Walking Through The Epistles — Book Of Galatians 2:11-21 by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Recap: Peter's Hypocrisy at Antioch

Last week we stopped at verse 11. Peter was living as a Gentile — eating with them. But when people from Jerusalem came, he separated himself, Galatians 2:12. Why? He feared those of the circumcision.

Paul confronted him because this was not a social matter — it was a theological statement. By withdrawing, Peter was saying the Gentiles were still unclean or second-class citizens compared to the Jews. Paul calls this dissimulation — hypocrisy — in verse 13. It means to conceal truth. You know the truth, but you are not living it out.

Galatians 2:13 — And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away.

Did Peter know the truth? Yes. In Acts 10, Peter had preached to Cornelius and his household. The Holy Spirit was poured out on them. God had corrected him directly — do not call what I have called clean, unclean. Peter had even recounted this in Acts 11. The Jerusalem council had concluded in Acts 15: do not put on the Gentiles a load which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear.

Peter knew the truth. He was trying to save face instead of standing for the truth.

Verses 15–16: No Advantage in the Law

Galatians 2:15–16 — We who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ — even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. For by works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

Paul argues that Jewish believers have no advantage over Gentiles. Why? Because justification is not by lawkeeping — justification is by faith in Christ Jesus. Whether you live as a Jew — meaning keeping the law — or not, it makes no difference to how God justifies a person.

What does Paul mean by works of the law here? Look at Galatians 4:9–10 — after you have known God, why do you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements? You observe days and months and times and years. He is referring to circumcision, dietary laws, calendar observations — the very things the Judaizers were teaching. These are what he means by works of the law.

On the subject of Sabbath: in the New Testament there are two functionalities.

• Christ as our Sabbath — Hebrews 4 — where you cease from your own works and enter God's rest, because Christ is our high priest who fulfils the law for us.
• Practical physical rest — resting the body, which remains part of the ten commandments. The children of Israel went 70 years in Babylonian captivity partly because they consistently broke the Sabbath for the land — God told them after every 7 years the land must rest, and they refused. The 70 years they spent in captivity was the accumulation of all 70 years they denied the land its rest.

If you are working 7 days a week, that is not healthy. Do not be the person who works, gathers wealth, destroys their body — and then uses the wealth to repair the body in old age.

Verse 17: Is Christ a Minister of Sin?

Galatians 2:17 — But if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves have been found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not.

Paul is attacking the Judaizers' argument head-on. Their argument: if you tell a Jew to live like a Gentile — without the law — you are making him a sinner. So Paul answers: if grace makes us sinners, then Christ is a sin-promoter. But you are not actually saying Christ-plus-something. You are actually saying that lawkeeping is better than Christ. That is what is being argued, underneath it all.

Verse 18: Returning to the Law Is Transgression

Galatians 2:18 — For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

Paul is saying: returning to the law after Christ makes no sense — it is going back to a former state. And he calls that a transgression. What kind of transgressor? A transgressor against grace. Paul says he would rather transgress the law than transgress grace. Rejecting grace is called unbelief — it is to say the works of Christ are not enough. And that is what it means to not be saved.

Verses 19–20: Crucified with Christ, Alive in Christ

Romans 7 uses the analogy of marriage to explain the same thing. When a partner dies, the surviving spouse is free from the law that bound them together. Christ dying is Christ putting an end to the law — making us free to move to the new husband, which is grace.

Galatians 2:19–20 — For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. 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 for me.

The law condemned him and drove him to Christ. The law's end game is death to self-reliance. When you face all 610 commandments of the law, you conclude: without Jesus, I am finished. I cannot make it.

The performative side of wanting acceptance through lawkeeping — that is dead. Nevertheless, he lives — but not he. Christ lives in him. This new life is Christ living through him. In his mortal body, he lives by faith in the Son of God. This life is sustained by Christ. It is not powered by rules and regulations. It is powered from within.

The law is actually the hard way — but people prefer it because they do not want to live a life yielded to the Spirit. Law is easy: it gives you a checklist of what to do, what to avoid, and what you can get away with. Grace leaves you with your conscience, your inner life — which is far more demanding.

When a Christian starts asking things like: if I fornicate, am I still accepted? — that is a law question. It is asking: what are the rules, and how much can I get away with? 2 Corinthians tells us there are 145 commandments in the New Testament — and the standard there is actually higher. Under the law, you could keep malice and be within the rules. Under grace, if they slap you, you bless them. Jesus did not lower the standard — he came to live the standard through you.

Verse 21: Do Not Frustrate the Grace of God

Galatians 2:21 — I do not frustrate the grace of God. For if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ died in vain.

To add law to grace is to render the crucifixion meaningless.

You frustrate the grace of God when you try to be accepted by works. You enter rest when you stop trying to earn what has already been given. God will answer my prayer because I fasted — that is works mindset. God cannot hear this prayer because I have not prayed in two weeks — that is also works mindset. Start. The people who received miracles from Jesus — did they believe in him first? No. So why do you think you must qualify?

My access to God is not based on my performance. It is based on the finished work of Christ.

How Paul Corrected Peter: A Pattern for the Church

One of the major things that happened in Galatians 1 and 2 is that Paul confronted Peter. The nature of that confrontation matters.

1. Face to face — Galatians 2:11. He did not go online. He did not address it through a platform before speaking to the person. He was deploying Matthew 18 — first go to the person, then with a witness, then to the church. That order exists so that the church passes judgment, not one individual's platform.
2. It was doctrinal, not personal — Galatians 2:7–9 shows Paul acknowledging Peter as a pillar. And Galatians 1:18 shows Paul traveled to see Peter and stayed with him for 15 days. They had relationship. 1 Corinthians 1:12 — Paul still acknowledged Peter's ministry to the Corinthian church. And in 2 Peter 3:15–16, written 15–20 years after the confrontation, Peter calls Paul our beloved brother Paul. They did not cancel each other.
3. Within the household, not before the world — Paul only recorded this incident in Galatians because the Galatian church witnessed it. He never mentions it again in Romans, Colossians, Timothy, or Titus. We don't wash family clothes outside. We don't go online and talk about people.

Some problems are not doctrinal — they are personal. And when personal problems cause separation, people say never listen to him simply because they do not like someone. That is not the pattern here.

Guard Your Spirit Against Offense

One of the signs of the end times that Jesus identified was offense. Offense has a perspective — when you are offended, everything you see is filtered through that lens. What they did not say, you will hear. Now imagine being a prophetic person carrying offense — your visions will be distorted.

Offense is always reasonable to the one carrying it. And the evil of offense is this: if you sit and listen to someone who is offended, you will begin to see what they see. They have now contaminated you. That is how people inherit enemies they have never personally met.

A critical spirit cannot go far with God. If you have a critical spirit, you will not have a message — you will only be a reactor. That spirit tells you that you can see something others cannot see. That is how false ministry starts — with overestimating oneself.

There are three people you do not fight:

• Fathers — fight a father and you lose your inheritance
• Brothers — fight your brothers and when the enemy comes, you have no defence
• Sons — fight your sons and you have no future

Don't put fuel in fire. We are peacemakers. We are prescriptive, not merely critical. Anyone can identify a problem — wisdom knows how to prescribe a solution.

Life only rewards prescriptive people. A fool knows a problem. The wise know what to do with it.

Always ask yourself before addressing a situation: Am I trying to be right, or am I trying to restore? No matter how right you are — if the person does not like you, they will always be defensive. The correction Paul gave Peter was brilliant precisely because it was targeted at the doctrine, not the man — and they remained brothers.