Musing 80

A week goes by quick!

Time to wrap up Galatians 2. Last time, I primarily focused on the first vignette of Paul’s autobiography. This time I want to take a moment to look at the 2nd vignette.

To be honest, I long struggled in understanding Paul’s point here insofar as it applies to the issues the Judaizers are presenting. After all, what does Peter’s hypocrisy have to do with the Judaizers trying to circumcise the Galatians?

But I think that the last phrase of verse 14 hold the key here – “how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?” What was going on is that despite having revelation about the appropriateness of including Gentiles in the Church, was now effectively kicking them out and treating them as unbelievers because they hadn’t been circumcised. But Paul’s response is also telling because the response is not limited to circumcision. It’s a response that, to make sense of it, would encompass following the whole Mosaic Law.

There is a subtle rebuke for those who would bind Christians to the Mosaic Law in any capacity. By not limiting his response to Peter to just circumcision, Paul is denying that Jewishness is the way by which we are separated from the world. It is our union with Christ and thus one another that separates us. After all, Peter himself was living like a Gentile. While we aren’t told exactly what that means, especially in context of Peter’s behavior being out of fear of the Judaizers, an immediate supposition is that Peter was no longer following the laws about cultural Jewish identity. After all, why else would Paul focus on “being a Jew” if the only thing that mattered was being circumcised?

We also get to see a hint of the importance of the Reformation cry “Christ alone”. Remember that the Judaizers and even the Pharisees both emphasized the need for faith. One of the problems we have is that in our limited exposure to the Pharisees, we often think of Phariseeism as just being about the rules. Which is not really the case. The Pharisees were well acquainted with the need for faith, and the Judaizers affirmed the necessity of faith as well. But the problem is that such faith was insufficient for actual salvation - you had to follow the law so that you receieve the blessings of the gospel through salvation. And so, as we walk through the rest of the book, we ought to remember that references to works are not bare “follow the rules to be saved” arguments as if the Law was a magic formula. They all said “to be saved, you must have faith and do XYZ”.

As an aside - we also see an example of the insidiousness of error by our leaders - Peter’s sin was effectively leading the church to a split between the Jews and Gentiles. Peter, in his moment of fearing man rather than God, was now telling people “to really be part of the church, you have to be a jew”. This is why Christians leaders are held to a higher standard, and why the sins of leaders are often so impactful. We must be on the lookout against sin and be willing to hold our leaders accountable.