“A person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.” That’s Paul’s key message in Galatians. This truth has the effect of obliterating any distinction between one believer and another. It makes it impossible for me to consider myself better than you, because we are both only made right by our faith and not our works. If, however, our spiritual status was gained by keeping certain laws, then some people could perhaps be considered better than others. It is very tempting for us to create hierarchies that make us feel good by seeing others as worse. This was a temptation facing Jewish believers as they gathered with non-Jewish believers. It felt to the Jews that these gentiles were getting into God’s kingdom too easily. Surely, it was thought, the gentiles should submit to all those practices that mark people out as God’s people. Even the Apostle Peter (Cephas) fell into this for a moment, according to what Paul says here. Jesus anticipated this problem (see Luke 15:28-30 and Matthew 20:1-16). And Paul became a champion for this truth: the only thing that you need to be a child of God is faith. And faith, as Paul points out in his letter to the Ephesians, “is the gift of God…so that no one can boast” (2:8,9). Ah, but we love to have a boast. We love to feel better than others. Perhaps we could do with the same loving rebuke that Paul offered to Peter.
Have you looked down on other Christians?
Read Galatians 2:11-21
