Everyone in the world has a desire to be in the right. They want to be considered righteous or have their actions approved. They want others to acknowledge that what they have done in okay, that somehow they are approved, and that they are in the right. Paul says in Romans 2:15 that all of us have the law written on our hearts so that we are constantly accusing others of wrong action or excusing our own wrong actions. We’re either making excuses for what we’ve done so that we can be seen in the right or we’re accusing others of wrong so that, again, we might be seen as the one who has done right. It is a deep longing of everyone’s heart to be considered in the right, or righteous, or to have their life and actions justified before others. The main reason those practicing homosexuality in this country fight for a change in the definition of marriage is not because they long for some tax break. It’s not even some fight for safety as if they fear persecution; it’s because the law is written on their hearts, and they more than anything want those around them to tell them that what they’re doing is okay. They want us to approve of their actions. They want to silence their hearts and be told that what they’re doing is right and good.
And those of us in this room this morning are no exception. We all want to be righteous. The reason we’re tempted to gossip about others is so that their actions might make us appear more righteous. The reason we like to downplay our own sins and build up those of others is because we want to be seen as righteous. So how is it that we are justified? How can we be declared righteous before God? How can we know that God declares us righteous? Is that even possible?
This is the question that we’re going to answer again and again by looking to the gospel and the truth of justification by faith alone repeatedly as we study through this book of Galatians over the next several weeks. It is a book that teaches us how we can be justified. It is a book correcting a people who have started to follow a certain path in an attempt to be justified and yet were following a wrong path. It’s a correction to a people who were trying to be justified in a way that was never going to result in their justification. Therefore, in light of this human longing for justification, it is good that we study this book that addresses this very issue and give a fair amount of time to it, as we will over the next several weeks.
This morning, then, as we dive into the introductory paragraph that begins this book, we’re going to introduce ourselves to some basic questions and answers. First, if there are so many people trying to be justified in the world and going about different ways, what qualified Paul to have the right answer to this question? This is a question the Galatians themselves were no doubt tempted to ask as others were telling them something different from the message Paul had proclaimed. Second, what indeed is the answer to how we could ever be justified before God when we know we’re sinners and God is holy? How can a God who judges justly and will not lie ever be able to declare us righteous when we know our sin far too well? Third, what is the result of being justified or declared righteous by God? And, fourth, how do our answers to these questions reflect on God?
What I want to do this morning is simply walk through each of these questions and try to show the answers to these questions from these introductory verses. So, starting with the first, “What qualified Paul to have the right answer to how we can be justified before God?”
The first thing Galatians tells us is who wrote this book. Paul writes, “Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through men but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. And all the brother who are with me, to the churches of Galatia” (1:1-2).
Now, at first glance this seems pretty simple. It fits pretty much the pattern for writing a letter in the time it was written where the writer would introduce himself to his audience and perhaps even tell exactly to whom he is writing. And Paul does that. However, if you compare this introduction to Paul’s other introductions, you’ll find that this introduction is a bit longer. Paul is grounding why he was apostle and how he had become one. So, Paul is right off the bat reminding the Galatians (and by extension, us) why it is that he has the right answer to the question of how we can be justified before God.
Interestingly, Paul perhaps could have started with what happened in his own life. After all, Paul had been an enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ. And now he had made a complete and total turn. The man who once hated Jesus and set out to persecuted those who followed him had his life changed to the point that he eventually would say, “ “I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 21:13). To feel the weight of this, perhaps we could imagine Osama Bin Laden one day coming onto a news broadcast, waving an American flag and arguing that the United States is the greatest country on earth and that he wishes all of us would wake up to the way that capitalism has worked well in our country and helped our economy thrive. If we heard that, we would probably say, “What in the world? I’ve got to know what happened to him.” Well, that’s the magnitude of Paul following Jesus. That’s the kind of change that could happen.
Therefore, Paul could have started by saying, “Look, if anyone can tell you how to be righteous before Jesus Christ, I can. Quit listening to people who are telling you other things. Have their lives changed as radically as mine? Obviously, I should hold more authority than them.” But he doesn’t start with that.
He could have noted all the people who have followed what he said and been changed even as he had. He does indeed mention in verse two that there are brothers with him, no doubt showing that these others endorsed the very message he was about to proclaim to them. But, this isn’t his main answer to why he’s qualified to give the right answer to how one can be justified before God. And this is an important issue, isn’t it? After all, if you get this wrong and try to be justified before God by a means that does not end up in our standing as righteous before God in judgment, we go to hell. So, what then qualifies Paul?
The answer to what qualifies Paul to have the one right and only answer to how we can be justified before God is that Paul had been made an apostle. Now, the term “apostle” can be used in a general sense as one who is a messenger or sent. In this sense, Barnabas is called an apostle in Acts. But it can also have a specific sense of one of the few who were chosen by Jesus himself to carry the authority of Christ himself in proclaiming truth. You see, even as Jesus went to be with the Father after his resurrection, he did not leave us ignorant. Rather, he appointed men, his apostles, to carry his authoritative message after him. He promised them that the Holy Spirit would lead them into all truth, and as he did, they wrote it down or worked with others to write it down as the New Testament Scripture. Therefore, the Scripture is authoritative and true. Everything it says is right. As B. B. Warfield has said, “To say ‘Scripture says’ is the same as saying ‘God says.’”
Therefore, when Paul starts by saying that he was appointed to be an apostle, this is no small matter. He is claiming to be someone who speaks on behalf of God, one who had been chosen to be a representative mouthpiece for Jesus Christ. And he wants them to know that he wasn’t elected as an apostle in some first century members’ meeting in a church where the congregation just thought he’d be a good choice. He had been appointed to this role by Jesus Christ himself and God the Father who raised him from the dead. He had been appointed by no mere man but by God the Father and God the Son. That’s what qualifies him to give the answer to this question.
So, we then should ask, “What is his answer? How can we be justified before God when he is a righteous judge and we are obviously sinners?”
Paul writes in verses 3-4, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of God our Father.”
Paul is completely aware that the main hurdle to us being righteous before God is our sins. After all, there’s no fear of being unrighteous if we’ve never done anything wrong. Why would we fear standing before God in judgment if he and we both know that we’ve only obeyed him in everything we’ve ever done? But that’s not the case, is it? I probably have to convince none of you here this morning that you’ve sinned. So, Paul shares with us how it is that we are able to be justified before God by focusing on what God has done to address our sins.
He tells us that Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins. That is, Jesus Christ gave himself on our behalf, in our place, to deal with our sins. The reality is this: our sins had earned us God’s judgment and wrath. However, God loved us even while we were against him and were his enemies and sent his Son Jesus into the world. Jesus then never sinned. However, he died on the cross, not just like others die. He died on the cross receiving upon himself the judgment that we deserved. That is, in our place, as our substitute, Jesus hanged dying upon that cross, receiving the judgment and death that we all deserved for our sins.
People all around looked at him as he was there dying and declared that he was being punished by God. They esteemed him as one who was being stricken by God. And they were exactly right. What they didn’t understand, though, is that he was dying not for his own sins – he had none – but for ours. And then three days later (as Paul mentions in verse 1), God raised him from the dead to show that his Son is and always had been perfectly righteous. That is the answer to on what basis we can be justified before God. It is totally dependent on what another – Jesus – has done for us. We could never be good enough and could never do anything to get rid of the sins we had done or the judgment they had incurred. But God dealt with it in sending his Son Jesus to die for our sins and to be raised so that we might too be declared righteous before God.
That is the gospel, the good news. We talk a lot about the gospel and mention that word all the time. That is what it is: the message of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ so that we might be righteous before him.
And the only response to that message is to turn from our sins and place our faith and hope solely in what Jesus has done for us. That is what Paul is going to declare again and again throughout this book. We are justified by faith in Christ alone and not by trying to contribute some of our good works in hope that they will be enough. They’re not enough. We’re justified through faith in the risen Christ who died for us. And, even as Paul mentions in verse 3, we didn’t deserve this gift, but the work of Christ for us is an act of grace. It is something given to us though we did not deserve it and only deserved judgment.
So, what then is the result of being justified before God?
Paul gives us two answers to this text that I want to highlight. The first is that we no longer stand as one condemned before God because of our sin in fear of his judgment but rather have peace with God. When Paul says, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” he is not just throwing away some words to get to some really important information later. He is saying something weighty. Several commentators agree that “Grace and peace” are Paul’s summary of the gospel – it’s cause and effect. That is, because grace has come to us through the work of Christ so that we may be justified by faith, we now have peace with one that we should be terrified of because of our sins and his righteous judgment. However, as Paul says in Romans 5:1, “Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
That is an amazing reality that we should not overlook. We should be terrified of God because of our sins and his righteousness and holiness. Instead, we have gathered this morning and worshiped him, rejoicing that he is “Holy, holy, holy.” We’ve rejoiced that he is the Lord God Almighty. That is amazing, and that is the result of being justified by faith in Christ before God.
But there’s another result as well. Paul tells us that Christ gave himself for our sins “to deliver us from the present evil age.” That is, Christ died for our sins not just so that we might know we’re declared righteous before God and do not have to fear final judgment but also so that we might live differently in the present.
Just as I don’t think I need to convince you that you’ve sinned, so I do not think I need to convince you that the age we live in is evil. We live in an age when terribly evil things are all around us. We live in an age where if you wrote down what all had happened in your lives, including both what had been done to you by others and what you yourself had done, I would not want to repeat it and would want to hide it from the children’s eyes. And that’s all of us. We live in an evil age, and we were of that age. We were not just victims, but participants in the evil of this age. We have gloried in things that have caused great belittling and pain in others’ lives. We have gloried in this age. We have gloried in things like lust when the spirit of that is shown in abuse and pain.
Therefore, we rejoice that there is another age to come. We rejoice because one day Jesus is coming back and he will set all things right. There will no longer be any sin, any pain, or any death. All will be perfect. However, when God sent his Son so that we might be justified before him, one of the purposes of that is so that, having been justified, we might live in this age in a way that reflects the age to come. That is, God has rescued us from the evil power of this age (delivering us, as Paul says) so that we might live and act and think now in this evil age like we will live and act and think in the age to come when Christ returns. That is a result of being justified; you’re given the power to live righteously. I don’t mean that we will never sin after being justified. We know better than that, and when we do sin we simply return again to the good news of the gospel, confess our sins, and rejoice in the forgiveness that is ours through Christ.
So, yes, we sin. But we are no longer slaves to sin so that we have to be led away to sin continually. That is characteristic of us before we are justified, but not afterward. Christ died for our sins so that the power of sin might no longer hold us in bondage. Therefore, we not only can stand before God knowing that he has declared us righteous, pronouncing our end-times judgment in this life, but we also know that he has freed us from the power of sin so that we do not have to be held captive to it in this present, evil age.
And I want to add one more side note here. Another result of being justified is that you get to join yourself to a local church. Note in verse 2 that Paul writes to the churches in Galatia. That is, he doesn’t write to each individual Christian in Galatia nor just to one group in Galatia. He writes a letter that should have circulated to each local church throughout this region of Galatia.
Now, that might lead us to ask, “Well, if this letter was so important and this topic so crucial, why didn’t Paul write something like, ‘To every believer in Galatia’?” and make sure that it got to every individual? The reason Paul can write, to the churches of Galatia and trust that it reaches every believer is because he assumes that every Christian has joined himself or herself to a local church where they’ve linked arms with other brothers and sisters and walk with them, encourage them, help them, uphold them, and rely on them. That is another benefit to being justified before God, you get to be brought into a local church and join yourself with other believers who long to commit themselves to walking with you for your good and Christ’s glory.
So, let me just speak of Cornerstone for a second. Ray, Nathan, and I are charged to die if necessary to fight for the salvation of those whom God has put under our care and oversight. And though we are men prone to sin and selfishness and do not do that perfectly, I truly think that that commitment is reflective of our hearts to you. And, I long for every believer to have that. God never intended for his people to be apart from his church without shepherds who know they are called to give them oversight. So, as a side note this morning, I want to plead with you to make a priority joining a local church in this area where you can commit yourself to others, have them commit themselves to you, and have pastors who will labor to oversee your soul as you seek to walk with and honor Christ.
So, we’ve seen what qualifies Paul to tell us how to be justified. We’ve seen how we are justified. And we’ve seen the results of being justified. But, let’s answer one final question. How does this message of justification reflect on God?
What I mean by that, is how does this news of how we are justified and the results of it affect God? Does it honor him or dishonor him? Does it detract from his righteousness because we know our sin so well and continue to sin and yet celebrate together proclaiming that he declares us righteous?
The answer is that what Paul has laid out already and will layout throughout this book that we will study over the next several weeks, celebrating that we are justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ and his work alone brings glory and honor to God.
Paul ends this introduction saying that Jesus died according to the will of our God and Father “To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (v. 5). The message of the gospel and of justification by faith alone does nothing to detract from God’s righteousness and glory but it actually glorifies and honors God.
Therefore, this morning, as we confess our sins and trust that God declares us righteous because of the work of Christ, we can know that believing we are forgiven and declared righteous is not dishonoring to God. It’s actually honoring to him. It reflects his glory. You see, to think that somehow we could do enough good to be seen as righteous before God is actually what is dishonoring to God and fails to glorify him. It sends the message that someone God at the end of the day is the kind of God who fails to require perfect righteousness and is just looking for us to do good enough. But nothing could be further from the truth.
Therefore, when Satan tells you this morning that your faith in Christ and your confession of sin cannot be enough for God to really declare you righteous, forgive you, and pour out his grace on you but that you need to do more good, recognize that as a lie from the enemy meant to detract from the glory of God and the glory of the gospel. And instead, remind yourself again of what Christ has done for us, of the fact that his work alone is our means of being justified before God, and rest and rejoice in that truth. In fact, I long for us to rejoice in this truth so much that we become known as a community of believers who are constantly speaking of the gospel, reminding one another of the preciousness of the gospel, and who share it with others who do not know Christ. May we rejoice in that beautiful gospel as we come to the table. Amen.