Justification by Faith (IV)

Galatians 2:17-19

April 19, 1998

 

The great theme of justification by faith permeates the teaching of Scripture.  For throughout the Word of God we find sinful men trying in vain to attain righteousness through their own efforts.  God has shut all men up under sin, so that all men are held accountable to Him as sinners.  Even those who pursue righteousness through the works of the Law are still held accountable as sinners.  Why does God do this?  So that apart from the works of the Law, men might find refuge in the merits of Christ alone through faith in Him.  It is only by faith in Christ that we come to understand the great love and mercy of God in saving sinners wholly upon the basis of His grace, without any contribution by the sinner.

 

Paul has not shifted his theme in these verses.  He is still addressing the Galatians who have fallen prey to the ill-fated teaching of the Judaizers who told them that adherence to the Law must accompany their faith in Christ in order to be justified.  Now Paul builds his argument by using the attacks made upon his "grace alone, faith alone" teaching.  He proves that faith in Christ not only justifies the sinner but transforms his life.

 

How do we answer the charges of those who say faith in Christ alone by grace alone leads to greater sinfulness?

 

I.  A major conclusion

 

We have spent the past few weeks seeking to unpack verse sixteen, which is pivotal in understanding the entire Galatian epistle.  In this verse, the Apostle Paul states two basic truths three times over:  no one is justified by the works of the Law and it is only through faith in Christ Jesus that a person is justified.  He looks at it in general, then in specific, personal terms, and now in the latter part of the text, he views justification in review, drawing the sound conclusion that no one is justified by the works of the Law.  Just in case we are still confused about the matter, the Apostle tells us, "...and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified."

 

Why does Paul go to such great lengths to repeat this truth over and over?  I believe it is because of our natural propensity for trusting in ourselves and our own merit for our standing with God.  There is a battle raging today throughout the world in the heads and hearts of multitudes of people, who just will not accept the fact that they can do absolutely nothing to justify themselves before God!

 

1.  Universal statement

 

It is a universal statement:  "since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified."  Paul uses this term, "flesh," to describe the mass of humanity.  Timothy George points out that flesh "was the realm of human existence that was most vulnerable to the ravages of sin.  Flesh was not evil in itself since it was created by a good God, but in its fallen state it was subject to the debilitating forces of desire, decay, and death" [NAC, Galatians, 190].  Paul is saying that the flesh is not capable in any way of doing something to be justified.  After describing his pedigree in Judaism with all of his religious efforts, Paul wrote,

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith (Philippians 3:7-9).

Do you realize what Paul is stating?  He is saying that he looks at all of the great things that he did, everything that the most spiritual men of his day would have said was positive and beneficial, and Paul says it is just "rubbish."  Why is this so?  Because there is no power to justify residing within any person.  The great Reformer, Martin Luther, brought this out so clearly in his commentary on Galatians:

Flesh...according to Paul, signifieth all the righteousness, wisdom, devotion, religion, understanding and will, that is possible to be in a natural man:  so that if a man be never so righteous according to reason, and the law of God, yet with all this righteousness, works, merit, devotion, and religion, he is not justified [Commentary on Galatians, 74].

Is there anything to which you cling beside Jesus Christ and His saving work on the cross?  Then you are resting in a false hope.  You are in the middle of the ocean on an air raft with a fist-sized hole in it.  You think that you are afloat because of all the things you consider merit before God.  But your raft will not carry you in the ocean of God's judgments.  It is a universal statement, "since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified."

 

2.  Authoritative declaration

 

No flesh or no human being with all of his best abilities, can justify himself.  Not now, not in the past, and not ever!  "Since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified," Paul declares to us.  We need not limit our thinking on "works of the Law" to strictly viewing the Ten Commandments.  Here Paul uses the phrase, "works of the Law," to refer to the broad spectrum of commands upon which the Jews devoted their attention.  It includes the ceremonial expressions of the Law, the practice of circumcision, the holy days, the sacrifices.

 

Someone might argue, 'I don't even know all of those laws!  How can I possibly be trying to justify myself by things which I don't even understand?'  By way of application, let me express it like this:  anything which we do to gain approval with God which attempts to circumvent the necessity of the cross of Christ, falls within the range of the works of the Law, at least in terms of application.  Here is where people do all sorts of things in order to convince themselves that God is now obligated to them.  Some even go through great suffering or difficult ordeals in life with the view that because they have suffered so much in this life, God is now obligated to give them a right standing with Him in eternity.  I recall the jackets worn by a number of soldiers returning from Vietnam in the 70's, that declared, 'I've already gone to Hell, so now I can go to Heaven'.  The concept they had in mind was that their service in Vietnam accrued merit for them since it was such a horrible time of suffering, therefore they deserved to go to Heaven.

 

It seems in the media and among politicians that we have most people passing through tragedies assigned to Heaven by virtue of their sufferings.  It is a popular thought that if you have endured suffering in this life, then nothing more will be required of you beyond this life.  You have a "right" to Heaven by virtue of what you endured.  Such a view, however, denies the depths of one's own sinfulness and the degree of man's enmity against God.  It is a denial of the infinite righteousness and holiness of God.  It is actually a subtle form of idolatry.  For when a person sets his own wisdom above the declaration of God in the gospel, he is denying God and exalting himself as wiser than God.

 

So the conclusion we must see is that no one can be justified by anything which he has done.  Justification takes place only by faith and that through Christ's righteousness on the sinner's behalf and His satisfaction of God's requirements for sinners at the cross.  Such justification must be attributed completely to the grace of God.  But when you make a statement like this, there is immediate confusion on the part of those who are seeking to justify themselves through their own works of righteousness.  So Paul addresses this matter in the continuation of his arguments.

 

II. Confusion over grace

 

Grace is confusing to the natural mind.  It is so contrary to our human impulses and self-made security.  By grace we mean the work of God on the sinner's behalf, not due to anything merited by the sinner, but purely out of the love, mercy, and sovereign purpose of God.  Here we speak of the specific grace of God in saving sinners by the merits of Jesus Christ.  The sinner has nothing to offer God in exchange for righteousness.  He is completely helpless to improve his standing with God, so God Himself intervenes on the sinner's behalf.  He satisfies the demands of His righteousness through His Son and accepts the death of Christ in the place of the sinner being judged.  The sinner receives the 'alien righteousness' of Jesus Christ by faith,  a faith which is also a gift of God's grace (Ephesians 2:8-9).

 

1.  Christ cannot be a minister of sin

 

Paul explains that justification is applied to the sinner by his entering into a union with Jesus Christ by faith, for he speaks of "seeking to be justified in Christ," with the emphasis on "in Christ."  This phrase is common in Paul's epistles.  He means by being "in Christ," that the believer is now joined to Christ, he is in relationship to Christ by faith, so that all of the merits of Jesus Christ have become the believer's.  In this context, being "in Christ" is juxtaposed against being "in the Law."  It is in the sphere of relationship to Jesus Christ that sinners are declared righteous before God, never in the sphere of relationship to the Law.  The Law cannot justify nor make alive; it can only condemn lawbreakers.  In contrast, Jesus Christ can justify because of the sufficiency of His own righteousness in fulfilling the Law and through the propitiation (divine satisfaction) in His death.

 

Let us keep in mind Paul's emphasis on being "justified in Christ," for here he is also addressing the major problem we find in the Galatian epistle.  We recall that Paul illustrates the problem of what was happening in Galatia through a situation that arose in Antioch (in the Galatian region) with Peter.  Peter had trusted in Christ alone for his justification, but when certain Jews who came from Jerusalem arrived in Antioch, Peter's previous fellowship with Gentiles was broken off.  The Jewish-Christian visitors sneered at the very idea of "breaking the law" by a Jew having any fellowship with a Gentile.  So Peter withdrew, and in doing so, confused the truth of the gospel in Antioch (2:14).  Those who had been watching him were suddenly confused in thinking that the merits of Jesus Christ alone were not enough for their justification.  Now they got the impression, especially with the overbearing message of the Judaizers, that in order for a Gentile to be justified he had to totally conform to the Jewish ceremonial law.  They were left thinking, 'Christ is not enough'.

 

Here was the question of the Judaizers which they posed to the Gentile Christians in Galatia:  'How can you be justified if you are not keeping the ceremonial law?  The law says that God's people are not to have fellowship with the uncircumcised, so how can you claim to be justified if you are still a sinner and lawbreaker?'  Their idea of being a "sinner" was not breaking the moral laws prohibiting murder, adultery, and stealing, which we find in the Ten Commandments.  In this particular context, they had in mind the ceremonial laws of Judaism.  They wanted to require that Gentiles maintain the various laws that were distinctively Jewish in order to be justified.  So they were insisting that if you are justified only through faith in Christ, then Christ has become a minister of sin for all of those who do not keep the ceremonial laws.

 

This is where Paul's ire rises!  "But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin?  May it never be!"  The "we ourselves...also" points to fellow Jewish Christians.  Paul had been a stickler for keeping the ceremonial law as a means of justification.  But no longer!  He had entered into union with Jesus Christ by faith, so that all of the work of Christ was applied to his life and he was justified before God.  But he no longer continued to keep the ceremonial law as a means to justification.  He was considered a "sinner" by the Jews.  Now they were accusing Christ of being a "minister of sin."  Paul uttered his strongest prohibition:  "May it never be!"  This was his typical way of repudiating a wrong inference from a right premise.  Yes, we are justified in Christ; that is the correct premise.  The wrong inference is now corrected:  No, Christ does not become a minister of sin by no longer requiring adherence to the ceremonial law, for no one was ever justified by adherence to the law in the first place!  He points out that they have failed to understand that "since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified."  Therefore, these Judaizers are speaking about that which they do not understand.

 

Perhaps someone among us has fallen into this same trap.  You find the message of faith alone, by grace alone, in Christ alone to be repulsive!  You resist the whole idea that you can do nothing to contribute to your salvation.  You may not be thinking of circumcision or participation in various ceremonial rituals, but you nonetheless are adding some religious activity as a necessity for salvation.  Maybe it is your baptism or your church activity or some act of service which you think must be added to the work of Christ.  You are thinking, 'all of this teaching of Christ alone is just wrong; I must do my part too if I am to be justified'.  With Paul we declare, "May it never be!"  For the real sin is resting in the law for your salvation, for that puts the glory of justification in your own ability, rather than upon the grace of God.

 

2.  The real transgression is adhering to the Law for justification

 

This is what Paul has in mind in verse 18 when he wrote, "For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor."  To paraphrase it, Paul was writing, 'I lived with that mindset for many years.  I thought that all of my slavish adherence to the Law was going to justify me before God.  But then, in a flash, I saw that all of this was to no avail, that none of my works of righteousness would add to my standing with God.  So the whole system that I tenaciously clung to, I tore down the moment I came to rest my faith in Jesus Christ and His sufficiency.  The biggest mistake I could make, yes, the biggest transgression, would be for me to go right back to the very thing that I tore down when I entered into union with Jesus Christ.  You are calling Christ 'a minister of sin' because faith in Him demands that you no longer trust the Law for your justification.  No, you who are trying to go back to that same dead pattern of legalism are the real lawbreakers.  That is because adherence to the Law never saved the first person.  Why would you return to trust in something that cannot save?'

 

The most miserable person in the world is that one who has understood the grace of God in Christ, embraced Jesus Christ by faith, then along the course has begun to question if Jesus Christ is really sufficient for his justification before God.  He inches back toward 'doing, doing, doing' as a means of satisfying the demands of God.  He becomes a legalist inwardly and often, outwardly, by his persistence on following certain principles and practices to gain a little more merit with God.  Paul's whole message to the Galatians is that Jesus Christ is sufficient for your justification and He is sufficient alone, without any addition on your part.

 

Let me stop to point out something of great importance along this vein.  When we teach that a person is not saved by the works of the Law and that you cannot add anything to the sufficiency of Christ, the immediate reaction by some is that we are giving way to antinomianism.  That is, if we cannot add to our justification by our own obedience to the Law, if salvation is only by grace, then that means I can forget obedience and do whatever I want to do.  I have no responsibility or capability to save myself, so I need not give any thought to obedience.

 

Quite frankly, many Baptists have fallen into this trap, especially with the emphasis on "once saved, always saved."  How often I have heard someone who is living in great disobedience to God and with indifference to the commands of God, say, 'I was saved when I was 8 years old, so it really doesn't matter what I do, because once saved, always saved'.  This becomes the excuse and even a license to sin against God without any fear or godly concern.

 

Paul's next statement actually corrects this false idea.  He corrects the mentality that my works add to Christ's work for merit and he corrects the idea that being justified has no real bearing on my actual behavior.  I realize we are dealing with extremes at this point.  On one hand we have legalism and on the other we have antinomianism.  So what is the answer?

 

III. Justification's natural course

 

We agree together that we are justified only by the work of Christ on our behalf.  We receive the application of this work by faith, so that we stand righteous before God through the alien righteousness of Another, Jesus Christ.  When we view righteousness or justification in simply its barest forensic or legal language, we face the danger of removing it from its life-giving power.  Paul explains a two-fold dynamic that occurs when we are justified by faith in Christ.  This dynamic affects the whole of your life.  John Stott summarizes it clearly:

Justification is not a legal fiction, in which a man's status is changed while his character is left untouched....Our justification takes place when we are united to Christ by faith.  And someone who is united to Christ is never the same person again.  Instead, he is changed.  It is not just his standing before God which has changed; it is he himself--radically, permanently changed.  To talk of his going back to the old life [here, the life of legalism], and even sinning as he pleases [here, antinomianism], is frankly impossible.  He has become a new creation and begun a new life [The Message of Galatians:  Bible Speaks Today Series, 65].

1.  You have died to the Law

 

What does the Law do?  Does it save or even have the power to save?  By the Law comes the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20).  As Paul wrote to the Romans, "I would not have come to know sin except through the Law" (Romans 7:7).  The Law exposes the reality of our spiritual condition and enmity with God.  We think that we are in fine condition before God, that is until the Law comes to us and exposes our hearts.  "And I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive, and I died" (Romans 7:9).  The Law is wonderful for anyone who is able to keep all that it demands.  But for lawbreakers or transgressors, like all of us, the Law condemns us.  "Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law, to perform them" (Galatians 3:10).

 

So does the Law give life to us?  Absolutely not!  It kills us!  Actually, it is our sin that is the bigger problem rather than the Law, nevertheless, we would not know the problem of our sin if it was not for the Law.  Once we come to understand our enmity with God and our condition as sinners, then we begin to seek refuge in Jesus Christ alone from divine condemnation.  This is what Paul meant when he wrote, "For through the Law I died to the Law."  It is really a two-fold statement.

 

On the one hand, the Law condemned me as soon as my eyes were opened to understand its demands.  "Through the Law I died to the Law," i.e., it condemned me and " I died" (Romans 7:9-11).  It gave me no option for life.  It had no power to change me or justify me.  The Law was powerless to effect change in me because I had no power to obey its demands.

 

On the other hand, I died to the Law by being redeemed from the curse of the Law through the death of Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:13).  By my union with Christ in His death, I died to the Law's demands and to its curse.  The Law requires death for transgressors, so Jesus Christ died in my place before the demands of the Law.  What the Law required, He fulfilled for me.  Because I am in union with Christ through faith, then "I died to the Law; I have been crucified with Christ."

 

What a wonderful truth to dwell upon!  This is why we are no longer under condemnation (Romans 8:1).  All of the condemning and killing and cursing power of the Law toward us has been removed by the death of Christ.  His death was fully applied to us, so that when we trust in Jesus Christ, we enter into union with Him in His death and resurrection.  It was just as if you yourself died to the demands of the Law through the death of Christ.  But that is only one part of the matter.  That is the negative removed.  But we are not justified so that we might live in limbo until Jesus returns.  Paul explains by the next clause in verse nineteen.

 

2.  You are living unto God

 

There is a reason for dying to the Law and its demands; it is so "that I might live to God."  The little relative pronoun in the Greek, "that," is better translated here, "in order that."  For if I am constantly living under the condemnation of the Law, then I will be spending my time trying to do something to justify myself.  But if I am dead to the Law through the death of Christ, then now I can focus all of my energies upon living unto God through Christ.  Even more so, I have been given a new life in order to live unto God.   While we will consider more of this in our study of the next two verses in Galatians 2, it is vital that we see the connection that the Apostle is making in this passage.

 

Paul eliminates the argument that justification by faith alone through grace alone breeds antinomianism.  This has been the charge of legalists, cult groups, and false teaching for centuries.  They complain that if we are saved by grace through faith in Christ and that alone without any addition on our part, then we have a license to sin.  Paul deals with this same issue in Romans six and asks the question, "What shall we say then?  Are we continue in sin that grace might increase?  May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" (Romans 6:1-2).  Paul is explaining that justification immediately begins sanctification in our lives.  With great delight he tells us, "I have been crucified with Christ; and 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 delivered Himself up for me."  Justification not only addresses your legal standing with God, but as you are in union with Christ, you are practically affected.  The whole bent and direction of your life is changed because you have been justified by faith alone.  Your life is never the same.  Every part of your life begins to feel the effects of being in union with Christ in His death and resurrection, and yes, His indwelling.

 

Conclusion

 

"We may or may not like imagery with forensic associations.  But the heart of the Christian gospel is that, while no works of our hands will avail to make us acceptable before God, we are acceptable if we come in faith on the grounds of God's own action in Christ" [Leon Morris, Galatians, 287].  Here is the wonder of grace; that God accepts us, not on the basis of what we have done, but on the basis of what Jesus Christ has done on our behalf.  It is His righteousness, a righteousness alien to us as sinners, which God makes available to us by faith in Christ.

 

Have you been going about seeking to establish your own righteousness in hope of giving yourself a right standing with God?  We have seen the clear declaration of God's Word that we have nothing to offer God which can in any way justify us before Him.  But God has provided His own satisfaction for His justice and the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ for you.  By faith and faith alone you can lay hold of what God in Christ has accomplished for sinners.  Will you who still stand under the wrath of God today, will you find an eternal refuge in Jesus Christ?  Leave aside your self-trust and your own claims to righteousness.  Cast them upon the rubbish-heap, knowing that nothing you do can save you.  And cast yourself upon Jesus Christ as your only claim to righteousness before God.  He is more than ready to save all who will come to Him in faith, turning from sin, and trusting in Him alone.

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