Sermon Tone Analysis

Assignment

 

 

Andrew Hodge                                                                                          7th June 2005

 

 

The hermeneutic of Galatians 2:20

 

Focusing on Paul’s public rebuke of Peter, in defence of the Gospel.

Presented, abridged, to the Adult Bible Class, Grace Gospel Community Church

Sunday 5th June 2005

 

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*Context*

 

The Bible

            It is no longer sufficient to say “I believe the Bible”.

The challenges that the Word has faced in the past several decades now requires a believer to affirm that he believes in the verbal, plenary, infallible, unlimited inerrancy of the Bible.

“Verbal” emphasises that the words themselves were inspired, not just the thoughts, thus preventing the writer from having freedom to choose the words he might have preferred.

“Plenary” is required in order to include all of the words, no exceptions.

“Infallible” is necessary.

Because every word was inspired by God, every word carries the authority of God.

“Inerrancy” provides the link between the accuracy of the words and the authority of the message, disallowing the possibility of errors and maintaining infallibility.

“Unlimited” is needed to maintain the extent of infallibility.

The Scriptures are not scientific, historical, genealogical or psychological textbooks but where those subjects are addressed the Word is completely accurate.

In any case, it is a nonsense to accept a concept of “limited errancy” which implies that the Word is actually errant, but not completely so.1

The New Testament

            The book of Galatians is written in the context of the Dispensation of Grace to saved Church members who have the continuous indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.

It is therefore expected that the Word addressed to them will be understood by them in its entirety in their unique cultural context.

The Writer

            Paul (Gal 1:1) with input from “all the brethren which are with me” (Gal 1:2).

Paul was proud of his Jewish heritage and was highly educated, well acquainted with the views of the Judaisers, a Pharisee, and on the basis of his knowledge an effective persecutor of the early Christians; a proficient linguist being able to directly communicate to the majority of the peoples visited by him as a missionary; and completely single minded concerning the preservation and preaching of the pure Gospel as communicated to him directly by God Himself.

The book is written in koine Greek, the “lingua franca” of the day.

The brethren with Paul in verse 2 are the elders in Antioch if he was writing to the Churches in the Southern Galatian region, and possibly Barnabas and others if writing to the North of the (Roman) province.

In either case, they are probably known to his readers and mentioned to add weight to his doctrinal arguments.

1Adapted from Ryrie, Charles Caldwell.

/What You Should Know About Inerrancy/.

Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing, 1998, c1981 ch2

 

 

 

The Addressees

            There is debate over exactly which Churches of Galatia Paul was referring to as noted above.

In my view it is likely that he was writing to the Southern Galatian churches he had previously founded with Barnabas on the first missionary journey and for whom he had special concern (Acts 13, 14, 16; Galatians 4:12-20).

An exhaustive examination of the arguments for and against this view can be accessed in ISBE (Galatians, Epistle to the).1

Occasion, Purpose and Date

            Since Paul’s first visit to the Galatians, men had arisen among them, possibly saved, demanding that circumcision was necessary for salvation and that the ceremonial law of Moses be maintained (Gal 4:9-10; 5:1-6).

They were really demanding that Gentiles become converted to Judaism in order to be Christians.

They were unable to keep the law themselves and wanted to have control over the congregation (Gal 6:13), seeking to escape from the “offence” of the cross (Gal 6:12).

“Following Jewish customs and traditions and observing Jewish religious laws was a normal way of life for Jewish Christians, whether they were Jews by birth or through conversion.

For them, belief in Jesus as the Messiah of Jewish expectation enhanced, but did not replace, their Judaism.

Christianity was not regarded as a religion distinct from Judaism but rather as the truest form of Judaism.

These Jewish Christians had all been circumcised as infants, or upon conversion to Judaism, and they also practiced the kosher dietary laws and rules of ritual purity prescribed in Mosaic legislation and rabbinic tradition.”2

Galatians 2:20 is contained in a passage (Gal 2:11-21) where Paul recounts an occasion in Antioch some time earlier when he openly chastises the apostle Peter for publicly acting as if he agreed with similar Judaisers in forcing the Gentile Christians to keep the ceremonial Law, when the Gospel gave freedom from this unnecessary burden.

The purpose of Paul writing to the Galatians was therefore threefold: first to establish his credentials as an apostle (Gal 1:10-2:14), second to defend the doctrine of justification by faith alone (Gal 2:15-5:6), and third to warn the church about reversion to Judaism (Gal 5:7-6:17).

The presumed date of the writing is 50 or 51 AD, prior to the severe persecutions that the Christians would soon experience, making Galatians possibly the first letter that Paul wrote.

The key words of this book are faith; grace; liberty; the Cross.

The key verse is Galatians 5:1 “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”3

All of these observations set the scene for the exegesis of 2:20.

1”/The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia/”  Geoffrey W. Bromiley, General Editor;  William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan Volume 2 1982 pp 380-381

2Elwell, Walter A., and Philip Wesley Comfort.

/Tyndale// Bible Dictionary/.

Tyndale reference library, Page 753.

Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001.

/3//The Holy Bible : King James Version./ Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995.

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*Exegesis*

 

*The Passage Galatians 2:11-21*

*            *Paul confronts Peter over his hypocrisy regarding his preferential treatment of Judaisers because of his “fear” of them; they may have been his friends from Jerusalem and he did not want to offend their practices.

This episode occurred in Antioch, the time unspecified, but may have been after Paul’s visit to Jerusalem on account of famine (Acts 11:27-30), or after the council in Jerusalem described in Acts 15:1-35, where incidentally Peter gave a stirring defence of the true Gospel based on his own experience, proving that Jews and Gentiles were all equal in the sight of God (Acts 15:7-11)!

Paul was very right to criticise Peter in public because Peter’s actions had so misled people as to the truth of the Gospel that even Barnabas was led astray (Galatians 2:13).

“It was a stinging rebuke.

Peter’s response is not recorded.

He stood condemned.

He was acting contrary to his own convictions, was betraying Christian liberty, and was casting a slur on fellow believers.”[1]

Perhaps Peter was too ashamed to offer any response.

There is debate as to whether much of this passage (Gal 2:14-21) was delivered to Peter in public, or whether Paul is using these verses to present the doctrinal truths of Peter’s error.

I believe the former in the light of the continuity of the passage which gives no reason to suspect that Paul turned away from Peter to address another audience (as he does in the verse immediately following - Gal 3:1).

*V11 *When Paul visited Jerusalem after his conversion, after Barnabas’ introduction and support on account of Paul’s previous reputation as Saul, Peter greeted Paul with “the right hand of fellowship” (Gal 2:7-9 cf Acts 9:26-28).

Both these leading evangelists respected each other’s work and reputation, but when it came to protecting the truth of the Gospel, Paul stands up to rebuke his colleague and brother in Christ “because he was to be blamed”.

*V12 “*Because of the vision Peter had received at the house of Simon the tanner (Acts 10:9-15, 28), he felt free to eat with the Gentiles, and did so on a regular basis.

While it lasted, this was a beautiful demonstration of the unity of Jew and Gentile in Christ.”[2]

The men of the “circumcision party” that had come from Jerusalem were almost certainly not sanctioned in their belief by James, although it is likely they came out of his congregation.

The imperfect verb tenses in this verse (“withdrew and separated” -  ‘hupestellen kai aphorizen’) imply a slow and gradual withdrawal by Peter from the company of the Gentiles.

His fear [(“phoboumenos” is from “phobeo”/ 1//b3/ to fear (i.e.

hesitate) to do something (for fear of harm)].[3]

V13 Peter, Barnabas and all the Jewish Christians present were tainting the Gospel by their behaviour.

This was therefore not a small issue and Paul is righteously angry.

V14 Peter acts contrary to his own conviction, betrays Christian liberty and casts a slur on those who maintained the truth.

V15 Paul addresses those who were Jews by birth, although both Jews and Gentiles are saved by faith in exactly the same manner

 

V16 Paul uses “we” to include Peter and the Jewish Christians as well as himself in the group who *know* they are saved by faith and not by the works of the law.

“Remember what happened to you”, Paul urges, “justification is by faith and not by works” (although they all seemed to have forgotten this fact).

The consequence of breaking the law was death; life could only be had if the consequences of the law were not in force

 

V17,18 Paul’s opponents had argued that as justification by faith eliminated the law, that sinful living was encouraged by eliminating the concept of ‘punishment’.

This line of argument made Christ an encourager of sinful behaviour because the justified person could do as he pleased, and we cannot avoid the fact that we frequently exercise our sin nature.

God forbid, says Paul; I am just proving that I am still a sinner if I sin; I do not cast any slur on the perfect work of Christ.

V19 Paul distinguishes himself from Peter, contrasting what he did with the law compared to what Peter did with the law: Paul was dead to the law so that he was in a proper position to live unto God.

Peter was bound by the law so that he was not free to live unto God.

The law of itself brings only death, not life.

See Romans 6:1-6 for a full exposition of this.

V21 Paul asserts that he cannot set aside the grace of God – it is essential for the righteousness of salvation – because if righteousness came by the law and not by grace, then the death of Christ was a supreme mistake.

The Verse Galatians 2:20

 

“I” - not he, we or they.

This is an intensely personal doctrinal statement and can only be made by an individual who truly is saved and is living his life with Christ.

It is not a statement that can be made by anyone about someone else

 

“am” this verb is in the perfect tense.

As an illustration: a woman may have been born as Miss Jones and she remains as Miss Jones until she marries and becomes Mrs Smith.

She was in a continuous state of maidenhood until the event of marriage placed her into another continuous state.

Paul says that he was born as Saul and remained so until his salvation event put him into the continuous state of being saved.

The English may therefore be rendered as “I have been (and still am) crucified”.

“crucified”  Paul describes his relationship with the law in terms of a death and a resurrection.

The believer is united to Christ in both His death and resurrection.