Galatians 2:15 Commentary and Bible Study

Paul continues to address Peter and includes them both – ‘we who are Jews by nature’ – emphasising his right to comment on this subject. But why does he use the term ‘sinners of the Gentiles’? It is not his normal way of speaking about the Gentiles; not that he would deny that the Gentiles were sinners, but he does not normally so speak as to encourage Jews to think of themselves as superior. Elsewhere he writes ‘there is no difference: for all have sinned’, but this deliberately prejudiced expression is part of Paul’s argument. What he is doing is adopting the standard phraseology of the Jew with regard to the Gentiles. In turning to Christ, the Jew is called to give up something that he has long thought was of great value. Surely he is part of a nation that is set apart by God as clean from the nations and their practices (Exodus 19:3-6; Deuteronomy 18:9). God’s own assessment of the nations cannot be wrong. Therefore how can a Jew be willing to give up so great an advantage, and reduce himself to the level of those who have nothing and are unclean in the sight of God? Who would willingly lose so much? This was the consideration which occupied the minds of the Jew who was about to abandon his reliance on the law and turn to Christ. But the reason why the Jew was called to give up all these supposed advantages in coming to Christ was because he must see himself as no better than any other man, even a Gentile. While he regarded his Jewish distinctives as giving him a real advantage above any other man, he could not come to Christ. Certainly the Gentiles were sinners; the mistake was that the Jew thought himself to be better than them. What Peter had understood was that he was no different and he lost nothing by seeing himself as he really was: a lost sinner in need of grace just as any Gentile. This was a calculation which Peter had already made and which had not deterred him from going to Christ, for he had abandoned all supposed Jewish advantages in order to serve his Lord in the gospel.