Peter the Racist and Ongoing Sin

No room for you!

This past Wednesday, at the LCBC Small Group in San Francisco, we looked at Acts 10 and the conversion of Cornelius. What is interesting about this passage of Scripture, and perhaps often overlooked, is that fact that Peter here is prejudiced against Gentiles. After meeting Cornelius for the first time, Peter says this:

"You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean." - Acts 10:28 (ESV)

Peter seemed to learn from this episode that it was OK to associate with Gentiles, but he still had some other issues to work out:

"But when Cephas [Peter] came to Antioch, I [Paul] opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles, but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, 'If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?'" - Galatians 2:11-14 (ESV)

See, according to my new and fabulous ESV Study Bible, the episode in Acts takes place five to eight years after the resurrection of Jesus. So for many years as a redeemed child of God, Peter lived his life under the false tradition that Jews shouldn't be associating with Gentiles. Yet even after he learned his lesson, he still had some false ideas about eating with Jews and Gentiles together, as evidenced with his confrontation with Paul. Assuming this confrontation is what led to the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, this was about sixteen to nineteen years after the resurrection of Jesus! Apparently, Peter had some continuing sin issues regarding Gentiles such that, he either wasn't associating with them, or treating them like second-class citizens (only when certain people were around, of course).

What a bad attitude!

In reflecting on these things, it occurred to me that Peter, as the preeminent and lead Apostle of Christ in Jerusalem, had some serious, ongoing sin issues. And yet, he was a blood-bought child of the living God, a man who was even restored back to faith by Jesus himself (cf John 21)!

As a blood-bought, redeemed, adopted, and saved child of God, I must keep this in clear view: while the battle against sin is difficult, I must not be surprised if it takes me years to overcome certain sinful attitudes. Peter was the kind of guy who's mistakes and sins were fairly public, and I can certainly relate to that. Anyone who cares to examine my life will see all sorts of things that I'm not particularly proud of. There is one thing I am sure of, though: that Christ has started a good work in me, and he is faithful to complete that good work. Christ is the one who works and wills in me, so I might work out my salvation in fear and trembling. Christ has saved me by his grace, gifting me with faith, so that I might do the good works I was created to do.

While I dread my ongoing sin, and groan in this body of death every day, bemoaning my inability to do and think the things I ought to be doing and thinking, I am reminded of the gospel of Christ, which has saved me from the wrath of God. If God so loved me, that he would save a sinner like me and draw me unto himself by means of slaughtering his only begotten Son, then is he not strong enough to also cleanse me from my unrighteousness in the present age? Surely he is.

Even my current, ongoing sin is purposed by God to change me into the image of his Son (cf Romans 8:28, 29). As I am disciplined, I become more like Jesus. As I am rebuked and corrected, become more like Jesus. As I endure trials and tribulations, which more often than not reveal the hidden things of my heart, I become more like Jesus. I learn humility, patience, long-suffering, kindness, understanding, sympathy, empathy, love, sacrifice, selflessness, faithfulness, and endurance.

Dear Christian, we are sinners until the day we are resurrected from the dead. Our spirit may be born-again in the present age, but we are incomplete until we are united with our resurrection bodies. Until such a time, we must contend with sin, which will always be festering in us. As it took Peter many, many years to fully realize the sin issue in his own heart, so it may take many, many years before the Lord sees fit to show us the way out of our particular, ongoing sin.

And even then, our freedom from sin won't be final until we see Christ face to face in joy and gladness.

"Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin." - Romans 7:24, 25 (ESV)