Next week, I'm going to bring
a message on 1 Peter 1, verse 2, the second part, which is
sanctification of the spirit. But this week, I'm taking a bit
of a diversion because I had been thinking about this. And
because I had been thinking about it, it was easier for me. And
I was more excited about this week preaching a message from
Galatians 2. If you want to turn to Galatians
2, And I've entitled this message, it's rather lengthy, but you'll
see as we get to it, Justification by the Death of Christ, Stated
and Proved by God. I mean, God doesn't have to prove
it to us. His mere stating it is proof,
right? God's word is the truth. When
God says it, that's as far as it goes. There's no need to even
attempt to prove it. When God said, in the beginning
God created the heaven and the earth. That's as far as it goes. That's the axiom. You can't prove
axioms. You can't prove the unprovable.
And that's what God is. He's the unprovable one, the
one who is truth itself. So we want to look at this in
God's own words here, inspired the apostle Paul to write this
to the Galatians, and therefore to us, too. But before we begin,
let's pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
thank you for your word. This is the way we know. the
truth of our salvation. And this is what our Savior prayed,
that you would sanctify your people by your truth. Your word is truth. And the gospel
of our salvation is that truth which you, by your Spirit, apply
to our hearts to give us life and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what our Savior Himself
has promised is the evidence of our everlasting life in Him. Thank you for such a Savior,
for your great grace and this gift of your Spirit to us that
you've given from heaven by our Savior that when we hear by the
the work of his hand in our heart, we would be enabled to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ from your word. In his name we pray.
So I want to begin in Galatians chapter 2 with verse 15, and
I want to read through verse 21. The apostle Paul is speaking
to correct an error a false doctrine, in fact, a damning doctrine that
had come to the Galatians. Galatians were Gentiles, they
had heard the gospel, first through the Apostle Paul, but then these
who claimed to be believers had come to them and tried to convince
them that they needed also to keep the law of Moses, at least
in some part, in order to be fully perfected, in order to
be complete. And the apostle Paul attacks
that error with a vengeance. He has the greatest hatred for
it. And he speaks about that in chapter
one. He says that anyone who brings another gospel to you,
even if it's an apostle than the one you've received, let
him be cursed. That's strong language, isn't
it? So that shows us the importance of the gospel and the deadliness
of the error that would divert us from the gospel of Christ.
And so in this chapter, chapter two of Galatians, beginning with
verse 15, he's going to get to the point, the main heart of
the argument. He says, we who are Jews by nature
and not sinners of the Gentiles. Now, what had happened here was
the gospel, as I said, came to the Galatians, they were Gentiles,
and Peter and others had come to the church at Galatia. But
some other Jews came who were claiming to be believers. They
were the ones that influenced Peter to do something very wrong. He was before the Jews came.
He was sitting with the Gentile believers. And he was having
fellowship with them. But when the Jews came, he got
up from that table. And he moved over to the table
with the Jews at that table. And he separated himself from
the Gentile believers. stayed only with the Jewish believers
and Paul rebuked Peter because he needed to be rebuked. And
he did it openly because by doing it openly, everyone there saw
the severity of that act and the great error of the doctrine
that he was holding to by doing what he did. And this is what
the argument begins here. He says in verse 15, we who are
Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles. So he's talking
to Peter in the presence of them all. We who are Jews by nature. What does it mean to be a Jew
by nature? Well, it means to be born. as a descendant of Abraham. It also means to be part of the
nation of the Jews. It means to be those who received
the law from Moses at Mount Sinai. God gave it to them through Moses.
It was those people who were in a covenant with God based
on the law to keep that law in order that they might live. The
law required everyone under it to keep it, to keep it continuously,
and to keep it perfectly in order for them to live. And so he says,
we who are Jews by nature, he's referring to those people who
were given the law, who were under the law as a covenant,
who were raised up as children. attending to the observance of
the ceremonies of the law. They had a tabernacle, they had
a priesthood, they had sacrifices, and they had the laws. The Ten
Commandments, for example, and lots of other laws. All of it
together was called the Law of Moses, and they were under it
as a people. And so he says, we who are Jews
by nature, we were born Jews, we were raised Jews, We're under
the law by nature. As Jews, we were given the law
written by God and not sinners of or among the Gentiles. So
now he's contrasting the Jews as Jews by nature with those
who are called sinners among the Gentiles. How are the Gentiles
different from the Jews? Well, by nature, they had the
law. But they didn't have one thing,
which was the written law of Moses. They had the law on their
conscience. In Romans chapter 2, he says,
for when the Gentiles do by nature the things written in the law,
they are a law to themselves, showing the work of the law written
on their hearts. So the Gentiles were different
from the Jews in this one aspect that they weren't part of that
nation God had given the law to at Moses and made a covenant
with them at Sinai. And that covenant was contained
in the writing of the law God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai.
That was called the First Covenant, the Old Covenant, and the Covenant
of Works. Because in that law, God said,
do this and you shall live, and if you don't, you're cursed,
you'll die. Okay? So this is the contrast here
set up in verse 15. We who are Jews by nature and
not sinners among the Gentiles is contrasting those who are
under the written law and try to keep it in order that they
might be accepted by God, please God, be approved of by God, By
their own observance of those rules set forth in that covenant,
they would come to God and present themselves in order to be found
righteous and therefore justified by God. God would look at their
obedience, at least they thought, and God would consider what they
had done according to the law, and he would vindicate them,
he would clear them, he would declare them to be righteous,
that's justification. God declaring them to be righteous
by their own observance of the law. That's justification by
the law. And so the apostle Paul says,
we who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles.
Now, the next verse, he goes on here. We're gonna read it
next. He says, 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. Do you see those
two little words, even we, in the middle of the verse? Even
we. Those are, the we in that verse, are the Jews by nature. The apostle Paul was a Jew by
nature. Peter was a Jew by nature. All
those who were claiming to be believers and were also Jews
are the we in the even we of verse 16. And so he's saying,
we who are Jews by nature, in verse 15, even we. We're not like the Gentiles who
don't have the written law. We have it. We observe it. We were raised up under it. We've
kept it all of our life for generations. And we trust in it. He says,
even we, even us Jews who were raised as Jews, born as Jews,
even we now, beginning at verse 16, knowing that a man is not
justified, They had come to the persuasion by the act of God
operating in them under the preaching of the gospel that the law they
had grown up with, that they had observed from their youth
historically for over a thousand years, had been ingrained into
them. That was set aside. They had
forsaken it and abandoned it and rejected it as a way by which
they could find approval. They could come to God and be
accepted, that they would keep it and therefore come to God
in order to present themselves with their personal obedience
to be justified as if what they did in observing the law was
a righteousness before God. He says, knowing, even we, knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law. So now
he states the truth in the negative. We are not justified by our own
obedience to what God tells us to do in the law. And that's the only other covenant
there is that God has given men on earth by which they are in
a relationship to God. It was a two-party covenant.
They were to do their part, God would do His part. They were
to obey, He was to reward them with life. They were to not fail
to obey, or He would give them the wages of sin, which is death,
the eternal curse. And Paul says here, he's telling
Peter again what Peter knew but had denied by his actions. He
said, knowing, we Jews, knowing that a man is not justified by
the works of the law, but here is how, we are, but by the faith
of Jesus Christ. Now, in the original language,
it's Christ's faith. It's not even faithfulness, it's
faith here. I hear many preachers say that
word faithfulness, but the word is simply faith. Everywhere it's
translated except one place in scripture, it's always translated
the belief, the faith. And so he's saying it's the faith
of, or the faith that belongs to, the faith of Jesus Christ. That's the way we're justified.
And what part of that did you do? What part of that do you
have? You don't have his faith. It's
his. It belongs to him. Then we need
to ask, how is it that we're justified by the faith of Jesus
Christ? Well, we understand it as we
go through this, but I'll state it here, and then we'll explain
it more later, is by the obedience of Christ in trusting his Father
to do his will in submission to that will, even though it
meant for him taking the sins of his people and bearing them
as his own under the law, suffering the curse of God's law, their
sins were charged to him, he accepted them as his own and
stood before God guilty with those sins and bore the wrath
of God completely, taking away both the wrath and our sins for
us. because he believed God, because
he trusted God. He grew up as a man trusting
God. He says this in scripture throughout,
and I'm not going to take you to all those places. He acted
out of faith. He was a man. He lived by faith
on God's word. He believed God's word. He told
Satan, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceeds out of the mouth of God. That's faith, living
on God's word, trusting God. even under the most severe, unimaginable,
immeasurable sufferings that he willingly did, notice, when
he offered himself to God for our sins. That's the obedience.
And he did that by faith. It was the spring of all of his
obedience. And I'll read a couple of verses
to you to show this to you in Hebrews chapter 7 and verse 27. Carefully listen to this. He
does not need daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice
first for his own sins and then for the people's, for this he
did once when he offered up himself. That was a total sacrifice. And
in chapter 9, verse 24, he says, Christ is not entered into the
holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the
true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence
of God for us, nor yet that he should offer himself often, notice,
offer himself, Often, as the high priest enters the holy place
every year with blood of others, for then must he often have suffered
since the foundation of the world. But now, once, in the end of
the world, has he appeared to put away sin, how? By the sacrifice
of himself. That's the obedience that Christ
gave a total obedience because he believed his father, trusted
his father, and acted out of that faith. And so that's what
he's referring to. All that Christ did in offering
himself to redeem us from our sins and the curse of the law,
standing in our place as our substitute. That's what it means
by the faith of Jesus Christ. All that he did in obedience
to God, in submission of obedience to offer himself to God. It says
the same thing in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 6. He says,
who being in the form of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, He is
in the form of God because he is God, thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, here's
the obedience, he stooped, he humbled himself, he took upon
him the form of a servant, and he was made in the likeness of
men. and being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross." There it is. Obedience unto death. Offered himself, and he did this
for sinners, out of love to God and love for them. This was a
super fulfillment of all the law required. And so, back to
Galatians 2.16, knowing that a man is not justified by our
personal obedience to the law or the works of the law, Not
by keeping that law covenant in our obedience, but by the
faith of Jesus Christ. By His obedience, which was an
act of His faith, even we have believed in Jesus Christ. We've come to rely on Him. That
His obedience in His faith is our justification. He says, we
have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by
the faith of Christ. You see, our faith does what? It puts all of our salvation
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And none of it is left for us
to do, because in believing Him, we forsake everything else but
what He did and who He is. We expect God to accept us because
of Christ alone, and for no other reason. That's what our faith
is, but in his faith, it actually accomplished an everlasting righteousness
when he gave himself for our sins. So he says, we have believed
in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of
Christ and not by the works of the law. Here's the third time,
for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Paul is
telling Peter in the company of them all, we know this, we
who were raised under the law and know and have practiced the
law our whole lives and our parents and our parents and grandparents,
And now we've turned from that. We have turned to Jesus Christ.
We were Jews by nature, but now even we have come to realize
we're saved, we're justified by the work of Christ. That's
the positive statement of our justification. In verse 17, He
says, but if while we seek to be justified by Christ, because
we obviously do, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore
Christ the minister of sin? No, God forbid. Now, what he's
saying here is we who believe Christ, we are depending on God
to justify us by considering who Christ is and what Christ
did. Okay, that's what we're depending
on. Lord, receive me for Christ's
sake. Or as the publican said in Luke
18, 13, God, be merciful or propitious to me, the sinner. Look upon
the sacrifice of your own son that you appointed, that you
delivered up, that he offered himself and that you received
in order to satisfy your justice and take away your wrath. that
propitious sacrifice, and look upon that and receive me." And
Jesus said he went down to his house justified rather than the
other. And now he says we seek to be
justified by Christ, but if we who do that are found sinners,
By who? Not by God, but by those who
look upon the law and trust in the law. They look upon us and
they say, you've forsaken the law. You've rejected the law.
You're trusting Christ alone. That's not enough. And what is
Paul saying here? You better believe it. We have
rejected the law because God's salvation in the new covenant
requires us to forsake, abandon, and reject the law as a way by
which we are pleasing, approved, accepted, or justified before
God. Not our obedience, not my righteousness,
Paul said in Philippians 3, 9. I don't want to be found having
my own righteousness, which is as dung, but the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay? So if while we seek to
be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners. Has God
created a covenant here that makes Christ the minister of
sin? No, no, no, this cannot be. Verse 18, for if I build again
the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
The things I destroyed was, I destroyed all legal hope in my own justification
by my obedience, in part or in whole. So I've destroyed that,
but if I build it again, then I make myself a transgressor.
If I trust in that, I've forsaken, Christ has become of no effect
to me. Verse 19, notice, for I, he's building on the law itself. This is what God has said in
the law and the prophets. He's proving it by a positive
affirmation of what God has said. The law said that you must keep
all of it continuously or you're cursed. That's what the law said. The law said he that is under
the law and tries to keep the law must live by his own law
keeping. This is Galatians 3, verse 10
through 12. But Christ has redeemed us from
the curse of the law. He himself was made sin and made
a curse for us. And that way we are redeemed
from it. He said, verse 19, for I through the law am dead to
the law. How is it that through the law
I am dead to the law? Because the law requires that
the sinner die. I sinned, I must die. But my
surety stood in my place. He perfectly obeyed the law.
He was without sin. He did everything right. There
was no fault found in him. Spotless sacrifice. So he offered
himself to God as a spotless sacrifice, but he couldn't die
that way. He bore my sins. Therefore, he
died for my sins. So the law required my death. Christ was born of a woman. He was made under the law. And
he was made under the law because the children were under the law,
and therefore he took the obligations the law put on me as his obligations
for me. And he took the debt, my sins
against God incurred, and he took my debt as his own debt. My sins became his. So it says
in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21, God has made him to be sin for
us. Made his soul an offering for
sin. He placed our sins on him by his act of imputation. And
he became the sinner by God's act, his sovereign will. And
he did this in fulfillment of that prototype of Adam. When
in that one disobedience of Adam, we were made sinners, and because
we received all that Adam was in our nature, we're corrupt
in our nature. But now in Christ, all that he
did becomes ours, so that not only his obedience, but all that
God has to bless him with because of his obedience becomes ours.
So because he identified with us, we're one with him, and we
were condemned through the law, we became dead to the law. And
we became dead to the law in the death of Christ, because
we were joined to him. I am crucified with Christ, he's
gonna say next. So he says, we became dead to
the law that we might live to God. The law could never make
us live. The law could only condemn and
kill. Whenever we are required to obtain blessing by our obedience,
we are doomed to failure. There's nothing wrong with the
law. The law is good, but we're bad. Our flesh is weak. We're
unable to keep it. So God's law is perfect in its
requirements, but it totally fails to save a sinner. And so
it had to be done away. It was abolished. So he says,
for I, through the law, am dead to the law. That was what the
law was given for, to put me to death, that I might live to
God. This is the ultimate end of the law, that we might live
to God. That's the ultimate end. And
how is that fulfilled? In the obedience of Christ. We're
given everlasting life. And then, verse 20, he sums it
up. He says, I am crucified with Christ. There's that union. I,
with Christ. In his death, I was crucified.
Nevertheless, I live. Even though I was crucified with
Christ, I live. And yet I'm not walking around
as an independent orb, as an independent entity. No, he says,
no, not I. Because the only life there is,
is Christ. He's the way, the truth, and
the life. But Christ liveth in me. In my inner self, I have
life, but that life is not me, it's Christ living in me. Isn't
that amazing? Can that life ever die? No, Christ
cannot die. Therefore, when this body dies,
I will be raised. Cannot help it, Christ lives
in me. Because I live, Jesus said, you
shall live also. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, Colossians 3 verse 4. So Christ lives in me, amazing
grace. The spirit of Christ, God himself,
lives in the believer. because the believer in Christ
kept not only the law, but fulfilled all of the righteousness that
God could require from us, because it is his own righteousness. He says, not I, but Christ liveth
in me, and the life, this life, Christ in me, my new nature,
which I now live in the flesh, this sinful flesh, how do I live? I live by the faith of the Son
of God. There it is repeated. I live
looking to Christ, what he did and why he did it. who loved
me and gave himself for me. There it is. The obedience of
Christ because he trusted God was a total obedience. He gave
himself for me. Revelation 1.5, he says, unto
him who loved us and gave himself for us and washed us from our
sins in his own blood. Now, verse 21, and this is where
I want to get to. Here's the proof. So far, he's
stated it. He's proven that by the law,
we cannot be justified. This is clear. The Jews have
come to this persuasion. Those who were under the law
came to this. God stated it three times in verse 16. You are not
justified by your obedience to the law, but by Christ's obedience,
his obedience out of his faith, that obedience that compelled
him to offer himself for our sins, offering himself to God
in sacrifice, which God received as a propitiation for our sins
and our justification. Now listen to this verse. This
is probably the most powerful verse in all of scripture. Listen, I do not frustrate. I don't set aside. I don't reject. I don't disdain. I don't make
it of none effect. I don't nullify it. I do not
frustrate the grace of God. You see, this is God's grace.
What we're about to read here is God's grace. And he puts forth
a proposition. And he's gonna prove it cannot
be by the most absurd and impossible consequence if it were true.
This is the way he's going to prove that we're justified by
the offering up of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Listen
to the words. I do not frustrate the grace
of God. Here it is. For if righteousness
come by the law, that would be if I could be righteous before
God by what I do. Then, here's the consequence,
Christ is dead in vain. He died for nothing. God delivered
his son up for, he did it for nothing. He required the death
of his son for nothing. What could be more impossible?
That God would do anything without bringing to fulfillment his purpose
in doing it. What we know that whatsoever
God does, it is forever, in Ecclesiastes 3.14. Nothing can be added to
it, nothing can be taken from it. But God does it that men
might fear before him, remember? But here he says, I do not frustrate
the grace of God if righteousness come by the law. I'm going to
prove that's impossible. then Christ is dead in vain.
That's the result. That's the consequence. That's
the impossibility which disproves that righteousness comes by the
law. That's the first thing in this verse we see, that righteousness
cannot come by the law, not by our obedience to what God has
said, but by Christ's obedience for his people. It can't come
by mind because if it did, then Christ didn't need to die. And
yet he died. And it's impossible that God
would slay his son and not achieve something, whatever he intended
for that. Impossible. But the second part
here is that it actually is the righteousness that Christ did
die. Notice, if righteousness come
by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Therefore, Christ not
being dead in vain did establish our righteousness. You see, the
two things are both proven. The absurdity of the impossibility
that Christ could die in vain is the proof that righteousness
can't come by the law. Look at Galatians chapter five.
Galatians five says this about our law keeping. Verse two, Paul
said, I say to you that if you be circumcised, now to be circumcised
meant that you're trying to keep the law. You're trying to do
something. And it turns out it's just a
one-time act. It's not like you're continually
doing something. One-time act, endure some pain, you get circumcised. It doesn't accomplish anything,
really. It's painful, but if I go about to try to keep the
law even in a little part like this, notice, he says, if you
be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. Nothing. Why? Because you are either in
Moses or you are in Christ. You either stand before God in
yourself and your own obedience, or you stand before God in your
surety in the Lord Jesus Christ. He goes on. If you be circumcised,
Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised, who, in other words, he tries to keep
the law in this way and make himself presentable to God, acceptable,
that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Because if I take
on this thought that I can, by something I do, make myself acceptable,
holy, more holy, or anything before God, then what I'm saying
is I'm denying that Christ did it all, and I put my obedience
on the same level as the obedience of Christ. I completely nullify
the need for Christ to have died if I can be made righteous by
what I do. That's the argument here in Galatians.
And it's so powerful that it gives us great comfort to know
that the Lord Jesus Christ stood for his people. His faith, not
ours, His prayers, not ours, His obedience, His sacrifice,
God hearing Him is all of our salvation because justification
brings what? Look at Galatians 3 and verse
13. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law. To redeem means to do what? To
liberate, to liberate from by the payment of a ransom. Christ
has redeemed us, he's liberated us from the curse of the law.
He himself was made a curse for us. He says, being made a curse
for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree.
That's the proof that he was cursed of God. He was made sin
and cursed by God for us. That we might be set free from
the curse and from sin. Notice in verse 14. That he's done this, he says
that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ. That we might receive the promise
of the Spirit through faith. You see, the Spirit of God is
given to us because Christ stood for us and fulfilled our righteousness. The Spirit of God is the reward
to Christ for his people because of his righteousness also theirs. what could be more glorious.
This is the promise God made to Abraham of justification and
life, everlasting life. We Gentiles who believe Christ
are the children, spiritual children of Abraham, and there are no
other spiritual children to Abraham and no other children of God
than those who are given his spirit, those who believe Christ. The result of the spirit of God
is what? I live by the faith of the Son
of God. I live my life through thick
and thin, through good times and bad, through my depression,
through my joy, always looking in all of my coming to God, to
Jesus Christ and his faith. And this is the work of the Spirit.
This is the life of Christ in the believer. This is the truth
of God, the Word of God that sanctifies us in the truth of
what God has done in Christ. And this is the revelation of
the mind, the will, the purpose, and the heart of God in our salvation. God gave his Son once. Christ gave himself once. And in that one gift, and in
that one offering, Christ accomplished all of our salvation. Righteousness
was established, our righteousness, and life was given so that Christ
now lives in us. We have the Spirit of God living
in us. And this is what we read about a moment ago in 2 Corinthians
3. This is the fulfillment of the
new covenant. Christ in you, the Spirit of
God writes the gospel on our heart. We cling to Christ in
our life, living and walking by faith, the faith of the Son
of God. Faith in the faith of the Son
of God, who loved us and gave himself for us. What confidence
we have before God. There's nothing else. If we do
a little bit, we obligate ourselves to keep the whole Old Covenant. But if Christ does everything,
then we contribute nothing. Therefore, God accepts us entirely
and only for what he did. Therefore, we can have full assurance
of faith. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for your word that so powerfully teaches us that all that we are
and do is nothing but sin. But only what Christ is and has
done is all of our salvation. And this life that we now live
is Christ living in us by His Spirit. This new man This new
heart given to us, our circumcised heart, all of this is language
to teach us that the life of Christ in us causes us to live
to God in believing Christ and to ultimately be conformed to
the image of your dear son, that he might be the firstborn among
many brethren. Give us grace, Lord, to hold
these things close all of our life. to rejoice in them together,
and to proclaim them broadly to the glory of our Savior and
your amazing grace. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.