21

Galatians 2:11-21 recounts a conflict between the apostle Paul and the apostle Peter, over eating dinner with people. And for Paul, it's a gospel issue!

What Paul says in this passage speaks powerfully to God's people today concerning this present cultural moment. Racism. Identity politics. Status and wealth. Political division. Our differences have never been sharper than they are right now and we need to the gospel to level us and transform the way we relate to our fellow Christians who are different than us. 

Following Jesus has implications for who we "one another" with and how we "one another" with them. 

Galatians 2:11-21

11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. 13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life 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, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

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