When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face,
because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men
came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. 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.
The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their
hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. When I saw that
they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I
said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you
live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then,
that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?"
We who are Jews by birth and not "Gentile sinners" know that
a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in
Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus
that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by
observing the law, because by observing the law no one will
be justified.
Galatians 2:11-16
Have we ever considered what the Apostle Peter did at Antioch? It is a
question that deserves serious consideration.
What the Apostle Peter did at Rome we are often told, although we have
hardly a jot of authentic information about it. Legends, traditions, and
fables abound on the subject. But unhappily for these writers, Scripture
is utterly silent upon the point. There is nothing in Scripture to show
that the Apostle Peter ever was at Rome at all!
But what did the Apostle Peter do at Antioch? This is the point to which
I want to direct attention. This is the subject from the passage from
the Epistle to the Galatians, which heads this paper. On this point, at
any rate, the Scripture speaks clearly and unmistakably.
The six verses of the passages before us are striking on many accounts.
They are striking, if we consider the event which they describe: here is
one Apostle rebuking another! They are striking, when we consider who
the two men are: Paul, the younger, rebukes Peter the elder! They are
striking, when we remark the occasion: this was no glaring fault, no
flagrant sin, at first sight, that Peter had committed! Yet the Apostle
Paul says, "I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the
wrong." He does more than this--he reproves Peter publicly for his error
before all the Church at Antioch. He goes even further--he writes an
account of the matter, which is now read in two hundred languages all
over the world.
It is my firm conviction that the Holy Spirit wants us to take particular
notice of this passage of Scripture. If Christianity had been an
invention of man, these things would never have been recorded. An
impostor would have hushed up the difference between two Apostles. The
Spirit of truth has caused these verses to be written for our learning,
and we shall do well to take heed to their contents.
There are three great lessons from Antioch, which I think we ought to
learn from this passage.
I. The first lesson is, "That great ministers may make great mistakes."
II. The second is, "That to keep the truth of Christ in His Church is
even more important than to keep peace."
III. The third is, "That there is no doctrine about which we ought to be
so protective about as justification by faith without the deeds of the
law."
I. The first great lesson we learn from Antioch is, "That great ministers
may make great mistakes."
What clearer proof can we have than that which is set before us in this
place? Peter, without doubt, was one of the greatest in the company of
the Apostles. He was an old disciple. He was a disciple who had had
peculiar advantages and privileges. He had been a constant companion of
the Lord Jesus. He had heard the Lord preach, seen the Lord work
miracles, enjoyed the benefit of the Lord's private teaching, been
numbered among the Lord's intimate friends, and gone out and come in with
Him all the time He ministered upon earth. He was the Apostle to whom
the keys of the kingdom of heaven were given, and by whose hand those
keys were first used. He was the first who opened the door of faith to
the Jews, by preaching to them on the day of Pentecost. He was the first
who opened the door of faith to the Gentiles, by going to the house of
Cornelius, and receiving him into the Church. He was the first to rise
up in the Council of the fifteenth of Acts, and say, "Why do you try to
test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we
nor our fathers have been able to bear?" And yet here this very Peter,
this same Apostle, plainly falls into a great mistake.
The Apostle Paul tells us, "I opposed him to his face." He tells us
"because he was clearly in the wrong." He says "he was afraid of those
who belonged to the circumcision group." He says of him and his
companions, that "they were not acting in line with the truth of the
gospel." He speaks of their "hypocrisy." He tells us that by this
hypocrisy even Barnabas, his old companion in missionary labors, "was led
astray." What a striking fact this is. This is Simon Peter! This is
the third great error of his, which the Holy Spirit has thought fit to
record! Once we find him trying to keep back our Lord, as far as he
could, from the great work of the cross, and severely rebuked Him. Then
we find him denying the Lord three times, and with an oath. Here again
we find him endangering the leading truth of Christ's Gospel. Surely we
may say, "Lord, what is man?" Let us note, that of all the Apostles
there is not one, excepting, of course, Judas Iscariot, of whom we have
so many proofs that he was a fallible man.
(Note: It is curious to observe the shifts to which some writers have
been reduced, in order to explain away the plain meaning of the verses
which head this paper. Some have maintained that Paul did not really
rebuke Peter, but only faked it, for show and appearance sake! Others
have maintained that it was not Peter the Apostle who was rebuked, but
another Peter, one of the seventy! Such interpretations need no remark.
They are simply absurd. The truth is that the plain honest meaning of
the verses strikes a heavy blow at the favorite Roman Catholic doctrine
of the primacy and superiority of Peter over the rest of the Apostles.)
But it is all meant to teach us that even the Apostles themselves, when
not writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, were at times
liable to err. It is meant to teach us that the best men are weak and
fallible so long as they are in the body. Unless the grace of God holds
them up, any one of them may go astray at any time. It is very humbling,
but it is very true. True Christians are converted, justified, and
sanctified. They are living members of Christ, beloved children of God,
and heirs of eternal life. They are elect, chosen, called, and kept unto
salvation. They have the Spirit. But they are not infallible.
Will not rank and dignity confer infallibility? No, they will not! It
matters nothing what a man is called. He may be a Czar, an Emperor, a
King, a Prince. He may be a Preacher, Minister, or Deacon. He is still
a fallible man. Neither the crown, nor the anointing oil, nor the laying
on of hands, can prevent a man making mistakes.
Will not numbers confer infallibility? No, they will not! You may
gather together princes by the score, and ministers by the hundred; but,
when gathered together, they are still liable to err. You may call them
a council, or an assembly, or a conference, or what you please. It
matters nothing. Their conclusions are still the conclusions of fallible
men. Their collective wisdom is still capable of making enormous
mistakes.
The example of the Apostle Peter at Antioch is one that does not stand
alone. It is only a parallel of many a case that we find written for our
learning in Holy Scripture. Do we not remember Abraham, the father of
the faithful, following the advice of Sarah, and taking Hagar for a wife?
Do we not remember Aaron, the first high priest, listening to the
children of Israel, and making a golden calf? Do we not remember
Solomon, the wisest of men, allowing his wives to build their high places
of false worship? Do we not remember Jehosaphat, the good king, going
down to help wicked Ahab? Do we not remember Hezekiah, the good king,
receiving the ambassadors of Babylon? Do we not remember Josiah, the
last of Judah's good kings, going forth to fight with Pharaoh? Do we not
remember James and John, wanting fire to come down from heaven? These
things deserve to be remembered. They were not written without cause.
They cry aloud, "No infallibility!"
And who does not see, when he reads the history of the Church of Christ,
repeated proofs that the best of men can err? The early fathers were
zealous according to their knowledge, and ready to die for Christ. But
many of them advocated ritualism, and nearly all sowed the seeds of many
superstitions. The Reformers were honored instruments in the hand of God
for reviving the cause of truth on earth. Yet hardly one of them can be
named who did not make some great mistake. Martin Luther held tightly to
the doctrine of consubstantiation [believing that during communion the
bread and the wine became the actual body and blood of Christ].
Melancthon was often timid and undecided. Calvin permitted Servetus to
be burned. Cranmer recanted and fell away for a time from his first
faith. Jewell subscribed to Roman Catholic Church doctrines for fear of
death. Hooper disturbed the Church of England by demanding the need to
wear ceremonial vestments [priestly type garments] when ministering. The
Puritans, in later times, denounced Christian liberty and freedoms as
doctrines from the pit of Hell. Wesley and Toplady, last century, abused
each other in most shameful language. Irving, in our own day, gave way
to the delusion of speaking in unknown tongues [babble]. All these
things speak with a loud voice. They all lift up a beacon to the Church
of Christ. They all say, "Do not trust man; call no man master; call no
man father [spiritually] on earth; let no man glory in man; He that
glories, let him glory in the Lord." They all cry, "No infallibility!"
The lesson is one that we all need. We are all naturally inclined to
lean upon man whom we can see, rather than upon God whom we cannot see.
We naturally love to lean upon the ministers of the visible Church,
rather than upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd and High
Priest, who is invisible. We need to be continually warned and set on
our guard.
I see this tendency to lean on man everywhere. I know no branch of the
Protestant Church of Christ which does not require to be cautioned upon
the point. It is a snare to the Scottish Christians to pin their faith
on John Knox. It is a snare to the Methodists in our day to worship the
memory of John Wesley. All these are snares, and into these snares how
many fall!
We all naturally love to have a pope of our own. We are far too ready to
think, that because some great minister or some learned man says a thing,
or because our own minister, whom we love, says a thing, it must be
right, without examining whether it is in Scripture or not. Most men
dislike the trouble of thinking for themselves. They like following a
leader. They are like sheep, when one goes over the hill all the rest
follow. Here at Antioch even Barnabas was carried away. We can well
fancy that good man saying, "An old Apostle, like Peter, surely cannot be
wrong. Following him, I cannot err."
And now let us see what practical lessons we may learn from this part of
our subject.
(a) For one thing, let us learn not to put implicit confidence in any
man's opinion, merely because he lived many hundred years ago. Peter was
a man who lived in the time of Christ Himself, and yet he could err.
There are many who talk much in the present day about the voice of the
early Church. They would have us believe that those who lived nearest
the time of the Apostles, must of course know more about truth than we
can. There is no foundation for any such opinion. It is a fact, that
the most ancient writers in the true Church of Christ are often at
variance with one another. It is a fact that they often changed their
own minds, and retracted their own former opinions. It is a fact that
they often wrote foolish and weak things, and often showed great
ignorance in their explanations of Scripture. It is vain to expect to
find them free from mistakes. Infallibility is not to be found in the
early fathers, but in the Bible.
(b) For another thing, let us learn not to put implicit confidence in any
man's opinion, merely because of his office as a minister. Peter was one
of the very chief Apostles, and yet he could err.
This is a point on which men have continually gone astray. It is the
rock on which the early Church struck. Men soon took up the saying, "Do
nothing contrary to the mind of the minister." But what are ministers,
preachers, and deacons? What are the best of ministers but men--dust,
ashes, and clay--men of like passions with ourselves, men exposed to
temptations, men liable to weaknesses and infirmities? What does the
Scripture say? "What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only
servants, through whom you came to believe--as the Lord has assigned to
each his task" (1 Corinthians 3:5).
Ministers have often driven the truth into the wilderness, and decreed
that to be true which was false. The greatest errors have been begun by
ministers. Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of the high-priest, made
religion to be abhorred by the children of Israel. Annas and Caiaphas,
though in the direct line of descent from Aaron, crucified the Lord. It
is absurd to suppose that ordained men cannot go wrong. We should follow
them so far as they teach according to the Bible, but no further. We
should believe them so long as they can say, "Thus it is written, thus
says the Lord," but further than this we are not to go. Infallibility is
not to be found in ordained men, but in the Bible.
(c) For another thing, let us learn not to place implicit confidence in