Probably every believer in this room could pass a true-false test concerning how we are justified. We’ve heard the Bible preached enough, celebrated the Reformation enough, and taught enough Sunday school classes for every believer here to declare that man is justified by faith alone and not by works. Two verses I’m confident many of us memorized if we were raised in Christian homes are Ephesians 2:8-9, which declare, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Simply put, if we are believers, our minds are not deceived. We know that the teaching of the Bible is that man is justified by faith and not by doing good works.
Yet, many of us struggle to live that reality out in our lives. Many of us live our lives as if we are justified by good works and not by faith in the crucified and risen Christ. And it’s demonstrated in two ways. First, it’s demonstrated in how we live after we sin. For many of us, we sin – in whatever ways (e.g., lust, covetousness, etc.) – and then we’re convicted of your sin, and so we confess your sin to God and repentance. This is good. But then we begin to doubt that the gospel is sufficient for our forgiveness. So, though we’ve confessed your sin, repented, and perhaps even shed tears that night before going to bed, we wake up the next morning saying, “God, I really am sorry. I really do confess my sin. I really do want to turn from it.” Then, we get ready and we’re confessing again. Then, we go to read our Bibles and pray and think to ourselves that God wants nothing to do with us because we’ve not lived righteously. And finally we think to ourselves, “I’m not going to do this again and if I can just go a few days without sinning in this way, then all will be well.”
What you’re doing in that moment is falling prey to a belief that you are justified according to your good works – that you are righteous before God based on you being good enough on having enough righteous works. Therefore, when you see that righteous works are lacking, you do not look to the gospel but you look to your own penance – continually weeping and aching and hurting and confessing until you think you may have done enough to convince God to really forgive you, and to your own good works – trying to have consecutive days of pretty righteous living so that God might accept you again. That is living as if we are justified by good works.
Similarly, many of us also may go a while where we really haven’t done too much obvious bad. Sure, perhaps we were lazy some and missed some evangelistic opportunities. But we’ve been reading our Bibles, praying pretty consistently, encouraging other Christians, and even some other things, and we have no doubt that God is rejoicing over us when we pray, that he loves us, and that we are righteous before him. But if we were asked why and really answered honestly, our answer would be something like this: “Well, I’ve really been consistent in my Bible reading, and prayer, and evangelism.”
In this scenario, too, what you’re doing is living as if you are justified by doing enough good works. And in both scenarios you’re living in such a way that dishonors the Lord and the work of Jesus Christ – living, dying, and being raised for us. And the reason you’re dishonoring the Lord and the work of Christ in those moments is because you’re living as if you can be good enough to be acceptable to God. In the scenario in which you can identify much sin in your life, the reason you won’t accept God’s Word that says that if you confess your sins that he is faithful and just to forgive you your sins (1 John 1:9) is because you think surely you cannot be forgiven and justified completely because of the work of Christ. You think surely there must be something you contribute. However, that just isn’t true. Rather, nothing you do contributes to your righteous standing before God. Let me say this again quoting someone smarter than me (Tom Schreiner): “Nothing we do renders us righteous before God. There is nothing we can contribute, nothing at all.”1
In the scenario where you think you’re acceptable before God because you’ve been doing so well, able to point to several spiritual disciplines that you’ve done well, the reason this is dishonoring to God and to the work of Christ is (again) because you’re living as if you can be good enough to be acceptable to God. You’re somehow forgetting that God requires perfect righteousness. So, to approach God and prayer and think somehow you’re acceptable to approach him because you’ve been doing well ignores the reality that apart from the gospel you would only come to him as one who is condemned, under his wrath, and worthy of his judgment.
So, in both scenarios we live as if somehow we are righteous before God based on our good works instead of believing that we are declared righteous before God solely through faith in the crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ. And what makes it worse is that this feels to us like holiness. It seems right to us. It seems that it’s holy to wallow in our guilt or to feel acceptable because we’ve done good works. Again, it seems like holiness. But, it is an assault on the gospel.
We need to counter that thinking by realizing what Jerry Bridges says is true as he writes, “Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never beyond the need of God’s grace.”2 Or to say it differently, on your worst days and on your best days, you only hope before God is the gospel and to cling to Christ’s work through faith.
Paul writes, “But when Cephas 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 Cephas 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’” (vv. 11-14).
Now, you could argue that it’s not necessary to try to discover the precise details of what was going on, and on some level that’s true. We simply cannot know them, and God did not reveal them to us. All we have is the verses that are before us. However, I think it is important to rule out a few things. First of all, we see that Peter was eating with the Gentiles when some men came from James, and that led him to draw back and cease eating with the Gentiles. Now, what we should rule out is that these men from James came to Peter saying, “We should have no fellowship with these uncircumcised people because they’re not Christians.” No, we know that is not the case because Paul has just told us in 2:1-10 that Peter, James, John, and he all agreed on the gospel. Nor should we think that Peter withdrew from the Gentiles because he disagreed with Paul’s gospel and realized that Gentiles really cannot be Christians without doing the works of the law – for the same reason – Peter, James, John, and Paul all agreed on the gospel. Further, Paul declares that Peter’s actions were hypocritical, meaning that though he professed and held to one thing, he was acting differently. So, we should understand it that though Peter knew the Gentiles were indeed believers, he acted as if they were not.
What then was going on here? Well, what probably was taking place was something like this: Peter was eating and fellowshipping with the Gentile believers who were not observing Jewish dietary laws. After all, Jesus makes clear in Mark 7:19 that the food laws are not required of Christians. Then, Mark quotes Jesus, saying, “Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” and then Mark adds, “Thus he declared all foods clean.” Additionally, the Lord had spoken to Peter in a vision in which he saw all kinds of animals, the Lord had told him to rise and eat, Peter had said that he would eat nothing common or unclean, and the Lord responded, “What God has made clean, do not call uncommon” (Acts 10:15).
Therefore, Peter was probably eating with the Gentiles in a meal that contained “unclean” foods. When, James, delegates came down, therefore, they perhaps relayed a message to Peter concerning the persecution Christians in Jerusalem were facing because of their free association with Gentiles and even eating with them. Again, the unbelieving Jews would have declared, “You’re living like the Gentiles when that which sets us apart is our strict adherence to the law of Moses.”
So, Peter got up and withdrew from the Gentiles after talking with the delegates from James (whatever their precise message was), and all the other Jewish Christians did the same – even Barnabas. Therefore, Paul stood up and confronted Peter in front of all (because his actions had been public and influenced others) because Paul saw that in such actions, Peter stood condemned. And Paul said to him, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?” (v. 14). That is, Paul was not condemning Peter for not living like a Jew but like a Gentile (i.e., not abiding by the Jewish dietary laws). That was not what bothered Paul. What bothered Paul is that Peter was making a statement by his actions that the Gentiles were required to live like Jews (i.e., begin abiding by strict adherence to the Mosaic law). After all, this was sending a message that is contrary to the gospel. For the gospel is not a message of good news saying that man may be declared righteous before God by adhering to the works commanded in the law. But that’s what Peter was making it look like by withdrawing from fellow believers who were Gentiles.
Then, Paul lays out his central statement, the central thesis in the book of Galatians, and the key to his argument with Peter. He declares, “We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners.” That is, Paul acknowledged to Peter that they were Jews. They had grown up as the people whom God had made the promises, to whom God had revealed himself, through whom God had said the Messiah would come, to whom God had given laws and commands.” Gentiles, on the other hand, had been totally outside the people of God, living opposed to God’s law, and oblivious to the Lord’s Word. Again, Paul is not denying that he and Peter were sinners then, of course they were. He’s saying that he and Peter were not sinners like the Gentiles were sinners. At least they were among the people to whom God was revealing himself and seeking to adhere to God’s commands.
However, Paul goes on, “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” (v. 16).
That is, Paul says to Peter that even though we had the law as Jews, we did not seek to be justified by the law but instead believed in Chris to be justified since no one will ever be justified by doing the works of the law. And, again, this is Paul’s central thesis in our text today, in his discussion with Peter, and in this book. Man is justified by faith in Christ and not by doing the works of the law.
Again, since Paul repeats it in these verses, let’s make sure we get it. The only way anyone is justified before God is through faith in Jesus Christ. Jews are justified only through faith in Christ. Gentiles are only justified through faith in Christ. Everyone who is ever justified before God – declared righteous before him and acceptable to him – is justified only because he or she has placed his or her faith in Jesus Christ.
And, Paul’s thesis stated negatively: no one is justified by doing the works the law commands. Jews are not justified by doing what the law commands. Gentiles are not justified by doing what the law commands. No one, as Paul says, will be justified by works of the law. Our only hope for justification is faith in Christ since no one will be justified simply by doing what God commands in his law.
Now, with that said, Paul anticipates an attack from those who would disagree with him and think this sounds foolish. The attack from those teaching the necessity of obedience to the law in order to be justified before God (even in addition to faith in Jesus) would be something like this: “If you’ve sought to be justified before God through faith in Christ and not on the basis of doing good works of the law, and that has resulted in you living like Gentile sinners who are outside of God’s covenant people, then Christ has simply led you to sin. Further, you’re declaring that Christ is telling you that it’s okay for others (e.g., Gentiles) not to keep God’s law. Thus, you’re telling them they don’t even have to be circumcised, for example, when Moses clearly commanded that no Gentile could even eat of the Passover unless they were circumcised [Exodus 12:48]. Christ, according to your teaching, then, must be a servant of sin.”
Therefore, Paul answers this charge against the doctrine of justification by faith alone and not by works of the law. This is the argument of verses 17-21.
Paul answers, “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!” (v. 17). So, Paul is clear; he is saying, “No, that’s not true. You are wrong.” But why is that wrong? Why it is wrong to say that Christ must be a servant of sin if, in endeavoring to be justified by faith in him, one has turned away from demanding obedience to the law and its regulations of oneself and of others? Again, feel the weight of this in realizing, for example, that the law demanded the regular observance of days, and weeks, and months, and years. Additionally, the law did demand circumcision. No one was allowed to celebrate Passover unless they had been circumcised. And then listen to Paul’s language to the Galatians. First, in 4:9-10, Paul writes, “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.” Then, again, in 5:2, “Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.”
So, you can feel the attack, can’t you? It seems logical that those troubling the Galatians – Jews who believed in Christ and yet taught that one is justified on the basis of the law – would seem to think that Paul is making Christ a servant of sin against God’s law. Paul himself looked like a sinner in relation to the law. So, again, why can Paul answer this charge, “Certainly not!”
He gives two reasons. The first is in verse 18. He writes, “For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.” That is, Paul is saying that if he rebuilds the Old Testament law, and seeks to put himself under the law as a means to be righteous before God, then that itself is showing that he is a sinner. That action itself if sin. That itself denies what God’s will is and his work is in sending his Son so that we might be righteous before God. In short, we might paraphrase Paul as saying, “I’m not the one sinning. The one who continues to look to the law as a basis for righteousness, he is the one sinning, and is proving it by disobeying God’s clear plan of having people justified by faith in Christ.”
So, not only is telling the Galatians that they don’t have to be circumcised not, requiring them to be circumcised as if they were under the Old Testament law would be sin. Okay, we might say, but when did Paul exactly stop being under the law? He answers that in the next verse as his second point in answering the attack.
He declares in verse 19, “For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.” Paul declares that he ceased to be under the law when he died to the law. The reason that he is not under the law is because he died to it. The law had said “Do this, and you will live” and “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them” (Gal. 3:10-12).
So, Paul acknowledges that he was cursed according to the law. He was condemned to die according to the law. He must face the judgment of death before God according to the law. However, he says, “I died to the law.” Therefore, Paul was no longer under the law. He had died to the law.
But when did he die to the law? He answers in verse 20, “I have been crucified with Christ.” That is, in union with Christ, when he bore the curse of the law for us, we died to the law, having the penalty paid through the crucifixion of our representative substitute – Jesus Christ.
But, then was the law just a joke, some façade? No, Paul mentioned in verse 19, that “through the law” he died to the law. That is, God gave the law in order that Paul (and others) might clearly see themselves as condemned and sentenced to death, as a penalty for sin. Therefore, the law is used rightly not when we look to the law as a basis for righteousness but when we acknowledge that before the law we stand condemned before God. We stand as one sentenced to death under the law.
Yet, we, like Paul, can joyfully acknowledge that we’ve been crucified with Christ. The penalty of the law has been fully paid as we died with Christ, as we were united by faith with one who died for us. Therefore, the penalty of condemnation that the law brought upon us no longer hangs over us. We have died to the law and are not under the law. It has done its work in us, sentencing us to death.
But we still live, right? Yes, and the reason we live is because Christ lives in us and for us. Paul writes, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I life in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (v. 20). That is, just as I’ve died in union with Christ so that his death is counted for me, so now his justification and life is counted for me. So, now Paul gets to live though he has died with Christ because just as he died with Christ, so he lives with Christ. And he now lives, continually trusting by faith in Christ as his only hope.
Finally, Paul ends our text, writing, “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.” What Paul is preaching does not mock the Lord’s gospel and the Lord’s grace by claiming and pretending that we can do enough works to be justified before him. Rather, Paul acknowledges his need of grace. He acknowledges that he is a hopeless sinner in complete need of Christ’s work for him. Trying to be justified by doing good works says that Jesus died for no purpose, that his death was unnecessary. It says, “No, I’m not hopelessly condemned before the law.” When trusting in Christ says, “I’m hopelessly condemned before the law and unless Jesus lived, died, and was raised for me, I’d continually to be hopelessly condemned before God.”
Therefore, I want something for all of us this morning. I want us to believe in our hearts that we are justified only by faith in Jesus Christ and not by doing the works that the law commands. I want us to be people not who are resigned to hope in the gospel as if we would rather be able to live up to the law but have failed and therefore have to look to Christ. I want us to be a people who boast of our weaknesses so that we might boast in the cross. I want us to be a people who declare again and again that our only hope is the gospel of Christ. I want us to be a people who on our best days and our worst days know that we can come before God in prayer, knowing that he approves of us not because of our works but because we have faith in his crucified and risen Son. I want us every day to declare, “All I have is Christ and his work for me.” And if you get that, you will find a deeper desire to live in accords with the commands of our Lord more than you ever did living under a law that you rebuilt for yourself. Therefore, let us come to the table and proclaim our Lord’s death, boasting of the wondrous cross. Amen.