Add Nothing to the Message

“People need the Lord.” That was the theme line from a song popular when I was a teenager. What people? Everybody. What Lord? That’s the Lord Jesus.

We are Christians because of Jesus Christ. He is the one who has won our hearts and in whom we trust. We believe in his death and resurrection. We are persuaded that he is God’s Chosen One. And we are moving through life with him as the compass. We are Jesus People. We believe and receive this as the truth of the eternal God. We live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us. 

The church at Antioch incorporated Gentiles into their fellowship. They ate their meals and sat with them at the Table of the Lord for communion. They rejoiced that God had extended his saving grace beyond Jews to the Gentiles.

But the tension from Jerusalem and the heritage of Judaism did not go away. Some Jewish believers, the party of the Pharisees, continued to teach and believe that Gentiles needed to become Jews—be circumcised and keep the law of Moses—in order to be part of their church.

Do you like confrontation and conflict? Most of us do not. Many of us work to avoid it.

The Apostle Paul opposed Peter face to face. He has an issue that he cannot dismiss or overlook. I want you to be a clear-headed and courageous Christian like Paul. I want you see this issue clearly and to embrace it as your own. 

Paul’s rebuke may be summarized in these four teachings:

Don’t Tell White Lies About Salvation:

"…he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group." — Galatians 2:12.

Elizabeth Bernstein says that white lies are “social grease.” They smooth out our interactions. When we tell one we are usually trying to reassure someone or not hurt their feelings. Research in the Journal of Experimental Psychology last month found that compassionate people lie more than others. 

The author suggested several criteria for deciding whether you would tell a white lie: “You look great in that dress.” The last two points apply here:

1. Be truthful if you want someone to change,
2. Remember the Golden Rule.

Be truthful if you want someone to change. In other words, if you truly believe that Jesus is God’s Son and our Savior, then you want everyone to embrace this truth. So be truthful about what you believe in order that others may see this in you and perhaps decide to follow Christ as Lord.

Remember the Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Jesus taught us this important ethical principle. You want others to tell you the truth when it is a very important matter—like your physician giving you the test results. You don’t want him to lie to make you feel better. You want to know exactly what’s going on.

The gospel is too important to cover up its implications with lies that are neither little nor white.

Don’t Give in to Peer Pressure:

"We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you." — Galatians 2:5

Not everything rises to the level of confrontation.

• Some things you can let rest without causing conflict. You don’t have to get in somebody’s face about it. You don’t have to fight about what brand of apples or green beans. 
• My father’s word: “whatever.” 
• Not every incident requires a challenge. Some incidents happen in moments where it unwise and unprofitable to confront or oppose. You must have wisdom.

But sometimes you are required as a member of the body of Christ to oppose what has been said or done.

• When what has been said is issued as a challenge. Judaizers say the church is Jewish only, not Gentile also. 
• When what has been done is by Christians, ostensibly, and stands in contradiction to Christ himself. There are many things that so-called Christians do that are exactly the opposite of the teaching of Jesus. That, my friends is not true Christian behavior. Sadly, we wrestle against spiritual wickedness within the church, not just outside of it.

The reputation of the Lord Jesus is at stake in some of these struggles—who he was and what he taught us. We are Jesus People, and we cannot simply let these things pass without protest. I am not talking about peripheral matters.

Paul was fighting for our souls, so the truth of the gospel did not become diluted. We fight for future generations, that they will receive the truth of the gospel and know Christ Jesus in all his grace. This is the Gospel worthy of all acceptation.

Don’t Act Out of Line with the Gospel:

"I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel." — Galatians 2:14

We are talking about actions in this incident with Peter. Peter did not say that Gentiles must be circumcised and obey the law of Moses in order to be saved and be part of the church. But what he did said this loud and clear.

Your actions are hugely important. If you join in shunning someone in your group because they are a different culture or color, you are saying in powerful terms that our church is only for people like us. It is not for people like them.

• All kinds of acts may communicate this very thing. It creates an “us and them” which contradicts the gospel.
• Your actions in excluding someone, refusing to eat with them as Peter did here, speak louder than words.

There is a way to act that lines up with the gospel. 

Jesus did it when he allowed the a prostitute to wash his feet. The Pharisee thought, “If Jesus knew what kind of woman this is, he would not let her touch him.” But Jesus knew who that woman was, and he intentionally let her wash his feet. He was teaching Simon—and us—a lesson.

The gospel is for sinners. It is for gentiles.

• Our culture is becoming more pagan. A great moral consensus, long enjoyed in this land, is breaking down.
• That means it’s about to get even messier, this life in the body of believers. People of many different backgrounds will come to faith in Christ after living in all kinds of ways.
• I hope we are going to act even more like Jesus, more in line with the gospel, than ever before—that we will love the outsiders, whatever their past.

Do Not Set Aside the Grace of God:

"I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" — Galatians 2:21

We set aside the grace of God by pretending that salvation comes some other way.

• Peter was not consciously undermining the cross of Christ and the grace of God. He was probably trying to solve a relational problem with a temporary fix.

We set aside the grace of God by implying or declaring that good works get us into heaven.

We set aside the grace of God when we pretend that we are keeping the law and that is what distinguishes us from the crowd.

• Seeking justification in Christ means that I am a sinner. Jesus came to save sinners, not the righteous. So I don’t need Jesus if I am righteous.
• Paul, as a Pharisee of Pharisees, sought righteousness through the law. It led him ultimately to a place where he was killing Christians. This had to be a moral crisis for him.  Despite his zeal, Paul realized that he was not right before God. It was a hopeless quest, this effort to achieve righteousness through the law. He could not do it nor could any other human being.
• He was set free by trusting in Christ for salvation. Now he had peace of mind and heart about his relationship with God because it did not rest on his behavior and performance in keeping the law but only on the work of Christ upon the cross on his behalf.
• People who truly think they are justified by law-keeping are under a supreme delusion. If they would fully embrace the truth of the death of Christ for them upon the cross they would realize that all along they were sinners.
• God is not the author of sin in this instance. When all of these “righteous” law-keepers are found to be true sinners just like the Gentiles, that does not mean God is promoting sin. It means that God is revealing the truth that we seek to bury and hide by our good deeds—that we are corrupt inside despite our best efforts at doing good.