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.

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.

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