The Transforming
Power of the Cross
Galatians: How the Gospel Sets Us Free
Made Right To Do Right
Galatians 2:15-21
When Gentiles were being saved and given the Spirit, many Jewish teachers argued that now that they were saved by Jesus, they needed to follow Jesus in keeping the Law of Moses. Wasn’t He circumcised? Didn’t He keep kosher? Didn’t He attend the feasts?
Still others wondered how Jesus’ death alone could make someone right with God. They knew, perhaps, that Jesus’ death was relevant, but surely keeping the Torah’s commands helped make us right with God.
They would say, “Too much grace is the problem. If you tell people they are forgiven, they will go wild! If they don’t have laws to obey, they won’t do right. Forgiveness is not free; you must earn it.
They didn’t grasp that the Cross changed everything, for Jesus AND His followers. Jesus’ death FOR sinners also was His death WITH sinners. His death FOR sin was also His death TO sin. And because we were “in Him,” we are now dead to sin and the Law that condemned us, but alive with His life which gives power to do what the Law could not.
Here is how Paul is reasoning, explaining his rebuke of Peter’s hypocrisy: