In Galatians chapter 2 verses
19 to 21 Paul has the following to say, I through the law am
dead to the law that I might live unto God. 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, who loved
me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. 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,
who loved me and gave himself for me. The life which I now
live, the life which I now live. Paul speaks here of a change,
a great change, a great change in him. He has a new life, an
entirely new life, of an entirely different order, character and
quality from that life he once had as a sinner born of Adam. What he was as Saul, born of
Adam, a sinner, fallen, born in sin, born from the womb going
forth speaking lies, what he had in Adam. could not be improved,
it could not be bettered, it could not be cleansed, it could
not be made righteous, it could not in itself be reconciled with
a holy God whom he had offended. In Adam he was dead in trespasses
and sins. In Adam, as a descendant of Adam,
Like you and I, the same as you and I, Paul was lost, condemned,
dead, lost. There was no salvation to which
he could attain through his natural strength. And of all men Paul
had tried, of all men he had done his best. A Pharisee of
the Pharisees of the tribe of Benjamin circumcised the eighth
day as pertaining to the law of God blameless. He was devout,
he was religious, he was brought up in the Jewish religion. He had the oracles of God, the
scriptures. He kept God's holy law in its
outward forms, in its outward rituals. He kept the sacrifices. He kept all the laws, all the
Old Testament laws, the Ten Commandments outwardly he would keep. He'd
keep the Sabbath day. He would not steal outwardly.
He would not commit adultery. He would worship his Lord God. He would offer up sacrifices
as and when according to that law. He would follow the dietary
laws. He would not eat this and eat
that as God commanded the Jewish nation. He would not touch those
things which were unclean. He was exacting and careful in
his keeping of that law and yet it brought him nowhere. It brought
him to persecute the church, it brought him to hate Jesus
Christ and the followers of Christ, it brought him nowhere. He discovered
when the Spirit of God began to teach him that in reality
all his law keeping was as filthy rags in God's eyes. Everything
which at one point in his life he would have taken pride in
was filthy in God's eyes. At one point he thought he was
doing pretty well. At one point like other Pharisees
he would have looked upon others and thought at least I'm not
like that sinner. I don't go there, I don't do
that, I'm careful before God, surely God will reward me. Yet there came a day when God
truly had dealings with Paul and his dealings with God ceased
to be upon the letter, upon the pages of scripture, ceased to
simply be those things which he thought in his head. But then
there came a day when God actually confronted him. When he heard
the word of God, when he heard Christ speak. And everything
changed. Everything which he thought was
good that he did, he recognised was evil. All his law keeping
he recognised to be tatters. That in reality he'd never kept
that law. In external details perhaps,
in the appearance of man perhaps, but in God's eyes he'd broken
all the ten commands every day of his life. Inwardly his heart
was a sewer. which brought up this filth of
corruption from his fallen nature every day. All those inward thoughts,
as he put himself to that law to try to keep it, he discovered
he could not. The evil that I would not, that
I do, he said. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from this body of sin and death? When the Spirit
awakened him, he recognized that he was lost. Have you been there? Have you even begun to experience
something of this desperation which came upon Paul when he
recognized under the teaching of God that he had no ability
whatsoever to keep the law of God. That everything he thought
was good and religious and worthy was filthy. Not just that it
wasn't good enough. Not just that he was let down
in his good deeds by those occasional bad deeds he did. It's not just
that he was good when he went to worship but then he accidentally,
or didn't really mean to, got in a circumstance where he told
a lie or where he failed to do something right and that ruined
everything. But Paul learned that the good
was evil. What he thought was good in God's
eyes was corrupt. He took pride in everything he
did and as such it was evil. Well have you been there? Has
God taught you that you cannot keep this law? You've got no
strength ability and if you strive at it everything you do is tainted
by sin because you are a sinner and you have a fallen nature
and an iniquitous heart. You're lost in sin. You can't
keep the law. You'll never realize or understand
or comprehend a thing of what Paul is teaching in Galatians
until you've got somewhere there. For as long as you think that
you can in some measure attain to this law, or in some measure
attain to godly living, As long as you think that you can apply
yourself either to the law of the Old Testament or to the teachings
in the New Testament, if you think you can come at the Sermon
of the Mount, any of this, and rise to it in any strength, and
if you think there's any good in any of your attempts to keep
it, then you haven't seen one thing that Paul saw when the
Spirit of God opened his eyes. and you'll stay under that law,
you'll stay, you'll continue to strive and to work and to
think that somehow, some way, God will be pleased with you
through your religion. But Paul needed a total change,
a radical change, something had to happen to him to slay everything
that he was, to transform his understanding, to bring him to
nothing. All his thinking regarding God
and his law and the way to God and the way of salvation had
to be brought to naught. He had to realize that everything
he was doing to that point was wrong. It was sinful. But not just this, it was he
was going about it wrongly. He understood it wrongly. He
never truly understood what the law was all about. That the law
was not given for him to attain, for him to make himself righteous
or better. But the law was given to show
him that he was a sinner, corrupt, lost and that he had no hope
of keeping it. And that he needed something
outside of himself in order to bring him to God. Something outside
of himself was necessary to save him. That salvation must be entirely
outside of self. that by self all you can do is
come to your feet come to your knees in desperation knowing
that you've tried your hardest and it's useless Paul came there
Saul came there and when he came there and when God opened his
eyes God showed him that salvation in its entirety had nothing whatsoever
to do with what Paul did, said, or thought, but was entirely
outside of himself. Paul's thinking and doing was
simply that which would be transformed to then see and understand what
God had done in the gospel through his son, Jesus Christ. Paul needed to be slain in order
that through Jesus Christ he might live again. Paul needed
to be brought to an end of his old self in order that in Christ
he might rise again, believing as one who has faith, looking
to the work of another. look into the one who did and
wrought all that was necessary to save Paul, to perfect Paul,
to bring Paul into glory, to do everything to bring him
to God. And when Paul realized that and
knew that, he could say, I am crucified with Christ. All that
I was has been slain. It's total. It's not even that
certain aspects of my life have been put away. It's not even
that my old religion has been crucified. My false understanding. But I am crucified with Christ. All that I am by nature in Adam
is dead. Total. And if you are ever brought
to faith, if you are ever brought to salvation through Jesus Christ,
then you will know what it is to die, to be slain, to be able
to look back and say, all that I was, all that I fought, all
that was me before has gone. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
Paul says, Nevertheless, I live, I live. Through this death came
life. Through this death came everlasting
life. Through this death came that
life which Paul now had which was totally in contrast with
all that went before. A life of a different order,
a life without a beginning and an end, eternal life. A different
quality of life, a righteous life, a perfect life, a pure
life. A life which brought him to peace
with God. He strove to attain to peace
with God under the law. He strove in the flesh and all
came to nothing. But now he has a life in which
he knows God. A different life. Nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. What is this life
that Paul speaks of? It's Christ. The life of Christ
within. Eternal life as it is in Christ. Christ's life. Not simply that
Christ gave him life, but his life is Christ. Christ liveth
in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. Yes, there's this new life. This
new life, there was a life he had before, but how different
now. That has gone, and now he lives. 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. The life which I now live in
the flesh. Let us consider this phrase and
the meaning of this, the life which I now live. This is at
the center of what Paul is speaking of in Galatians. The Galatians
had turned from the gospel. They in reality were turning
from this life They believed the gospel, they believed on
Jesus Christ in whom is life. And yet in their life in the
flesh, they were being persuaded that they needed to turn back
to the very thing which had slain them. There were those who would
come alongside saying that's fair enough, Christ has delivered
you, Christ has saved you, Christ gave himself for you when he
died upon the cross to take your sins away. We believe that, you
believe that. But you must keep the law of
God. It's eternal. It's His holy righteous law.
It teaches us His righteousness. It teaches us what He expects
of man. He teaches us what we should
be as Christians. Jews or Gentiles, that law stands
over all. And when God gave that law, prior
to the law he gave circumcision to Abraham our father and that's
that what marks us out as different from the heathen. So you should
be circumcised like the Jews to show that you've been you've
had the flesh cut off to show that there's been this change.
Be circumcised. demonstrating reality the change
the cutting away of the flesh and attain and set yourself to
the law of God again it can't be taken away it's still there but that's not what Paul said
that's not what he discovered and however right that sounded
however appealing that might be however bewitching it might
be The reality is that to which they were returning, which they
were being persuaded of, was the very thing which rather than
bringing life, and rather than instructing them in righteousness,
and rather than being that by which they could live the Christian
life, was the very thing which slew them in the first place.
For he says in the prior verse, I through the law, through the
law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. He's been
crucified with Christ. It was the law which brought
the condemnation. And it's the same law by which
he is now dead to the law. and through which he may then
live unto God, being dead to the law. If he were alive to the law,
he would not be alive unto God. But he is now dead to the law
and alive unto God. It's one or the other. What is
it with you? You may say, well, I believe
on Christ, but Christ would have me keep his commandments. Surely
that's the law. You're either alive to those
commandments, or you're alive unto God. I, through the law,
the commandments, commandments of the law, not necessarily Christ's
commandments, but I, through the law, am dead to the law,
that I might live unto God. What's it to be? Well, these
Galatians had returned to the law. And Paul here, in speaking
of the life which they are living, tells them of the life which
he now lives. The life which he now lives.
Having been crucified with Christ, having risen again with Christ,
having received the life of God in Jesus Christ, The life which he now lives in
the flesh, that life which brought faith to look and to believe
on Jesus Christ, the life which he now lives in the flesh is the life of Christ within, not the life of Adam under the
law. That life has gone. that has
been slain and he says this is my life now, this is your life. If righteousness come by the
law then Christ is dead in vain but righteousness didn't come
by the law and we're alive in Christ now and we walk by faith
now and we have a different life, a different order of life Our
life now is transformed. Then why are you going back to
the law? Why are you returning to the former things? Why are
you trying to build again the things which have been destroyed?
For if you do, you make yourself a transgressor. You go back to
the law, you go back under its condemnation because you break
it the moment you go back to it and you become a transgressor. But we're not, Paul says. I through
the law am dead to the law in order to this end for this purpose
that I might live unto God. And this is not a momentary thing. This is not simply a past event. Paul speaks here in these verses
of justification. 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. For if
while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also
are found sinners. Is therefore Christ the minister
of sin? God forbid. But Paul does not simply speak
of justification or salvation as a past event for he's speaking
to those now who are living and he's speaking of his life now
which he lives in the flesh. He has been crucified with Christ,
he has believed in Jesus Christ. and now having believed he can
say that I through the law am dead to the law now that I might
live unto God now. I'm no longer where I was then why are you returning? Why are you returning? There's been this change in Paul
He's been crucified. It wasn't the law that wrought
the change in his keeping of the law. The law brought the
condemnation. The change came through the condemnation
of the law being meted out upon another in Paul's place. Justification,
he reminds Peter and his hearers is not through the works of the
law. Peter knew that it was through faith in Christ that we are saved. And yet Peter also had been carried
away by fear of the Jews, to go and eat with Jews only and
not with the Gentiles. And so he was putting himself
back under the rituals of the law. and said in the Galatians the
Gentiles are wrong example. So Paul earlier reminds Peter
and those others that we know, we who are Jews by nature are
not sinners of the Gentiles 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. We know this Peter. Gentiles,
Galatians, we are not justified by the works of the law, but
by the faith of Jesus Christ. That wrought the change. Christ
did. Christ wrought the change. And
through what he did, we're given faith to believe on him. And
that brings about the knowledge of our justification. No other
way. It's not by the works of the
law. And if you know that, if you know that, foolish Galatians,
if you know that, why having begun in the spirit, chapter
three, verse three, do you now think that you're made perfect
by the flesh? Receive ye the spirit by the
works of the law or by the hearing of faith? When you came to know
Christ, when you were saved, when you believed, what brought
the change? Your works or the hearing of
faith? The hearing of faith. You heard
the gospel and you believed the gospel. Faith is how you begun. And faith, dear Galatians, is
how we continue. Not by works. Not by works. Justification properly considered
is an objective thing. We're not justified when we believe
as though that brings about a change. When we believe we come to know
in our experience that in God's eyes we're already just in Christ. Justification when we believe
is simply the subjective experience of justification where the spirit
witnesses within that we are just with God. But justification
objectively is that work of Christ upon the cross, where he stood
in a sinner's place, where he took the sins of his people. where he was made sin, as God
transformed his son in that mysterious transaction of substitution,
when he laid the sins of his people upon him, when he made
him to be their state, when he crucified them as they are in
Adam, in his own son, that their old nature might be slain, that
the old man of sin might be condemned and destroyed. and where their
sins might be judged and washed away by His blood. In those three
hours of darkness upon the cross, those three hours which Christ
knew He would face, when He was in Gethsemane, when He cried
out to His Father, if it would be possible may this cut pass
from me. When he saw the horror of what
would be done, what he would suffer, what he would have to
die. When he knew that his father
would crush him and beat him and bruise him in the sinner's
place. That's what he anticipated and
that's what came to pass. The horrors of death in the darkness
upon the cross. When he stood as the sinner.
as the one who himself had never sinned, as the one who never
sinned, as the one who was pure and perfect and as such the pure
Lamb of God was slain as the perfect substitute of his people. That death that substitution,
that taking of the condemnation and punishment which was due
to his own in their place as a substitute wrought justification. For God took the sins and iniquities
of his people and destroyed and judged them and having blotted
out the sins having burnt up the iniquity of sin in the old
man Adam, there was nothing left to be seen but his son in perfect
righteousness. God judged the sins of his own,
he judged the sin according to his very righteousness, according
to the righteousness of God, his pure own nature. that which
fulfilled all the demands of the righteousness of the law
but that which went higher and beyond it to his very nature
in absolute purity he judged the sins of his own to perfection
and having blotted out every last blemish every last speck
there was nothing to be seen but righteousness. And in Christ we are made the
righteousness of God, the righteousness of God. For He hath made Him
to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. Not in us, not in ourselves,
but in Christ. That's justification, it's an
objective work of God When God the Father slew his son in the
sinner's place, when he took the sin, took it away and brought
in its place at the end righteousness. When righteousness was wrought
it were in three hours of suffering upon the cross when the blackness
of sin was burnt up and destroyed and taken out of sight and when
at the end all that shone forth in the Savior was the brightness
of the light and white and purity of God's righteousness in his
Son and all his people were in him for they were the cause of
the sin which he judged. they were the recipients of the
righteousness which he brought in for them. It's an objective
thing. It was wrought through the work
of Christ that work of faith which he performed at the cross
when he looked to his father in perfect belief that he would
do what was promised from all eternity. When he looked up knowing
that the sins would be laid upon him knowing that they would be
destroyed, knowing that his death would accomplish that which was
purposed, and knowing that all for whom he died would be saved
with a certainty. He suffered, he went into the
abyss of condemnation at the cross, he suffered the turning
away of his father's face, he suffered the bruising at his
hand, because he knew, he trusted, he believed, that in the end
all his people would come through the other side of death with
him and would rise again with him victorious, would have everlasting
life in him and everlasting salvation. He believed it was a work of
faith. And that is what is referred
to in verse 16. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ. This is his faith brought it
in as a consequence of which we have believed in Jesus Christ. Paul speaks here of both the
objective and the subjective. We are justified through the
faith of Christ. through which we then believe
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. That's justification. That's
the gospel. That's the way that Paul was
crucified and the way that Paul lived again. And that brought
in the life of Christ within by which he lives now in the
flesh by the faith of the Son of God who loved him and gave
himself for him. Has Christ done this for you?
Were you there with Paul in Christ when he was crucified? When Christ
rose victorious from the grave, were you there in Christ rising
victorious from the grave? When you heard the gospel like
Paul heard the gospel, did you come to know that not being justified
by the works of the Lord but by the faith of Christ, did you
come to see that and to believe that? What grace, what mercy and what
love. The faith of the Son of God who
loved me and gave himself for me. It's all outside of Paul,
all outside of Paul. His rejoicing, his glorying is
in Christ. As he started off in the epistle,
to whom be glory forever and ever, amen. To God the Father
and to his Son Jesus Christ, to whom be glory. Why is the
glory to him? Because there's nothing to man.
Paul was crucified because of the one who died for him. The one who loved him and gave
himself for him. That's whom he gloried in. In what do you glory and whom
do you glory? Is it Christ? Is it grace? Is it mercy? Is it the love of
him who loved you and gave himself for you, should he have died
in your place? Well that's the gospel that the
Galatians heard from Paul. He reminds them of it. This is
what I believe, this is what you believed. Then why are you
turning back to the law? having begun in the hearing of
faith, having heard this wonderful truth of one outside of yourself
who's done it all. He's brought in all righteousness,
perfection, a hundred percent, you can't add to it. What do
you think you're going to add to the righteousness of God in
Christ? He's done it all, not just to
bring you to today for you to then carry on and start improving
or adding, but to bring you to eternity. You have eternal life
in Christ now. All your sins, past, present,
and future have been destroyed already. We have our all in Christ. Then having heard this and believed
this, Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit are
you now made perfect by the flesh? Will you return to the law, to
that by which you are dead, to that which slew you in Christ?
O foolish Galatians, who have bewitched you that you should
not obey the truth, that you should not believe the truth
and follow the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ have been evidently
set forth crucified among you. I've preached Christ and Him
crucified before you and you've seen Him. The Spirit of God has
declared Him to you. Then are you going to turn from
that to your hopeless works? Well, they did. They had. and
countless numbers throughout history have done ever since.
And we so easily do. For the nature of the flesh of
that which we inherited from Adam, which sadly we still carry
about in us even as believers until the day in which we pass
from this world into the next, we still carry about the burden
of the old man. The nature of that it's thinking
is always like a gravity to return to the law. and to works and
to self. It has this insatiable pull,
an insatiable deceptive influence. We continually think we should
do this, we should do that. We continually take pride in
the things we do or the bad things we haven't done. How easy it
is to be bewitched. like a gravity. Law to many is
like rain, like rain that just pours down upon the roof of a
building and if it can find one gap in the tiles of that roof,
one little hole, it will come dripping in. It's always there,
always pressing down, always raining down. But this wonderful
gospel of Paul's, the roof of this gospel has not the slightest
hole in it. You can force the law on this
gospel and it won't come in. You may take the gospel in your
head and mix it and corrupt it and bring law into it, but it
won't enter into Paul's gospel and he won't have it. He won't
let the Galatians do it, he won't let the deceptive Judaizers from
Jerusalem do it to them. He'll remind them how watertight
this gospel, how solid it is, how absolutely founded upon grace
and Christ alone it is. There's nothing of works, nothing
of will, nothing of man in it. It's all of grace. All of grace. None of the law. And yet many do speak of the
law. They speak of the believer's
relationship to the law. It's constantly discussed in
religious circles, theological circles. It's constantly asked,
well, what's the believer's relationship to the law of God? Where does
the so-called moral law fit into the believer's walk? What is
my relationship to the law? Many books are written upon this.
Many books have been written through history. Controversy
has railed. Well of course it has. For like
I said, the flesh of man will constantly bring the law to press
upon the gospel like the rains, like the storms outside. And so easily many's understanding
of the gospel is corrupted by this mixture. but it won't come
into the true gospel. There's no entrance of law in
this. What is the believer's relationship to the law? I, through the law, am dead to
the law, that I might live unto God. There are many verses in the
New Testament where Paul speaks of the law and the believer's
relationship to the law. And they're not complicated verses. They're not written in confusion
or subtle language. There shouldn't really be any
confusion on the subject. They're quite plain. What's my
relationship to the law? Well, I, through the law, am
dead to the law, that I might live unto God. Well, what does
that mean? Well Paul says it means I'm dead
to the law. Well yes I know I've been crucified
with Christ and I know I died and I know the law condemned
me but as a believer now what does it mean? It means I through
the law am dead to the law. Yeah but what about the life
which I now live? Paul says the life which I now
live. Yes the life which I now live
I through the law am dead to the law regarding the life which
I now live. Well could you show me that in
the scriptures? Perhaps those are in two different places no
they're not. I through the law am dead to the law, that I might
live unto God. Now, how might I live? That I
might live unto God by being dead to the law. I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live, I live now. I live now, 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, who loved
me and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace
of God in saying this. I do not frustrate it. For if
righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
But if I were to speak of introducing the law again, then I would frustrate
the grace of God, for then righteousness in some measure would come by
the law, and then Christ would be dead in vain. But I for one,
Paul says, will not frustrate the grace of God, for righteousness
does not come by the law, and through the law I am dead to
the law, to this end that I might live under God. You want to live unto God, you
want to live the Christian life, you want to know how to live.
Well you will only live unto God when you recognise that you
are dead to the law. Many have been the ways that
man has sought to reintroduce law into the gospel and to confuse
the issue here. Firstly he will ask, what does
Paul mean by law? For example, we know it's plain
in the New Testament that the Old Testament priesthood, the
ceremonial aspects of the law have been finished with. We have
to accept that Christians don't have a physical priesthood that
slays animals and beasts and offers them up in the temple. Some may try to continue such
a practice but most professing Christians will have to accept
that those aspects of the law at least are plainly completed
are plainly done away with. They struggle to get that past
the New Testament. But they say then that, well
perhaps that's the only aspect that Paul's treating here. The
ceremonial part of the law. Perhaps he means that the ceremonial
part of the law, he's dead to that law. He's no longer offering
up sacrifices because now he has the sacrifice of Christ.
And they found their fulfillment in Christ. Those sacrifices pointed
to Christ. He came, he died, so that has
been completed. Maybe Paul means the ceremonial
and that's all he means. perhaps the judicial part those
because there are other part we have to admit that there are
other aspects of the law given by Moses which are difficult
to bring into the Christian life today I mean there's all those
dietary laws and not eating of pork and so on we have to admit
that perhaps those haven't continued either. So perhaps Paul simply
means those parts And the Ten Commandments, that sort of summary
of the law, the moral aspect, the moral law, that which deals
with righteousness, that which exposes sin at its core. Perhaps that continues because
obviously righteousness, God doesn't change. Righteousness
cannot change. So surely that part of the law
immortal, it's everlasting, it's unchanging. Surely the moral
law in that sense the Ten Commandments continues and Paul can't have
that in mind here. But the trouble with this if
you read Galatians plainly or you read Romans is that it's
evident that it's that part of the law the Ten Commandments
that which deals with the summary of righteousness and of sin in
relation to it. It's that part of the law which
Paul is specifically referring to. It's not the ceremonial aspects
which condemned him, they pointed to the promise of a sacrifice
to come in the ceremonies he sought that for those whose eyes
were opened Like Abraham's eyes were, the ceremonies pointed
by faith to Christ to come. The ceremonies didn't condemn.
they gave some hope that God's wrath even at that time at least
was temporarily appeased through offering up the offerings in
the temple. The Jews felt that his wrath
was appeased temporarily and in what they pictured they would
see that there would be a sacrifice to come by which his wrath would
be appeased forever. So it's not the ceremonies which
Paul has in mind here. No, it's the law, the Ten Commandments,
the moral law, the whole of the law, but especially that which
describes sin and righteousness. Especially thou shalt not kill,
especially thou shalt not commit adultery, especially thou shalt
not covet, especially thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart. This is obviously what he's talking about it's
obvious from chapter 5 in Galatians when he contrasts law with spirit
that that's what he's talking about. Now it's nonsense to say
that the law here is not the moral law You can't squeeze the
moral law back into Paul's gospel here by trying to dismiss the
message of Galatians as being to do with ceremonies or other
aspects. Secondly, you can't dismiss it
by saying that he's only speaking of justification here. And that
when it comes to the believer's life and our walk, our conduct,
that having been justified by grace alone, that now the law
as a guide for our life is our rule. And that Paul's focus in
Galatians is only specifically entirely upon justification. There's no doubt here that Paul
does speak about justification. There's no doubt that the Galatians
were thinking that they needed to do things in order to be saved. But the focus throughout Galatians,
this epistle, is very much upon the life, the life which we now
live. It's very much upon that part
of the believers pilgrimage following their first coming to faith.
They've come to faith to look to Christ and now it's what they
do afterwards. And what they were doing afterwards
was being told to go back to the law again. You've believed
on Christ but now go back to this. It's what they're doing
afterwards. So the whole focus here is on
the life. The life which I now live. If
I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a
transgression. If I return to that, I'm going
back, I'm going back to the law and bringing in condemnation.
The life which I now live, having first come to faith, until the
day I enter glory, my life now is still by faith, still not
by law, still entirely by grace through Christ. What Paul has
to say applies equally to sanctification as men call it and refer to it
as justification, equally to the life of the believer as to
that which brings them life. It's the whole life reality you
can't divorce justification from sanctification. Sanctification
properly considered is that is that separation of the believer
in Christ being separated by blood to be a holy thing God
has sanctified us he set us apart he's washed us clean we're set
apart for his service it is actually properly considered that work
which happened at the cross when we were justified we were also
sanctified past event. But in terms of the life of the
believer that which people commonly call sanctification or progressive
sanctification that aspect of our walk now Paul makes it clear
that everything he has to say in this epistle regarding justification
applies to our walk now. Whether you look on your walk
now as contributing to your justification or salvation or whether you don't
the reality is our walk now is by grace. There are those today
who will say well the Galatian error was that these people sought
to do works afterwards thinking that they had to keep doing this
to their dying day in order to be saved and if they failed that
they would no longer be saved, that they wouldn't be saved.
We don't believe that, we don't believe that, we agree that's
an error but we believe that the law is a rule of life now,
that by which our conduct as believers is governed this is
a deception too, very subtle, very subtle. They say they're
not seeking to be justified by it, they're seeking just to sanctify
themselves by it but the focus is still upon the life now and
everything that Paul has to say as the antidote to the Galatian
error applies to the life now. then if they were told that you
are not justified by the works of the law, that your life now
is lived by the faith of the Son of God in the flesh, your
life now is through faith in Him, looking unto Him alone,
if that's your walk now, then that applies to our walk now. There's no bringing in of law
for sanctification, progressive sanctification, the believer's
walk, a guide, a rule of life. You can't do it. You can't do
it. You put yourself under what Paul
is addressing. You put yourself back in the
same place as the Galatians. You may claim you don't seek
to be justified, you may claim that you don't look to your works
in order that God might be pleased with them and save you by them,
you may claim that you look only to Christ but if you're going
back under law, looking to works in any way, the fact is you will
take pride in them and you will look to them and in reality you
are seeking to be justified by them whatever you may tell yourself.
and in reality whether you think you are or not your walk your
conduct is still according to the law as your rule and Paul
makes it clear that we begun in the spirit we received the
spirit through the hearing of faith and we continue through
the hearing of faith we continue this is the life which I now
live I now live Now I do not frustrate the grace of God. For
if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. It's all of grace. I am crucified with Christ. All that I was has gone. I was
once alive to the law, but the commandment came and slew me. I am dead to the law by the body
of Christ. I am no longer under law, but
under grace. I am dead to the law. I am married
to another, he says in Romans 7. I have a new husband, a new
one, a new husband whom I serve. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. But he is not dead in vain. His
death accomplished all that he purposed. His death was victorious. It brought in eternal life. It brought grace. It brought
mercy. It brought love. It brought salvation. It brought righteousness and
justification. It's saved and it will save and
it will perfect and it will keep His people walking righteously,
walking close to Him, serving Him throughout their life to
the day they enter glory. It's that gospel powerful enough,
powerful enough, more powerful than enough to keep His people. There's no need to add to it,
no need to depart from it, no need to turn from it. O foolish
Galatians, O foolish believers, whoever you may be, O foolish
Galatians, who have bewitched you, that you should not obey
the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ have been evidently set
forth crucified among you? This only would I learn of you.
Receive ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing
of faith. Are ye so foolish, having begun
in the spirit? Are ye now made perfect by the
flesh?