Dave's Diary

Daily Reading: Galatians 2:11-21

In the event Paul writes about in Galatians 2, Peter had fallen prey to the fear of men and their criticism. At this time there were those strongly Jewish Christians (as all the original Christians had been) who firmly believed that to be a Christian one first had to obey the Law of Moses in its entirety. This meant that a male Gentile would first have to be circumcised before he could become a Christian. It meant that Jewish and Gentile Christians would have to maintain a degree of separation from one another to prevent the Jews from becoming “contaminated” by Gentile “uncleanness”. Since his experiences in Acts 10, Peter had realised that this was unnecessary and not essential to God’s salvation plan. He had begun to live in full fellowship with Gentile believers. But when conservative Jewish-Christians from Jerusalem arrived, this all suddenly changed and he separated himself again.

To his great credit, the apostle Paul resisted Peter’s hypocrisy (which had in turn infected other Jewish believers in their community) and against this false teaching. Paul publicly rebuked Peter for his hypocrisy. More importantly, Paul also proclaimed the wonderful Gospel, saying: “We have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.” (v.16)

Faith in Jesus Christ saves a person from the power of sin and bring us into right standing with God. The Law of Moses could never do that. None of us can ever keep the Law perfectly. Instead we throw ourselves on the mercy of God, believing that Jesus has done everything necessary on our behalf. We completely abandon trying to earn God’s favour and we trust in the merits of Jesus. We acknowledge with Paul: “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (v.20)

This is the glorious Gospel – we are reconciled to God not by obeying the requirements of the Law (which are good and righteous but are insufficient to rescue us) but by trusting entirely in what Jesus has done for us on the Cross. Then, once reconciled to God, we live each day in constant internal fellowship with Jesus, Who empowers us to live His life in the world.

Heavenly Father, please forgive me for ever surrendering to the fear of others’ opinions. Forgive me for ever relying on my own religious “goodness” as if I could ever earn Your favour. I choose to trust entirely in Jesus to reconcile me to You, and to empower me to live a life that is pleasing to You today. Amen.