St Bart’s Anglican Church

Week 2: GALATIANS – Gospel Living Discussion Questions

Connecting from last week: Last week, we asked the question, “how could you live your life so that people would respect and praise God more because of you?”. Have you had any opportunities to put this into practice over the last week?

1. How does the Gospel make a difference to you on a day-to-day basis?

Read Galatians 2:1-10

2. As a group, try to make a brief summary of everything that has happened between Paul and Peter up to this point. What was the background? What was the great outcome for the Gospel?

3. In particular, what is the significance of the latter part of verse 6?

Read Galatians 2:11-21

4. What do you think it means to walk ‘in line’ with the Gospel? In what way – according to Paul – was Peter ‘out of step’ with the Gospel? In which ways do you think it’s easiest for us – as individuals and as a church – to get out of step with the Good News?

5. This year have there been any areas of your life that you feel you have brought ‘closer in line’ with the Gospel? What are some of the areas (e.g., work, relationships, church) in your life in which you need to walk more in line with the Gospel in the coming months?

6. What helps you to walk closer with the Gospel?

7. Peter not sharing table fellowship with the Gentiles was a problem, however whatever is the bigger problem underlying this issue?

8. What does it mean to be ‘justified’?

9. Why can we only be certain of salvation if we rely on Jesus instead of ourselves?

10. Do you ever have any moments in which you feel unworthy of God’s love? What helps you from feeling like you have to earn God’s love? How can we encourage one another in this way?

11. How does being ‘in Christ’ mean we have an entirely new identity?

12. If we are in Christ, and he is in us, does that mean we need to make any effort? Why or why not?

13. How have you seen people grow in the likeness of Christ as they continue in their walk with him?

14. What has been your personal experience of growing in the likeness of Christ?

For application this week: What is one key way in which you can walk more in line with the Gospel this coming week? How can you be accountable with one another?

Talk 2/7 (Galatians Series): 5/06/16 “Gospel Living” by the Rev’d Adam Lowe

Bible Passage: Galatians 2

INTRODUCTION \\ CONTEXT OF THE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS

Today’s the second week in our series on the Letter to the Galatians.

• Last week as we looked at chapter 1, we saw: that right at the heart of the letter, is the radical claim, that there is no other Gospel, there’s no other Good News, than that of Jesus Christ.

• Paul writes to the Galatians full of concern, because, in an nutshell, the outsiders are saying don’t trust Paul, you’re saved not just by faith in Jesus Christ, but faith in Christ PLUS adhering to the Law. //

• Paul’s astonished, because he knows that as soon as you add or subtract from what Christ has done, the Gospel has been reversed.

• It’s become all about what we’ve done instead of what Jesus has done. • Salvation has become a reward instead of a gift,

when in fact God gave us his son not a scorecard.

�2

As we move into chapter 2, the tension is still abundantly evident.

• In the beginning of chapter 2, verses 1-10,Paul goes up to Jerusalem to consult with some of the other apostles.

• You might remember that Paul wasn’t part of the original twelve, he became a follower of Jesus through a radical encounter with the risen Christ.

• He’s been off preaching to the Gentiles - the non-Jewish people - whilst the other apostles have been by-and-large preaching amongst the Jews.

• But amidst all of this controversy, Paul goes up to Jerusalem, consults with the apostles, and checks they’re all on the same page.

• And remarkably, as they talk, they not only agree that Paul should continue to preach to the Gentiles and they to the Jews, but there is the outcome of unity in the Gospel.

• They’re all on the same page. • Salvation is by grace alone, it’s not dependent upon performance or ritual. • We see that confirmation at the end of verse 6: “…they added nothing to my message”.

�3

But things don’t stay that way.

• Because after Paul goes up to Jerusalem, Peter comes down to Antioch - Paul’s stomping ground, verses 11-24,and that sets the stage for a confrontation between them both.

• And the crux of Paul’s charge to Peter is this:Peter: you’re not living in line with Gospel.

• You might be preaching one thing: salvation by grace alone, but your actions are saying another. //

• Letting the Gospel sink into our lives is not just about articulating our convictions,but living lives that are in accordance with what we believe.

So, what does it mean to live in line with the Gospel? It means:

• A Narrow Path; • A Sure Faith; and

• A Changed Life;

�4

A NARROW PATH \\ VERSES 11-14

So first, living in line with the Gospel means we have a narrow path.

• Verses 11-14 provide a neat little summary of all that is happening. • Basically, when Peter came to Antioch, Paul confronts him face-to-face,

not because Paul has his cranky pants on, but because Peter is out of line. • Peter had in the past eaten with the Gentiles, shared fellowship with them,

but when a more hard-line Jewish group arrived in town, we read:

…he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. (vv.12-13)

• In the Ancient World, who you shared table fellowship with was really important. • Jesus annoyed lots of people by the company he kept over meals. • In the western world, we can think, what’s the big deal about who we eat with. • We eat with all sorts of people, regardless of gender or societal position.

We sit alongside people in cafes and restaurants without any concern.

�5

• But that wasn’t the case for Jews, because if they ate with the wrong people, like Gentiles, then they would become unclean.

• Now, Peter didn’t believe that. He had a vision in triplicate that because of Jesus all foods had now been declared clean. He went off and explained that to others in Jerusalem.And then as God had led some Gentiles to Peter,he realised that actually God’s vision of salvation was not just for Jews but also the Gentiles.

• Peter knew this. But because he was scared of these outsides, because he was more concerned about pleasing them instead of God, he acted differently.

• By drawing back from table fellowship with Gentiles, Peter’s convictions about the Gospel we’re not lining up with his actions.

14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

The key word that Paul uses here is a form of the Greek word orthopodeõ

• It means to walk consistently in line… Ortho - when you want straight teeth, you go to the orthodontist.

�6

• Peter isn’t walking in line with the truth of the Gospel. • Most of our English translations, say that Peter wasn’t acting in line…

but actually, Paul’s accusation is much broader than that. • Walking is a metaphor for the whole of life… thoughts, feelings, actions, motivations… • Which means, as a passionate followers of Jesus, there’s an expectation that,

our whole lives, our walk in life, is brought into line with the Gospel. • Modern people might baulk at that and say:

well, I’ll live however I want to live. • But Jesus says about himself, the gate is small and the path is narrow. • I want you to gather every thread of your life,

and line it up with the Good News that you believe. • Not just parts of it. Not just that which is convenient. But all of it.

Being a passionate follower of Jesus, means bringing our lives into line with the Gospel:not compromising the Gospel in attempt to bring it into line with our lives.

• For Peter, in this situation, it meant getting his table fellowship habits in order. • I wonder what it is for us?

�7

• What are the aspects of our lives, that we need to bring into line with the Gospel? • How is the Gospel transforming the way you parent,

or they way you work, or who you spend time with?

I remember when I was going through my undergraduate studies, I really was quite obsessed with planning out my life. I had a ten year plan, it had all the details, and in my arrogance, I would take it to God and ask him to fill out the very small blanks. But then I began to realise, I was convicted, that God didn’t want my blanks, he actually wanted my whole life. This plan had become a way in which I was asserting control over my life and in doing so, I was actually resisting whatever plans that God might have for me. So I had to rip up the plan, and say, God ‘you’re plans are better than mine’, your Gospel is better than mine, have your way with me.

• Of course, as we keep walking with Jesus across a lifetime, just when we think one area of our life has been realigned with the Gospel, we discover another. That’s the walk.

• Sometimes that’s corrective - like Peter’s newly acquired table manners, other times it’s more subtle - like how we spend our money.

• And we can do that without any fear of condemnation, because we do it always in the knowledge that we’ve been justified, not by what we do, but what Christ has done.

�8

A SURE FAITH \\ VERSES 15-18

Second, living in line with the Gospel means that we have a sure faith.

• It’s only when we place our confidence in what Jesus has done, that we can be confident of salvation.

• That’s the fundamental problem with what Peter is doing.

• Not eating with people is the symptom, misplaced confidence is the real disease.

• Paul’s saying, Peter you don’t believe you need all of these rules and rituals to be clean, yet here you are acting in a way that is leading others astray by forcing them to follow the Jewish laws.

• You think that this is just a little issue, but actually it’s major. • The natural trajectory of this contradiction of behaviour and belief,

is not that we’ll end up with two different forms of Christianity: one that follows the Jewish customs and another that doesn’t, but actually you’ll end up with two completely different religions: one that thinks Christ’s grace is sufficient, and another that doesn’t.

• That’s what Paul articulating in verses 15-18. �9

15 “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

We are not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.

• To be justified it to be acceptable for fellowship with God… the opposite of justification is condemnation.

• ‘Justify’ is legal word… it means, for someone on trial, that the person is in the words of J I Packer, not liable to any penalty, but is entitled to all the privileges due to those who have kept the law. Justifying is the act of a judge pronouncing the opposite sentence to condemnation…

• That’s what God has done for us. How are we justified? Through faith in Christ, not by what we do.

• Grace means that we BELIEVE, are SAVED, and then we OBEY;But Peter has ended up endorsing BELIEVE, OBEY, and then we are SAVED.

• That changes everything. • With Christ, everything has been DONE.

�10

• Without Christ, we must DO everything, which we can’t. • If we live thinking we must do everything, we will never have certainty. • And if that was true, then what was the point of Jesus dying?!

Paul is driving this so hard, because it is such good and glorious news

• Yet in our culture we can so resist Jesus as Saviour and Lord. • We love to make him a great example, a great teacher, or even a friend,

but to some they find it completely offensive that we need a Saviour. • Friends, I’m not offended! • I am so thankful to God, that his love for me, my salvation,

has nothing to do with how good my performance is, but everything to do with Jesus. • If you’ve ever had the thought ‘I’m not good enough for God’s love’, or ‘I hope I’ve done

enough’ then I have some great news to remind you. • That’s not how God’s love works. It’s not based on your performance. • Whenever that type of thinking creeps in, you can completely dismiss it,

because it’s not the real Gospel. • We can have a sure faith.

�11

A CHANGED LIFE \\ VERSES 19-21

And the result is that living in line with the Gospel: having the confidence that are saved by faith in Christ, means a changed life.

19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.

Because we’re free from the power of the Law, it means that we live for God.

20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

• Those two verses must hang together. • If you take v.20 on its own, we could think Jesus does it all. • If you take v.21 on its own, we could think we have to do everything. • But when you bring them together we begin to see and realise we are now to live out

life on the basis of who we are in Christ.

�12

• And that’s possible because when we follow Jesus, he doesn’t just give us a new set of behaviours, some things to work into our lives, but actually he gives us a completely new identity.

• So that when God looks at us, he looks at us like we are his son. • Loved by God as if I had lived the life of Christ,

so that it’s not me that lives but Christ. • This doesn’t mean we’re not ourselves,

but actually in Christ we’re more ourselves than we ever dare dreamed, and when you become a Christian, we restart the process of what it really means to learn to know who we are.

• That’s why Paul’s clash with Peter was not just a clash of varied mission agendas, but actually the nature of Christian identity.

• And the foundation of our identity is Christ.

This week, two people shared with me stories of two different people who had become Christians. And in both examples, the new passionate followers of Jesus were expressing this new, incredible understanding of grace. And they were saying that it’s like they’ve become completely new people. They’re the same, but new.

�13

• Note, they didn’t say, I feel like I’ve got a whole new set of rules, it was more along the lines of they have a whole new identity to grow into.

• We are not what we do;what we do springs forth out of who we are in Christ.

• Out of a relationship in which we know there is no condemnation. Out of a relationship in which we know that we are perfectly loved. Out of a relationship in which God is calling us to draw all the threads of our lives in line with his Good News.

• Not that our salvation depends on it. • But because we know we have been saved.

�14