47 PLEASING GOD PLEASING PEOPLE ? OR indirect, but Paul perceives the implications of Peter’s behavior. Paul understands that people are to live before God in the same manner as that by which they are justified: if they are justified by the law, they are to live life according to the law; and if they are justified by faith, to live by faith. Peter’s claim, then, to live before God by means of the law is an implicit claim to justification by means of the law, and this constitutes a denial of the gospel. To follow Paul’s argument in 2,15-21 more fully is the subject of another essay 55. The point here is that the gospel was in jeopardy, and by citing witnesses to the conversation in Antioch in which he defends the gospel, Paul is again offering evidence to the Galatians that he did not change his message 56. Has Paul in only two pericopes adequately shown that he did not change the gospel after receiving it from God? The two events offer multiple witnesses to testify that Paul openly defended the gospel in both Jewish and Gentile territory. That some of the witnesses in Judea overlap with those at the Jerusalem Council and that some at the Jerusalem Council heard Paul in Antioch lend continuity to Paul’s proof and make it difficult for anyone to accuse him of corrupting the gospel between events. * * * A major obstacle to understanding Gal 1,13–2,21 is that a writer may use a particular story to illustrate any one of a number of points. Paul’s thesis in 1,6-12 and his direct statements within his narratives, however, guide the reader in discerning his purpose and It is sufficient here just to add that the argument itself does not validate 55 the gospel. The statement in 2,16 — that justification is by faith and not by works of the law — is a belief Paul holds in common with Peter, not one he proves to him. Paul summarizes the gospel in 2,16 and simply draws implications from it in the rest of the passage. Some scholars assume that Paul lost the argument with Peter because 56 Pa u l does not state Peter’s response, e.g., DUNN, G a l a t i a n s , 130; LONGENECKER, Galatians, 79; MARTYN, Galatians, 153. After all, if Peter backed down, would this not add weight to Paul’s argument? To ask the question is to forget Paul’s purpose in 1,6-12. He is not interested in developing human backing for his gospel, but in showing that the message he preached is the one the Lord taught him.