In this episode, we trace one of the most startling moments in the New Testament: Paul publicly rebuking Peter in Antioch over the very heart of the gospel. Working through Galatians 2:11–21, we see how a conflict over table fellowship exposed a deeper question—are we made right with God by faith in Christ alone, or by faith plus our own efforts at law-keeping?
In this week’s episode, we explore:
- What happened when Peter stopped eating with Gentile believers out of fear of the “circumcision party,” and why Paul called this hypocrisy rather than a change in theology
- Why this confrontation had to be public, and how Paul’s boldness shows that the truth of the gospel—not personalities or reputations—was on the line
- How Paul’s question “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile… how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?” exposes the contradiction of demanding law-keeping from others
- What it means to be “justified by faith in Jesus Christ and not by works of the law,” and why no amount of religious effort can ever satisfy God’s justice
- The picture of God’s wrath and our bondage to sin, and why our “broken chooser” means we cannot simply decide to become righteous on our own
- How Christ’s death answers the problem of guilt, and his resurrection life, given by the Spirit, answers the problem of our ongoing slavery to sin
- The Reformation language of justification by faith alone: forensic justification, “simultaneously just and sinner,” and why God’s verdict is not a legal fiction
- The difference between righteousness being infused into us versus imputed to us—and why it matters that we are saved by Christ’s righteousness credited to our account
- Paul’s climactic claim that if righteousness could come through the law, then “Christ died for no purpose,” and how that question presses us to abandon all confidence in ourselves
After listening, you’ll come away with a clearer grasp of what it really means to be justified by faith alone—and why this doctrine is not a theological side issue but the center of Christian hope.
Series: Galatians: Living by Faith
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