Galatians 2:11-16

Pastor Russell Johnson picked up Paul's case where he left it. Paul has spent a chapter and a half establishing that he got the gospel from Jesus and not from men, and he has just reported that the Jerusalem pillars added nothing to his message. Agreement in theory is different from agreement in practice, Pastor Russell said, and Galatians 2:11-16 gives us a dinner party, a retreat, a domino effect, and a public confrontation. Antioch was the first place believers were called Christians, and the first room in history where Jew and Gentile sat at one table under one Lord. Peter had been eating there regularly, and after the vision in Acts 10 he knew better than anyone that he could. Then men arrived from James, and Peter began to pull back, afraid of the hardliners at home. The others followed, and so did Barnabas. Paul told him in front of everyone that he was walking crooked. They did not disagree about how a person is justified. They disagreed about whether pushing Gentiles toward the Law fits that gospel. Pastor Russell closed with the Christian life as a river, Jesus describing it from before the cross and Paul from after, the same life in a different order.