May I please the Lords to bless
us together this evening as we continue our meditation in the
Epistles of Paul to the Galatians, the second chapter. And this
evening we'll just read verses 17 and 18. Galatians chapter
two, verses 17 and 18. But if while we seek to be justified
by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, Is therefore
Christ the minister of sin? God forbid, for if I build again
the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. It's obvious to us that in this
chapter the Apostle Paul is so concerned to convince the Gentiles
that the blessing of God was justification by faith and not
at works. And he was endeavouring to correct
the error that the Apostle Peter had brought to them by indicating
that they should carry out still the ceremonial law. And as we
see the way that the Apostle Paul continues to hammer this
home, we can think perhaps of a natural illustration of hammering
a nail into a wall or into a piece of timber and generally speaking
it has to be hit a number of times to actually make sure it
goes home. And so it would seem the Apostle
Paul here in slightly different ways continues to hammer home
this great truth so there's no ambiguity about it and that there
may be that true realization that this is the work of God
and it's not by works, it's by the grace of God, it's by his
justification. And so the Apostle commences
in this verse by saying, if while we seek to be justified by Christ,
we ourselves also are found sinners. And what it would appear he's
referring to here is the Jews, as you know he was addressing
the Jews really, were concerned and believed that they were just
and that the Gentiles were sinners. And the Gentiles were sinners
because they did not keep the law of God, they did not consider
it relevant. And therefore he is speaking
here about those who perhaps thought that they were following
the way of the Gentiles and as such were sinners. Well, of course,
we know that we're all sinners, but the realization was that
they were not following the Gentile way without seeking unto the
Lord Jesus, but they were also forsaking or were not following
that way of the Jews. And that's what the Jews thought
they should do, and therefore they consider them to be sinners. And so the Apostle says, but
if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also
are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? Well, God forbid. Of course,
God is not the minister of sin. He was directing them. away from
the old law, the old law of Moses, which said, do this and live. And of course no one, no one
Not even the best Jew was able to keep the holy law of God both
in the totality of the moral law and also the ceremonial law. There was no perfection. No one
was able to keep it. So therefore the Jews were under
a disillusion that they were keeping that which in fact they
were not keeping. And so the Apostle now comes
and directs the Church of God to the great truth that it is
justified by the righteousness of Christ. No other way. No other way. The Apostle really
emphasizes this when he addresses the church at Rome, and in the
second chapter he says, Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest
in the law, and makest thy boast of God. and knowest his will, and approvest
the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the law,
and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light
of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish,
a teacher of babes, which has the form of knowledge and of
the truth in the law. Thou, therefore, which teachest
another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest, a man should
not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest, a man should
not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that has
that of boorish idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest
a boast of the law, through breaking the law, dishonorest thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed
among the Gentiles through you as it is written. And so we see
there the Apostle there is directing the Jews to what they believed
was that saving knowledge to be able to keep the law and yet
obviously they were not keeping the law. they were failing. And
so today as we see the law of God, which is of course a righteous
law and a good law, but of course we cannot keep it. And of course
the ceremonial law is now done away with. All those sacrifices,
day by day, week by week, are done away with. No need for them,
because we have that great sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the Apostle says, is therefore
Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. No, the Lord doesn't
direct us in a sinful way. He directs us in a righteous
way. And that way, of course, is to
look to the Saviour. for salvation, to look for the
Saviour for righteousness, and not look to ourselves, not depend
on our own strength, on our own works, which of course, everything
that we try and do has sin in it. Nothing is pure, and the
law demands pureness. Well, we're thankful that the
Lord Jesus Christ did keep the law, and he made it honourable.
He kept it perfectly, and he kept it perfectly on behalf of
his church, his people, both Jew and Gentiles. And so we realise
that to the Gentiles the law was really irrelevant. But what
a blessing when the Holy Spirit came and spoke to their hearts. For if I build again the things
which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. So the Apostle
Paul was building, doing those things which were right in the
New Testament form and leaving behind those things of the Old
Testament and really destroying all those ceremonies which of
course had been done away in Christ. They were so needful
in the Old Testament and what did they do? They directed the
sinner to Christ. But there was no salvation in
those things themselves. Salvation was in Christ and therefore
the Jews needed to look beyond those outward ceremonies to be
able to observe the great truth which was, as it were, hidden
in those ceremonies. And the Apostle, when he was
speaking to the Church of God, when he wrote to the Ephesians,
he also encouraged them, and relevant it is to the Galatians
and also to us today, when he said, for he is our peace. So there's no peace in just trying
to keep the law, because we fail. We'll never find peace in trying
to justify ourself. For he is our peace, who hath
made both one and has broken down middle wall of partition
between us having abolished in his flesh the enmity even the
law of commandments contained in ordinances for to make in
himself of twain one new man so making peace and that he might
reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross having slain
the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you, which
were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we
both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." He's speaking
there, you see, to the Gentiles who were afar off and to the
Jews who were nigh, but unless they had faith to observe the
Saviour, there was no life and no saving knowledge in those
ceremonies which were carried out. So here we read, for if
I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a
transgressor. Well, the Apostle was not building
again those things which he had destroyed, but he was building
And he was building and directing the Church of God, both Jew and
Gentile, to the great need there was to be justified. And the only way to be justified
was to receive the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, to
have faith in their God, in the great God, the one who had obeyed
the law so completely. And so the Apostle indeed was
not destroying, the things which he had brought before them. But
he was pointing out the reality and the great blessing there
was of being a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, the
Mosaic law was swept away, being replaced by Christ's work. And especially as we think of
the high priest who went into the holiest of all, on that wonderful
day of atonement, to atone for the sins of the people, and how,
no doubt, they looked forward to that day. And yet, you see,
there was no perfection in it. But Christ, oh, my friends, the
blessed Saviour, He died that sin-atoning death in all its
perfection. And therefore, there was no need,
no need at all, for that ceremonial law, which of course the Jews
were clinging to. What were they doing? They were
clinging to their works. They didn't want to dispense
with them. They didn't realise that it was
by grace. They didn't realise that it was
the New Testament of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And they
were clinging to the works of the flesh. Well, what a blessing
if we receive that faith. And it is God-given faith to
believe the glorious simplicity of the Gospel, and the wonderful
words which are in the Gospel, so that we can come to the Lord
Jesus Christ. You think of the ceremonial law,
how the high priest had to be so careful to carry everything
out in accordance with those laws which Moses received from
God, completely and accurately. And now you and I today can come
to our God through the Lord Jesus Christ in whatever state we're
in, however bad we are, however sinful we are, because we know
the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. The Old Testament,
those ceremonies, there was the blood of bulls and of goats,
which could never take away sin. But my friends, today, the blood
of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin. And so may we realise
what the Apostle Paul is directing us to. And as he wrote to the
Romans in the 7th chapter, he said, what shall we say then?
Is the law sin? God forbid, nay, I had not known
sin, but by the law, for I had not known lust, except the Lord
said, thou shalt not covet. But sin, taken occasion by the
commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence, for
without the law, sin was dead. For I was alive without the law
once, but when the commandment came, Sin revived and I died,
and the commandment which was ordained to life I found to be
unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the
commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the
law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just and good." See,
there's nothing wrong with the law but you see we could not
keep the law and the law slays us and we are found therefore
sinners before a righteous god and we cannot redeem ourselves
but what a wonderful thing is that we have a great and glorious
redeemer the lord jesus christ it's a wonderful gospel isn't
it What a wonderful privilege it is for us today to have the
revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And especially as we
come to this Easter time, to think that it was through his
crucifixion, died to pay the price for our sins, but he rose
again, a conqueror over sin, death, hell, and the grave. So should we not therefore be
so thankful of this great truth? Because if we are to be justified
by faith in Christ, we must abandon all reliance on the law. The
whole Mosaic passage in its entirety was a covenant of works between
God and man. Man, however, is incapable of
keeping the covenant there by praising God. We need to receive
that gift of faith, to believe the great truth and know what
it is to receive that justification. Justification by Christ destroys
the law both by fulfilling it and by replacing the law. And the law retains one function,
namely to bring sinners to the knowledge of their sin and direct
them to Christ. And so we may ask ourselves the
question, has the law of God, the holy law of God, the righteous
law of God, condemned us so that we stand guilty before God and
has directed us to none other than the Lord Jesus Christ for
salvation? And may we know then the blessed
deliverance, the deliverance that we receive through knowing
that we are justified through his righteousness, that he did
all that was required by the holy law of God. He satisfied
it. He finished the work his father
gave him to do. And through that wonderful righteousness,
we are just. justified. What a wonderful thing. We could never justify ourself,
but may we understand and believe the glorious truth of the gospel.
Remember that all that come unto the Lord Jesus Christ in all
sincerity and seeking for his mercy, for his forgiveness, will
be saved. He will hear and he will answer
prayer. Well may the Lord instruct us
as we Continue our thoughts in this account that the Apostle
brings to us in the Epistle to the Galatians. Amen.