Peter’s Tune Up (Part I)
Galatians 2:15-21

Occasionally we all need to be brought back to fundamentals. Before the apostle Paul addresses the problems of the Galatians, he uses Peter as an example and reminds him of the following:

1. Where we stand (2:15-16)
2. Who’s at fault (2:17-18)
3. Why the rules (2:19)
4. How this works (2:20)
5. What can’t change (2:21)

We need to keep in mind what has just happened in Galatians. The apostle Paul has gotten in the face of the apostle Peter, which is no small thing. It’s a big deal because Peter was, according to classic understanding of church history, first among equals. He was “the man” in the early church and for Paul to say, “I caught him in error and I withstood him to his face” and then to go on to explain the mechanics of that is very important to us.

In short, if Peter can be first among equals, first among the apostles and first among those who were with Jesus during his life and after his resurrection -- if Peter can be these things and then be in error, where does that leave you and me and what ought to happen when that occurs?

II Timothy 3
¹⁶ All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;

We really like that part about profitable for teaching and for training; sometimes we’re a little slow when it comes to the “reproof and correction.” In spite of Peter’s stature in the Christian community, Paul is going to correct him by drawing his attention to five issues.

It’s hard to know whether verses 15 to 21 are part of Paul’s speech to Peter or if it’s an introductory paragraph taking us into the rest of the book. It could be both. The editors of the NASB Bible keeps it in quotes, which means the editors of this particular translation are saying it’s part of Paul’s speech to Peter.

Galatians 2
¹⁵ "We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles;
¹⁶ nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.
¹⁷ "But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be!
¹⁸ "For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor.
¹⁹ "For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God.
²⁰ "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
²¹ "I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly."

I read somewhere that Steven Spielberg actually made his first movie at the age of eleven. It was a quick film, I assume an 8-mm amateur special, of his model train crashing over and over. Mr. Spielberg has gone on to make a pretty decent living creating special effects. It’s interesting how it began with what’s miniature, seeing how it works, making adjustments, and then moving on to that which isn’t miniature at all.

It’s kind of like the way architects and engineers do things. Before a bridge is built, it’s designed on a considerably smaller scale, but accurately. Our building plan is like that. You could fit the entire building on this podium only because it’s a miniature drawn to scale. Why? So that those who study these things can look it over and say, “This is good,” and “This might not work.” For the plan? No, for the big thing. If a door opens the wrong way on the plans, it’s going to mess it up when it’s on large scale.

Paul is doing that very thing in Galatians. This is what amazes me about these verses. Peter is a believer, a born-again Christian. Peter had revelation direct from Jesus beyond the scope of anything you or I will likely ever know, but nevertheless, spiritually speaking we share common ground with him as Christians.

Peter knew a lot. He knew the Old Testament and was part of putting together the New Testament. He knew the Savior and knew he was saved by grace, by faith plus nothing, even though he knew he didn’t need to add anything to his simple trust in Jesus as his Savior, even though he knew all that, Peter lapsed into error.

Peter removed himself from grace. Remember how that happened? Those big shots came down from Jerusalem. Peter is thinking, “I don’t want them to think this, I don’t want to contribute to their problems up there because they’re all confused about how Jewish this Christian thing should be and so Peter, rather than exercising his freedom in salvation and remaining with the Gentiles, thought he shouldn’t eat with them any more. He crossed the line and to the eyes of all who were looking on, Peter added works to grace. He made a statement by where he sat and with whom he ate, a statement that said, “There are first class Christians and then there are others.” He confused grace.

Paul saw it for what it was. He had the insight, by God’s grace, to know exactly what was going on, to see that even though Peter was an apostle, even though he was first among equals, even though he knew Jesus intimately, he was still wrong.

So Paul says, “Here’s the correction for you, Peter, as an individual (that’s verses 15 through 21). This is your path to correction, Peter, but in so doing, in correcting Peter as an individual, Paul is also correcting the Galatians and a whole bunch of churches.

If he can fix Peter, he can fix them all because the Galatian churches were committing the same error Peter was -- adding something to the grace of God to make salvation look like I have to earn a little bit of it, confusing grace and making a serious, serious mistake.

In Paul’s miniature correction to Peter he’s preparing the Galatians for the exploded version, which is the rest of the book. What’s interesting is, the rest of Galatians is all about these six verses in an expanded form.

We’ll be touching on some material today that we’ll touch on again. Repetition is how we learn.

Where we stand (2:15-16)

This correcting of the Christians, this business of Peter’s tune-up concerns these various issues that the apostle wanted him to be really clear on, and by extension wants us to be really clear on. The first one is where we stand. These are some things we absolutely know before we go anywhere else, and by the way, this fits you and me perfectly. Where do we stand? Where did God meet us? From whence has He brought us? Good questions as we assess our spiritual state to know whether or not we also need a tune-up.

Where we stand -- I have this reduced to three steps, first of all remembering where we’re from.

            1. Remembering where we’re from

Every Christian has a resume; every Christian has been some place. God met each of us somewhere, perhaps in our homes, perhaps in VBS or at camp, perhaps in adult life through some set of circumstances, through some interaction with other adults, a radio program or a  TV preacher, who knows?

God has met each of us somewhere and brought us to where we are from that point. Paul begins that way with Peter as he begins in verse 15. He says, “Now look, Peter, remember where we’re from. We are Jews by nature; we are ethnically Jewish people.” That’s a loaded statement. He says, “We are not sinners as among the Gentiles.” He’s not taking a shot here at the Gentiles. Recall that in the ministry of Jesus, he was accused off and on of spending time with Pharisees and tax collectors and sinners. So the word “sinners” doesn’t mean the Jews never sinned; it just meant that they regarded the Gentiles as the class of sinners outside the commonwealth of God’s unique people, the Jews. So he’s not taking a shot at them; he’s simply reminding Peter of their roots. “Remember, we’re Jews; they’re not.”

What does that mean? “We are Jews; we are not Gentiles. Peter, what this means is,” (this may apply to you or me) “we spent our lives as Jews trusting our heritage for one, trusting I’m a Jew. I’m a child of Abraham. I can trace my lineage through one of the twelve tribes and take it back to the father of our faith, which is Abraham. That means I have a rich heritage as a Jew and if God looks at anyone in this whole wide world with favor, it’s going to be me because of my heritage. Peter, that’s how we grew up. We went on into adulthood believing that.”

“Furthermore, not only did we spend our lives trusting our heritage, we spent our lives trusting our works, our religious behavior, trusting in the fact that we were circumcised, trusting in the fact that we were Bar Mitzvah, trusting in the fact that we were doing a pretty good job of keeping the rules, trusting in the fact that we’d gone to the temple, that we had sacrifices offered in our behalf and so on and so forth. Peter, we spent our lives this way. This is who we were, religiously speaking, trusting in the heritage, trusting in the works. Interestingly, though, with no assurance that when we die we know exactly what’s going to happen.”

Many people today trust in these. “Trust in my heritage?” “Well I was raised in a Christian home,” or “I’m raised in America where everybody is a Christian,” so they say. “That has to mean I have brownie points with God.” Or perhaps, ”I was raised in a church and I rarely missed, even went to Sunday School and I have the good attendance pins to prove it.”

“I got baptized, I took communion.” A lot of times people deceive themselves into thinking that’s what it takes to please God. Paul is saying, “That doesn’t please God. God is not impressed with your behavior, God is not impressed with your heritage.” There is only one thing that impresses God and that is one’s heart. He’ll go there, but remember where we’re from, Peter, Jews by nature knowing (verse 16) that a man is not justified

“Justified” means that I am right with God.  The word literally means to be declared righteous. God has declared me to be righteous. A better way for me to handle that is “right with God.” So Paul is saying, “Knowing that a man is not right with God by works of the law. We know that,” he says. “Peter, do you remember that a man is not right with God by working the law but only through faith in Jesus Christ.”

That’s it, just faith in Jesus Christ. He doesn’t add anything to that. Simple trust. “All my trust in Jesus only.” That’s it. Paul is saying, “Peter, we know this to be true and at some point God turned that light on for you, didn’t he, just as he turned it on for me on the road to Damascus.” Paul is charging ahead in his zeal as a Jew, trusting in his heritage, trusting in his works, and suddenly, out of the blue he’s on the ground and he’s suddenly convinced there’s a better way.

Peter’s testimony perhaps isn’t as cataclysmic as Paul’s. Peter seemed, in a sense, to grow into his awareness and relationship, but there were several high points along the way.

“Who do the people say that I am?” and Peter says, “Oh, you’re the Messiah.”

“But you don’t know what that means, do you, Peter?”

“Well no, not yet I don‘t.”

Who was it who got out of the boat and walked on the water? It wasn’t the other eleven, it was Peter. Who was it who said, “If all these others desert you and flee, I’ll die for you Lord,” and then fled himself. He denied Jesus three times in the garden. Who was it Jesus restored fully to fellowship with Himself by His grace on the shore of the Sea of Galilee after the resurrection? It was Peter. Isn’t it interesting what Jesus doesn’t say to him when Peter finally, after denying Jesus, faces Him again on the shore of the Sea of Galilee:

“Boy, Peter, you really blew it, didn’t you?”

“You know what, Peter, this isn’t going to work unless -- you go to church every Sunday, get baptized three times forward, and put 20 percent of your gross income in the offering plate. Don’t kill anybody and don’t hate anybody, and obey all the traffic rules. If you will do all these things, if you’ll work and work and work, Peter, then I might like you.”

No -- that’s the whole point of grace. “Peter, are you committed to Me with all your heart?”

“Lord, I don’t think I can say that.”

“Tend my sheep.”

He didn’t say jump this high. He treated Peter on the basis of grace, and Peter, by the day of Pentecost, not only knew the Lord in a born-again way, he was a dynamo for Jesus by the power of the Spirit of God.

“Where are you from, Peter? You lived all this time a certain way. God reached in and got a hold of your life. Remember first things, Peter.” How many of us need this -- to remember first things. Peter is being called there. Remember where we’re from and then -- Peter, know what is true.

            2. Knowing what is true

Verse 16: This we know that a man is not right with God by the works of the Law but through faith, and we know what we believe.

            3. Affirming what we believe

“Remember, Peter, we have placed our trust in Christ Jesus. We have trusted Him, not a system of religion, not a church, but Him, a savior, a person. We have put our trust in Him in order that we might be made right with God from faith in Christ and not from works of the Law.”

“You know what Psalm 143:2 says -- we’ve known this all our lives, Peter. We have this verse memorized. ‘By works of the Law shall no flesh be justified.’ Nobody. Not a soul.”

Where have we placed our faith? Not in a church, I hope. Not in where our family is, I hope. But in the Savior who paid for our sins on the cross at Calvary.

I don’t know how the Bible could put it more clearly. A man is not right with God by works of the Law, by works of any law, by any rule keeping at all, but through faith in Christ Jesus. Paul said to Peter, “We’ve done that. We have placed all our trust in Jesus only because only Jesus can pay our way to heaven. Only Jesus can come into our lives, regardless of behavior -- of the good things I do that I hope people see and the bad things I do I hope nobody sees.

Jesus deals with our hearts and where Paul is taking these Galatians is where you and I need to go as well. That is, as He gets our hearts, as He begins to do a work on the inside, all the rules will take their proper place and not only will our mentality toward them change, our ability to honor God in them will change. It starts on the inside and that’s what Peter needed to remember. That’s what Paul is going to remind him of and then he’ll go from there reminding the Galatians from several different angles and you and me as well.