MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 11–21.
A Fearless Defence of Fundamental Truth—
I. Does not hesitate to impeach a distinguished Church dignitary of inconsistency.—“But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed,” etc. (vers. 11–14). Peter had been accustomed to mingle with the Gentile converts on the ground of perfect social equality. Influenced by the fierce bigots of legalism, who insinuated that the circumcised occupied a superior status to the uncircumcised, he withdrew from the social circle of the Gentiles and confined himself to that of his Jewish brethren. The pliability of his impulsive nature led him into this as into other mistakes. To create a social distinction between Jew and Gentile was to undermine the Gospel. Paul saw at a glance the threatened peril, and it needed all his tact and courage to confront it. Though it meant a public impeachment of the sincerity and consistency of one of the most venerated apostles, the champion of the Gentiles did not hesitate. Alone, even Barnabas having for the time being deserted him, he stood up boldly for the truth of the Gospel.
II. Is the opportunity for an authoritative restatement of the truth imperilled (vers. 15–18).—In these verses the apostle again sets forth the fundamental doctrine of justification by faith, without the works of the law. The Judaisers contended that to renounce legal righteousness was in effect to promote sin—to make Christ the minister of sin (ver. 17). Paul retorts the charge on those who made it and showed that they promote sin who set up legal righteousness again (ver. 18). The reproach of the Judaisers was in reality the same that is urged against evangelical doctrine still—that it is immoral, placing the virtuous and vicious in the common category of sinners (Findlay). “The complaint was this,” says Calvin,—“Has Christ therefore come to take away from us the righteousness of the law, to make us polluted who were holy? Nay, Paul says—he repels the blasphemy with detestation. For Christ did not introduce sin but revealed it. He did not rob them of righteousness, but of the false show thereof.”
III. Is made more impressive by showing the effect of the truth on personal experience (vers. 19–21).—In these words the apostle indicates that his own deliverance from the law was effected by being dead to the law—being crucified with Christ; and that his own spiritual life was originated and sustained by a living faith in a loving and self-sacrificing Christ. “Legalism is fatal to the spiritual life in man. Whilst it clouds the Divine character, it dwarfs and petrifies the human. What becomes of the sublime mystery of the life hid with Christ in God, if its existence is made contingent on circumcision and ritual performance? To men who put meat and drink on a level with righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, or in their intercourse with fellow-Christians set points of ceremony above justice, mercy, and faith, the very idea of a spiritual kingdom of God is wanting. The religion of Jesus and of Paul regenerates the heart, and from that centre regulates and hallows the whole ongoing of life. Legalism guards the mouth, the hands, the senses, and imagines that through these it can drill the man into the Divine order. The latter theory makes religion a mechanical system; the former conceives it as an inward, organic life.”
Lessons.—1. The leaven of error is not easily suppressed. 2. True religion has never lacked a race of brave defenders. 3. Experimental religion is the best guarantee of its permanence.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES.
Vers. 11–13. Christian Consistency—
- May be spoilt by yielding to an unworthy fear (ver. 12).
- Should be strictly maintained for the sake of others (ver. 13).
- Should be defended with intrepid courage (ver. 11).
Ver. 11. An Astute Defender of the Faith.