Now, returning back to the book
of Galatians, you know we're going through this book verse
by verse, but I've decided to take a little interlude here
concerning one phrase that we find in verse 16. The last time,
I just read through these last verses of chapter 2 and commented
on them so that we might understand the context. But the title of
this message is justified by faith of Jesus Christ. This is the second part of that.
That phrase comes from verse 16. Listen to what the apostle
Paul writes. And he's talking about, remember
he's talking about his episode in Antioch where he had to withstand
Peter to the face publicly. In defense of the gospel of God's
grace and the fact that sinners are saved by God, not based upon
anything in, of, or through us, but totally based upon the blood
of Christ, his righteousness alone, his righteousness imputed,
which is our ground of salvation. And we cannot do anything or
say anything that'll bring that into question. And so he's reminding
them of this, verse 16, knowing that a man is not justified by
the works of the law. In other words, a man is not
made right with God. That's what justified means.
That's what righteousness means. It means to be made right with
God. Things are right with God. And that means to be not guilty.
It means to be not charged with our sins. Blessed is the man
to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, whose sins are covered. it means to be declared righteous
before God. That's what justified means.
If you're justified, you are, in reality, by God's declaration,
by God's judgment, righteous in his sight. And Paul's saying,
now, this whole episode here, and the problem that exists in
the churches of Galatia, is a testimony of something that we who are
saved by the grace of God already know. We know, knowing that a
man is not justified by the works of the law. There's no act of
obedience that a sinner can perform that will remove sin. There's
no act of obedience that a sinner can do that will make him righteous
before God. So how is a sinner made righteous? How are things made right between
God and sinners? Well, he says, knowing that a
man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith
of Jesus Christ. Now I stress here the word of. Look, it says, by the faith of
Jesus Christ. And that's what the subject of
this little interlude away from, we're not going away from, because
this is the subject of Galatians. But I'm gonna talk a lot about
it, and it may be another message before we continue on through
the book of Galatians. We talk about faith in Jesus
Christ, because the Bible says that those who believe in Jesus
Christ are saved. But what Paul's saying here is
that we're justified not by our faith in Jesus Christ, but by
the faith of, or the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And that's important,
that's an important distinction. And the way we know that that's
important, look here, he says, by the faith of Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in Jesus Christ. So now he talks about
believing in Jesus Christ. So think about it this way, and
I don't want you to be confused on this. Because of the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ, that's his faithfulness to do what he promised to do. He was faithful. And I'm gonna
show you several scriptures in this message, and I'm sure I
won't get to the end of it in this one message, but I'm gonna
show you several scriptures that prove that. Christ himself was
faithful. to do what he promised to do.
Now, before the foundation of the world, there was a covenant
made between the Father and the Son and the Spirit, wherein God
the Father chose a people and gave them to his Son, and his
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity,
agreed and promised to do for his people what we could not
do for ourselves. It's kind of like if you look
at the book of Philemon. You remember in Philemon, where
there was a runaway slave, his name was Onesimus, and he had
stolen from his master. And then he, by the providence
of God, ended up in Rome with Paul, and Paul preached the gospel
to this man, and the man was converted by the grace of God.
Onesimus became a brother in Christ. This scoundrel, this
runaway, became a became a brother in Christ. And so Paul wrote
a letter to Philemon, his master, interceding on his behalf. And
you remember Paul made this statement in the book of Philemon. He said,
if he hath wronged thee, put it on my account. I will repay
it. Well, what was Paul doing there?
He was making a promise to do for this Onesimus what Onesimus
couldn't do for himself. He said, put it on my account,
I'll repay it. I promise to do that. Now was
Paul faithful to that promise? Well, we don't know. There's nothing in the Bible
that speaks of anything after that in that little segment of
history. But we assume Paul was faithful
to do that. And that's a type of Christ.
Before the foundation of the world, The Lord Jesus Christ
said, put their debt on my account, their sin debt on my account,
I'll repay it. That's why he became our surety.
And so he's the surety of the promise. Now, was he faithful
to do what he promised to do for his people? And the answer
is yes. And that's what Paul means by this, that we're justified
by the faith of Jesus Christ. His faithfulness to do for us
what he promised to do. Is that clear? I want to make
sure. Now, when we see the reality
and the glory of true salvation as it's set forth in the word
of God, we see how important it is that we have all things
in their proper order. All things in their right perspective.
Now, why is that important? Well, because in salvation, according
to the Bible, Christ must have the preeminence. All glory goes
to Christ and no glory goes to us. That no flesh should glory
in his presence, the scripture says. So all glory goes to Christ. And he must have all the preeminence
and glory and we must have none God gets all the glory we who
are saved get all the benefits and all the blessings of salvation
and So with that in mind consider these three things now now, let
me read the rest of the verse first He says in verse 16 now
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 We believe in him We believe in who he is, we believe in what
he accomplished by his faithfulness to do what he said, that we might
be justified by the faith of Christ. Now there's that term
again, you see it? We're made right with God, not
by our faithfulness, but by his faithfulness, his work, his efforts. His fulfillment of promises.
If salvation were conditioned on us fulfilling our promises,
we'd be lost forever. And if you don't believe that,
I'll tell you why. It's because you're full of self-righteousness. That may sound harsh, but that's
the way it is. That's what the scripture teaches.
You say, well, I'm gonna make my promises and I'm gonna fulfill
them. I'll guarantee you you'll mess
up, because I know, I've been there. I mess up every day. That's
why salvation is not conditioned on our faith in him. Our salvation
is conditioned on his faith to do what he promised. Now, must
we believe on him? Well, hold on now, all right?
He says, we're 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 consider these three things.
Number one, there's no doubt that in order for us to be saved,
we must do two things. we must believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He that believeth not shall be
what? Damned. No one is going to be
saved without believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you don't
believe in him, you're lost. If you don't believe in him,
to die in unbelief is to die in a condemned state. Know what
scripture says? Secondly, we must remain faithful
to Him unto the end. We must believe in Him and we
must remain faithful to Him unto the end. It's impossible to be
saved without faith in Christ, believing in Christ, and it's
impossible to be saved without remaining faithful to Christ.
Those who claim to believe in Him and fall away are lost. They don't lose their salvation,
the scripture teaches us. But the Bible says this, moreover
it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. We must
be faithful to him. And those who profess to believe
but fall away from Christ never really believed it. The scripture
teaches that. Because all whom God brings to faith in Christ
shall by God's grace endure to the end. That's called perseverance
of the saints. And we know that faith is not
in us naturally. Man by nature is not a believer. Man by nature is an unbeliever. Now that doesn't mean he's not
religious. He'll be religious. He'll seek a God, but it's not
the God of the Bible. So perseverance and faithfulness,
believing as God's true children is required, it's necessary for
us to have eternal life and inner final glory in Christ. That's
number one. Now here's the second thing. It's also true, as I said,
that no man or woman by nature has faith to believe and none
of us by nature of our own will and our own power will remain
faithful to Christ. Even as believers, if God were
to remove his hand of sovereign power and grace from us, we'd
fall away. In other words, if God doesn't
keep us, we're not going to be kept. That's why Paul said, I
know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able
to what? Keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. He is able, Christ is able to
save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him. So we know
that the Bible teaches us that none of us by nature have faith
to believe, none of us by nature will persevere that that's all
the work of God. For by grace are you saved, through
faith, that not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. God gives us faith to believe
in him. God preserves us by his grace.
He keeps us so that we who truly believe in him cannot fall unto
damnation. And so we persevere in the faith
because he preserves us. And it's not the other way around.
That's the second thing. Number three. Therefore, faith
in Christ and faithfulness to Christ is not the ground or cause
of our salvation or our justification before God. God does not save
us on the basis of our believing in Christ. He will not save us
without our believing in Christ, but that's not the ground. And
also our faithfulness to Christ is not the ground of our salvation,
our justification, or even our glorification. God saves us,
he justifies us, he glorifies us, but not on the ground of
anything done by us or in us or through us. It's all based
upon one thing, what Christ has done for us. And we have to keep
that clear. So when he speaks about justified
here in Galatians 2, think about it. You know that word justified
is an interesting word, to be just before God, to be justified
before God. As I said, it means to be not
guilty. That's the, what you might say, the negative part
of it. I'm not guilt. I'm a sinner.
If God were to ever give me what I deserve or what I've earned,
it would be eternal damnation. But I'm not guilty in the eyes
of God's law and justice. Now, how can that be? Well, it's
because someone took my guilt. and said, put it on my account.
Just like Paul said to Philemon, put it on my account, I'll repay
it. That's what Christ did for me. It's what he did for his
people. If you're one of his people, that's what Christ did
for you. Put it on my account, he said.
But the positive is, is to be righteous. When it says justified,
it means to be righteous before God. And he's pointing them back to
the ground of salvation. Here's the first thing you need
to understand. Righteousness, righteousness, to be justified
now, you can interchange those terms. To be made righteous and to be justified before God.
Righteousness imputed. As Christ said, put his sins
on my account, he also said, put my righteousness on his account. And that's the ground of salvation.
That's the ground of our justification before God. Righteousness imputed
is the ground of our justification before God. How can a sinner
be justified with God? Now what we're talking about
here, what Paul's dealing with and the reason he felt necessary,
it necessary to withstand Peter to the face is because it's like
this, we're talking about the very heart of the gospel. If
you don't get this right, or if you bring this into question
or deny this, you're cutting the very heart out of the gospel. You know, the reformers. We talk
about the reformers, we're talking usually about men like John Huss
and John Calvin, Martin Luther, people like that. They commonly
spoke of justification by faith. You'll hear that term all the
time. As opposed to justification by works. Speaking of a sinner's
justification before God. Now, how God judges a sinner
not guilty and righteous in his sight. And when we talk about
being justified by faith, that is a biblical term. Look back
at Romans chapter three with me. Look over at verse 28. It says here in Romans 3.28, It
says, therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith
without the deeds of the law. So justified by faith. The problem
is, is that people have confused this, even perverted it to make
justification before God on the basis of our believing. That's
not what Romans 3 28 says. That's not what it's about. I've
even heard preachers say this, they say, the moment we believe
in Christ, God counts us righteous. That's not so. We're counted
righteous in Christ before the foundation of the world. That's
what the scripture says. When did Christ, when was he,
if you're in Christ, if you're a sinner saved by grace, when
was Christ made your surety? Before the foundation of the
world. So this doesn't mean that the
moment we believe, God is waiting for us to believe, in other words,
before he can count us righteous. Now, a lot of people will say,
well, in our conscience, and that's true. Man has a guilty
conscience by nature. That's one of the products of
the fallen Adam, a guilty conscience. That's why man is religious.
Cain had a guilty conscience or he would have never brought
his offering to God. But he knew something was wrong
and he had to do it. In his mind, he says, I know
there's something wrong. I know I'm a sinner and I've
got to do something to make it right with God. So what did he
do? He brought the works of his hands. Well, that's the wrong
way. That's being justified by works. So we have a guilty conscience
by nature and we'll do all kinds of things to soothe the guilty
conscience. Get religion, deny it, just ignore
it. or go crazy or whatever, but
man has a guilty conscience. Well, the moment we believe in
Jesus Christ, we could say we're justified in our conscience because
now I know that my sins were charged to him and his righteousness
is imputed to me. And that soothes the guilty conscience,
isn't that right? But it's not because I believed
in him, you say. Righteousness, justification
before God is not the product of our believing in him, it's
just the opposite. Our believing in him is the product
of what he did. His righteousness imputed. Our
believing in Christ is the product of our justification based on
Christ's righteousness and purity. Now, why is that so important?
Again, because Christ must have the preeminence, not you, not
me. We can glory only in him. We're
to glory in Christ, not in our faith. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians
15, 17, he said, if Christ be not raised, your faith is in
vain, you're yet in your sins. You see, without Christ doing
his work, faith is nothing. And the Bible's clear. We're
not justified on the ground or basis of our believing. We're
justified before God on the ground or basis of the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ imputed to us. And that's what Romans
3 is teaching. Look back up in verse 25. Well,
let's go on. Go back up to verse 23, Romans
3, 23. He says, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Now that means we missed
the mark. Coming short there, that's the most common word that's
used for sin in the New Testament is a word that means we fall
short, we miss the mark. And the mark there is the glory
of God. Well now, where is the glory
of God seen? In Christ. So what is the mark that we miss?
Well, we miss the mark of righteousness, perfection. So in other words,
at our best, we miss the mark. Now that gives you a definition
of sin in the Bible that most people don't wanna face. In other
words, just like I told somebody a while back, or just a while
ago, that a lot of people in Europe and in Australia and places
like that. Salvation to them is when a person
comes from the pub to the pew. But see, you can come from the
pub to the pew and still miss the mark. You understand what
I'm saying? Or coming from the pub to the
pew doesn't make a sinner righteous. Now, nothing wrong with a sinner
coming from the pub to the pew if the pew he's sitting in is
under the gospel. Don't get me wrong. But that's not what makes
us righteous before God. And so we've missed the mark.
And so what that does for us by revelation of the Holy Spirit
is it gives us a context for sin. That sin is not just the
dregs of society who wallow in abject immorality. Now is that
sin? Yes. There's no argument there. We're not saying that drunkenness
is not a sin, that drug pushing is not a sin. Yes, those are
sins. Those are great sins. But the context of the scripture
puts sin in this vein that even the best of people and the best
of situations, we still fall short. Religion will not make
you righteous before God. That's what the issue of Galatians
is. Here come the Jews and they say, now, yes, we must believe
in Christ, but you've got to be circumcised. You've got to
keep the law of Moses. They're not promoting drunkenness
and drug abuse and the immorality. They're promoting their religion.
But the point is, is that it still comes short. Anything that
comes short, you cannot be justified before God based on anything
that comes short of the mark. So look back at Romans 3.23,
we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. And then
he says in verse 24, being justified freely, that word freely means
without a cause. And it's by his grace. Through
what? The redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. Now the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus is another way of describing the faith of Christ,
the faithfulness of Christ. He was faithful to redeem us.
He promised before the foundation of the world to redeem us, to
pay the price, to pay the debt, to establish righteousness, to
put away sin. He promised to do all that. So
that's his faithfulness. Was he faithful to do it? Yes.
And so we're justified freely, unconditionally by God's grace
based on what? The redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. And then look at verse 25. He
says, whom God has set forth to be the propitiation through
faith in his blood. Our faith is not in our faith.
Our faith is in what? His blood. There was a lady over
in Australia who'd been listening to messages of mine for several
years. And she said that, at first, she wrote me an email
about this several years ago, and I sent her some information
on it. She said, well, I hear you talking
about the righteousness of Christ, but not the blood of Christ.
And what she needed to understand is those are the same things. You see, when you talk about
the righteousness of Christ, You're talking about his blood.
Look at it, verse 25. Whom God has set forth to be
a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare what?
His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God. What did it take for Jesus Christ
to attain righteousness for his people? He had to die. He had to be obedient unto death.
He had to shed his precious blood. Now a lot of times we'll say
we're saved based on his blood and righteousness, but in reality,
that's the same thing. That's what it took. He had to
be faithful to shed his blood unto death in order to work out
righteousness for his people. Look at verse 26. And he says
there in verse 25, for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God. What that means is this, when Christ
died on the cross, he died not only for the sins of New Testament
saints, but also for the Old Testament sins that are passed. In verse 26, to declare, I say
at this time, his righteousness. You see his death on the cross,
his redemptive work is a declaration of his righteousness. that he
might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. So there you have a distinction
between the work that Christ did and our believing in him. And he says in verse 26, to declare
I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus, where is boasting then,
verse 27? It's excluded, we don't have
any room to glory, that word boast is to glory. By what law
of works? What principle is it that removes
all grounds of boasting in us? Is it works? No, because if it
works, we'd have ground for boasting. Nay, but by the law of faith.
Now what is the law of faith? It's the gospel of salvation. Salvation secured and acquired
and applied by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. to do what he
said he would do. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Now what
is it to be justified by faith? It's to be justified by what
Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross to put away our sins. And
it's so, you know, it's so important for us today. And the reason
is because You know, the most popular prevailing false gospel
of today teaches men that it's their faith, their believing
that makes the difference between saved and lost, not what Christ
did. That's the most popular false gospel today, reduces the
death of Christ, his blood. is righteousness to nothing more
than a mere possibility of salvation if sinners will do their part
in believing. And that makes salvation conditioned
not on the faithfulness of Christ, but faith in him. And we, by
nature, don't have that. And that's why this has to be
brought out. That's why it had to be brought out in Paul and
Peter's day. That's why it was so important.
That's why Paul said, I can't leave this alone. Look back at
Galatians two and I'll conclude. Paul said back up there in verse
11, he said, when I, when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood
him to the face because he was to be blamed. And then he tells
what happened. Here's Peter. he's eating with
uncircumcised Gentiles but believing Gentiles uncircumcised physically
but circumcised in heart and ears believers and when Peter
sat down to eat with such people that was a statement to the Jews
you're counting them equal to you in the sight of God that's
what that that's what that ritual meant now that's A lot of that
has to do with traditions of men and all that, and I'm not
going to go into all that history because we don't have time. But
it's kind of like, you know, when you go back in, all the
way back to Exodus, and you don't have to turn there, when God
brought forth the law down out of Sinai, there was a clear separation
there between God and sinners. You remember he said, don't come
near that mount, don't touch it. He said, even if a sheep
or a goat comes near, thrust him through with a spear. You
cannot approach unto God. There's another passage where
God invites Moses to come up and sit with him and sup with
him. And that's an emblem of fellowship
with God. In other words, you're on an
equal plane with each other in Christ. That's what he's saying
there. You're not on an equal plane with God, no, because God
is God. But you have communion with God.
You have fellowship with God. You have acceptance from God.
And of course, all that's based upon what God pictured in the
obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ came
into the world and he sat down and ate with publicans and sinners,
the Jews were appalled. So here's Peter sitting down
with Gentiles, eating. And these fellas came from the
church of Jerusalem, claiming to be saved, claiming to be Christian.
And Peter got up and moved tables, implying that, no, we're not
on an equal plane here. Those are Gentiles. I'm a Jew.
I'm better. I'm more righteous. I'm holier.
And I don't want to be seen with such company. And Paul said here
in verse 14, when I saw that they walked not uprightly according
to the truth of the gospel, you see, that's not the truth of
the gospel. That kind of behavior is not the truth of the gospel.
The kind of behavior that's the truth of the gospel says, look,
if you're in Christ, you're as equally saved as I am. You're
as equally righteous as I am. You're as equally justified,
not guilty, forgiven as I am. Because none of it's based upon
anything in us, of us, from us, through us, or by us. It's all
based upon what Christ alone did for us.