It’s not about what we do but what has been done by another

The ever present temptation to think of ourselves as secure before God because of religious heritage or by what we do is corrected in this passage. The classic example is that of the Jews. They regarded themselves as God’s people because they had the Law and were obedient to it. They also looked down on non-Jews as sinners because they didn’t have God’s law and did not therefore obey it. The Jews, however, didn’t understand that they were sinners too.

This situation was highlighted in the incident which occurred in the early church at Antioch when Jews, who had become justified by faith in Christ, separated themselves from the Gentile believers. This was a denial of the gospel. The gospel places every believer on the same level before God, both Jew and non-Jew. The Jews had made the mistake of trying to be justified by keeping the law. The apostle Paul rebukes this divisive tendency by emphasizing that the only way anyone can be justified before God is by trusting in what Jesus has accomplished for us at the cross.