Our passage today, describes what seems like a street fight between two pillars of the early church. Now, I am sure this was not really a street fight, but I also do not think it was a just a polite disagreement between these two men.

We must remember that the apostle Paul is not pulling his punches in this letter to the Galatians; he is passionately arguing for the power and the authenticity of the gospel as well as his own authority in preaching the gospel. The Galatian church had been infiltrated by “false brothers” who wanted to squelch the Galatians’ freedom and put them back into slavery to the law through their distorted gospel; this false gospel amounted to Jesus plus something equals salvation rather than salvation being something that is freely given by grace through faith in Christ according to Scripture for the glory of God alone (2:4; 1:7).

Paul was not about to give up without a fight because in his mind “the truth of the gospel must be preserved” so that the church could keep “in step with the truth of the gospel” (2:5, 14) instead of falling out of step with it, as Peter had done in Antioch.

If the truth of the gospel was subverted, then we would all be required to live in obedience with every aspect of the Mosaic Law (both Moral, Ceremonial, and Social or Ethnic laws). This is Paul’s passion: To preserve the truth of the gospel so that we can walk in the freedom it promises us. Look at the text with me…

11But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12For 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. 13And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14But 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 Gentiles to live like Jews?” 15We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Christ Jesus, 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.

The apostle Paul was so passionate about preserving the truth of the gospel, that he remembers how he once opposed Peter, the founder of the church, the rock upon which the church was built (Matt. 16:18), one of the original disciples, and Jesus’ close friend when he was here in the flesh.

If these false teachers in Galatia were saying that the apostle Paul was a second-rate apostle with a secondhand gospel, then Paul’s fight with Peter should shoot their accusations full of holes. The reality according to Paul, is that Peter was not a super apostle and Paul was not a subpar apostle; both men were fallible men who sinned, who needed the same Savior, and who both possessed God ordained ministries as proclaimers of the same gospel to different groups of people (2:7 – 8).

Again, if these false teachers were trying to pit the two apostles against each other to win over their audience, Paul basically tells them that they should have done their homework a little better. They should have remembered how he confronted Peter for his hypocrisy in Antioch. The idea that Paul received his gospel as a secondhand account and that he was inferior to the original apostles is completely upended by the showdown in Antioch.

#1: THE SHOWDOWN IN ANTIOCH (VV. 11 – 14)

When you examine verses 11 – 12, you can see that the apostle Paul confronted Peter because he condemned himself in front of the Gentiles when the circumcision party showed up in Antioch. Up until this point, Peter was out wining and dining with the Gentiles but when the Judaizers showed up, he withdrew from them because he was afraid of them.

Fear is not the most comfortable of emotions and oftentimes we seek the kind of comfort that hypocrisy promises: Live like a fake and avoid the conflict of standing for the truth. In this case, Peter’s fear caused him to seek comfort by withdrawing from the Gentiles so that he would not be harmed or ostracized or unfriended by the circumcision party. When was the last time you acted like a fake to avoid the conflict that living truthfully would have brought into your life?

We must remember that Peter was the first one to take the gospel to the Gentiles in Acts 10after receiving a vision from God regarding what is clean and unclean. In Acts 10, God showed Peter that he was very much in the business of saving people from every tribe, every tongue, and every nation under heaven; that salvation only comes by grace through faith in Christ alone; no one can be saved by following dietary, social, or ethnic laws. Peter basically attended the school of gospel freedom in Acts 10 and had graduated with a Master’s degree.

But now, in Antioch, as Paul recalls it, Peter reverses and begins living in slavery to the law again because of his fear of the circumcision party. Let us not forget the infectious nature of sin – in verse 13 it becomes obvious that Peter’s hypocrisy infects the rest of the Jews in Antioch and even Barnabas. All of this is so unsettling to the apostle Paul that he confronts Peter, tells him that he is not walking “in step with the truth of the gospel” (v. 14), and that he is a hypocrite because he has been living as a Jew like the Gentiles but is now trying to “force the Gentiles to live like Jews” (v. 14).

Can you imagine being in Peter’s shoes at this very moment? Can you imagine realizing that even though you began in the freedom of the gospel in Acts 10, that you were now reverting to your former manner of life as you tried to live in accordance with the law so that you could impress some religious stiffs who just showed up in town? Can you imagine what it must have felt like to be the Gentiles in this story as you observe one of your leaders and supposed brothers in Christ withdrawing from his relationship with you because of his fear?

Imagine being in Paul’s shoes and realizing that your longtime friend, brother, and partner in ministry was now wearing the mask of hypocrisy as he tries to fake everyone out. Being two faced is an artform that has historically produced some of the world’s best actors and actresses, but it should not be this way in the household of God!

God did not design us nor save us through the work of his Crucified, risen, and returning Son so that we could walk around with our religious acting scripts in our pockets and our fake masks over our faces; he did not save us so that we could go back to the slavery of hypocrisy once again. This is why Paul launches into one of the best summaries of the gospel in all of scripture in the final portion of our text.

#2: A SUMMARY OF THE GOSPEL (VV. 14 – 16)

This is something that I absolutely love about the Bible – the message of the Bible is never moralistic or legalistic because it is simply Christocentric (it’s not about us doing better, or getting better to please God, it’s about what Christ has done perfectly on our behalf). Simply put, the message of the Bible is not “do better when you screw up” it is “look to Christ when you fail”.

This is exactly what Paul does after confronting Peter for his sinful hypocrisy; he points out the ugliness of his sin and then he turns his attention to the gospel that will continue to set him free. In verse 14 Paul points out Peter’s sin when 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?”

Interestingly, John Piper notes that Paul’s use of the word “force” in verse 14 is meant to remind us that Paul is unwilling to give even an inch on this issue of hypocritically adding the law to the gospel as though someone would be super saved by following the law.2

Paul’s use of the word “forced” points us back to his prior use of that word in verses 3 – 5where he explained that neither he nor the other apostles (Peter included at the time) would allow the Judaizers to force circumcision (a ceremonial law that was being held up like a moral law) upon Titus, the Gentile, and Paul is obviously not going to allow Peter’s hypocrisy to force the law upon the Gentiles in Antioch either.

The Galatians (especially Paul’s Galatian enemies) should take note: Paul will not allow hypocrisy to taint the gospel freedom we have in Christ. The way Paul is going to stand his ground on this issue of gospel freedom is to simply preach the gospel instead of preaching moralism – he does not merely tell Peter to start acting better, he tells him to remember the person and work of Jesus Christ who is supremely better. Here is how Paul says it in verses 15 – 16:

He basically says, “Yo, Peter! ‘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.’” This summary of the gospel is so rich!

Have you ever noticed how many people in our culture want to summarize the gospel with the word “love” as though every sinner is entitled to God’s love somehow? What makes us think we are entitled to God’s love anyway? Yes, it is true that God gave his one and only Son to be the Savior because of his great love for us (Jn. 3) but that does not mean that we are entitled to it!

That is not how Paul summarizes the gospel. I think Paul’s gospel summary would hang on the word “justification”. Did you catch how many times Paul used the word “justified”? Three times. We would also do well to notice how many times Paul uses the word “faith”and its synonym “believe”. How many times? Three times again!

I think Paul uses these words (justified and faith/believe) three different times to summarize the foundational meaning and importance of the gospel. It is almost like Paul is telling Peter that he failed because of his fear once again – just like the night when Jesus was arrested, and Peter denied knowing him three times due to his fear even though he had been forewarned (Lk. 22:54 – 62). Once again the only thing that will cover, and remove, and pay the price for Peter’s sin is none other than our crucified, risen, and returning Savior who is the one and the only one who justifies sinners by grace through faith in Christ before our holy God.

How else would Peter be enabled to authentically repent from his sin of hypocrisy once again, if not for the reminder to look to his bloody Savior, that empty tomb, and that promise of eternity? Is there any other message that could energize Peter to get back up again and continue walking in the truth of the gospel? Could the moralistic messages (just do better), or the legalistic messages (get better for God) ever set someone free from the sin of hypocrisy? I think not!

What every sinner needs is a full plate of the gospel, free from the slavery of sin, free from the slavery of the law, and free from the slavery acting the fake! It is Christ and Christ alone who justifies, who sets us straight, and who gives us the new desire and ability to honor God even if it means standing for the truth of the gospel despite the consequences.

APPLICATION…

By way of application, I would say that hypocrisy is probably one of the biggest barriers to evangelism and discipleship for the local church. The idea that many church folks are two-faced or fake is the go-to reason for many unchurched folks who reject the gospel we preach. The principles of “practice what you preach” or “be who you say you are and do what you say you will do” or “actions speak louder than words”, are difficult principles to live by because integrity is in short supply.

I think we often see hypocrisy as something that has only plagued the church in recent years. But the truth is that hypocrisy dates all the way back to the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve failed to live in accordance with the freedom they had been given; they chose to live contrary to the freedom that God had given them, they chose to disobey God, and chose to run/hide under the masks of their own making (Gen. 3).

Martin Luther, commenting on this, said “Samson, David [who committed sexual sin and murder] and many other celebrated men who were full of the Holy Spirit fell into huge sins. Job (3:3) and Jeremiah (20:14) curse the day of their birth. Elijah (1 Kgs. 19:4) and Jonah (4:8) grow tired of life and pray for death…” and while Luther would go on to say that “it is a great comfort for us to hear that even such great saints, sin” I am sure he would also agree that we should not become comfortable with any kind of sin much less the sin of hypocrisy.3

I think that being comfortable or desiring comfort is probably one of the bedrock idols that runs under the surface of hypocrisy. We either become comfortable with sin or we become uncomfortable with the cost of fighting against sin and as a result we are lured into the two-faced, fake, or dual-living that hypocrisy promotes.

Think about ways that you have been duped into acting the fake, pulling out the script of your religious performance, fastening that mask of your own works onto your face. Maybe it’s the sense of righteous indignation you feel or express when someone does something sinful; like somehow you are better than them. Maybe it’s the way you try to win every doctrinal argument you get into as you justify it by saying that you are evangelizing the lost even though your life reeks of the sins you committed that morning at the water cooler in the hallway at work.

Or maybe it’s the way you try to force other people into following your secondary set of convictions as though they are somehow primary gospel issues. Maybe it’s the way you live in sin throughout the week while acting holy on Sundays when you attend church gatherings. Or maybe it is just simply the way you act high and mighty on Sundays while being a scoundrel in your home with your family throughout the week. Or maybe it is just simply your cowardice when knowing the things you ought to do but do not do because of you are afraid of the consequences.

Here is the thing, nobody gets through this life without committing the sin of hypocrisy. I used to say that I did not attend church because it was full of hypocrites until I realized that we are all hypocrites calling everyone hypocrites; we all fail to live up to the standards we claim to value, believe, or live by.

To all of this I would say, thank God for a bloody cross; thank God for the empty tomb; thank God for the promise of heaven. There is one and only one person who ever lived that never acted the hypocrite and his name is Jesus. Jesus never failed to live by the standards of perfection that he believed and taught.

It is by his name, and his name alone, that we hypocrites can be justified, set right, and made right in the presence of God. There is no other name under heaven by which we sin-filled hypocrites can be saved from the penalty, the presence, and the power of sin except Christ and Christ alone.

CONCLUSION…

In conclusion, I am so thankful that Paul gives us this reminder that “a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ” (2:16), and that our good works and even our feeble attempts at doing good works will fall terribly short of the mark of salvation. But thanks be to God as Paul also says in Ephesians, that “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:8 – 10). Good works do not save you because they are the result of a heart that has been saved – justified – before God.

Lest we think that Paul and Peter went their separate ways in disagreement, we would do well to meditate on the message of 1 Peter where Peter says “this word is the good news [gospel] that was preached to you…be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’… knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish… He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Pet. 1:25, 15 – 16, 18 – 19 , 2:24).

The beauty of this passage in Galatians 2, is that it places Peter’s sin of hypocrisy front and center so that through his failure, the Galatians and we could behold the perfect work of Jesus Christ at the cross of Calvary. The gospel for hypocrites – the good news for hypocrites – is that Jesus is enough; he is enough to forgive us, to sustain us, and to strengthen our repentance because he and he alone never wavered in the face of opposition, his integrity is intact, and his sacrifice on our behalf was more than adequate to pay the price for our sins against him.

The gospel for hypocrites is the message of the bloody cross, the empty tomb, and the promise of heaven from the Savior who was crucified, dead, buried, risen, and returning to set things straight once and for all. Because of this truth, you and I can repent of our hypocritical behaviors and step into the freedom we have in the gospel as we seek to serve the one who justifies, revives, and sanctifies us through the power of his indwelling Spirit. – Amen!

1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).

2 John, Piper, In Sync with the Gospel, Galatians 2:11 – 14, Audio Sermon: https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/in-sync-with-the-gospel

3 Todd A., Wilson, Galatians: Gospel-Rooted Living, Preaching the Word, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2013), 72.