A Clash of Titans… Lesson 8
A Triumph of Truth
Galatians 2:11-21
Introduction:
Ch 1 Independent
Ch 2:1-10 Identical
Ch 2:11-21 Authoritative
I. The Description of the Transaction 2:11-14
A. The confrontation of Peter’s peer
Gal 2:11 When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong.
1. Not the reasons Paul confronted
a. exaltation of Paul personally
1. he counted himself as nothing
1 Cor 15:9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God.
2. he did not count himself as inferior
2 Cor 11:5-6
5 But I do not think I am in the least inferior to those "super-apostles."
6 I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way.
b. humiliation of Peter personally
1. Paul’s regard for Peter
Gal 2:7 …entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel …as Peter had been to the Jews
Gal 2:8 For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews
2. Peter’s regard for Paul
2 Peter 3:15-16
15 Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.
16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
2. The reason Paul did confront – the defense of the gospel
Is it pride to exercise God ordained authority?
Do you love Jesus enough to confront?
Do you love the people who love Jesus enough to confront you?
B. The character of Peter’s sin
Gal 2:12 Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.
1. How Peter sinned
2. Why Peter should have known better Acts 11:1-18 ; Acts 10:34-35
C. The cause of Peter’s sin Matthew 14:22-32
D. The consequences of Peter’s hypocrisy
Gal 2:13-14
13 The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, "If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?
Here note:
(1.) The weakness and inconstancy of the best of men, when left to themselves, and how apt they are to falter in their duty to God, out of an undue regard to the pleasing of men.
(2.) The great force of bad examples, especially the examples of great men and good men, such as are in reputation for wisdom and honour.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: Copyright © 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.
II. The Defense of the Truth Justification by Faith Alone 2:15-21
A. What it is
15 "We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners'
16 know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.
“We are Jews Peter! Of all people we know what it is to live in a system where salvation must be earned.
Yet, we believed the gospel and were saved! How can it be different for the Gentiles?”
No amount of law keeping can ever save! WHY?!
Because ______
______
Justification is ______
______
B. Why anything else is heretical
17 "If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not!
18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker.
“Peter, If it’s true that we are sinning by welcoming Gentiles apart from law and ritual, then is Jesus the chief of sinners!?”
Mark 7:14-23
14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this.
15 Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.'"
17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable.
18 "Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'?
19 For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.")
20 He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.'
21 For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
22 greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.
23 All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.'"
Acts 10:15; 34-35
15 The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."
34 Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism
35 but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.
C. How it happens
19 For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"
Romans 6:1-14
Romans 7:1-4
“It does not mean that we are made righteous, but rather that God regards us as righteous and declares us to be righteous. This has often been a difficulty to many people. They say that because they are conscious of sin within they cannot be in a justified state; but anyone who speaks like that shows immediately that he has no understanding of this great and crucial doctrine of justification. Justification makes no actual change in us; but is a declaration by God concerning us. It is not something that results from what we do but rather something that is done for us. We have only been made righteous in the sense that God regards us as righteous and pronounces us to be righteous”
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
TNBS Questions Lesson 8
Preparation for week 9
Read Galatians 2:15-21
1. What have you learned about ‘justification’ from Galatians that is new or fresh to you?
______
2. This doctrine is the core of the book. Why was it so important to Paul?
______
Read Galatians 3:1-5 In each of these 5 verses Paul asks a rhetorical question.
Imagine you are a Gentile believer, a member of First Grace Christian Church of Iconium.
a. paraphrase each question in your own words
b. for each question, write the answer that you would have given as a guilty (but honest) church member
c. state how your actions will (or at least should) change as a result of Paul’s letter
3:1 a. ______
______
b. ______
______
c. ______
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3:2 a. ______
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b. ______
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c. ______
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3:3 a. ______
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b. ______
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c. ______
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3:4 a. ______
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b. ______
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c.______
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3:5 a. ______
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b. ______
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c. ______
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