Derek Thomas

It's up to each individual to do whatever's right in his own conscience.

It's gone way beyond that.

This was now seen as a violation of the very gospel itself, a violation of justification by faith, that your behavior…

can undermine your belief, that your behavior can undermine the credibility of your belief.

And so, when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned, and for before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles, but when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the

what Paul now calls the circumcision party, because that's what they were in the incident with Titus, even though this, I think, is more about food laws and so on.

And he wants them to understand that in insisting

that Gentiles only eat kosher food.

They're making the Gentiles become Jews rather than allow the Gentiles to be Christians.

And so there's an important theological principle at stake.

And I want to examine that principle.

And I want us to skip down to verses 19 through 21, which is the heart of it.

For through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God.

I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

It's clear for the Apostle Paul that the gospel and the purity of the gospel is at stake in the behavior of Peter here in Antioch.

And in analyzing the theological importance of justification, justification by faith alone, apart from the works of the law, the gospel is by grace through faith, and there must be no damnable plus.

And the damnable plus in this case is ceremonial obedience to the kosher food laws.