ETS ACADEMY · LESSON 2

Week 2: Live from your identity in Christ

Teaching points

Read the conflict behind the statement: Galatians 2 includes a dispute about table fellowship and conduct consistent with the gospel. Paul confronts behavior that separates people and places pressure on Gentile believers. Read verses 11–14 before focusing on verses 19–21. The discussion of being justified through faith in Christ is not detached from everyday relationships. What people believe about acceptance before God affects whom they welcome and how they behave.
Locate confidence in Christ: Paul’s account of life with Christ challenges the effort to establish righteousness through keeping the law. In this course, justification means being put right with God; it should not be confused with pretending that a person has never done wrong. Paul locates his confidence in Christ’s self-giving love. The practical question is not whether effort matters anywhere in life, but whether effort can purchase the acceptance that Paul attributes to Christ.
Practice a changed identity: Being crucified with Christ does not mean that personality, grief, responsibility, or ordinary human needs disappear. Paul still speaks of living. His life is now oriented around Christ rather than self-made righteousness. A participant may continue to struggle and still need patient formation. Replace the boast “I am better than them” with a concrete practice of welcome. Replace “I failed, so I can never return” with confession, repair where needed, and a return to trust.
Practice lab: A respected volunteer refuses to sit with a new believer whose past is widely known. The volunteer says, “I worked too hard for my reputation.” In groups of three, identify the gospel issue, the harm, and a response that welcomes the new believer without excusing harmful behavior.
Worked example: A possible response: “We need to make room at the table. Let us address any actual safety or conduct concern directly and fairly, without reducing a person to their past.”

Read in Scripture

Galatians 2:11–21

Reflect

What does the surrounding conflict reveal about the stakes of Paul’s teaching?
Complete two sentences: I seek approval by… Christ’s self-giving love challenges that because…
Name one act of welcome or repair that follows from this passage.
Where does useful discipline become an attempt to prove superiority?
How can identity in Christ encourage responsibility after failure?
Why read Galatians 2:11–14 before 19–21?
Does life in Christ remove the need to admit and repair wrongdoing?
What is one sign that a group is treating acceptance as earned status?

Put it into practice

Notice one moment when you compare your spiritual reputation with someone else’s. Write the thought privately. Choose a concrete act of humility or welcome. Report the action rather than another person’s private history.
Choose an action, deadline, and accountability partner. Save your responses in your journal.

Framework supplied by Mareneo “Reno” Flournoy. Expanded teaching and exercises prepared with AI assistance for Jesus Generation Movement. Sources and credits →