Thoughts on Galatians 2

-

Peter apparently succumbed to Jewish peer pressure in Antioch.  This is a pattern in his life.  Perhaps he felt, as a nonmember of the elite, inferior to the learned Jewish intelligentsia.  I can relate.  I always feel inferior to the people with doctorates with whom I work, although I am not sure why and am often amazed by their lack of perspective, background, self-knowledge, and curiosity.

The end of the Galatians 2 is not written to the Galatians directly is the record of a conversation with Peter.  The conundrum, the paradox:  “For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.”  The law crucified Christ; we were crucified with him, to the purpose of living go God.  This is deep.  The gospel is a system, and open one, in a way, in that we enter into it, but closed in the sense that one piece cannot be taken out. 

I don’t think we can fully understand the drama, the consequences, here.  Paul states there were spies from the Jewish leadership trying to subvert the gospel.  These were not scholastic debates.  It was the core of the Christian faith.

People who come from legalistic backgrounds often do not realize that legalism is not just “out there.”  It is within us.  We love it; it is something we must repent of, not just leave, as if it were a place.  It is a condition, a sinful one. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kallman's Syndrome: The Secret Best Kept

-
I went to my cardiologist yesterday.   Every year I have to wear a Holter monitor for a day because of a heart ablation I had in 2007.   If you don’t know what a Holter monitor is, it’s a 24-hour mobile, wires-hanging-off-your-body EKG.   The nurse practitioner saw me, (not the doctor, which is ok because his voice puts me to sleep).   She was very sweet.   She asked me if I was still taking Estradiol and Progesterin.   “No,” I said. “I’ve totally gone off those.   I was on them for a very long time and I wanted to be sure to stop.” What I didn’t tell her is how long I actually had taken those hormones.   37 years.   I started with HRT when I was 17 because I have Kallman’s Syndrome.   You may never meet a person who has this condition.   It only affects 1 in 10,000 people (or 1 in 86,000, according to one source) so that’s quite a range and far more males have it than females (as do most negative things).   So, being female, I am quite an oddit
Read more

Annie Dillard on Writing Advice and Some Observations

-
  https://getpocket.com/explore/item/write-as-if-you-were-dying-read-annie-dillard-s-greatest-writing-advice?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us I frequently listen to a podcast called THE HABIT. Its host is Jonathan Rogers, who for the most part interviews writers with a Christian focus. He is a better interviewer than I, and he runs a community of writers. I recommend him. I do have to say that the podcast makes me feel very shallow as a writer.  One reason is that Jonathan Rogers has a signature question, Who are the writers that make you want to write? If I ever land on his program (a dream), I will need an answer to that one, and right now I don't have one. Sure, there are writers I like, lots of them, but reading them doesn't send me to my computer to get cracking. They are more likely to make me think, you've got no business doing this writing gig.  Actually, bad or mediocre writers motivate me more although I am not exactly proud of that. And the fact that what I want to
Read more