Gospel of Grace - Self-Condemnation

Galatians 2:6-14

By opposing Peter, Paul shows how to avoid self-condemnation.

Galatians 2:6-14: And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to

me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 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. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 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?” (ESV)

Recently, two church members, Dan and Lucy, shared with me the story of a woman named Mercy, who went to be with the Lord after a brief battle with cancer.

By profession, Mercy was a pediatrician. Her superior was a feared man at her hospital and cursed all the time, taking the Lord’s name in vain. Disregarding whether she would lose her job or not, Mercy confronted him and asked, “Why do you take my Lord’s name in vain?”