As we are on the brink of declaring our intention to enter into covenant with one another to be the body of Christ before and for one another, I find myself wanting to remind us of a doctrine that is the foundation and content of everything that we should be about. It is found in these rich verses that we have just read in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. If I may, let me sum it up by a simple statement and then elaborate on that statement as we move through Paul’s thought in the text. The statement is this: Just as we are justified by faith—apart from the law—faith is the means by which we will live a holy life that is pleasing to God. And for some of you, I am sure that you have instantly clicked on some terminology that I used in that statement and have gone in your minds to Hebrews 11:6. And with that, you are agreeing with this principle. But this morning, I want us all to know the full truth of that statement. Therefore, let me build the argument and elaborate on it (even as Paul does) so that we might understand this and be on the same page as we enter into our declaration to be a covenant community, reflecting the character of our Lord.
In this second chapter of Paul’s epistle, he finds himself dealing with a group of believers who are being persuaded that one must do certain works to merit justification. In particular, the Galatians were being convinced that someone must not only believe in Christ in order to be justified, but he must also be circumcised in obedience to the law. And Paul is greatly bothered by this and writes them to correct their thinking.
He acknowledges his hope and trust that they would not be turned aside to believe this false doctrine, writing in 5:10, “I have confidence in you in the Lord, that you will adopt no other view; but the one who is disturbing you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is.” And he ends this section writing that if the person is so intent on circumcision bringing righteousness, then he wishes that that person would mutilate himself (5:12—surely, more cutting would bring even more righteousness). But then he goes past simply trusting that they will not be turned aside to making a great argument for justification by faith in our passage this morning. Let me go through the flow of his argument with you and then apply what this truth teaches to what we need to do here at Cornerstone.
He first establishes his thesis: Everyone (Jew and Gentile, alike) is justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law.
It is crucial that we understand this. We are not justified by doing enough good works through the law. Someone is not justified by whether or not he avoids adultery, or abortion, or drugs, or alcohol, or lying. Men are not justified by anything we do. In fact, Isaiah 64:6 says that all of us have become like one who is unclean so that even our deeds, which we think are righteous, are as filthy rags. Therefore, there is no hope for anyone to think he or she can do enough good works to attain a righteous standing before God. Paul says in verse 16, “No flesh may be justified by the works of the law.”
The problem is that our very nature is sinful and, therefore, everything we do (or once did if you are a believer) is tainted with sin and is a violation of the law. There is no way anyone who has lived since Adam could have kept the law—that is, except for Christ.
And there is the answer in our quest for justification. The question is then how can anyone be righteous if there is no way we can do enough (or anything) right? How can anyone be holy when everything we do breaks the law that God has given us as this great standard? The answer is that there is one who fulfilled the law. He is Jesus Christ. He lived perfectly—being a man like us, and yet nothing like us. He was and is God.
But how does the fact that he lived perfectly, obeying every bit of the law, have any effect on our righteousness? When Christ died, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, God made him to bear our sin and we were able to take his righteousness. It is an exchange. Jesus took all our sin, guilt, and condemnation; and we were given his righteous standing. It is as if we perfectly kept the law and are therefore righteous.
But you may ask, “Who is the ‘we’ that you are talking about? Surely it is not everyone, because then there would be no need to ever warn anyone of hell.” That is right. The perfect righteousness of Christ is only transferred to a certain group of people, namely, those who turn from everything and place their full faith in Christ alone. These people—most of us, I hope—are those who have turned from every other attempt to be made righteous. They have turned from their sin. And they have trusted in Christ’s death and resurrection from the dead as their only hope. That is what it means to repent and believe. That is being justified by faith.
That is what Paul is talking about in verse 16 as he says, “A man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, and we believed on Jesus Christ, in order that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not from the works of the law.” Men are not justified by doing good works but simply by placing their faith in Jesus Christ as their only hope of righteousness. That is the gospel. That is the good news. Men can be righteous before God through faith in Jesus Christ, by embracing and trusting him as their Lord.
But isn’t there a logical problem in teaching that sort of thing? I mean, if you teach that men are justified by faith and not by good works, then men are going to believe and still sin. And wouldn’t that make the gospel of Jesus a message that just brings more sin? And, consequently, one could say that Jesus is a minister of sin, couldn’t he?
We could answer that question with 2 Corinthians 5, reminding ourselves that when one has saving faith, he is changed. Therefore, he now has a different heart and lives differently. Therefore, a person truly justified by faith will not want to sin. But let’s stay with our text.
Paul answers this in verses 17-18. He writes, “But if while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves are found to be sinners, is Christ a minister of sin? Absolutely not! For if I build again that which I destroyed, I present myself to be a transgressor.”
Paul answers that question in short by saying, “Absolutely not!” But then he goes on to explain why. What he is getting at, however, is kind of confusing. I think there are two possibilities, and the second the probably the strongest. I will mention them both, however.
By Paul saying, “If I build again that which I destroyed, I present myself to be a transgressor,” he could be saying, “If I am found in constant, continual sin (which I had seemingly turned from), then I am only proving that I am a sinner.” In other words, if you see someone who claims to have been justified by faith and he or she is in constant, continual, unrepentant sin; then the person is not proving that Christ’s gospel brings sin but probably that the person never truly repented and believed, is not justified, and is still a sinner. This argument is a pretty strong one, especially if you consider Paul’s emphatic use in 17, “If we ourselves are found to be sinners.” And it is a correct statement. But it may not be what Paul is saying here.
The second possibility (which I think better fits the surrounding text) is that the attackers are saying that if after seeking to be justified by faith, a person still sins (which all Christians do), then Christ is the person’s only hope for righteousness since they have left the law, and therefore he must be a “minister of sin” if the individual still sins. And Paul’s response is to say, “No.” And his reason in verse 18 is, in essence, “Because actually if I return to the law to attain my righteousness after seeking to be justified in Christ (‘build again that which I destroyed’), then in doing that I am showing myself to be a sinner by breaking the law in not using the law for its real intent.”
For what was the intent of the law? Was it so that we could attain righteousness? No. Was the Christian life designed for us to be justified by faith and then try to attain righteousness from the law? No. In fact, Paul rebukes the Galatians on this idea writing to them in 3:3, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit (which I think you can parallel with “hearing with faith” in verse 2 because of the obvious parallel in his argument), are you now being perfected by the flesh?”
Paul says that to return to the law to try to attain righteousness after seeking to be justified by faith, you are actually sinning because you are missing the intent of the law and therefore breaking it. But then, what was the intent of the law if it was not justify us? Paul answers that briefly in verse 19, but then he expands on his thought in 3:19 and 3:24. Let me first point out the statement in verse 19. He writes, “For through the law I myself died to the law, in order that (here is the purpose/intent) I might live to God.”
Through the law, he died to the law, in order that he might live to God. What does that mean? This is more easily answered in understanding Paul’s explanation of why the law was given. He says in 3:19 and 24, “Why the law then? It was added because of our transgressions … Therefore the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, in order that we may be justified by faith.” The law was given to show us how great our inability and sin was in light of God’s holiness. It was given so that our sin might be apparent. What good does that do, though? It does good in that it acts as a tutor for us. It teaches us that we need to look to something else to bring us righteousness because we cannot come close to the standard of the law. That is why Paul can say it is a tutor—it teaches us to look elsewhere. But to what? He says, “The law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, in order that we may be justified by faith” (v. 24).
The law was given to show our sin so that it might point us to Christ in whom we could find justification by faith. That is what Paul means in saying, “Through the law, I myself died to the law, in order that I might live to God”. The law actually served to help him die to it and look to Christ.
So to look to the law to bring you righteousness is actually a sin because you are using the law in a way for which it was not made. The law was never meant to justify anyone. All men were meant to be justified through faith in Christ.
But this brings up the real question I want to ask us today. How then shall Christians live holy? If we cannot meet the standards of the law and our only hope is to be justified by faith, then how do we live a life that is pleasing to God? Is it possible to live holy, or should we just give up on it all together?
Or to ask a deeper question, since I said two weeks ago that justification by faith did not mean that sanctification wasn’t a necessary part of salvation (because it inevitably follows justification), then how is sanctification, or a growing in holiness, supposed to occur?
I think the answer is in verse 20. Namely, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.”
We would acknowledge that in placing your faith in Christ as your only hope of righteousness you are dying to the law (actually “through the law”—as Paul says—showing that was its intent) and being crucified with Christ. That is our justification. And that is the first part of Paul’s statement. But how do we now live that we have died in Christ to the bondage of the law and yet are still here alive? How do we now live?
Paul says, “And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” Even as I said at the beginning, “Just as we are justified by faith—apart from the law—faith is the means by which we will live a holy life that is pleasing to God.” So Paul’s statement in verse 20 is that justification and sanctification occur by faith in Christ. We live holy now by the same means that we have been justified—by faith.
It is not works. You live holy by faith. How did Noah find the strength to be obedient in building the ark when there was no sign of rain? How was Abraham able to leave and follow God’s command without even knowing where he was going? How was he able to obey even when God said, “Sacrifice your son?” How was Moses able to be obedient to God when it meant that he would have to leave the riches of Egypt and “endure ill-treatment with the people of God?” How did Rahab the harlot have enough courage to hide the spies when it could have cost her life?
If you know Hebrews 11, then you know the answer to all these questions. They did it “by faith.” That is why the author of Hebrews can say that it is impossible to please God without faith. All obedience is an act of faith, and all disobedience is a lack of faith.
What will keep you from lying when it seems that there is no other way to avoid trouble is faith that God will care for you. What will keep you from pre-marital sex, adultery, and divorce is faith that if you love your wife as Christ loves the Church, then you will actually be loving yourself (Ephesians 5:28). And the list of different scenarios of sin could go on and on. But the answer to overcoming them and living holy is always faith. That is how we live the life in the body having already been crucified with Christ and having died to the law. It is by faith.
To be a good biblical theologian, let me also show you this in the Old Testament. In Psalm 78 we read of an interesting description of the Israelites’ disobedience. The Psalmist begins speaking of God’s faithfulness saying, “He split the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them abundant drink like the ocean depths. He brought forth streams also from the rock, and caused the waters to run down like the rivers” (v. 15-16). So what happened as a result? “Yet they still continued to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert” (v. 17). And now listen to God’s response and his explanation of why they continued in sin. “Therefore the Lord heard and was full of wrath, and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also mounted against Israel; because they did not believe in God, and did not trust in his salvation” (v. 21-22). God actually parallels their continuing in sin with them not believing and trusting in his salvation. Why—I believe it is because faith actually gives birth to obedience, and unbelief gives birth to disobedience (or sin).
I want us to understand that we live obediently by faith because I want us to understand why James can say faith without works is dead (because faith gives birth to good works). I want us to know how we can say that sanctification is a necessary process in salvation and realize that it does not defy that salvation is entirely of faith. And the only way we can reconcile those two is by realizing that we are justified and sanctified by faith.
And I want us to know this on the brink of signing our church covenant. There are a number of people who would say to this, “Oh, that church is becoming legalistic. They are trusting in good works to save them. They need to realize that it is not about all the stuff on that covenant; it’s about faith in Christ.” And I want us to be able to say, “The content of our covenant is simply holy, Christian living. But you are right to say that the Christian life is all about faith in Christ. It is completely from faith, and that is why we are declaring our desire to live holy. We are stating it knowing that we cannot do it on our own, but we are stepping out in faith, trusting that the power of Christ is that which sanctifies us and will one day bring us to completion and perfection before the Father.” That is the opposite of legalism, or putting ourselves under the law, or living by our own power. This is what it means to live by faith in the Son of God who gave himself for us. And such living does not nullify the grace of God. It actually says that I not only need Christ’s death to justify me by faith but I need Christ’s death to sanctify and perfect me by faith. To say any less than that is to not realize the power of Christ crucified.
Therefore, as many of us will sign a copy of our church covenant next Sunday, understand that it will be a declaration of our intent to live lives pleasing to our Lord, understanding that without such faith, it is impossible to please God.
His grace will be with us—so live by faith and trust him. Amen