Devotional Study Series
Galatians 2:11-16
Justified by faith in Christ. Paul’s fight for freedom reached a critical moment in Antioch, where he confronted Peter face to face. The issue was table fellowship. Peter had been eating with Gentile Christians—a radical step because Jewish dietary laws forbade sharing meals with Gentiles.
But when “certain men came from James,” Peter withdrew from the Gentiles, fearing the circumcision party. Even Barnabas was carried away by this hypocrisy. Paul saw that this was more than a social problem. By separating from the Gentiles, Peter was denying the gospel. His actions communicated that Gentiles were second-class Christians who needed to adopt Jewish customs to be fully accepted.
Paul writes, “When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, ‘You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?’” (Gal. 2:14).
At the heart of this confrontation was the doctrine of justification: “know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.” (Gal. 2:16).
Justification is a legal term meaning to be declared righteous before God. It is not something we achieve but something we receive through faith. Paul states this truth three different ways in one verse. First, as a general principle: “a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.” Second, as a personal reality: “so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ.” Third, as a universal truth: “by works of the law no one will be justified.”
The Judaizers were adding circumcision to faith as a basis for justification. But Paul understood that any addition to Christ’s finished work nullifies grace. If we could be justified by our works, then Christ died for nothing.
A Prayer of Thanksgiving
Righteous Judge, I thank You that my standing before You does not depend on my flawed obedience, but on being declared righteous through faith in Jesus. Give me the courage of Paul to live consistently with this truth and to reject any hypocrisy that compromises the Gospel. Amen.