September 7, 2025 | Grace Worth Fighting For
Grace Worth Fighting For | Galatians Part 5
Galatians 2:11–16
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?”
We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 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. (ESV)
In Galatians 2:11-16, Paul recounts confronting Peter in Antioch over a moment of hypocrisy that threatened the gospel's truth. Peter, once freely sharing meals with Gentile believers in joyful unity, withdrew when Jewish visitors from James arrived, fearing the circumcision party's disapproval. This act, driven by social pressures for salvation, safety, and evangelism, led other Jews, including Barnabas, to follow suit, implying Gentiles must adopt Jewish customs to belong. Paul opposed Peter publicly, not as a false teacher but as a brother whose conduct strayed from convictions, asking how Peter could live as a Gentile yet compel others to Judaize.
Paul highlights three truths for guarding the gospel. First, compromising the gospel destroys fellowship, while clarity in grace fosters peace-filled unity among believers. Second, those entrusted with the gospel, like leaders, bear responsibility in their welcome; even a simple withdrawal signals second-class status, distorting grace and pressuring others toward legalism. Third, to defend the gospel outwardly, one must rest in it inwardly. Peter's fear exposed unrest, allowing hypocrisy to emerge as he concealed true beliefs under a mask of conformity.
Hypocrisy here means acting against known convictions, not mere failure in sanctification, but concealing grace amid fear. Legalism, Paul insists, cannot justify anyone. Instead, justification comes by faith in Christ alone. Resting in God's unmerited favor dispels internal fears, enabling grace to flow through actions. Sins thrive on soul unrest, but gospel light transforms, cutting roots of hypocrisy and legalism for true freedom.
Transcript of Grace Worth Fighting For | Galatians Part 5
Introduction: A Broken Fellowship
Jed Gillis: Have you ever been in a really good friendship, or at least you thought it was a good friendship? You spent a lot of time together. Maybe you hung out with this person a lot, and it seemed like you were starting to really know each other. You're starting to really laugh and enjoy the same kinds of things together.
Then one of their other friends shows up and things just change. Maybe you were a little more reserved before and you finally started loosening up with them. Their other friend comes and they don't laugh quite as hard at the joke that you make.
In fact, maybe that laughter dies away. Totally. The conversation shifts and you just want to disappear. And maybe you feel foolish for thinking that friendship was so good in the first place.
That's kind of the story that we look at this morning in Antioch. Except it wasn't about small talk and inside jokes, it was about the gospel and their souls.
So I want you to imagine with me, take that experience that maybe many of us have had. I want you to imagine with me you are poor Gentile, growing up in the city of Antioch. Now growing up you knew some Jews. You knew they were God-fearing people. They were the good people in town, most likely, just based on the background of the city of Antioch, the Jews you knew were wealthy. They had lots of money. They were powerful, they were socially respected. They were not your people. In so many ways.
But then this guy, Paul comes and he is a respected Jewish teacher who's now preaching the gospel, and he comes and tells you about grace. You've thought, yeah, I'm poor. I'm never fitting in with those people. Maybe most likely you thought there's, I've gotta outweigh my bad deeds with my good works. And you felt that pressure on your soul. And you thought maybe I can make it through life and it's okay, but there's no way the God of those rich goody two shoes, Jews will love me. Until Paul came saying, all you have to do to belong to God's family is to hear the message of God's unmerited favor through Jesus Christ and rely on it. And you think that is way too good to be true? No way.
Finally. After knowing Paul's in town and you've heard little bits of what he said, you, you work up the nerve to go where they're meeting, to sneak in the back row and to hear Paul preach and you hope, I hope nobody's gonna notice, but Paul notices and he catches you afterwards. And he talks to you and you say, the conviction of my sin. I heard the gospel, and I realize I have been so dishonoring to that glorious God. You feel that conviction and you're blown away by the glory of Jesus. He would give himself for me.
You tell Paul, I need this mercy. I know I haven't lived like Jesus. I believe he died in my place. And Paul says, then turn from trusting yourself and trust instead in Jesus to give rest to your soul. Trust in the king. And he also says, by the way, don't think you're the only one who needs grace. Paul says, I was the ultimate religious rule keeper who acted in hatred towards all these people who believe in the gospel and God changed me. I had no rest in my soul, but the grace of God is what changed me. So we can change you. That's what Paul tells you. And finally you say, Paul, if the grace of God is good enough for you, and you say you're the chief of the morally good sinners, it's good enough for me. So you joyfully come to Jesus.
Now, let's say you spend the next few weeks, you soak in the teaching of the gospel, you come hesitantly. At first, you still sneak in the back, but you see small and he Paul and he smiles and you think, but that other person over there, they're not gonna accept me. And then they do.
And you go from thinking, I can't possibly belong with those people. To feeling little bits by bit. You relax into belonging with this group of people into a family,
But you know, there's meals and you say there's some Jews here. So you go to Paul and you say, Paul, I don't eat like these Jews. We eat different food and, and they've never wanted to sit at a table with me before. So like I can come and hear the preaching, but maybe I'll just slip out before dinner.
And Paul says, didn't you come to Jesus through Grace? And then he says, come here. And he puts his arm around you and he walks you over and he sits you down next to Joshua, who's been a Jew, who's a believer for years. He sits you next to him and you're like, oh no, but Joshua welcomes you too. And you enjoy fellowship alongside this person.
Gradually your defenses come down. You taste unity, you taste laughter. You eat the Lord's supper together, your soul starts to rest in the fact that you don't have to measure up in performance of good deeds to outweigh your bad, and you just enjoy grace.
And then you hear Peter's coming next week. And you're like, wait, wait, wait. The Peter, like Paul, are you talking about a different Peter? Are you talking about the one who betrayed Jesus? That one that Jesus sat by the seashore with him and said, if you love me, feed my sheep. You talking about like the Peter who preached on Pentecost? You, you mean that guy? The guy who said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. The guy who drew his sword cut off the guy's ear, turned out to be a bad plan. You're talking about that guy, right? Paul? Yeah. Peter's coming. The one who saw Jesus feed the 5,000 and saw him invite the children to come and saw Jesus eat with sinners and tax collectors.
They show up and it's everything you could have imagined. It's wonderful. Until some people from Jerusalem walk in the back door.
And Peter slides back from the table and takes his plate and walks away, and so does the other Jewish believers, including Barnabas, who is as welcoming and encouraging as you could be. It's as if they've all just put on masks. And started acting in a play where the gospel doesn't matter.
Suddenly all that unity you tasted, vanishes. You think, how dumb could I have been? How could I have thought I could belong with these people? Shame floods in. You think i'm not fully accepted after all. I don't really belong with these people after all. And you decide the gospel either isn't for you or you decide the only way to have that kind of unity is, I guess I've got to keep the Jewish law like they do.
That's why this story exists. That's a fictional representation in part. But the core of it is exactly why Paul speaks to Peter the way he does.
Reading Galatians 2
I wanna read Galatians two beginning in verse 11, but when Cephas or Peter came to Antioch, I, this is Paul. I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. Before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles, but when they came, he drew back. He 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 Peter 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? We ourselves are Jews by birth and not gentile sinners. 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.
Tasting the Radical Unity of the Gospel
So you can see the pieces of the story I had you imagine you can see them written in the way he talks here. One Peter is eating with the Gentile believers and so are the other Jews who are there, like Barnabas and others who have come with him. They're united around the gospel. There's joy, there's excitement, there's laughter, there's belonging. And this included the Lord's supper together. And in the experience of that world, apart from the gospel, good Jews didn't do that. They didn't eat alongside Gentiles. So you know there's a change. When you see this in Antioch, you see what they're doing.
And you might even have heard the story. Peter says, God gave me this vision three times that I needed to go to Cornelius, who was not a Jew. And God said, what I've called clean, don't call unclean. So you might have heard that story even.
What Social Pressures Caused Peter to Back Away?
First he's eating with him when the people show up, they brought numerous social pressures. I wanna pause a minute and say, what kind of pressures did Peter feel that made him want to back off?
Well, it could be what we've already looked at. There were troubles, there were agitators. Who had taught you need to keep the law in order to have salvation. So there could have been a pressure coming from others that says, if you don't fit these performance, social, cultural things that are tied to the Mosaic law, then you're not true believers. It could be that that's part of the pressure that we know was there.
Here's a second one. There was a group called, uh, a Jewish Zealots and they were, they could be very violent. They were like rabid nationalists, if you will, for Israel, and they were willing to use their violence and their persecution to keep their national heritage pure. So they would put pressure on Jewish Christians and they would say, we know this happened in Jerusalem. We don't know for sure that's what was in Peter's mind, but it makes sense. This would be part of it. They would come and they would say, if you don't keep the law, you're Roman sympathizers. You sit next to that Gentile at dinner, you might as well be supporting Caesar. That's what their countrymen are saying. And not only you might as well be, but we might hurt you if you do. So there's that kind of pressure. A pressure for salvation, number one. A pressure for physical safety.
We also know that Jewish believers like Paul really wanted other Jews to come to faith in Jesus. And if they see here's all the Jewish Christians are eating alongside Gentiles, they start to go, why would I want that? So there's another kind of pressure here, a pressure for evangelism. I don't want these Jewish people in Jerusalem to not want to come to Jesus because they heard that I ate with Gentiles and Antioch.
There's a lot of social pressures. Whether it's for salvation, for physical safety, for evangelism, or we could call it church growth. The pressures were real on Peter. We don't want to take this like, well, Peter, how could you be so stupid? There was no pressure on you at all, and you just did something ridiculous. No, he felt heavy pressures. They were real, so he draws back and doesn't eat with them.
Peter Led Others Astray, Even Barnabas
This, this whole meal was a miracle of grace. Until Peter drew back, that's what's at stake. That's why Paul doesn't just say, well, we'll clear this up after Peter goes back to Jerusalem. I'll send him a strongly worded letter.
And he doesn't do that because not only is it Peter, even Barnabas, so the other Jews who were with him and even Barnabas, who is the, the encourager. Paul's fellow missionary, like, think about it. Barnabas has walked with Paul across a whole chunk of the known world at the time, seeing the gospel go to Gentiles, seeing God save Gentiles, celebrating and communicating grace.
Not only that, Barnabas has walked into synagogues and seeing Jews reject the gospel and throw Paul out time after time, after time, after time. You would think as an encourager, as a fellow missionary, as someone who's seen this, that he would be more sensitive to what is going on. And that's why the text even gives us this hint. It says that even Barnabas, the last person you think would do it, even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. Even Barnabas is wearing a different mask. He's acting in a different play. One where the gospel doesn't matter.
Paul Confronts Peter as a Brother, Not as a False Teacher
So Paul confronts Peter, and I want you to notice one thing about that he doesn't confront him like he did the false teachers. If we went back to chapter one, remember the strong language that's there. If anyone preaches a different gospel, let him be accursed. That's strong language.
He doesn't come up to Peter and say, let you be accursed. He comes up to Peter instead, out of love for Peter, because he knows Peter believes the gospel. It's not that Peter is teaching the wrong thing, it's that Peter's conduct doesn't match his convictions. What he thinks is true about the gospel, he's not living out. He's not in step with the gospel, is the way this text tells us.
So Peter is a brother not walking in step with the gospel. Paul comes along, he does get in his face. He confronts him, but he confronts him differently. Then he confronts those who are perverting the gospel in their teaching.
And it's interesting, this story has been used over and over throughout history. Certain groups have condemned Peter. Other groups have condemned Paul. Other groups have condemned them both, and they say, look at those Christians always fighting amongst each other. Even within the church, it's been labeled as a power struggle or an overreaction.
And all of those things miss the point. This isn't about the relative authority of Peter and Paul. It isn't about all this bickering and infighting. It's about the importance of the gospel.
Next week we're gonna look more at, at the foundation of Paul's confidence, which he states and I read, no one is justified by works of the law, only by faith in Jesus Christ.
Why Did Paul Respond So Strongly?
But this week. Before we get into that, I think we need to pause and draw out some specific ideas for why did Paul think this was such a critical, heavy moment? Why did he respond like he did? And how should we respond? So we'll get to the logic of the basis for this confidence next week, but here we wanna look at three main ideas about guarding the gospel.
1. Gospel Compromise Kills Fellowship.
First is this. Gospel Compromise kills Fellowship. Gospel Compromise Kills Fellowship. On the other hand, gospel clarity creates rest or peace-filled, God-glorifying unity. If we want to be a body of believers who are more united, the way to do that is to drive for clarity and consistency about the gospel. Gospel clarity always creates God glorifying unity among believers, and gospel compromise always kills fellowship.
We could replace gospel with grace, which we've talked about over and over unmerited favor. If you have compromise in your mind about the unmerited favor, the grace of God, it kills fellowship among believers. If you're clear about the grace of God, it creates and preserves unity.
That's why this is so important for Paul, because when I told the story at the beginning. I hope you could feel it. That's the point. Paul is sitting there looking at these gentiles. He's saying, I do care about the Jews in Jerusalem. We know that Romans nine, Paul's going, I could wish that I went to hell for the sake of their salvation. That's strong. Paul loves the Jews. That's not what he's doing here. He's not like, well, forget those Jews. We gotta take care of the Gentiles. It's like I care about them. I don't want them in danger. I don't want any problems for my Jewish brethren. I want the gospel to go forward to them. But Paul knows if I want the gospel to go forward to them, I can't compromise and give up the gospel to the Gentiles. So this is such a heavy thing for Paul because gospel compromise or grace compromise kills fellowship.
One of the questions that churches have to ask when there's disagreements and there's fights and there's parties that split, one of the questions we have to always go back to, are we really resting in the gospel? Are we really resting in grace? Are we clear on that? Because very often that's what's killing fellowship.
2. For Those Trusted with the Gospel, Even Your Welcome Has Consequences
Second idea. When you have been entrusted with the gospel, even your welcome has massive consequences.
Remember this phrase from the previous section back in verse seven, Paul said, 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, Paul knew both he and Peter had been entrusted. They'd been given a treasure. And when you have been entrusted with the gospel of grace, when grace has been shown to you, that is no low honor. It's not a small honor. It's an immense treasure.
God's grace means there are no second class Christians. Most of us probably will not look around and say, that person's a second class Christian. I'm a first class Christian. We don't do that usually. But we might go, I'm a second class Christian and they're a first class.
The grace of God means there are no second class Christians. At Antioch, fellowship around the table was broken by hypocrisy. We're gonna come back to that word in just a minute, but at the cross, Jesus set a table where Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, male and female, and any other divisions you can come up with are all welcome through the grace of God. Every time we gather at the Lord's table and we say, I'm eating this in fellowship with God's people, we are declaring Jesus is enough. We're declaring there are no second class Christians.
When you've been entrusted with the gospel even you're welcome, what feels like a small thing. I don't doubt Peter would say, Hey, I've been eating with these Gentiles for a long time. I'm gonna withdraw right now, but I'll come back and fellowship with them. That's what he thought. He thought it was fine for him to eat with the Gentiles, but not when the people from Jerusalem saw it.
Peter didn't deny the gospel in his teaching, but in his conduct he started out with the right view of grace. But these external pressures have caused his clear sight of grace to fade away.
And I want you to notice this phrase in verse 14. I said just a minute ago, you're welcome has massive consequences. Here's why I say that. Verse 14, Peter says, or Paul says to Peter, if you though a Jew live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?
That is shockingly strong language. If I'm Peter, I'm like Paul, that's not fair. I'm not forcing them to do anything. All I did was get up from the table. Like, what do you mean force? Paul says, actually, yes you are. You are applying pressure. That's what forcing means. You are forcing these gentile believers who thought they could never belong here, and finally we're starting to get that, you are forcing them to live like Jews. As one entrusted with the gospel of grace, your welcome displays that grace or distorts that grace. That's what he's telling Peter now.
You're like, wait, pastor Jed. Okay, it's Peter. Sure. I get that he's not here. Does that apply to me too or is that just Peter? Well, I'm gonna say it does apply to all of us. If you're entrusted with the gospel, your welcome has significant consequences.
Here's why I would say that. Notice how Paul speaks about leaders throughout this whole section. If you've been here the last few weeks, you've heard some of this Paul in chapter one, he talks about, or no, sorry, chapter two, he talks about those who seemed to be influential, those who seemed to be pillars. You know, what they were doesn't matter to me. Like he's not sitting here going, Peter's a sec, a first tier Christian whose welcome really matters and yours doesn't. No, he's saying, look, they seem to be influential. They do have influence. We've already seen that because Peter Di withdrew and so did the other Jews, and so did even Barnabas. So he had influence, no doubt. Compromising the grace of God is contagious.
It's one reason why it's not just about you. You have to race in the rest, in the grace of God so that people around you are encouraged to rest in the grace of God. Because when you start saying, well, Jesus plus a little of my performance, it's like a virus that spreads. And others around you start to feel that same way.
So Paul is addressing Peter, knowing he's a leader, knowing he has influence, but he's addressing him as an example. That's why I said here, he said before them all, verse 14, when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, yes, he's addressing the leader because the leader has influenced the others and everybody else needs to hear it too.
He's not saying Peter has some super welcome. He's saying everybody who is entrusted with the gospel of grace, if you rely on the grace of Jesus Christ, you've been given a treasure. Everybody who is entrusted with the gospel of grace, your welcome, your handshake, your smile, all of these things, they preach, they say something.
Do they preach grace or do they preach law? Do they preach, measure up enough and we can be united in Jesus? Or do they preach Jesus is enough?
If you've been given the gospel of grace, then all of your interactions can reflect the beauty of the gospel of grace.
Now maybe you hear that and you say, what does that exactly look like? And maybe you hear it and you think that, that sounds kind of hard. I'm not sure I want that responsibility.
3. In Order to Guard The Gospel, You Must Rest in the Gospel
Third thing, not only do we have to say Gospel Compromise kills fellowship, we have to say. If you have the gospel of grace, then your welcome has significant consequences. The third thing, in order to guard the gospel through you, you must rest in the gospel to you.
What Is Hypocrisy?
Let's think a little more about Peter. It's kind of, why would he do what he did here? Text gives us a few things.
One's in verse 12. When these men from James came, he drew back. He separated himself fearing the circumcision party. Peter is not resting in the grace of God in a way that overcomes that fear. And so since he's not resting in grace to him, that would overcome the fear, he feels the pressure of fear and he acts hypocritically.
So we say, well, wait, what's hypocrisy? Maybe that's where it's familiar to us. Maybe it's not. The idea is, is concealing your true character or your true convictions as if under a mask that implies something very different. It's like switching roles to act in a different play. Hypocrisy is not, I wanna make sure you hear this part 'cause we, you can't get to the right definition of grace without this. Hypocrisy, hypocrisy doesn't mean here's what I believe is good and I sometimes fall short of it. That's not hypocrisy. That's called fighting against sin and sanctification. And one day I'll be perfected. That's not hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy, in the case of Peter, he already had good convictions about the gospel. In fact, you could translate when it says in verse 11, uh, I opposed Peter to his face because he stood condemned. That that doesn't mean he was condemned before God. Although that's true in a different way. It means, it could be translated he stood, he condemned himself.
In other words, Paul sits here and says Peter, I know what you believe and you are not living it. You say the gospel is so good that you know you don't have to keep the law, but you're implying that they have to keep it.
Peter is not, not withdrawing because he has a personal conviction that says, I shouldn't eat with Gentiles. He's withdrawing because he has fear. He knows the gospel. He knows grace, but he's afraid.
We know a little of what that's like. You know when you have internal pressures, you're afraid of being excluded from a group you really wanna be part of. You're afraid of being rejected from somebody you really care about. You're afraid of the opinion of others, and those fears can make us put on a mask to try and hide what we actually think is true.
And if Peter and Barnabas can fall here, then don't think you're immune to it. We all face that.
It's not hypocrisy when you say, I'm tempted to sin. I want to commit this sin in one sense, but I'm gonna choose to fight it and do something else that's not hypocrisy. It's hypocrisy to be tempted to sin and then pretend you never face temptation. You put on a mask in a different play to say, oh no, I never face any temptation. Instead of to say, I face temptation, but here's the grace of God to me, that helps me to overcome it.
Hypocrisy is like a husband who removes his wedding ring so he can play the single man somewhere else. Peter is already married. Peter knew the gospel. But instead of standing in the gospel and saying, that's who I am, Peter said, you know, let's just pretend like the law is really the way I relate to God.
Hypocrisy is how people pleasers navigate difficult situations. We do. We face these pressures. We face these external pressures. Remember Peter had those? How about the safety of the people in Jerusalem? How about evangelism? How about what they think true salvation is? He felt external pressures that probably wouldn't have made too much difference to Peter by itself. Think about it, Peter in the garden, he pulls the sword out. I mean, external pressures were all around him. He says, I don't care.
But it wasn't just the external pressure, it was the internal pressure. It was the fear. And when the external pressure, here's the pattern for all of us. When the external pressures meet with internal pressures or unrest like fear, there's opportunity for hypocrisy.
What Is Legalism?
Peter didn't teach legalism. Peter did not teach these people you must keep the law. All he did was act like it was true.
Paul condemns, legalism over and over in the book. You cannot manipulate God's favor towards you by your performance. That's legalism.
Some of you have gotten in your life, you've gotten really good, and we all have our ways of doing it, of trying to manipulate the people around us so that our experience is what we want. You can't do that for God. That's legalism. I'm gonna say it three different ways 'cause it's subtle. I want you to hear all of them.
You cannot approach God like he has a negative posture towards you. He's against you. I'm gonna perform so that God is now for me. We know that one. That one's legalism. We get it. Okay, sure.
You also cannot approach God as if he has a neutral posture towards you and you're gonna perform so that he likes you. That's also legalism it. It's not trusting him. It's trusting you. My performance makes my soul okay.
You also cannot approach God as if he has a positive posture towards you. He likes you. He's in favor towards you, and the way you will guarantee that he stays that way is your performance. That's still legalism.
In none of those am I trusting in God's grace, in his favor towards me. And that's what Paul returns to over and over again. He says, God's grace, his undeserved favor towards you, not his unmerited tolerance of you not merely unmerited forgiveness. His unmerited favor towards you is what Paul rests in.
Now Peter knew all these theological words. Peter goes, yep, grace check. Faith check justified check. Peter knows all of this, but it's not working powerfully in his life, right then. He needed God's unmerited favor towards him to remove the unrest of fear so that he would live out his gospel convictions. That's what Peter needed.
This is not just true of hypocrisy. Let me take a step back. When you battle any sin, you have the anxiety you run to over and over and over and you can't seem to stop it, and you know, you think I want to, and there are physical questions and reasons around that, but you have the worries that you say, I know I want to trust God, but I kind of don't want to trust God right now.
When you face battles like that, theological head knowledge is not going to solve your problem. And no external performance will solve your problem. Those can be good things, good practices, wise practices are good, theological knowledge is good. But that can't solve your problem because what you need is the light of the gospel of the grace of the favor of Jesus to shine into your soul down in the darkness where your fears are, the ones you don't want to talk about, even to yourself. Where you feel the internal pressures, you need the light of the gospel to change you.
That's what Peter needed. If he had, at that moment, if he's walking in, God has shown this great favor to me. I don't have to be afraid of this circumcision party, then he wouldn't have walked hypocritically.
When you face the battle for purity in your thoughts or your actions. And you say, I can't seem to beat it. You don't need theological head knowledge, and you don't just need, here's a practice, here's the good things to do that'll solve the problem. You need the light of the grace of God to shine down into that darkness and change you. To take the internal pressures, the fears, the worries, all of those things, and the grace of God removes those.
It's true of every sin struggle we have. When anger is within you, whether it's the explosive anger kind or the seething resentment kind, or just the, well, I'm indifferent and I won't talk to them kind. They're all anger. When that happens, what you need isn't theological information in a checklist. You need the light of the grace of God that says, I do feel anger, but my God is for me. Why? Because that's who he is. You need what that grace can do at the heart.
Hypocrisy feeds on fear and our sins feed on these unrest in our souls, and the gospel gives freedom. If you rest in the grace of God to you, then the grace of God is going to flow through you.
If you'd say, there are sins I've fought for years and I just don't think I can do anything differently, I want to tell you from Galatians what God tells you is that the grace of God can transform, can cut at the root of the internal pressures that you feel are so binding and give you freedom. God's grace is what does that.
So Paul goes, Peter, he's not just upset about the Gentiles, he's looking at Peter saying, this is sad. Peter isn't living in the freedom he should. Peter's not resting in the grace of God like he should. This fear is controlling him. So he goes to Peter to help everyone around see and says Peter, the grace of God changes that fear, the grace of God transforms you.
So as we look at this first section, if you compromise the gospel, it kills fellowship.
You are welcome the way you interact with others. If you believe in the gospel, if you've been entrusted with the gospel, your welcome has significant consequences.
And if you want grace to flow through you, you have to rest in the grace of God to you.
Are you resting like that? Don't hear me saying I do it all the time. 'cause I don't. But are you resting so deeply in Christ's favor towards you that you can extend that favor freely to others even when it costs you? You could fill in the blank, but even when it costs you approval? Even when it feels too risky to extend that grace to others? Are you resting in the grace from Christ so much that you say, my soul is safe no matter what comes from others to me?
Or do you wear the mask of hypocrisy? Do you act like an actor in a play where the gospel doesn't matter?
The good news is this. Jesus didn't wear a mask. Jesus didn't come to this earth acting like these things were true. He came facing shame and rejection and disapproval and fear, and he faced all of it and God's wrath for you so that you can sited his table forever and know Jesus is never pulling back from the table. Jesus didn't wear a mask. His grace is so good.
It's worth fighting for, not because Paul was mad at Peter, but because Paul loved Peter. His grace is so good that it's worth fighting for not to win arguments. That's not the point, but it's worth fighting for because only the gospel can give us rest in our souls, and only the gospel creates true unity. And only the gospel really trusts and glorifies God. So brothers and sisters, let's walk and step with that truth.
I invite you to close your eyes and respond to God. Ask him for the clarity to see this gospel to you and to rest in it. Because when the gospel shines deep in us, it does transform us. I'll invite you to respond to him and then we'll sing together.