If you would turn with me to
the book of Galatians chapter two, please. Galatians chapter
two. And I want you to look at the
last verse in the chapter, verse 21. Galatians chapter two. I'll give you a moment to get
there. Galatians two, verse 21. Paul here writes, I do not frustrate
the grace of God. For if righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. At first glance, this
verse deals with four things in particular. First, the grace
of God. Secondly, the righteousness of
God. Thirdly, the law of God. And
then lastly, the death of Christ. Perfect righteousness is what
God requires and it's what we must have in order to be saved. And it can only be obtained by
the grace of God. They go hand in hand. The law
of God must be perfectly satisfied. God's justice must be perfectly
satisfied. And only the death of Christ
can accomplish that. Last week, we dealt with the
question, why did Christ die? And today I want to deal with
another question. And that is, did Christ die in
vain? That's a very serious question. Did Christ die in vain? Paul
says, I do not frustrate the grace of God. Now, how do men
and women frustrate the grace of God? Well, the word frustrate
there And this verse doesn't simply mean to prevent. God's
grace is sovereign. None can resist or prevent God's
grace. If God determined to show grace
and to give grace, God will. God's grace is always effectual. It's always effective. For who
hath resisted his will? However, the translated word
frustrated does not reveal the true meaning of the original
Greek word here. So it cannot truly reveal the
meaning of Paul's statement until we know exactly what the word
means. The word actually means, I do
not confuse or I do not complicate the grace of God. That would
be a good interpretation of the word. Paul is saying, I don't
try to make the grace of God confusing or complicated. It's
not. There are many that try to make
it that way, but it's not at all. Paul is saying, I don't
distort the grace of God. I don't try to make it something
that it's not. I don't despise God's grace.
I don't reject God's grace by trying to make it nothing. Then
Paul says this, if righteousness, that very righteousness that
God requires from us, if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. Now you think about that. If
obedience to the law is necessary for a sinner to be saved, then
all that Christ did, especially his death was in vain. Wherever
law and man's works are employed for righteousness, you can be
assured that grace is frustrated and despised. If you think that
by your deeds that you can merit God's favor, then you despise
the unmerited favor of God. We don't need to complicate this.
This simply means that anyone who believes that a person is
justified, that a person is saved, redeemed by the works of the
law, does frustrate the grace of God. And the indictment here,
and it is an indictment, it's a charge that those who try to
keep the law for justification to obtain salvation by a so-called
work of righteousness that they do, actually despises the grace
of God. And if the perfect righteousness
of God that God requires in order to be saved, if that righteousness
comes by something that the sinner does, by attempting in some way
to keep the law, then Christ, our perfect savior and sacrifice,
died in vain. And I mean to be redundant in
saying that, because it's a very serious matter. What an accusation,
what an allegation that is against God the Father. If men and women
could achieve salvation by their own doing, why then would God
kill his son in order for chosen sinners to be saved? If you believe
that righteousness and sanctification is something personal and something
progressive, accomplished by the work of men and women's hands,
then you despise the grace of God. It's just the truth. That's
what God's word says. No hidden meaning here. and it's
painfully and it's perfectly clear and what a charge that
is against God to say that you can. If Christ came and died
to bring in an everlasting righteousness, and boy, I love to think about
that, don't you? If he came to bring in an everlasting
righteousness that could have been accomplished by the works
of the flesh and by the doing of the sinner, then great doubt
is cast upon the wisdom and the purpose of God. For just a few
minutes, I want to show you first how and why this statement of
Paul's in verse 21 came about. Paul makes it clear here in the
second chapter of Galatians. Now in the church at Antioch,
there were both Jews and Gentiles. Christ had come to earth in the
flesh. He had come in the body that
God had prepared for him. And we know, according to Paul
in 1 Timothy 1, that this is a faithful saying and worthy
of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners. He took on flesh and blood in
order to die for men and women who were flesh and blood. And
the Lord Jesus died on the cross and he was buried and he rose
again and he ascended back into glory because he had finished
and accomplished the work of redemption. No argument there.
Our Lord fulfilled the law. He fulfilled the ceremonial law.
He fulfilled the law of circumcision, the law of meats and drinks.
He fulfilled the law of special days. He fulfilled the law of
sacrifice. He fulfilled the whole law, all
of it. And he had granted both repentance
and faith for the Gentiles, the same as he had the Jews. We need
to understand that in Christ, Jews and Gentiles are one. He
broke down that middle wall of partition between them. And God
made them one in Christ. For in Christ, there's neither
Jew nor Greek. There's neither circumcision
or uncircumcision, neither male nor female, neither bond or free. In Christ, all believers are
one. So in verse one, we see that
Paul went with Barnabas and Titus up to Jerusalem and he preached
the gospel. And then in verse four, we see
that false brethren among the Jews came to where he was and
where he and Barnabas and Titus were preaching. And it says here
in this chapter that they came privily, that simply means with
a secret agenda. And they came to spy on them,
it says, and to take issue with them on the liberty, on the freedom
that they had in Christ. You see, there's great freedom
in Christ. Their goal was to attempt to
bring and put these believers, Jew and Gentile both, bring them
back under the bondage of the law by making circumcision a
matter of obtaining righteousness and being saved. In other words,
you had to be circumcised to be saved. That's what they were
trying to teach and it just wasn't so. They came wearing sheep's
clothing, but inwardly they were ravening wolves. Their aim was
to cause division and to destroy the freedom and liberty that
these true believers had from the law in Christ who had redeemed
them from the carceral law. Friends, don't ever let anyone
do that. Don't let anyone ever convince
you that salvation has to do with anything that you do as
far as being saved. Trying to keep the law as a means
of being safe, I'm telling you it's nothing but bondage. You
know why? Because a man can't do it. A
man can't keep the law. There's no freedom, there's no
liberty in trying to do something that you can't do and that will
never get the job done. No freedom in that whatsoever.
There's something in every man and woman that by nature that
responds favorably to the false notion of personal righteousness.
It's instilled in them. It's the natural tendency of
man to want to do something to be saved. And Paul deals with
this controversy the only way that it can be dealt with. Head
on, head on. You remember old Barney Fye?
What did Barney used to say? Nip it in the bud. That's the
way we deal with it. We nip it in the bud. Look at
verse five. He said, to whom we gave place
by subjection. No, not even for an hour. We didn't put up with it for
an hour. For the truth of the gospel might continue in you. You see, there's something at
stake here. The gospel is at stake. It is
justification in and through Christ alone. That's the gospel.
Without the deeds of the law, Romans 3 28. Therefore, we conclude
that a man is justified by faith, by believing and trusting in
Christ. That's what faith is. We're justified
by faith without the deeds of the law. Now it can't be any
plainer than that. These men who came into them
were Jewish leaders that were still in bondage to the ceremonial
law. They still observed circumcision.
They were still in bondage to meats and drinks. Oh, you can't
eat that. You can't drink that. They were
still in bondage to special days. Oh, you can't do that on Sunday
or Saturday or whatever day you believe the Sabbath to be. And
they observed still all the feast and everything, but Christ had
fulfilled all that. All of those things were just
pictures and types and shadows of good things to come, that
being the Lord Himself. And to them, all these things
were a means of being saved and justified. Their pride just wouldn't
allow them to turn loose of the observance and keeping of these
things that Christ had already fulfilled and done away with.
Before these men came down, the apostle Peter, bless his heart,
I see so much of David Edmondson and Peter, all the bad stuff,
none of the good. Peter was getting along fine
with the Gentile. They were having fellowship together.
They ate together. They worshiped together. They
rejoiced in the gospel together. But when these legalists came
down, I can just see Peter get up and just kind of walk over
here to where the Jews were. Peter withdrew himself from the
Gentiles and he separated himself from them. And he hung out with
the Jews. The scripture says in verse 12,
fearing them, which were of the circumcision. A little too concerned
about what they thought. We all been guilty of it. And
this caused a big rift and division among the Jews and the Gentiles.
Many were drawn away, it says, with Peter's dissimulation, and
that simply means hypocrisy. Even Barnabas, Paul's traveling
companion and helper in the preaching of the gospel, went with Peter.
And Paul withstood Peter to his face. Again, he nipped it in
the bud because he was to be blamed, it says, for this division
and this confusion. He was the cause of it. In verse
14, Paul said this, he said, but when I saw that they walk
not uprightly, according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto
Peter before them all, you see, this is a serious, serious matter. It brought reproach upon the
gospel. Peter's hypocrisy influenced
others. Men's hypocrisy always influences
others one way or the other, either positively or negatively.
It just does. And these physical acts of separating
themselves from the Gentiles pointed to a much bigger problem. It was an act against the gospel.
It was a denial that Christ had actually fulfilled the law and
satisfied God's justice. Peter's actions were declaring
that Christ's death and his fulfillment of the law and his satisfying
of God's holy justice wasn't enough. It was declaring that
Christ died in vain. It was then that Paul said unto
Peter, before them all, if thou, look at verse 14, if thou being
a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles and not as do the
Jews, why compelst thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? In other
words, what Paul is saying here is, Peter, if you were born a
Jew, and if you were brought up as a Jew, and if you observed
the law and kept the law as a Jew, observed the Levitical law, but
now you no longer feel in bondage to the ceremonies and the laws
because of what Christ did. And you do believe that, don't
you, Peter? You believe that all righteousness is fulfilled
in Christ. Isn't that what you believe,
Peter? And He kept God's law perfectly for you. That is what
you believe, isn't it, Peter? Then why? Why do you compel these
Gentiles to live under the same laws? And if salvation is by
the works of men and the keeping of the law, then the work of
Christ is of no value, none. And what he did was nothing but
a waste of time. It has nothing to do with righteousness
in the sight of God. What a serious charge this is.
Dear friend, what is righteousness to you? Is it freedom or is it
bondage? I'll tell you this much, the
righteousness of God is not Christ plus anything. It's Christ alone. It's not doing right things to
be righteous. It's doing right things because
you are righteous. Look at verse 16. Knowing that
a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the
faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified." And that's what Paul is saying in our text.
He said, I don't frustrate. I don't reject. I don't confuse
the grace of God. I don't make God's grace void
by trying to keep the law. Now, what grace is Paul talking
about? The only kind there is. He's talking about that same
eternal predestinating grace that chose sinners before the
foundation of the world, that saved them before they were ever
born, before they had done any good or evil. And this proves
the salvations of the Lord, doesn't it? If the Lord chose me before
I ever done anything good or bad, then it has to be of the
Lord. It proves that the purpose of
God, according to what? Election. That's not a dirty
word. It's one of the most amazing
words in all the scripture, because it tells me that God chose me. God, according to election, stands
firm and sure, not of works, but of Him that calls. God has
been gracious to sinners before sinners ever were. What God purposed
in eternity, He always fulfills in time. He always does. The
Lord of hosts has sworn saying, surely as I have thought, so
shall it come to pass. God Almighty says, as sure as
I purposed, so shall it stand. Now that's the God of the Bible.
Whom God foreknew, He predestinated. Whom He predestinated, He called.
Whom He called, He justified. What shall we say to these things?
I'll tell you what a believer's gonna say. If God be for us,
who can be against us? Who shall lay anything to the
believer's charge? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn a child of God? It's Christ that died. Nobody
can. We don't frustrate that grace.
We don't despise it. We don't make that grace void
through works and merit of so-called righteousness. Paul wrote in
2 Corinthians 8, verse 9, he said, for you know the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your
sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be
rich. Well, I'm one of the richest
men in the world. My bank account don't show it, but I am. And
so are you if you're in Christ. Child of God, for your sake,
God became poor. How so? Well, he laid aside the
glory of heaven, and he came down here in this earth, and
he became poor. He's born in a stable. His manger,
a caltrop, was his crib. He worked as a lowly carpenter.
He lived in a despised village of Nazareth. He didn't ride a
white stallion. He walked everywhere he went.
God was found in fashion as a man. He humbled himself and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. This is God
we're talking about. He who owns the cattle on a thousand
hills humbled himself. Well, he humbled himself to become
a man, but even more so when he went to the cross, and even
more so with the death of the cross, crucifixion, the most
horrific death that a man could suffer. He was stricken, smitten,
and afflicted. He died a shameful death. He
was laid in a borrowed tomb. And that took great grace, but
He was rich in grace. In whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to what? The
riches of His grace. Now hear me on this. Justification
by the faith of Christ and justification by the works of the law, they
cannot coexist. In Romans 11, verse 6, Paul said,
and if by grace, then it's no more works, and if it be of works,
then it's no more grace. Again, can you say that any simpler
than that? If it's grace, it's not works,
and if it's works, it's not grace. It can't be both. Romans 10 4
says that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Christ is the only way that I
can obtain the perfect righteousness that I must have in order to
be justified. And he's the end of law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. In verse 10 of that same chapter,
Romans 10, Paul said, for with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness. That's how we get it. Trusting
and believing in Christ. Knowing that He is our righteousness.
He was made to be sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. It doesn't say with the hand
a man doeth unto righteousness. Romans 10 verse 11, for the scripture
saith, whosoever believeth on him, speaking of Christ, shall
not be ashamed. Look at verse 19 here in Galatians
chapter two. Paul says, for I, through the
law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. Now, what
does that mean? It means that the only way for
a sinner to obey the law, the only way for you and I, the sinners
that we are, the only way for us to keep the law is not to
live under the law, but to die into it. The difference between
those who end up in eternal condemnation and those who do not is Christ
crucified. Speaking of Christ's substitutionary
sacrifice, who He is, He's God. And what did He do? He died.
for the sins of his people. And that gets the job done because
of who it is that died. Therefore, I, through the law,
by Christ's obedience and fulfillment of its demands, am dead to the
law, and now I can live under God. Philippians 2a tells us
that the Lord Jesus being found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself and became obedient, not just in keeping the law,
though he did, but Christ became obedient unto death, which is
what the law demanded of me because I couldn't keep it. The wages
of sin is what? Death. The soul that sins, it
shall what? Surely die. I'm dead to the law
because when Christ obeyed what the law demanded, I was in him. And it's not just as if I kept
it, I kept it because I'm in him. Christ's obedience of the
law was death and not life. Therefore through the law, I'm
dead to the law. Who is he that condemned it?
It's Christ that died. Is the believer not condemned
because Christ lived the law for us? No, Christ fulfilled
the law by dying for his elect. We're not justified by the life
Christ lived, we're justified by the death that he accomplished.
Through Christ's death, I'm dead to the law that I might live
unto God. You see, doing does not justify,
only dying does. And that is only by the substitutionary,
law-fulfilling, justice-satisfying, God-propitiating death of Christ. for I through the law am dead
to the law that I might live unto God. Look at verse 20, for
I am crucified with Christ. There you have it. Look at verse
20 in its entirety. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
not my faith in the Son of God, but the faith of the Son of God
who loved me and did what? Gave Himself for me. However,
this verse is often treated as a standalone text and very seldom
ever preached when it's tied to the context of what Paul says
before and after it. And when it is, it explains very,
very well the law of God and the grace of God. And that's
what Paul's talking about here in Galatians chapter two. Are
you saved by doing? Are you saved by dying? Are you
saved by the law or are you saved by grace? He said, I don't frustrate
the grace of God. If righteousness comes by keeping
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Through the law, we're
dead to the law. The intent of the law was to
exact punishment for sin. Now stay with me on this. The
punishment of sin is death. And because Paul and every other
believer was and is crucified with Christ, the penalty that
the law required was fulfilled in Paul and in us. for every
believer. The righteousness of the law
that was fulfilled in Paul along with every true believer was
the righteous death that Christ died. That's exactly what Paul
is saying in Romans chapter 8. You don't have to turn there,
you know these verses. He says, there is therefore now
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk
not after the flesh, but after the spirit. He says, for the
law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus have made me free,
free, free from the law of sin and death. for what the law could
not do, and that it was weak to the flesh, meaning our flesh,
God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and
for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the spirit. We live spiritually, friends,
because of our union with Christ. The evidence of life is faith.
Faith doesn't produce spiritual life. Faith is the product and
the proof of life. We have faith because Christ
lives in us. Paul says that he lives, but
that his life is not his own. I live yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me. My life is in Christ. And that's
real life. That's eternal life. Every single
thing that has to do with our salvation and justification and
our righteousness and our life was accomplished by Christ and
Him crucified on the cross. All of it. If you add anything
to it, you make it void. So knowing these things, Paul
says in our text, I do not frustrate the grace of God. For if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead and gone. If the perfect
righteousness that God requires of us comes by the keeping of
the law, then Christ, he died and he's dead in vain. And if
Christ is dead in vain, then the glory of God is vain and
it's empty and it's a sham, but it's not. if salvation has to
do with walking an aisle. Now listen, I'm just bringing
this home because men trust in an act of walking to the front
of the church. They really do. I know, because
I was in that mess most of my life and never got the job done. So I'd have to walk again and
again and again. We wore the carpet out from pew
to the front. It won't get the job done. If
salvation has to do with making a decision, and men trust in
that every day. They do. I'm not just picking
on religion here. I know people in hell because
they trusted in a decision they made. This is serious, serious
business. If salvation has to do with joining
the church, if salvation has to do with being baptized, if
salvation has to do with giving tithes, if salvation has to do
with any of those things, then Jesus Christ died in vain and
he's dead in vain. Ooh, that's pretty strong, preacher.
That's what God says. If I can do something to save
myself, then there was absolutely no reason for Christ to come
into the world. There was no reason for Him to
be tempted and tried and tested. There was no reason for Him to
go through the suffering, the agony, and the turmoil of living
in this corrupt, depraved, wicked world. It was all in vain for
no reason at all. There was no reason for Him to
go to the cross and bear the nails in His hands and in His
feet and a crown of thorns on His head and a spear in His side. It was all in vain. If you and
I can be justified by our own works, saved by our own goodness,
our own morality, there is no reason for the terrible wrath
and judgment of God to fall on His beloved Son. No reason for
Him to die, for He would be dead in vain if that's true. And it
makes God out to be foolish. And it makes God... It's to heap indignity upon Christ's
holy person and upon His righteous work of substitution. Does this
not expose the legalist? It will in the end prove that
those who in the day of judgment claim to have done many wonderful
works, and the Lord tells us that they will. Lord, Lord. Haven't we done many wonderful
works? Well, we've preached in your name, we've cast out devils,
we've done this, we've done that. And the Lord said, I never knew
you. They'll be forever cast into the eternal separation from
God, from the God that they claim to know. Many thought that their
works were wonderful and they're going to find out that they were
actually works of iniquity. And they who endeavored to frustrate
the grace of God and create their own righteousness are themselves
nothing more than workers of iniquity. That's exactly what
the Lord called them. Depart from me ye that work iniquity. Our doing as a means to be saved
is iniquity in God's eyes. I got some good news for you.
The Lord Jesus Christ did not die in vain. He didn't. He died
to redeem those that God gave him. Those that God gave him
before the worlds were ever framed. And he's gonna redeem every single
one so that none of them will be lost. He said so himself,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And if you
come to Christ, you'll be saved. Not to the front of the church,
not to the mourner's bench, but to Christ. May God grant you
the grace to live by faith in the Son of God who loved you
and gave Himself for you. And I don't frustrate that grace.
Because I know that righteousness does not come by the works of
the law or my doing, all my doing. You know what it is? It's self-righteousness. Christ didn't die in vain. May
God be pleased to make his word effectual to your heart.