14When I saw 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?

Peter stopped eating with the Gentiles because of pressure from some Jews. Under Old Testament law, Jews were not supposed to eat certain food such as pork. They were also not supposed to hang out with "unclean" Gentiles. (Gentiles are everyone who isn't of the Jewish race.) As Christians though, those things are no longer supposed to matter. Now, Peter COULD eat pork and hang out with these Gentiles, especially since they were Christian. However there were some Jews who were teaching that people still needed to obey the Old Testament law either to be saved, or to live for God. These Jews are referred to as Judaizers, or the circumcision group. If Peter had "stuck to his guns" and didn't care what these people thought, he would have kept eating with the Gentiles like he had been doing. But unfortunately, he gave in to their pressure and stopped eating with the Gentiles. By doing this, he was betraying his convictions. Because of this Paul needed to confront Peter and set him straight, reminding him of the truth of the Gospel. Otherwise people might look at Peter and think that you really do need to follow the Old Testament law code in order to be a Christian.

Think about it, if even the apostle Peter could get messed up by peer pressure, how much do YOU need to watch out for it? What causes people to give in to peer pressure? What can you do to stand strong, resist negative peer pressure, and live for God instead?

15: To the Jews, "Gentile" and "sinner" meant the same thing. This was because the Gentiles didn't obey the Old Testament law. The Jews were the ones who prided themselves because they supposedly obeyed the law. However, if even Jews are not justified by obeying the O.T. law, then obviously NO BODY is justified by obeying the O.T. law.

16: This paragraph introduces three important terms:

Justified: To be justified means to be declared righteous in the eyes of God. (Write "justified=declaired righteous" in the margin of your Bible.) What does it mean for God to declare someone to be righteous? Is that the same thing as them actually being righteous? No! Justified is a legal term. It is like a judge banging the gavel and declaring someone "not guilty." As far as God is concerned, we are not guilty. It is as if we are "just-as-if-I'd never sinned." However, this is VERY different that saying that we are actually righteous. None of us are actually righteous! None of us ever will be until we die. If we had to become actually righteous to be saved, none of us would be saved. The reason that God can consider us righteous is because when we trust in Christ for our salvation, there is a "swap" that happens. Jesus takes the punishment for our sin on the cross, and we get the credit for Christ's righteousness.

Important things to remember about being justified:

Works of Law: In the original Greek, there is no "the" in front of law. What might this mean? Not only is Paul saying that the Old Testament law can't save us, there is NO type of law or rule keeping that can save us from hell. Most people think that you get to heaven by being good, but that isn't true! So how are we saved?

Faith in Christ: If were not saved by obeying law, rule keeping, or being good, how are we saved? This verse is very clear. We are saved by faith in Christ!

What does it mean to "put your faith in Christ Jesus?" Faith means "trust." (This might be good you to write in your Bible too.) We are saved when we stop trusting in out own goodness, or works, or ANYTHING else, and instead trust in Christ alone for our salvation, believing that He is God and that He died in our place to take away our sins.

Can ANY type of faith save you? No! It has to be faith in Christ. A lot of people have faith, but in the wrong thing. They may be sincere about it, but they are sincerely wrong. A lot of people trusted in the Titanic to get them across the ocean, but their trust was misplaced. Further, it also has to be in Christ ALONE. If you have one foot in a good canoe and one foot in a sinking canoe, you're still going to fall in the water.

What are YOU trusting in to get you to heaven?

Does Christ really promote sin? As verse 17 says, absolutely not! What Paul meant here was that if he went back under the Old Testament law system, which was "destroyed," then he would really be a lawbreaker. All that law can do is prove to you that you are sick with sin and need a savior. It's like a CAT scan. A CAT scan could show you that you have cancer, but it can't fix it. When the law convinced Paul that he was a sinner, he stopped trying to be justified by the law.

20: When we trust in Christ, we are joined with Him. Because we are joined to Christ, we are joined with Him in His crucifixion. That is how He was able to be crucified FOR us. Christ is also joined with us. The old "me" no longer lives. The new "me" is joined with Christ and He works through us to help us live for God. As Christians, we are new people and Christ lives in us. Don't try and live for God using your own strength. You don't have to. Keep depending on God to help you live for Him. If we try to live for Christ using just OUR strength, we will fail.

20: "...the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." What is important to you about this phrase?

21: "Grace" means "undeserved goodness" or "free gift." We are saved not by our works, but as a free gift. If anyone thinks otherwise, he would be "setting aside the grace of God." What an insult it would be for us to turn down God's gift!

21: If we could be saved by obeying law, then why did Christ die?!? Jesus didn't WANT to be crucified! He only did it because there was NO OTHER WAY! Praise God that he loved us enough to go through with it!