Galatians chapter 2, as we're
studying through this, the issues we've seen in the book of Galatians
is the ground of salvation. Upon what basis, upon what ground
does God justify a sinner? And that is the heart of the
gospel. The answer to that question as it comes from the scripture
is the heart of the gospel. And of course the gospel message
shows us plainly that God justifies his people, that he declares
us righteous, he declares us not guilty on the one basis of
the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ, the merits
of Christ. And that is described in so many
different ways in the scripture, but the one phrase that encompasses
all that Christ accomplished in his redemptive work as God-man,
God in human flesh, and that's what it took for him to do that,
and we're gonna look at that today. Somebody said, well, that's
really appropriate for this season. No, it's appropriate for all
seasons. In fact, the title of the message today at the 11 o'clock
hour is, The Reason for All Seasons. How about that? Not just the
reason for the season, but the reason for all seasons. But this
is what it's all about. And it's described in the phrase,
The Righteousness of God. And the Apostle Paul was inspired
to use that phrase quite often throughout his writings because
It has to be sealed in our minds by the Holy Spirit that salvation,
or any part of it, our justification before God, is not conditioned
on or based upon the righteousness of man in any way, shape, form,
or fashion. First of all, the Bible teaches
us that man has no righteousness. And secondly, it teaches us that
man cannot work righteousness by his efforts to obey the law. We're fallen. By nature, we fell
in Adam. And then thirdly, we don't want
it God's way until the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment to come. But look at verse 16. The Apostle
Paul here, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is reminding
of something that he had preached to them, something that they
had claimed to believe and understand and believe. And so he starts
out knowing. Now we know that a man is not
justified by the works of the law. Sin cannot be removed by
works of the law. Righteousness cannot be established
by works of the law, not by man's works, but by the faith of Jesus
Christ. And that's the phrase that I've
kind of honed in here on this interlude, these three messages.
We're justified by faith of Jesus Christ. Now, I made it clear
last week that, yes, it is required that God's people have faith
in Jesus Christ. Faith is the fruit of God's grace. It's the fruit of Christ's righteousness,
the death that he died. In other words, spiritual life
is given by the Holy Spirit because Christ died and rose the third
day. His righteousness demands spiritual
life. Well, the first evidence of spiritual
life is faith in Christ. We believe in Christ. No sinner's
going to be saved without believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
it's also required that we continue in the faith. We must persevere
in the faith. Those who claim to believe and
then fall away from that faith, they never were saved to begin
with, the scripture teaches us. And it's all by grace. But our
believing in Christ is not the cause or the ground of our justification
before God. And I emphasize that because
of this phrase here. But you know, people have that
confused today because of the atmosphere, the general message
of today is that Christ, by his death on the cross, only made
sinners savable. Only made it a possibility for
us to be saved if we would do certain things. Normally, that's
what people say, well, if we believe, if we believe. Now there
is an if we believe. There's no doubt about that.
It's in the scripture. But as you know, and I think I've taught
you all this over the years, that if, it can either be a conditional
if, or it can be an evidential if. In other words, it's either
a condition we must meet in order to attain something, or it's
an evidence of something that's already been attained. And in
the case of the scripture, because of what the gospel teaches us,
and because of what the grace of God teaches us, we see that
the if passages of the scripture, if we believe, if we continue,
if we obey, that they're all evidence, evidential ifs. In other words, our believing
just evidences that Christ died for us. Our believing doesn't
make it a reality, it's already a reality. So he says, knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by
the faith or the faithfulness, you could say it that way, the
faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was faithful to
do what was required in order to assure and secure the salvation
of his people, 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. Now here's what you have to understand. Faith in the scripture can mean
different things. The word faith is a word that
can be translated or seen or defined in different ways. It
can be knowledge, for example. We know something is true. If
you know it's true, that means you believe it. If you don't
think it's true, you don't believe it. So it's knowledge. But faith in certain contexts
can mean different things. For example, whenever the Bible
talks about the faith, the faith of the saints, it's talking about
the body of doctrine. It's talking about what we believe.
This is the doctrine. This is the teaching. This is
the truth we believe. What is your faith? I believe
this. Well, we believe God saves sinners
by grace. That's our faith. And then other
times, the word faith can mean our act of believing by the power
of the Holy Spirit. That's the gift of God. That's
a moral quality of character, as one old writer said, that
the Holy Spirit imparts to us through knowledge. In other words,
he convinces me of things that I didn't know and believe before,
but now I do. And that's the power of the Holy
Spirit. That comes in the new birth. So faith can mean the
body of doctrine or it can mean our act of believing. What we
have to understand is this. Justified, which is being made
righteous before God, which is being made not guilty before
God, that righteousness is distinct from faith. They're not the same
thing. In other words, my believing is not my righteousness. Christ's
death is my righteousness. You understand that? And I know
this sometimes sounds complicated, but a lot of times, the complication
doesn't arise from the simple truth of the scripture, it arises
from the objections and the traditions that we've been taught. I was
talking to a fellow over in Australia about it, you know, that when
people have trouble understanding the simple truths of the gospel,
Many times, what they're trying to do is trying to fit it in
with what they already believe. And that's why they're confused,
and that's why they have trouble. That's why they say, you make
it so complicated. No, it's not complicated at all. God declares me, a sinner, righteous,
not by anything I do or anything, not by anything that comes from
me or through me. He declares me righteous by the
death of Jesus Christ. Now that's simple. Now, if I'm
trying to fit that into what I already believe by nature,
there's going to be a lot of confusion in my mind. And that's
why the gospel message, when it's preached the way it ought
to be preached, is aimed at repentance. Don't try to assimilate what
you already believe into the scheme of what God teaches us,
because it's not going to work. They're opposed. Works and grace
won't mix. If you believe that Jesus Christ
made you savable or just made it a possibility for you to be
saved based on your faith, that's one message. That's a false gospel. Now you can't fit that in with
the gospel of Christ as it's set forth. And so righteousness
and faith are distinct. Righteousness imputed is the
ground of our justification before God, and that's it. And believing
it is an effect, is a fruit, is the work of the spirit that
comes forth from Christ who is our righteousness. How can man
be just with God? It's the heart of the gospel.
And so righteousness was imputed, charged, accounted to us in Christ
our surety before the foundation of the world. Now Christ had
to come in time and fulfill this righteousness for us. He had
to come in time, in the fullness of the time. Now people are talking
about that this season, you know, how he was born of a woman, born
in a manger and all of that. And that's all true. And that's
a glorious truth. It's a glorious fact. But why
did he do it? Romans 3.25 says he was set forth. That is, he intervened into the
fabric of time. He was manifested. He came down
from heaven, you might say it that way. To do what? He was set forth to be what?
A propitiation, a satisfaction, a substitute for sinners, to
satisfy justice, to establish righteousness so that God could
justify sinners like us. That's what it's all about. It's
not just about being born in a manger. That's the humility
of Christ in his humanity, yes, and he condescended. He made
himself of no reputation. He made himself, he came in the
form of a servant, the Lord of glory. The Lord of this universe
took on himself the form of a servant. That's a marvelous truth and
we ought never cease to be amazed at that. But if we stop there,
we've missed the gospel. If we stop there, we've missed
salvation. If we stop there, we've missed
the glory of God. Yes, he had to come in time.
Righteousness for his people before the foundation of the
world, but he had to come in time and he had to fulfill it. He had to work it out. He had
to redeem us from our sins. He had to shed blood. I heard
a man say one time in a message, he said, well, God didn't have
to send Christ down here to die. He could have just snapped his
finger and redeemed us. Oh no, that's a lie. You know how I know that? I'll
tell you, because the Bible says, God's word says, without the
shedding of blood, no remission of sin. The wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it must
die. For righteousness to be established,
somebody had to die who's able, willing, and appointed of God
to do so. And that's the work of Christ.
Now, our believing by the power of the Holy Spirit is what makes
all this known to us. The Holy Spirit in time brings
us under the preaching of this gospel and he gives us life.
We're born again. and He simply makes known to
us what Christ accomplished and we believe it. We believe it
because He gives us faith to believe. Righteousness is perfect
satisfaction to God's holy law and justice. Now our believing,
now listen to it, whatever saves us, upon whatever ground God
declares us not guilty, declares us righteous, it has to be perfect,
doesn't it? It has to be perfect satisfaction
to God's law and justice. Now our believing is not perfect
satisfaction to God's law and justice, is it? How many in here,
don't raise your hand, because I don't want to embarrass you,
but how many people in here would say, I right now have perfect,
uncontaminated, uncorrupted, uninterrupted faith in Christ? And I'll tell you, if you say
you do, you're lying. And I'll tell you how I know
that, because I know you're just like me. I may be worse than
you in this area, but do you ever complain about anything? Do you ever have the why me,
Lord syndrome? Well, we do it all the time.
That's something we have to fight all the time, don't we? Do you ever have to force yourself
to do the things that God says to do. You know, somebody told me one
time, they were talking about what they call the new nature.
And I've often said, that term doesn't really bother me unless
people take it too far, and some people do. But he said he had
a perfect, uncontaminated, divine nature within that cannot sin
and cannot be contaminated. I said, you do? He said, yeah. And I said, well, first of all,
the scripture doesn't teach that. Now, we have the spirit. We have
life within. We have spiritual life. If you
want to call that a new nature, that's fine with me. I don't
care. But here's the thing about it. There's a struggle within. And I asked this fellow, I said,
well, what evidence in your life that shows you you have an uncontaminated
nature that cannot sin and cannot be contaminated, cannot be corrupt?
And he said, love. And I said, so you love me with
a perfect love? You love your neighbor, you love
your enemy, you don't have any struggle there now. Because if
it's uncontaminated, you don't have to struggle to love your
enemy. And what Christ said, now if
you have an uncontaminated, uncorrupted love, then you don't have any
problems loving your enemy. I mean, it's not even a question
in your mind. You don't even have to argue
with yourself like I do. You don't even have to be reminded
that that's wrong for you to think ill of those who would
do you and your family the most harm. Now you understand where
I'm coming from on that. Paul described it in Romans 7. I know what I should be, I know
what I should do, but I cannot because of the flesh. That contaminates
everything I think, say, and do. You see, Righteousness is
perfect satisfaction to God's justice. Now, where am I going
to find that? There's only one person, and
that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Why in the world would I want
to go anywhere else to find righteousness when I have all that I need and
all that God requires in the person and work of His Son? No righteousness of man could
ever even come close to that. Nothing done by us or through
us can even come close to it. So these are two distinct things.
God, the Holy Spirit, gives us faith to believe. And that faith,
as He gives it, is pure and uncontaminated by sin until it expresses itself
through a wretch like me. Oh, wretched man that I am. The
Bible speaks. Look over at Romans chapter four.
Let me show you this. And look at verse 13. He's talking about Abraham. Abraham
believed the promise. It says in Romans 4, Abraham
believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness. That
doesn't mean Abraham's believing, his act of believing, his exercise
of faith in Christ was imputed to him. The it there is very
clearly marked out in this passage here as righteousness. Abraham
believed God. Well, what did God tell him?
What did God promise him? Well, the promise that Paul is
dealing with in Romans four is the promise of the coming Messiah,
Christ, to come into the world and to do what he promised to
do before the foundation of the world. In other words, that Christ
would be faithful to put away Abraham's sins. That Christ would
be faithful to stand in Abraham's place and die for him. That Christ would be faithful
to establish righteousness for Abraham. And then in verse 13
it says, for the promise that he should be heir of the world
was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law. Now that
promise didn't come through any works of the law, but through
the righteousness of faith. the righteousness of faith. Now
what is the righteousness of faith? Well that's the righteousness
that God promised Abraham that would come in the future through
Christ. That's what he's talking about
and the whole context begs of that. Faith is the gift and power
of God in bringing us to receive Christ, to believe in Him, to
rest in Him, to cling to Him, to hold on to Him. Righteousness
is perfect satisfaction to God's law and justice that comes through
Him and by Him. So, our believing does not produce
righteousness. It doesn't. Christ did that already. Our believing does not even empower
righteousness. Righteousness brings forth faith.
Christ gives us faith to believe. And our believing doesn't even
appropriate righteousness, because righteousness is imputed long
before faith is given to receive it. Our believing receives Christ,
believes in him, rests in him, and goes to him. Now, I want
you to turn to Hebrews chapter two. And I want you to look at this.
This is probably, you know, you can always pick out several passages
that kind of say it all. And one that we normally go to
here is Romans 3. I already mentioned that, how
Christ was set forth by God to be a propitiation for our sins,
to declare his righteousness. But let's go to this one. And
here's what I want to say in conclusion here. We're talking
about the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. To do for us what we
cannot and could not do for ourselves. To justify us. Well, what did
it take? What did it take for Jesus Christ
to produce this righteousness? What did it take for him to fulfill
his promise made before the foundation of the world. Well, Hebrews 2
here shows us. Well, he had to be, a summation
of it is this, he had to be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God. The Old Testament is stocked
full of promises and prophecies and types of that. Christ our
great high priest, Christ the Lord our righteousness. I'm gonna
preach from Psalm 22 this morning on the reason for all seasons. They call it the Psalm of the
cross and it is. And the Old Testament's full
of it. Christ is the fulfillment of it. But look what it took
for him to do what he promised to do, to be faithful. And it
says, look at verse 14 of Hebrews 2, we'll start there. We could
do the whole chapter, but I don't have time. But look at Hebrews
2.14, look at this. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood. Now who are the children there?
That's God's elect people. It's God's chosen people. The
children of God, that's who he's talking about. And what is he
talking about? They're partakers of flesh and
blood. We're human, we're fallen sinful human beings. Well, it
says he, that is Christ also himself, likewise, or in the
same way, took part of the same. Christ had to have a human body
and soul. The difference is that he was
without sin. We're born fallen. We're born
dead in trespasses and sins. When Christ was born, he was
born in a different way. And that's what the story that's
told in this season a lot, and that's okay. I mean, I'm not
putting that down, you know. Yes, Christ is the reason for
the season, but not just this season. That's what I'm gonna
make the point in next time, or the next message. But it talks
about how unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,
Isaiah chapter nine. Put that in your bulletin today,
and I'm going to read it here in a minute, in the next hour. That's His incarnation. His name
shall be called Jesus. He shall save His people from
their sins. His name shall be called Emmanuel, which being
interpreted, God with us. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. Now, Christ, in order to fulfill
His promise before the foundation of the world, made before the
foundation of the world, in order for him to be faithful, he had
to condescend to be made in the likeness of sinful flesh without
sin. And throughout his life as a
human, and he's not just human now, he's God in human flesh,
This is what made him capable of being faithful to do what
he promised to do. That's why he had to do it. In
his life on this earth as God in human flesh, he could not,
did not sin in any way, shape, or form, or fashion. He was never
contaminated with the sins of his people. He was never corrupted
with the sins of his people. The sins of his people were never
at any time, not even on the cross, infused, imparted, imbued,
or transferred to him in any way but by imputation, but by
account, legal accounting. But he could not be a sinner.
He's the Lamb of God. And if you look at all the Old
Testament pictures about those lambs that were sacrificed, they
had to be a spotless lamb, didn't they? If you make him a sinner
in himself, you deny his deity, his humanity, and his substitutionary
work. But yes, he had to be made like
sinful flesh, yet without sin. And so likewise, he took part
of the same. Now why did he do it? Now look
at verse 14 again. He did it that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil. He had to
die. God could not have snapped his finger and redeemed us. God is a holy God. And he requires
justice. And that's not something that's
mean or negative or anything. That's the nature of God. People
see that as negative and mean today because anybody gets justice
Today, I mean, they act like, well, the state's being cruel.
They're not being cruel, they're just being just. One of the lost
concepts of our modern society is the truth of real justice. Now, you all know that's so.
Every day you probably read something in the newspaper or see something
on the television news that is a perversion of justice. But not in God's kingdom. Justice
still stands forth. Now why did Jesus Christ come
into this world? Born of a woman. Born of a virgin.
Without sin. Because He had to die in the
place of sinners. And He had to have a human body
to do so. You can't kill God. But this person who is God did
die, and that's attributed to his humanity. So he took part
of the same. He took part of flesh and blood. Now, what was he doing there?
He was being faithful to his promise. He condescended, and
you can read about that in Philippians 2. There's that portion where
Paul talked about, let this mind be in you, humility of Christ. in doing that. He condescended
and took upon himself the form of a servant, made himself of
no reputation. You can read about it in Isaiah
53. A man of sorrows, acquainted
with grief. He knew grief. He didn't, listen,
he knew no sin, but he suffered the effects of sin, because he
knew grief. He knew sorrow, he knew pain.
He knew all those things, soul suffering. Remember him in the
garden of Gethsemane? That wasn't Christ denying his
work, it was Christ in his human weakness, infirmities, the scripture
says in Hebrews 4, the infirmities of the flesh, bearing up under
the weight of sorrow and pain. I mean, when they stuck the thorn
of crowns in his head, would it hurt? Do you think it hurt?
Or was he just play acting? No, it hurt. Just like if it
stuck in your head. When they drove those nails in
his hands and his feet, did it hurt? Yes, it hurt. In fact,
we can't even describe the kind of pain that he went through
in his suffering under death. But that's not because he was
made a sinner. And it's not because he was contaminated. And I'll show you that in the
next message, even more detail. But all through that, he was
being faithful. And what he was doing, in verse
14, destroying him that had the power of death, that is the devil.
Now the power of death that the devil has is the power of accusation
that brings condemnation. If I accuse you of a crime and
they take you to court and prove you committed the crime, my accusation
turns into your condemnation. But now if I accuse you of a
crime and they take you to court and they pronounce you innocent,
or not guilty rather, because I can't prove it, then my accusation
falls short. Well, when the devil, who is
the accuser of the brethren, accuses God's people, the accusations
don't stick. And you know why? Well, David
said it even before Christ came. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity. Meaning, blessed is the man to
whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works. And that's, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's, God cannot and will not charge his children
for whom Christ died with sin. He charges them with righteousness.
So the power of death that the devil has, it's not the power
to kill you or make you alive. The devil doesn't have that power.
Job knew that, he said, the Lord killeth, the Lord maketh alive.
Blessed be the name of the Lord. Who appoints the times of our
life? God does, not the devil. The
devil doesn't have that power. But look at verse 15, and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. That fear of death is a legal
bondage to people who do not know Christ. And then verse 16,
he says, for verily he took not on him the nature of angels,
but he took upon him the seed of Abraham. Now, who is the seed
of Abraham? Well, if you look in the scripture,
it's anyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then look
at verse 17. He says, wherefore, for this
reason and all things it behooved him, and I've told you that word
behoove is the Greek word for debt. Christ was faithful to
pay the debt. It behooved him to be made like
unto his brethren, that's his incarnation, that he might be
a merciful and faithful high priest. Now he's merciful and
he's faithful. And he can't be merciful without
being faithful. And he can't be faithful without
being merciful. It has to be both. And another
way of saying that is he has to be both one who shows mercy
to sinners, but also one who, as it says here, merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, he must be
one who does what God requires. So he must be faithful to satisfy
justice. And then it says to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people. Now that word reconciliation
there is kind of the same or derived from
propitiation. It means he's satisfied. He's
satisfied. So when you look at passages
like Galatians 2.16, that's what Paul's saying. That's the point
he's making. That's what he's driving home to the people of
God in Galatia, those who are being swayed from the gospel
by these legalists. He's saying, look, we're not
justified by anything that we do. It's not by circumcision.
It's not by keeping the law. We're justified by the faith
of Christ to do what he promised and was sent to do.