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Galatians: Chapter 2:11-21
00:30:03
Dr. Michael Barber and Dr. James Prothro, professors of Sacred Scripture at the Augustine Institute Graduate School, study St. Paul's pivotal Letter to the Galatians.
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- [00:00]
A
Hi, I'm Michael Barber, and this is my dear friend Jim Prothero, and we're professors here at the Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology. We're working our way through the letter of St. Paul to the Galatians. And this is really, I think, my favorite epistle to teach. When I teach Paul, I think I usually begin with this Epistle just because it introduces so many key ideas that you find in Paul's letters. You know, there are a lot of places in Paul's letters where he'll say therefore. And you're like, okay, what's the therefore? Therefore have no idea what the logical progression of thought here is. And it gets doubly complicated. In the liturgy, when we hear Paul read at Mass, we often just get these short snippets. And so the reading will be getting there for you. Wait a minute. What was just said? How does that serve as the basis for what he's about to say? So for a lot of us as Catholics, I think Paul feels like an away game, right? It feels like territory we're not all that familiar with. And non Catholic Christians oftentimes read and study Paul very, very carefully. And so when we encounter discussions of Paul and non Catholic circles, we often feel at a bit of a disadvantage. So what we want to do here is help people really read through this fine letter. So much could be said about it. But now we're getting to an area, a passage in Paul that has been the subject of a lot of discussion, the Antioch incident. Right. So let's pick up here, and then we'll talk about these verses. Picking up in chapter 2, verse 11. But when CEPhas came to Antioch, Paul says, I opposed him to his face. Wow. Okay, so who's Cephas? That's Peter. So Paul is saying that he opposed Peter to his face. Why? Because he stood condemned for before certain men came from James. And James, of course, is in Jerusalem. So there's a bit of a question. Did James send these men? It doesn't say that. It probably just means that these are people who came from Jerusalem. But there's some discussion about that. Anyway, he was eating. Peter was eating with the Gentiles. So before certain men came from Jerusalem, Peter was eating with Gentiles. But when these men came to Antioch, Peter drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. That does not sound like much of a party to me. I would not. Don't know what's going on. We'll talk about that in a minute. 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? All right, so, Jim, let's break it down. What's going on here?
- [03:10]
B
Yeah, so Paul has just. If we go back into chapter one and two, right, he's told the story to emphasize to people that the gospel that he got from God, right, he got it from God through the Lord Jesus, and that that gospel is the same then as it has been now. He hasn't sort of flip flopped around to make anybody happy. And he's also emphasized that he got this gospel from Jesus. And the Jerusalem apostles, the 12, they got their gospel from Jesus, and they agreed that Gentiles, to receive the life of God, don't have to be circumcised. And along with circumcision, in this case, you also get questions about foods and purity, right? So depending on who you are, and there's differences among different Jewish groups you can even see in the New Testament. So in the Book of Acts, when Peter goes to see Cornelius in Caesarea, he's this non Jew, and Peter has been sent to go speak to him. Peter says, now, you know, it's not lawful for me to even be in your house or be around you. If you go to the book of Luke, right? When the Roman centurion's son needs to be healed or servant, the people who come and tell Jesus, hey, you should come and heal this guy, right? And help this guy. They're the people from the synagogue, and they're like, no, he's our friend, right? He hangs out with us, right? He's a good guy, right? So there's different.
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A
He may be a gentile, but don't hold it against them.
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B
Yeah, exactly.
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A
Exactly.
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B
There's different kind of attitudes. Well, one of the things that's happening here is that people from Jerusalem, right, where a lot of times people are more kind of the society is more segregated, right? Pure, impure, right? People from Jerusalem.
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A
I'm glad you pointed to me when you said pure.
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B
Thank you.
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Appreciate that.
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B
People from Jerusalem have come to Antioch, where there's a mixed church. Acts chapter 11 tells us that people who had fled from the persecution after Stephen's death showed up in Antioch, which is in Syria. So this is north of Judea, but still kind of over there in the Levant, right? In modern Palestine and Syria, right? They show up there and they start preaching. And there's a mixed church of Jews, Gentiles from different types of backgrounds, all together praising the Lord. Well, people from Jerusalem who don't have to worry about that stuff as often show up now all of a sudden in Antioch. And Peter's there and Paul's there, and Peter sees these guys coming, and it says that the Jews move away from the Gentiles for fear of the Circumcision party. These people who have come from Jerusalem who insist.
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A
So the reason it's a circum. The Circumcision Party is called that is not because of their wild ideas of what social gatherings should involve, but instead, right? They're this. It's like a political party, right? It's like actually in the Greek, it's from the circumcision, right? So the English here is the Circumcision Party. But what seems to be happening then is that Peter is fine eating with Gentiles, Peter's fine eating with those who are uncircumcised, until all of a sudden these guys show up from Jerusalem. And now, because of Peter's action of withdrawing from eating with Gentiles, he's sending the message that what? That Gentiles really need to be circumcised. Right. And there's a lot going on here. We can't unpack every detail. But the basic message is that Peter is acting hypocritically because up until now, it seems they've decided amongst themselves. Paul says, earlier we went up to Jerusalem with Titus. He didn't have to be circumcised. Now Peter is, by his action, seeming to give in to that pressure, right, that says Gentiles need to be circumcised. It's just a fact that Peter has teaching authority, and we see that in other places in the New Testament. But Peter doesn't always act in a way that's in accord with that teaching authority. Peter, you know, early first, if you will, like the first bishop, right, One of the first bishops, is now getting nervous about rocking the boats. And he doesn't want to get himself into too much trouble with this other group.
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B
It's important too, to remember a couple of things. So Paul tells this story really quickly, and historically, it makes some people uncomfortable. It used to make Jerome, St. Jerome really uncomfortable. And he said, oh, this Peter can't have been that wrong. Right? They must have just sort of set this big thing up as like a little play, a little sketch. Yeah, a little sketch at Bible camp for all these people in Antioch. And Augustine said, no, Jerome, that's wrong. But anyway. But we go through this really quickly. One of the things to remember is we've not given Peter's motivations, right? This is a murky time when figuring out exactly how to all live together with different concerns. Right. Paul even has guidelines in First Corinthians and in Romans for like, okay, so if you don't want to eat unclean foods, then here's what you do. You still need to be brothers with the people who eat the unclean foods. But they're okay because God made all the food. So it's not really like something like eating pork is going to set you away from God. So.
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Right.
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But remember that Paul is diagnosing behavior, and he's doing it for the Galatians. He's not simply opening up his diary and being like, okay, here's what happened on Tuesday, right? He's telling you what happened. But he's also just the same way that back in chapter one, verse six, he said, I can't believe you're deserting the One who called you by the grace of Christ. They wouldn't have thought that that's what they were doing, Right? In the same way that Peter probably doesn't think he's being a hypocrite. He's probably just going, oh, hold on a second, let me do this. Because these people are here and I don't want to create a big giant fight, but Paul has the insight to say, wait, stop. Peter, you might not realize it, but what you're doing is implying that all of these Gentile believers who have the Holy Spirit aren't actually clean before the Lord. The Holy Spirit doesn't actually sanctify them. And even if you don't think it, Peter, right, you're wrong. And you need to take a stand against this thing that's going to divide the church. So Paul says, I posed him to his face because what he did made him wrong. Right? It made him stand condemned.
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So this is why he says, if you. Though he says so, they acted hypocritically. Even Barnabas was led astray, which is really interesting because of course, Barnabas is Paul's companion. And so even Barnabas, who knows better than he, doesn't. He knows Gentiles don't need to be circumcised. Or he also seems to be withdrawing from eating with the Gentiles. And he says, if you though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews? And basically the idea here is, among other things, it would seem the idea is how can you force the Gentiles to become Jew? Because in circumcising yourself and being circumcised, they would be, in essentially judaizing, they'd be coming Jews, they'll be living a Jewish lifestyle. Fair enough. And so we keep going. I know we say a lot more about that, but. All right, so he says we ourselves are Jews by birth and not gentile sinners. I think there's a little bit of tongue in cheek there going on. But anyway, and here's where we get to the key idea. 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. Now that word there, justified, it's a really important term and we happen to have one of the world experts sitting here with us because Dr. Prother wrote a doctoral dissertation. It was published by a press in Germany. It's extremely prestigious. And basically in 20 seconds. What does it mean to be justified? I'm just kidding. No, this is obviously a matter that has been a matter of great contention between Catholics and non Catholic Christians ever since the Protestant Reformation. What does it mean to be justified? And how is it that understanding Paul's context here makes sense of his teaching on justification? Let's unpack this maybe a little bit here. So what does it mean? Why is Paul making this point? We know that a person is not justified by works of the law. Why does that now get said within this context? And what's the point?
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B
He's trying to make sure. So this word is frequently used in the Old Testament of regular people, but then especially of people and God in their relationship. Okay, so it's a, call it a legal background to this, but not in the same kind of way that you and I might think about legal law courts.
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Right.
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What it is is a relationship where there's one person and there's somebody else. Right. And when our relationship is right. Right. And is just, then we're, we're together. Right. If you're the, you know, if you're dad, then I respect you and love you.
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We're in the right.
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Take care of me. Right. We're in the right with each other.
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So justified, meaning, like right in the right. Justice.
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That's right. That's right. But when one person is done right has done something wrong to the other one. Right. And then you come and accuse me because I stole your sheep. Right. Or I slighted your stealing my sheep. I know I'm stealing his sheep all the time.
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Bad.
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You got to watch out for me. I don't even. I can't control it anyway. Right. But he'll come to me and say, hey, you sin. He'll accuse me. And then my job is to say, you're right, I'm sorry. Right. And then if there's any kind of restitution, I can offer it. And then you might write, forgive me and restore our relationship. And you, your decision to forgive me and restore our relationship is justifying is to put me back in the right with you. Because you're the offended party and you're the one who gets to make that decision. In a lot of the Old Testament and then in other Jewish literature heading into the New Testament and Paul too, we get this kind of conversation where humanity has sinned against God and God sends out his prophets or his apostles to say, hey, you sinned. Repent. Right. And receive what God has given you and his gift. Right. And it's our job to say, yes, Lord, thank you for your gift. I need it. I'm sorry. Right. Instead of saying, hey, back off, God, I didn't do anything wrong. Oh, I'm not nearly as bad as that person. Go bother him. Remember, that's in Jesus parable where there's the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee, Right. Does things that he's supposed to do. Right. Like fast and give alms and things like that. But then what he does is he says, now, speaking of sin and God, I'm not like that guy.
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And he tries to justify himself. Yeah.
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Luke says he tries to justify himself. And the tax collector over here says, lord, have mercy. And Jesus says, the tax collector went home justified, as opposed to the other one.
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Right.
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The other one. Right. Because he didn't submit to God in love and hope and penitence. Right. Wasn't restored to the right relationship with God. So God justifies sinners, Right. People who have wronged him. Right. But we're called to honor and submit to him and look to him in faith.
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So to be justified is to be put back in right relationship with God.
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That's right. And beautifully right here, what do we see? Well, do we offer restitution? That makes us right with God. Do we do it ourselves? No. What has God done? He's given that gift, that grace. He's not waiting on us to go, here's a gift. Please forgive me. He's given us that gift, that grace of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection.
- [15:19]
A
So God takes the initiative in justifying us. So when we're justified, it's not because of anything that I have done. It's not like, okay, God, here is what I have done. Now you must justify me. Right. I love the way that this is seen in the Catholic practice of infant baptism. Right. Because I was just with a dear friend of ours, John Kincaid, up in Bismarck, North Dakota. They have a brand new baby named Paul. And John is a great Paul scholar. And they asked my wife and I if we would be the godparents. So we went up there for the baptism. And of course, it wasn't like baby Paul earned his baptism. It wasn't like, you know, baby Paul finally slept through the night. He's a little less of a pagan. He's been better to his parents not waking up all hours of the night. Let's baptize him. No. One of the beautiful things about the Catholic practice of infant baptism is it shows us that this is a gift that God gives to us. It's related to faith. Of course, the parents apply faith. But I think this is a really important idea. And I just want to highlight a couple of passages from the catechism that talk about this. Catechism 2010 says, since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification at the beginning of conversion. So there's nothing that I can do to force God to give me his grace, which especially is associated with baptism. We'll see later. Right. So there's nothing we can do that forces God's hand and makes him give us his grace. Of course, after he gives us his grace, we're transformed and we're able to be empowered to do works that we would never be able to do on our own. But suffice it to say, this is Paul's point here. Right. We're justified not by works of the law, which in this context is especially related to circumcision. Right. So how does this whole discussion of circumcision relate to this discussion of justification for Paul?
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B
Yeah, well, so it has to do with the question of how you receive. Right. So do we receive justification simply by the right of circumcision? Paul and other people in Scripture will talk about circumcision. Made with human hands, by which they mean like, you know, you. Well, physically circumcised. Right. But it's external and it can be a sign. Paul says with Abraham it was a sign of his faith and that he had, you know, been brought into friendship with God. And yet. Right. It's still only an outward sign. It's not actually doing anything to your heart. It's not changing anything. And this is one of the things that happens in Christ, right? Paul's gonna talk about faith, but he's not just talking about, well, as long as you say the creed, right. Or say a little conversion prayer in the back of a Volvo one day when you're nine. That's what happened to me, right? One day when you're nine years old. Right. Okay, good, you're taken care of. Right, Right. But our yes to God, right, like Mary's yes, isn't just a one time thing of faith at the very beginning. It's constant and continues throughout our life.
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That's right.
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And the Holy Spirit is working within us to transform and renew our hearts in the new coven. And so one of the things that the Council of Trent says, right, because the Protestants and Catholics are both very happy in talking about the Council of Trent in the Reformation, right? Responding to the Reformation of the Protestants in the 1500s. In the 1500s, yeah. One of the things that Council of Trent says, it says justification is forgiveness of sins, but it says it's not merely forgiveness of sins, right? Because when we're put right again with God and we're made friends instead of his enemies, right? The Holy Spirit that we receive and that works its way in our life through faith actually makes us new so that the life of Jesus is lived in us. So it's not merely forgiveness of sins, but also the entire grace that's at work within us. And so we'll be able to see that as we walk through here. Paul's saying, look, just getting circumcised doesn't do the job.
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Right.
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What you're justified by, right, on your part is that response of faith to God's gift in Christ and that faith that continues to work and receive the Spirit's operation and energy and life in you for the rest of your life. And we'll be able to see that as we come down into verses 20 and 21.
- [19:56]
A
So the key idea here is that Peter is being rebuked by Paul because his actions are giving the impression that in order to be justified, you first have to do this thing called circumcision. And if you are circumcised, then God will give you the grace of conversion. But Paul's point is that grace is what we saw it was last time, a gift. And so it's given even to the uncircumcised. Nothing we do is, you know, what give, you know, requires God. God doesn't give us his grace because he's required to do so as a response to our actions. No, God takes the initiative, right? And he justifies us. He puts us in right relationship. And that happens through faith. And that faith, as you just pointed out, is not just an assent to a proposition. It's not like, yes, I accept that belief now I believe that too. Faith here involves much more than that. And we'll see this as we go on. Faith is faithfulness. It's the same word in the Greek. And just one more thing I want to say about Catholic and Protestant polemics. Here on the Protestant side, it's typically understood. Not typically often understood. And there are lots of different Protestant views. Okay. But it's typically understood in Reformed. Reformed tradition that you're justified, but that is counterfactual to reality, right? It's counterfactual. You're justified, but you're not actually made. Right. With God. Where the Catholic understanding of Paul is that when God justifies us, it's not contrary to reality. He's actually transforming us, he's actually changing us. And so his decree corresponds to reality, right?
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Yeah. God. God doesn't give his gift only to people who are already his buddies.
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Right.
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And God also doesn't give his gift by just sort of tossing it out and saying, I don't know, do what you want with it, I'm out of here.
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Right.
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He gives a gift that creates that new life and relationship to make us his friends in a real way and not just on a sheet of paper.
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A
Beautifully said. Beautifully said is really important to me because I remember when I was a college professor, I had, for example, a young woman come into my office and she was convinced God just didn't love her. And she was frustrated because she said, there's nothing I could ever do to make God love me after all the bad things I've done. And I had to walk her through Paul's teaching. God loves you even when you are unworthy. Right. You don't do something to convince God, you know what, she might be lovable. It doesn't work that way. So it's really important, I think, for us to remember that. All right, we're going on. Let's See, where do we want to pick up here? In verse 17, 17, Paul says, but if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not. What's his point there? Why is he saying that?
- [22:59]
B
So when you move on from 16 into 17, what Paul is doing is he's describing his response to Peter at Antioch. You can see in verse 15, we ourselves are Jews by birth and not gentile sinners. Well, he's not saying that to the like. That doesn't include the Galatians, Right. He's talking to Peter. But as you move forward, right, you can tell that he's really just sort of directing everything for the Galatians ears. So it can be hard to decide whether or not verse 17 is just about what's happening at Antioch at the table, or if he's sort of getting into bigger principles, but they kind of work together. So it seems to be that at Antioch, right? What somebody else might say is, well, listen, if you're trying to be justified by faith and you go over there and you hang out with those Gentiles, doesn't that make you a sinner? That's right. Doesn't that mean that you're breaking some of the commandments? And Paul's like, that doesn't make Jesus a servant of sin, which is what some people might have accused them of doing. Right? Like you're taking the Holy Spirit and you're going to hang out with unholy people. They're not pure, they're not circumcised, they're not in the group. Come on. And Paul's like, yeah, that doesn't make the Spirit a servant of sin. That makes him want to transform sinners. Right?
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Right. Then he goes on to say, for if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. Why do you think he says that?
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Well, so the kind of like underneath question, again, we've got lots of jumps here. And we've got to try to follow his arguments. We've got to imagine him at the table at Antioch. And then also think about what's going on in Galatia.
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Right?
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But on the one hand, he's making sure Christ isn't a servant of sin just because of this thing. That to you seems new, right, where the people of God are going to be made up of circumcised and uncircumcised. Secondly, you might think that I'm a transgressor. I'm the One breaking the law. I'm the one hanging out with these other people. I'm the one who doesn't care. But you know what actually is the transgression is to say, yes, hello, Jesus, thank you for bringing the new covenant now. No thanks on most of it. I'm actually going to go back and do the other thing. Lord Jesus tells that parable about the wineskins, right? And he says, nobody puts new wine into old wineskins. The old one bursts, right? You need to follow the new thing that God is doing that I'm doing here. Jesus says, and he says, some people have just tasted the old wine and they say, no, the old is better, right? And Paul is trying to tell people who are saying, ah, the old is better. He's saying, no, you gotta get on board and drink the new wine. If I rebuild the wall between me and the Gentiles that Jesus has torn down, that's what would actually make me a transgressor. And I would be breaking the will of our Lord, right? In order to do what some of you guys, right? He calls them false brothers, right? Want me to do.
- [25:56]
A
And then he says, for through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God. I love the way Augustine puts it that the law was given so grace we'd seek, right? And Paul will play this out later. But the law shows me that I'm a sinner, right? Through the law I die. I recognize that I can't keep all the law. I need God's grace so that I might live to God. And he says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. We talked about that passage last time. So in Christ he lives new life. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. How would you sum up? Why does Paul conclude this way? We talked about that. Living with Christ, dying with Christ. But what about that verse in 21, I do not nullify the grace of God. For if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. What's Paul's point there?
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B
Well, so the word that's translated nullify can also be translated as reject. To put off very literally is what it means. And he says, look, Jesus has come. He's offered us his life, right? He's given his life for us, right? And Then the Holy Spirit is ready to send that into our hearts. I have two choices. I can say, yes, thank you, and let him do his work right, through this wonderful gift of Jesus, or I can say, no, you know what? I like you, God, but I'd rather have Burger King religion. I'd rather have it my way. So thank you for the whopper, hold the fries, hold the ketchup, right?
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You are impure.
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B
I know, right?
- [27:56]
A
I know.
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But she's saying, look, I've got two options, right? I can either say yes to the grace of God, right, in the form that God has decided to give it in, or I can tell God that I want him to save me a different way and no thanks, and I can put it off and reject it. Right? Right. If righteousness, if my standing with God and my new life by the Holy Spirit, right? Forgiveness of sins and that new life and justification, if that comes through Jesus and he died to give it to us, what am I saying about his death? If I say no, if I insist
- [28:29]
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no, I have to be circumcised, right? If I do not nullify, I do not nullify the grace of God. For if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died to no purpose. I mean, here the law is kind of a summary of the works of the things required by the law, like circumcision. And Paul's saying, if I say that I need the law, I need to add all these things like circumcision in order to be justified, then I'm rejecting the fact that I was already saved by grace. And Paul's going to unpack that in greater detail in chapter three, where he's going to call the Galatians foolish. And he's going to explain to them how if they embrace this other gospel that's being preached by people like the circumcision party, if they embrace that, then in fact they are believing in vain and they're nullifying that grace, that gift that's been given to them. We're going to talk about that next time in our next episode. We'll pick up in chapter three. Want to thank you all for tuning in, watching this series. If you want to really dive into Paul and Grace, I do have a short course that's available through the Augustine Institute and we walk you through Paul's teaching broadly and give you lots of resources to look at as well. Want to encourage you to check that out. Also want to thank all the mission circle members who support us. Thank you so much for making these kind of shows possible. Until next time. May God bless you and your family.