“But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be!”
Galatians 2:17
Paul confronted Peter in Antioch for standing aloof from the Gentiles when his fellow Jews arrived from Jerusalem. Paul recalls this story in his letter to the Galatians as a means of defending the gospel. The issues at hand were not small but the truth of the gospel was at stake—and not just the facts of the gospel, but how the gospel is lived out.
Walking in the gospel involves a considerable amount of effort. I want my life to reflect well on my Savior and so I try to please him by avoiding evil as I represent Christ. A good measure of my motivation for holiness is that I would adorn the gospel by my good behavior. But imagine if by my very consistency with such gospel living—by faithfully reflecting Christ—that the result was to make some people think of Christ as a minister of sin. Imagine that!
This is what was happening in Antioch. To a Jew, merely being a Gentile meant being a “sinner.” One might be a very upright, honorable, noble individual, but if a Gentile, he’s a sinner. To the Jews then, what was the net result of the gospel of Christ? It meant that Gentile sinners were being included among the people of God—and that without becoming “Jew-like;” no circumcision, no Law keeping, not kosher. As if this weren’t enough, good Jews (like Peter) were even starting to act less Jewish and more like Gentile sinners. To a Jewish mind this just could not be. If Christ was the messiah and the gospel was true, how could His church be so non-Jewish, so Gentile—so, so sinful!
But Paul would not water down the gospel. Surely, it would have been easier, more politically correct, and more diplomatic to just make some concessions regarding Christian practice so that the reputation of Christ would not be besmirched in the eyes of the Jews. After all we are His representatives and we want to reflect well on Him—if our behavior in the gospel makes some think of Christ as minister of sin—how could that be good?
But no. The gospel of Christ crucified is a gospel of grace. It is of grace and not by works of the Law. The gospel which brings justification by faith may not be entered into, or lived out as if it were by works of the Law. There can be no compromise, even if it means that some, many, or even most look on and think that such a gospel cannot be right. And such is the case even today. For the Western mind is just as opposed to gospel truth as is the Jewish mind. We just substitute a different kind of law. Salvation in Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone—without any basis in my worthiness or effort is inconceivable to the natural human mind. Yet entirely free and solely by grace it is—so that no man may never boast before God.
What does this mean for me today? It means that I should not underestimate how counterintuitive and God-centered is the truth of the gospel. If the effect of the gospel was so perplexing to the Jews and is so foolish to the modern mind I should not assume that my mind has been fully oriented to the radical truth of the gospel of grace. Paul rebuked the Galatians because they started off with the true gospel which was, and only could be, received in and through the power of the Spirit—and quickly departed to another gospel that tried to combine grace with works of the Law. If those Christians could so easily tip toward a version of the gospel that was no gospel at all, I am also susceptible to this kind of error.
The gospel causes me to die with Christ to the Law in such a thorough and complete way that the mere attempt to rebuild even part of the Law becomes itself the height of transgression. For I died to the Law with Christ and if I try to now live by the Law Paul says to me, “you fool, you are cursed if you go back under the law. Having been justified by faith do you now seek to be justified by your own efforts?”
And so I must dwell on the radical, Christ-centered gospel of grace and seek to root out all works oriented motives and efforts from my life. Only grace oriented efforts, gospel worthy motives, and Spirit empowered works are pleasing to God. And if the gospel life is a stench to some—the solution is not to change the gospel, but to pray that the noses that smell it that way would be changed.
Lord Jesus, open my eyes to the ways, both overt and subtle that my life and my heart move not by grace but as though I related to you by works. I have died to such “dead-living.” Reveal the areas of my life that have not been saturated by the gospel of grace and cause me to love only the true gospel of grace of Christ. Amen.
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