Galatians 2

One of the things that we commonly hear from people outside of the church is that they do not attend church because of all the hypocrisy. People say and do one thing on Sunday morning and they say and do something completely different at work the rest of the week. It's a valid concern. How can anyone be sure of the gospel that we preach if we are not confident enough in it to live it every day?

Are we going to stumble? Are we going to fail? Are we going to be wrong? Sure. All of those things are true, but there is a difference between humbly admitting a mistake and living two different lifestyles at church and at home. It makes me feel a little better, though, to know that Peter was doing that very thing. It doesn't justify my actions, it just reminds me that we are all human. On the one hand, Peter was fellowshipping and eating with Gentiles – a violation of the tenets of the law – but on the other hand, when his friends from Jerusalem came to visit he tried to tell the Gentiles that they had to follow the law. Presumably, he was advocating circumcision based on contextual clues in the chapter, and a few were confused and led astray by this change in behavior.

How many people in our churches and our society are still trying to gain righteousness through the law? How many believe that they have to follow the Ten Commandments to be saved? And how many think these things because that's what they are being taught in churches? I grew up in a denomination that often preaches grace on hand and legalism on the other. Do these things really fit together? I think Paul's argument to Peter was that they do not. It's great to follow the customs of the law and to use it as a guide so that you recognize that you are a sinner, but it's never going to be something that you can fulfill and never something that Christians should be judged against. Christ died to free us from that and to fulfill the law for us so that we can obtain righteousness.

Note, though, that Paul also points out that this doesn't mean that our sin is rationalized. Christ doesn't promote sin by virtue of the fact that He's already paid the price. It's not like going to CiCis and getting to eat all the bad pizza you can stand because you paid the price up front. It's more like going to the golf range and getting to hit as many balls as it takes to get the right swing.