Several years ago, my wife and I saw the romantic drama, The Vow, which stars Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams. The movie begins with a young couple, Leo and Paige, driving home from the movie theatre. At a stop sign, Paige unbuckles her seat belt to lean over and give Leo a kiss. Then, out of nowhere, a truck slams into their car, sending Paige through the windshield.

As the couple is rushed to the emergency room, Leo narrates the following words: “My theory is about moments. Moments of impact. My theory is that these moments of impact, these flashes of high intensity that completely turn our lives upside down, end up defining who we are.”

Peter’s Moment of Impact

Galatians 2 tells us of a “moment of impact” experienced by the Apostle Peter that ultimately defined who he was. But we won’t understand how impactful this moment was without first turning to an earlier “moment of impact” he experienced in Acts 10. The story begins with God giving a vision to Cornelius, a God-fearing centurion. In the vision, God tells Cornelius to send some of his men to Joppa to bring back Peter, so he does.

The next day, Peter is hungry and while waiting for his lunch, he goes up to the housetop and falls into a trance. He has a vision of a big blanket coming down from heaven containing various types of unclean animals. A voice then tells him to get up, kill, and eat (v.13). But Peter refuses because he’s a Jew, and Jews have strict dietary laws.

The voice tells Peter not to call unclean what God has made clean. Peter is confused by the vision, but before he gets his bearings, Cornelius’s men show up to take him to Caesarea. A few days later, when Peter and the men arrive in Caesarea, Cornelius greets them. Peter responds, “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. So when I was sent for, I came without objection” (Acts 10:28–29). Moment of impact.

Later in Acts 10, Peter opens his sermon to Cornelius and all his household by saying that God shows no national partiality with regard to salvation. The gospel, Peter now understands, is for everyone—Jew and Gentile. But when we read about his behavior toward Gentiles elsewhere in Scripture, we may wonder, Did he really understand this truth, or did he simply forget? It is, in all likelihood, the latter.

Gospel Amnesia

We all, without exception, exercise the tendency to forget the gospel. We all experience, to use Paul Tripp's coined phrase, “gospel amnesia.” Galatians 2:11–14 reveals that Peter suffered from a massive case of it. In this passage, Peter is eating with some Gentiles. All is well until the Judaizers show up. Once they do, Peter separates himself from his Gentile friends as if he doesn’t even know them. Sadly, all the Jews who are with Peter do the same.

Several things stand out to me about this situation: fear, hypocrisy, control, and the need for approval. Out of fear, Peter separates himself from the Gentiles. Paul considers this an act of hypocrisy, especially when recalling Peter’s “moment of impact” in Acts 10. By separating himself from the Gentiles and aligning with the Judaizers, Peter is trying to control the situation. However, the situation is ultimately controlling him by exposing his desperate need for approval. Peter is experiencing the fruits of a deeply rooted problem: gospel amnesia.

We get gospel amnesia when we forget what God has done for us in the person and work of Christ. It happens when we look to other things to give us what only the gospel can offer. I’m guilty of this, and I know you are too. We all are. Gospel amnesia is a symptom of the truth that we each have the tendency to believe too little. Being a gospel amnesiac will lead us to search for security, significance, approval, affirmation, acceptance, hope, and love somewhere other than God. And that is most unfortunate because, as Winnie the Pooh once said, “Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.”

This is what happened to Peter, and it manifested in fear, hypocrisy, control, and the need for approval. And do you know what? The same things happen to us; we’re not exempt. Because of our gospel amnesia, we need, like Peter, some gospel realignment.

Gospel Realignment

Gospel realignment happens when every part of us—our hopes, dreams, desires, and affections—is brought in line with the gospel. Paul told Peter he was out of step with the gospel (Gal. 2:14); his life needed gospel realignment.

The gospel is this straight line that runs through every area of life. It’s the straight line that exposes our crookedness. But we don’t like being exposed, and like Adam and Eve, we sew fig leaves together to cover the things we don’t want others to see. That’s called control. We control to preserve our misplaced sense of self-righteousness.

Like Peter, we will maintain racial and ethnic pride because we think our people and tribe are better than those over there, we will act like hypocrites so people will like us, and we will say and do things we would never think possible out of fear of losing others’ approval. This is control.

But when the gospel realigns us, it wrestles control from our hands. And it’s not because God is a control freak but because we are. Since the gospel has implications for every area of our lives, no area is untouched by realignment. When the gospel realigns us, we will feel less prone to try and control situations. We can lose the fig leaves of hiding and hypocrisy and be honest. We can stop living for approval and start living from it.

The Result of Remembering

Gospel amnesia demands gospel realignment, but gospel realignment is a result of remembering. Peter suffered from gospel amnesia, Paul realigned him with the gospel, then he went a step further and reminded him of his gospel freedom. In essence, Paul told his fellow apostle, “Peter, stop trying to justify yourself through racial and ethnic pride and the approval of others. You have already been justified by faith in Jesus Christ.”

Justification comes from the courtroom—it’s legal language. It appears that Peter tried to justify himself in the court of public opinion, and Paul had to remind him that this is just another form of salvation by works (Gal. 2:15–16). Talk about a “moment of impact.” This was the reminder Peter needed—and the one we need as well.

We can stop trying to justify ourselves before others, we can stop living for approval, we can stop the exhausting attempts of trying to manage outcomes, and we can stop living out of fear. The quest to acquire significance and security can come to an end because it came to an end in Christ. In Christ and Christ alone, we have everything we need that pertains to life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3).

In Christ, we are on the receiving end of everything good, righteous, and holy. When we remember that, we recall the greatest “moment of impact” we ever encountered, namely Christ and his life-transforming message. May this propel us to live a faithful and fearless life that expresses itself in following the Lamb wherever he goes (Rev. 14:4).