The truth of the gospel
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” —Galatians 2:20
The apostle Paul and the apostle Peter are having a Sabbath potluck at one of the house churches of the city of Antioch. They are enjoying the delights of Christian fellowship at the multi-ethnic church of Antioch — Jews and Gentiles worshiping and working together, marveling at the Spirit-led growth of the early church.
At the following month’s Sabbath potluck, Paul notices that Peter, his good friend Barnabas, and the Jewish Christians are absent. He discovers members of the Jerusalem church have arrived at Antioch and are insisting to their fellow Jewish believers that they stop having table fellowship with the Gentile members. “You can’t eat with these uncircumcised Gentiles; that could lead to ritual impurity and the loss of our Jewish identity. Don’t you realize open fellowship of Jews and Gentiles could place our messianic movement in conflict with Judaism, threatening our institutions, traditions, and laws? So please, stop hanging out with these uncircumcised Gentiles!”
Paul is stunned and frustrated by this hypocrisy on the part of Peter and his associates; he confronts them in front of the congregation and says, “You are not walking consistently with the truth of the gospel” (Galatians 2:14). For Paul, the truth of the gospel concerns the redemptive work of God to create a worldwide community of believers from all nations who join the people of God solely on the basis of faith in Christ alone. And the new life of believers, inaugurated by the death and resurrection of Jesus, is one in which they have been “crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). This new life involves “being caught up into God’s transformation of the world in such a way that the very core of the self is claimed and transmuted by the power of the living God . . . Paul finds himself proclaiming the message of God’s love and embodying that message by sitting at one table with those whose way of life he once counted unclean” (Richard Hays, “The Letter to the Galatians.” In The New Interpreter’s Bible, 247).
This story of the church at Antioch reminds us that the truth of the gospel must be embodied in our social practices. Whenever we erect any kind of barriers that separate people along racial or cultural lines; whenever we forget the unity of the one church and instead articulate a notion of two “separate but equal” communities; whenever we withdraw into privileged enclaves for our meals and worship; whenever we forget that Jesus shocked the religious leaders by having table fellowship with sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes, we are not walking consistently with the truth of the gospel (Ibid, 248).
When I joined Loma Linda University’s School of Religion many years ago, I was struck by two things: the health science nature of the university as evidenced by the countless students and faculty walking the campus in scrubs. And the incredible ethnic and cultural diversity of the campus; walking through the campus and visiting the various schools felt like a United Nations experience for me. Our graduation Commencement services highlight this remarkable diversity by having student body representatives place the flags of their home country on the platform.
In a very real sense, the LLU community is a powerful expression of a worldwide community of believers that enacts the truth of the gospel through its Christian, faith-based education to health science students, its social practices of fellowship among an ethnically and culturally diverse community, and its compassionate Christ-like service to all. May God continue to empower and bless LLU as it seeks to actualize the truth of the gospel by “extending the teaching and healing ministry of Jesus” to the nations of the world.
—Leo Ranzolin, ThD, is dean of the School of Religion.
