UBF Daily Bread

I HAVE BEEN CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST

Passage: Galatians 2:11~21

Key verse: 20

Paul Opposes Cephas

¹¹When Cephas^(A) came to Antioch,^(B) I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. ¹²For before certain men came from James,^(C) he used to eat with the Gentiles.^(D) But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.^(E) ¹³The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas^(F) was led astray.

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

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

¹⁷“But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners,^(P) doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not!^(Q) ¹⁸If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.

¹⁹“For through the law I died to the law^(R) so that I might live for God.^(S) ²⁰I have been crucified with Christ^(T) and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.^(U) The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God,^(V) who loved me^(W) and gave himself for me.^(X) ²¹I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law,^(Y) Christ died for nothing!”^[b]

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Footnotes

Galatians 2:16 Or but through the faithfulness of … justified on the basis of the faithfulness of
Galatians 2:21 Some interpreters end the quotation after verse 14.

1. Paul opposed Peter (11-16)

Peter had gone to Antioch to meet with the Gentile believers there. He ate and had fellowship with Gentiles there. But when members of the circumcision party came, Peter distanced himself from the Gentiles. Paul rebuked Peter for this hypocrisy. In Christ, there is no division between Jew and Gentile or between circumcised and uncircumcised. We are all saved by faith in Jesus alone. Peter's hypocritical actions went against the very teaching of the gospel of Jesus. So Paul rebuked him publicly.

2. Christ lives in me (17-21)

Paul spoke here of the unification believers have with Christ. Paul recognized that he died with Christ so that Christ could live in him. While his body was alive, he lived by faith in the Son of God. God gave the law, but it is not the law that saves us. It is by God's grace that we are saved through faith in Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us.

Prayer: Lord, only through the gospel of Jesus Christ are we saved. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for dying for us on the cross.

One Word: Christ lives in me