The hypocrisy of making others keep God's laws

"For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. 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. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain." Gal 2:19-21

These are words that Paul spoke to Peter, who was being a hypocrite. What was Peter's hypocrisy? Was he caught in some big sin? Was it that he had broken some laws? No! Peter's hypocrisy was that he was living like a Gentile (living without regard to God's laws - which Paul was perfectly fine with)... but yet he was compelling Gentiles (those who never had the law in the first place) to live like Jews (making them keep God's laws)!

So Paul "withstood him to his face," because the very gospel message that Paul was proclaiming was that "I died to the law that I might live to God." "If all of this was about keeping God's laws," says Paul (in my own words), "then Christ died for nothing! We don't live by God's laws, we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us, and in fact lives in us!"

No one can bear the yoke of the law

The words of Peter to some Jewish apostles and elders:

"So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them (Gentiles) by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us (Jews), and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they." Acts 15:8-11

Peter was reminding them that "neither our fathers nor we were able to bear" the law! So why should they put such a yoke on the Gentile believers (non-Jews), when even the Jews couldn't keep the law! The good news of the gospel is the same for everyone, regardless of their background: Salvation by grace through faith. (Eph 2:8-9)

God's Law vs. Christ

God's law, in and of itself, isn't "bad." It's good and just and holy (Romans 7:12). That's not "bad." :) The problem with it is that it's static. It has no vitality. It can only make demands, but it has no power to produce in a person what it demands. The law is not supernatural. Just like the stones that it was engraved upon, the law is non-living. It never had life. It was never alive, nor a giver of life.

Contrast this with what we have in Christ, through whom the law was nullified and made void. Christ's life in us is a supernatural life. Christ doesn't demand, but rather animates us in ways that the law could never do. Christ Himself is our vitality. Christ Himself is our life. Christ Himself has given us His life and is alive in us. This is just the tip of the iceberg in the understanding that we are dead to the law and alive to God in Christ!