Galatians: Justified by Faith? (2:15-21)

Thank you for tuning in to Newsong Church's Sermon Podcast.

Newsong is a gospel-centered community-serving Anglican church in Port Perry, Ontario, and the parish of the Anglican Network in Canada.

We'd love to connect with you.

If you'd like to reach out to us, you can find our contact information at Newsongportperry.ca.

God bless you through the ministry of the Word.

A reading from the book of Galatians, chapter two, beginning at the 15th verse.

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners.

Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.

So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law.

Because by works of the law no one will be justified.

But if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin?

Certainly not.

For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.

For through the law, I died to the law, so that I might live to God.

I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

The word of the Lord.

Heavenly Father, we now uh we come before you to hear you speak uh directly to our hearts and our minds.

Uh Father, as we open this text and reflect on what it means to be justified by faith, Father, um just pour out your spirit upon us.

Uh speak to our hearts and to our minds.

I pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Please be seated.

One of my goals before um before uh this I we end up leaving at the end of this curacy, this term that I'm here for that we're here for, is to make sure everybody is an expert in rock climbing.

In the theory, in the theory of rock climbing, because I talk about rock climbing a lot in my sermons.

But the thing that is so good about using rock climbing um as an illustration in sermons, it's so practical.

It's there's so many ways you can use it to illustrate certain things.

And with this, with um the justification by faith, you can use it for this because in rock climbing, there's many different um systems set up in place to keep you safe.

There's the bolts within the rock, or you use gear, and you have the rope that you use to clip the pieces of gear as you go up the rock face.

And these systems are extremely important.

They keep you safe, they keep you alive.

But the most important system of them all is the person you have with you feeding you the rope.

They're called the belayer.

And with that system, if that system fails, if your belayer fails, if he makes a mistake or he doesn't clip in properly to the device that he's using, um, it's gonna end in a really bad way if you end up falling.

And the thing with the doctrine of justification by faith, that great truth, is that it is the foundation of Christianity.

Without it, everything else within Christianity falls.

And Jesus died for no reason, as Paul says in verse 21.

So we're gonna look at it, and Paul lays it out very clearly here in the text that we're looking at.

So please turn with me to Galatians chapter 2, verses 15 to 21.

Galatians 2:15–21

But as I read this, I'm gonna back up and we're gonna start at verse 11.

So that's why it's always helpful to have your Bible with you because you can follow along with me, and you can also see if I'm saying the right thing, if I'm actually reading you the text that's in the Bible.

And just to recap the book, what we've gone through already is that we are continuing our summer series through the book of Galatians.

We'll be going through this until Labor Day weekend.

And what's going on, the reason why Paul wrote the book of Galatians, or the letter, because it's a letter to the Galatians, is that there's false teachers who have come into the church.

As soon as he left, within a couple of months, or you can say a year, people have come into the church and are starting to teach a different gospel from the one that he taught.

And that's why he's writing this.

And we're the part that we're coming into, as we looked at last week, and we're going to continue to look at.

Paul is in the middle of confronting Peter because he's falling back into his old ways.

So let's look, verse 11, I'll start from there, and I'll read until verse 15.

But when Cephas, that's Peter, that's the apostle Peter, the disciple of Jesus, came to Antioch.

I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.

For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles, but when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party, and the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners.

So why is Paul confronting Peter here?

Why we talked briefly about it last week.

Why is he doing this?

See, what's going on is that Peter is eating with those who do not follow the Old Testament laws.

And he's they're they're fine, everything's going fine.

And then these um people come who believe in Jesus and his work on the cross, but then they also teach you must follow the Jewish laws.

And then he becomes um, you can say, self-conscious, or he becomes um worried or fearful about what's going to happen when they see him eating with people who do not follow the Old Testament law.

So he ends up acting hypocritically and goes and separates himself, and then people follow likewise.

That's another reason why we need to always remind ourselves of the truth of the gospel, because even an apostle started forgetting what the true message of the gospel is, and he started falling back into his old ways.

So it was so easy for us to also that for this to happen to us.

So we always need to remember what is the gospel.

And that's why you'll hear me and Creighton every week proclaiming the gospel to you, reminding you of the gospel.

Because that is what we do here on Sundays.

We remind ourselves of the gospel, that great truth, that what Jesus did on the cross for us.

And so what's going on?

Peter's leading them astray.

And this is why Paul opens the Galatians with a double warning to false teachers.

Because he says, those who teach a false gospel will lead people astray.

There's a double warning there in chapter one.

And so you might be thinking, well, what does verse 15 mean when he says, we ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners?

What he's referring to is as he's confronting Peter here in the text, he's referring to that they have a birthright.

They have this right of a promise.

They have a birthright of promise.

The culture around them is set up that Jewish people have this privilege, this birth privilege already going on.

And that they become circumcised.

And this is the first that was given to Abraham by God of a promise of the covenant.

So every Jewish person follows this.

They follow a part of the Mosaic law.

And by all visible standards, they had it made.

They had everything made to be right with God.

By all outward standards, Paul is reminding Peter that we are these people who have followed the law.

We have followed it to a T.

But there's a big flaw here.

There's an inward flaw.

And that's there's a striving to earn salvation.

Now you might be thinking also, when he says Gentile sinners, that sounds very harsh.

That sounds very harsh for him to say.

You gotta remember this is a completely different context.

That would have been just normal talk back then.

But what he's referring to is those who do not have a care at all to follow the Jewish laws.

I was trying to think about um a way to illustrate this, this um this kind of prejudice or this kind of privilege that people have that they're born into.

And I was thinking about um our time in Cambridge, uh, UK.

We had some time where we got to be among the schools there, and we got to interact with certain students and teachers, and we were very, we were very lucky for this um opportunity.

But something that really struck me is that you could tell the ones who were born into money.

You could you can tell um they just had this air about them.

And I'm not saying I'm not trying to uh point a finger at them or anything like that.

It's just the it's just I think within the culture of the academia, there was this um people who were born in privilege, and then there's those who worked that get into Cambridge.

Both are good, both are great people, but there was this thing that was born into it, or this um old way of how things were done.

And you might be thinking, well, isn't Paul showing prejudice here?

No, he's not showing prejudice, he's not falling into an old way of talking when he says Gentile sinners.

He's trying to make a point to Peter.

And this point that he's saying is that he and his other letters, when you read them, he calls himself the biggest, most undeserving of them all.

He calls himself the biggest sinner of them all, and he's undeserved what Jesus did for his life, how Jesus um converted him in that um moment in Damascus.

So, what is Paul doing when he says this?

What is he doing when he confronts Peter?

See, Paul is very wise in this, is that as he reflects on this story, because he's using this story to prove that the people who are teaching that, yes, Jesus died on the cross, we need to believe in him, but plus we need to follow the Jewish law, he's using this story to prove that they are wrong.

And so as he reflects on this story, he knows that there's going to be Jewish Christians and then there's gonna be Gentile Christians altogether.

And that's what's going on in this text.

So Paul is wisely setting up this point that those that there's people who are trying to follow the law, and then there's people who don't follow the law.

And then he goes into verse 16, he sets it up perfectly.

So let's look at verse 16.

Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.

So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one is justified.

See, this is a great, great, great verse.

If you have a pen, underline this.

Memorize this verse is that we are justified.

Those who have put their faith in Christ are justified by faith alone.

There is nothing in this world that you can do that will make you right with God except believing in this in His Son, Jesus Christ, and His work on the cross.

Justified by faith alone.

And it is so important that Paul says it in ver between verses 15 and 21.

He says it five times, and he says it three times in verse 16.

It is a great, great truth.

And it is the whole Christian faith is based off this justification by faith alone.

And we need, if you're ever feeling a time discouraged, or there's no hope, remember that great truth.

Is that you, when you put your faith and trust in Jesus, you are justified by faith alone.

There's nothing else you have to do.

There's no measuring up.

You're justified.

You are saved by grace alone.

Now we've been watching a lot, me and Amy have been watching a lot of um this is um Amazon Prime, but within Amazon Prime, you can rent these um other um stations within it.

And we've been really been watching Brit Box a lot lately.

And I don't know what it is about British people, but they love their crime and mystery shows and their crime mystery books.

So we've been watching a lot of that, and that's on my mind right now.

And the thing of justification, it is a legal term.

It's a term that would be used, um, you can use it in uh in a court setting.

It's a legal term.

So we need to view it in that context.

Now, the law, this law that we keep hearing about all through the New Testament and Old Testament, what is this law, this works of the law that Paul is talking about?

Well, the law, the law was given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai for the people of Israel.

And what this is, what's going on here with this law, is that during this time, after Israel was brought out of Egypt, after they've crossed the Red Sea, um, Moses goes up on the mountain and God gives them these tablets, these ten, these Mosaic laws.

So it starts with the Ten Commandments, and then it goes into these other laws that come forth after that.

But the whole point of the law, of the laws, was to set them apart while they lived in the promised land among the pagan cultures.

It was to set them apart because God wanted them to be holy because he is holy.

But the other part of the law, which is so profound, is that the law was to show them that they couldn't keep it, that there's no way that they can make themselves right with God, that they had to put their trust in him and ask him to help them follow this law because they can never measure up.

It was designed to show them they can never measure up, that all the sacrifices they did, all the things they followed would never work in the long run.

See, God wanted people where their hearts were after him, their hearts were linked to him.

And that continues into the New Testament.

So that is what the law is.

And through the law, it showed that all that no one can measure up.

The law condemned them, whether they tried to follow it or they didn't.

Because what happened is that they lost that great truth that they just had to rely on God, and they became discouraged.

Some became discouraged and went off and practiced paganism.

Then others became enslaved by it, and they forgot that it was just about trusting in God, and they thought that the law, if they followed it to a T, if they strived for it, everything they did in their life was about the law, that they would be married right with God.

But that's not the case.

And the thing is, if we go back into Genesis, into Adam and Eve, we see Adam and Eve falling, and that puts the whole human race under this curse.

And that continues on.

And we all fall under this curse as well.

Now, this may seem very, very harsh at what I'm saying right now.

But the thing is, the thing about all great stories is that they end up, there's a moment where they're so bleak, where all hope seems hopeless.

And that's what makes a good story.

Whether it looks like if you read Lord of the Rings or watch Lord of the Rings, it looks like they're gonna fall.

It looks like all hope is lost.

But then right at the last moment, a hero comes in.

But the thing that's so good about the gospel is that the gospel is good news and it is true.

It is historic faith, it is a historic moment.

And that's why Paul is so blunt towards those who teach a different gospel, because there is so much at stake if a gospel is twisted or turned.

And that's what Paul is getting at all through Galatians is that it is a great truth that Jesus came into the world to save us.

Jesus came in, God sent his only son into the world, that all who put their faith and trust in him will be saved and have eternal life.

That is a great hope, that is a great truth, and it is not about trying to earn your salvation, it is only putting your faith and trust in Jesus that you are justified by faith alone.

It is a great truth.

And I'm you're just gonna hear me keep repeating this because it is great.

It is something that we need to remember on.

And as you as I said earlier, that this idea of justification, that is the legal term.

Another way that we can look at it, we can think about it.

So let's visualize a courtroom scene.

Again, I have courtrooms and all that on my mind right now.

So in a courtroom, there's the person who's standing before the judge, the person who's on trial.

So in this scene, we have the law.

We have the law putting that person on trial, and that law is constantly condemning that person who is standing on trial.

Everything is stacked against that person.

And that is what the great tr the truth is of justification by faith, is before Jesus' work on the cross, everyone stands before the judge, and there's no one, there's no defense that they can make because the law has made them condemned.

But then right at the last moment, when the judge is about to make his verdict, someone rushes in from the side, waving a piece of paper, saying, Stop, stop, stop.

I'll take his or her place.

I will stand in their place, and they will be made perfect.

They will be made justified.

They will be made, that nothing else will stand against them, that there is a great truth.

See, it's in your place, Jesus stood condemned.

You become instantly declared righteous or justified, instantly perfect, instantly right before God.

All that is required is faith, and that faith is freely given to you.

It's not something that we have to muster up, it is a faith that God puts within us through his spirit.

Now you might be thinking, well, that sounds nice, but what does that mean practically for me?

What does that mean?

Well, Paul lays it out for us in the next verses as he's trying to lay it out to the to his um to the church in Galatia.

So let's look at verses 17 to 18.

But if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin?

Certainly not.

For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.

See, Paul is speaking directly against the teachers who are saying, Yes, Christ did this work, but that you must also follow the law to be justified.

See, those are they're still living under the law who Paul is speaking directly against.

And it's something that we can so easily do to ourselves, is that we can put these rules on us and we can forget about the simple truth that it is just about faith in Jesus.

It's faith in the Son of God.

See, we can put on these rules, as I said last week, and as I went to detail about, we can make these rules where I just need to pray more.

I just need to give more.

I just need to read my Bible more, I just need to show up to church more.

Now, all these things are good in themselves, and we need to do them.

But if we make them a law that we think that these will make us better with right standing with God, they actually end up condemning us.

Because we forget about that great truth that it is just about justification by faith.

See, we end up making certain laws for ourselves, and when we do that, we don't understand the gospel and we forget about the gospel.

See, irreligion teaches I decide what I want to obey and God will accept me.

Religion teaches I obey, so God will accept me.

The gospel teaches God loves and accepts me so much, therefore I want to obey.

And as I said, if you are here and you feel like you've been just a horrible Christian, there's times where I feel like that too.

Lots of times.

We just gotta remember that we are justified by faith alone.

That is such a great truth and a great hope for us to always remember.

But at the same time, when we put our faith in Jesus, when we become justified by faith, it's not just a mental thing that happens, it's also a character thing that happens.

That when the Spirit indwells within us, when the gospel grips our hearts, we become more and more changed just by wanting to.

By wanting to, because of God's love for us, the deep love for us, that we get to, we get to follow Jesus.

We get to take up our crosses and follow him.

And Paul speaks right directly to this in verses 19 to 21.

For though the law, for through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God, if I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

So what's Paul saying?

Easy way to summarize this?

Paul says this Now when I love my li now when I live my life and make choices, I do so remembering who I am by faith in Christ, who loved me so much.

That is what Paul is saying here in these verses, is that when we remember what Jesus did for us, the great love that God has for us, we live our lives through that.

When we make our decisions in life, when we go through, when we interact with people, we show God's love to them.

We love our neighbors.

That's why we always say at the beginning of the service, every week, because we need to love our neighbors because God loves us so much.

We continue by doing that.

When we remember the great truth, it's so easy to forget it.

So easy.

Peter forgot it.

But that's why we come together and remind ourselves.

That's why we read our Bibles daily to remind ourselves of the great truth.

And a common critique about Christianity is that it's all rules.

No matter what, it's all rules.

And I say that's farther from the truth.

Because Christianity is that you are justified by faith, everything is done.

It's all done.

But through that, we live our lives out through that great truth, through following Jesus.

See, God looks at you as his child and heir.

And that makes you rest and meditate on that.

And the more you do that, the more you become like Christ.

You are no longer defined by this world, but by your Father in heaven.

And that is the great truth, a justification by faith, is that yes, there's these things stacked against us, but God sent his son, who came in from the side door and saved us as we stood before the judge condemned.

It is all through faith, it is all through grace.

See, through faith in Jesus, you are declared justified and given a new life.

Let's pray.

Father, help us to always remember that as we go, as we try to take up our crosses and follow Jesus.

Help us to remember, Lord, that we are justified by faith alone.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you for listening today.

We follow a generous God who calls us to give willfully, cheerfully, and sacrificially towards gospel ministry.

Newsong is 100% funded by the generous giving of those who worship and journey with us.

If you'd like to learn more about how to give towards Newsong's ministry, you can do just that at newsongportperry.ca giving.

God bless you and keep you today and every day.