Well, good morning, church. Would you turn with me again to the book of Galatians chapter 2.
! That's page 914 in the Pew Bible. We are going to be considering verses 17 through 21 in detail today.
! But for context, I'm going to read starting back in verse 11 so we can get the sweep of Paul's argument here.
So that's Galatians chapter 2 starting in verse 11, and then I'll read to the end of the chapter.
Let me pray for us as we come to God's Word.
Father, we ask that you would bless now the reading and the teaching of your Word.
Lord, would the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts be
pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
All right, Galatians 2, 11 through 21.
But when Cephas, that is Peter, 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? 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. All right, so in verses 17 through 21,
this last paragraph of chapter 2, Paul is answering one of the main objections to the gospel.
And this is an objection I'm wondering if you too might be feeling at this point in our study
of this book of Galatians. It's an objection most people feel when they really start to understand
the gospel. In fact, some have even suggested that if you don't feel the weight of this objection
yourself, if you don't start to ask this question in your mind, then maybe you don't quite see just
how radical the gospel message truly is. So what is this objection? Well, Paul lays it out in verse 17.
He says, but if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners,
is Christ then a servant of sin? Or we might say, does trusting in Christ alone for salvation mean
that we can live however we want? After all, Paul has just reminded Peter in verses 15 through 16
that even they themselves as Jews who are not Gentile sinners, that they too have come to trust in Christ
alone in order to be declared in the right to be justified by God. Why? Because works of the law
cannot justify anyone. So what does that mean about Peter and Paul as Jews? What does it mean
about all their law keeping, all of their Torah observance? Surely it must count for something,
right? But no. As Paul says in verse 17, he says, we too were found to be sinners,
just like the Gentiles who didn't keep the law.
In other words, Paul and Peter, even though they had done their best to keep the law,
in Christ they now see that they're no better off than the Gentiles when it comes to being righteous
before God. Their law keeping, their Torah observance contributes nothing to the basis of
their justification. Their righteousness is found totally and completely in Jesus, the Messiah.
But here's where the objection comes in. If we are justified by faith in Christ alone,
then that means our works contribute nothing to the basis of our standing before God.
But if our works contribute nothing to our justification, then won't that just lead people
to live lives of total moral indifference? Aren't we just giving people a free ticket
to selfishness and self-indulgence? Aren't we making Christ a servant of sin?
It's very interesting that the word servant here is the Greek word diakonos, which is where we get the
word deacon from, right? It literally means someone who waits on tables. It's a table servant in the
ancient world. So, Paul's saying something like, is Christ just serving up sin on a platter?
You're justified by grace through faith in Christ. Your works don't add a thing, so here you go.
Have a giant steak of sin. Enjoy it. Or if you're a vegan, you can have the sin salad. No one's going
to judge you here because it doesn't matter what you do. So, this is the objection Paul was confronting.
And it's one of the main objections that the gospel will always face in every age,
the objection that a gospel of justification by faith alone in Christ alone apart from works of
the law, the objection is that it just inevitably leads to antinomianism. In other words, it will just
make people think that they have a license to sin. It will shut down any concern people have for living
truly moral lives. So, the objection goes on to say justification then can't be by faith alone.
It must also be by our works. We have to keep the works of the law in some kind of central place,
right? I mean, the objection goes, surely our works must provide some basis for our justification,
right? Right? So, how does Paul respond to this objection? Well, he actually has three things to
say in response. And, you know, this paragraph here and what we talked about last week, this is really
the thesis of Paul's whole letter of Galatians. And if you feel like things move at about a hundred
miles an hour in this part of Galatians, that's okay because Paul's going to unpack this in the rest
of the letter. This is where he just lays it all out and then he's going to unfold it as we go.
But tightly packed in here, Paul has three things very tightly to say in response to this objection.
In fact, he's going to argue that this sort of objection to the gospel actually suffers from a
deep misunderstanding of three things. In short, Paul's going to say, if you think that you have
to put works of the law back into your justification in order to uphold moral living, then you don't
truly understand the law, and you don't truly understand faith, and you definitely don't
understand the cross. So let's look at each one of those. First, Paul says, you don't truly understand
the law. More specifically, you don't understand the purpose of the law. Look again at verse 18.
Paul says, if I rebuild what I tore down, what's he talking about here? Well, most likely he's talking
about the law of Moses. There's a nice parallel passage in Ephesians 2 where Paul talks about
a dividing wall that has come crashing down in Christ, not just a wall that divided sinful humans
from God, but a wall that divided Jews from Gentiles. Jews who had the law of Moses, who lived within God's
covenant promises, and Gentiles who were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to
the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. In Christ, Paul says,
this wall that divided them has come down, and the two have become one. So the law of Moses now
no longer defines the people of God. It's not what reconciles us together to God.
Its function has ceased. Christ has brought the law of Moses to its climax, to its fulfillment,
and begun a new era of salvation history.
But in verse 18 here, Paul says, well, let's say I do what these agitators in Galatia are
recommending. Let's say we rebuild the law of Moses. Let's build it back up. Put that wall back in place.
What do we achieve? Well, Paul says, here's what we achieve. If I rebuild what I tore down,
I just prove myself to be a transgressor.
What is the true function and real purpose of the Mosaic law? Does the law make us holy?
Does the law make us morally upright people? Does the law give us the ability to stop sinning?
No, Paul says. The law doesn't have the power to do any of those things. Here's what the law really does.
It proves that we are transgressors. It shows us that we're sinners. Yes, the moral law shows us
something of God's character, and it shows us how as humans we ought to live. But in showing us how we
ought to live, we see how far we fall short. So, if you think that you need to put the works of the law
back into justification, think again, Paul says. But a law can't make you good.
It will only show you how much you need a Savior. And Paul presses that point even deeper in verse 19.
He says, for through the law, I died to the law so that I might live to God. When Paul says,
I died to the law, he means that he died to the law as the basis of his justification. He died
to law-keeping, to Torah observance as a way of securing a righteous verdict before God.
And how did that come about? Paul says that he died to the law through the law itself.
If you take the law seriously, you begin to realize that sinful humans cannot keep it.
The false teachers in Galatia were really big on circumcision, right? They were probably also
pretty big on the food laws, most likely on Sabbath observance too. It seems that they stressed the
outward markers of the Mosaic law. But Paul says later in this letter that, look, if you accept
circumcision on those terms as your righteousness before God, you have to keep the whole law in order
to be righteous. You can't pick and choose. You can't just pick the bits of the law you think you
can keep and then say, look, I'm justifying myself, and then ignore the rest. No, Paul says, when you
really feel the weight of the law's demands, when you really see that God requires perfect righteousness,
then you start to see that human law-keeping can never be a means of salvation.
through the law. I died to the law, Paul says. But then surprisingly, he adds, so that I might live to God.
You see, it's only when Paul stopped trying to justify himself through the works of the law
that he finally and truly began to live for God.
Do you see what he's saying here? He's saying, who was I really living for when I was thinking that my
own Torah observance would gain me a righteous verdict from God's throne? Who was I living for when I thought
that I could construct my own righteousness through these observances? Who was I living for? For God?
No! He was living for himself. This obedience wasn't really done for God. It was done to get something
from God. You see, here's the great irony. If we think we have to put the law back into our justification
in order to preserve moral living, we accomplish the very opposite.
It doesn't make us live for God more. It makes us live for God less.
People are not fun and all-around not fun people. Why?
Because if we don't get the gospel of grace, we're living for ourselves.
We're working really hard to keep ourselves looking good so that our sense of self doesn't collapse.
But of course, it's not just religious people who do this, right?
Everybody does this. Everybody does it. If my works are the basis of my identity and my life,
right, if I'm looking at something I am or I do or I've constructed to be my identity, to be my life,
to be my righteousness, then I'm inevitably going to be proud when I'm doing good.
Look at me.
Or I'm going to be depressed when I'm not doing good.
Woe is me.
And nearly all of the time,
I'm going to be deeply hypocritical.
Why?
Because I have to pick and choose.
I have to pick and choose.
The fallen human heart knows that it can't possibly be completely moral, completely righteous.
So we pick something we're good at,
make that the really important thing,
and then downplay or disregard the rest.
And then, because I may be naturally inclined to be a little bit better in this one area,
I cast myself as the morally superior one.
I've got it all together.
But if you were to look at my whole life,
you'd see that I'm not better than anyone else.
In fact, I don't even live up to my own standards,
let alone God's.
Friend, do you really want to live?
Do you want to really live?
To live not for yourself,
but for God.
To live free of hypocrisy and self-centeredness
and the endless circles of pride
and self-loathing that come
when you base your identity
on your own performance?
If you really want to live,
then you have to die to the law.
You have to die to the idea
that your law-keeping will put you right with God
and make you acceptable to Him.
You have to die to the idea
that your identity can be founded on anything in you.
That's the first misunderstanding that Paul clears up.
The purpose of the law.
We see the second one in verse 20.
Now remember, Paul's responding to the objection
that the gospel of justification
by faith alone in Christ alone
will make people morally lazy.
It'll give them a license to sin.
That's what he's responding to.
But this objection isn't just working
with a faulty view of the law.
It also deeply misunderstands the nature of faith.
So in verse 20, Paul goes on to say,
if you think you have to put works of the law
back into your justification
in order to uphold moral living,
not only do you not understand
the true purpose of the law,
you also don't understand
the transforming power of faith.
You don't understand the transforming power of faith.
Look again at verse 20.
Paul says,
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.
You see,
when someone truly comes to understand
who Jesus is
and what Jesus has done,
when they realize that they can't save themselves
and that they're dead before the law,
when they repent
and turn from trusting in their own self
and their own goodness
and their own moral efforts,
when they repent of all the things
they made their identity,
and when they place their faith
in the crucified and risen Lord Jesus,
that is when they trust Him
and Him alone
for righteousness,
life, and salvation,
when that happens,
they are no longer
the same old person.
They are united to Christ.
Their old self dies with Christ
in His crucifixion.
Their new self rises with Christ
in His resurrection.
That's why, by the way,
the very first public act of faith
for a Christian,
their very first public act
is to publicly identify
with Christ and His church
through what?
Baptism.
Why baptism?
Why is that the first public act of faith?
Because baptism is symbolic
of when a believer,
when they go underwater
and come back up again,
it's symbolic that they've died
and risen with Christ.
The old eye,
the eye that wanted to build
its own righteousness,
the eye that put its identity
in its own record,
its own accomplishments,
the eye that thought God
would owe it something
if it kept its end of the bargain.
That eye was crucified with Christ.
That eye no longer lives.
That eye actually deserved to die.
It deserved to be put in the grave.
And united to Christ by faith,
it has died,
and it is left in the grave.
But even though that eye
has died,
crucified with Christ,
sentenced,
condemned,
buried,
even though that eye
is now dead,
there's a new eye.
Paul goes on to say,
the life I now live
in the flesh,
a new eye has risen.
And how does this new eye live?
Does it live for itself anymore?
Does it live for sin?
Does it thrash about
trying to find a secure spot
to place its identity
in family,
or in sports,
or in academics,
or in career,
or in moral performance?
What is this new eye?
How does this new eye live its life?
What fuels it?
What sustains it?
What secures it?
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.
You see, a Christian
is someone
who is in a vital,
relational union
of trust
with the risen Lord Jesus.
There's a whole new center
to your life,
and that center
is not a thing,
and it's not an object,
and it's not a job,
and it's not a project,
and it's not an aspiration.
It's not a series
of good deeds
done or undone.
No, the new center
of your life
is a person.
And what of this person?
Who is he?
He's the very Son of God.
God from God,
light from light,
the eternal Son of the Father,
become flesh for us,
Israel's Messiah,
the world's true Lord.
And what has this Son of God done?
He loved me
and gave himself for me.
His self-donation in love,
his self-giving on the cross,
that was for you.
How stupid it is
to think
that someone can say,
the Son of God
loved me
and gave himself for me,
and then say,
if you believe that,
you're just going to go out
and sin.
That is the stupidest
line of reasoning
of all time.
You don't understand
the gospel at all.
You don't understand
what it means to say,
the Son of God
loved me,
loved me
in all my sin
and in all my selfishness,
in all my rightly deserved
condemnation and death,
loved me
and gave himself for me.
Gave himself.
No one forced him.
No one demanded
that he do it.
Jesus gave himself
freely,
generously,
willingly,
eagerly.
He gave himself
for me,
for you.
On the cross,
it was for you,
for your sin,
for your condemnation,
for your death,
for your hell.
That's who
I am united to
in faith,
the King of love,
who died my death
and bore my curse
and suffered my hell
so that I can live
and live forever,
so that I can share
his righteousness,
life,
and eternal joy
now and forever.
You see,
in faith,
we flee to Christ
and are united to him
so that we can be
done with sin,
so that we can be
done with the old nature,
so that we can be
done with the old
present evil age,
as Paul says
in the opening
of this book.
We go to Christ
in union with him
so that we can
be done with sin.
Think of it this way.
Why do you go,
why do you go
to an oncologist?
You go to an oncologist
so that you can be
done with cancer,
right?
And no one
who is done
with cancer says,
you know,
what am I going to do today?
I'm going to go out
and get me some more cancer.
Just so.
Friends,
when we flee to Christ,
we do so because
we want to be done
with sin
and so that we can
live in his love.
And that is exactly
what happens.
The old self
that loves sin
is crucified with him.
And the new self
that is fueled
by his love
is raised with him.
Now, of course,
as Christians,
we will continue
to be tempted
by sin, right?
We will even at times
give in to that
temptation of sin.
But united to Christ,
we no longer love sin.
It's lost its taste.
And united to Christ,
we now have the power,
the power that the law
could never give us
to turn from sin
and walk more
and more in holiness.
And what is that power?
Is it the power
of a demand,
do this or else?
No.
Paul says it's the power
of his love.
He loved me
and gave himself for me.
When that truth
becomes real
to your heart,
when the Holy Spirit
awakens your faith
to that reality,
sin loses its power.
And the heart longs
to live no longer
for itself,
but for God.
There's one more
understanding
that Paul addresses here.
Not just about
the purpose of the law
or the power of faith,
but lastly,
it's about the magnitude
of the cross.
The magnitude
of the cross.
Look again with me
at verse 21.
Paul says,
I do not nullify
the grace of God.
Apparently,
there were people
accusing Paul
in preaching justification
by faith alone
of nullifying God's grace,
of making God's grace
meaningless in their life.
But Paul says,
I do not nullify
the grace of God.
For if righteousness,
that is justification,
if righteousness
were through the law,
then Christ died
for no purpose.
You know,
it's very easy
to believe
in a version
of Christianity
or so-called Christianity
that goes something
like this.
God does His part.
God provides you
with some grace.
God provides you
with some fresh start.
He even puts
His Spirit in you.
But if you want
to be justified,
if you want to maintain
that friendship with God,
then you have to do
your part.
You have to cooperate
with this grace.
You have to get to work
alongside this grace.
You have to live
a righteous life.
And on the basis
of that life
that you live,
on the righteousness
you perform,
through your effort
in concert
with God's grace,
grace,
then God will justify you.
Maybe,
if you've cooperated enough.
But in the face
of all such thinking,
the Bible holds up
the cross of Jesus Christ.
If God could save you
by giving you some grace
so that through your law-keeping
you could justify yourself,
if God could just
give you a push,
give you a boost,
so that you could then
become the forger
of your own righteousness,
if all that were possible,
Paul simply says,
then why did the Son of God
need to be crucified?
If the law was enough,
why did He have to die?
In fact,
if the law was enough,
then His gruesome death
on a Roman cross
was utterly pointless.
It was gratuitous violence.
Nothing else.
But when you see
the magnitude of the cross,
when you,
it is then,
when you see
the magnitude of the cross,
then you realize
that law-keeping
of any kind,
whether that pure
sort of Pelagian legalism
or some sort of
semi-Pelagian cooperation,
that could never be
the basis
of our justification.
any such thinking
is an offense
to the cost
and the achievement
of the cross.
At the cross,
the curse of sin
was dealt out in full
so that the blessing
of righteousness
might be given in full
to all
who turn
and trust in Christ.
No
cooperation
necessary.
Now,
do good works
flow from our union
with Christ?
Of course,
yes.
That's what Galatians 2.20
is all about.
But will those good works
be the basis
of your justification
before God?
No!
The cross of Christ
has already won
your verdict.
Your sins
have been condemned
and by the righteousness
of Jesus
with whom you are
united by faith,
you've been pronounced,
accepted,
loved,
and righteous
forevermore.
Do you see
what justification is?
Justification
is the verdict
of the end
come crashing
into the present
and pronounced
over your life
now.
When God,
the judge
of all things
pronounces His judgment,
what will that verdict
be over your life?
Paul says
you can know
what that verdict is
right now
because justification
means it comes in
now
into the present
and says
what if you're in Christ?
You're forgiven
and you're mine
and you're righteous.
Friend,
do you see
the magnitude
of the cross
of Christ?
It cleanses
every sin.
It silences
every accusation.
It fulfills
every precept
of the law.
It ends
the age
of sin and death.
It inaugurates
the new creation.
Now to live
as if that's true.
That's our task.
Don't go back
to the law
as if you needed
to complete something
of what Christ
has already finished
as if you needed
to now somehow
save yourself.
No!
Christ has died.
Christ has risen.
Now Paul says
go forward.
Go forward.
Go forward
as people
of the new creation
that you are.
Go forward
in love.
Go forward,
yes,
and fulfill
God's commands.
Not because
you need to save yourself
but because
Christ has already
saved you
and loved you
and freed you
from sin.
Run in the path
of His commands
because He set
your heart free.
love because
He first loved you
and gave Himself
for you.
You are justified
totally and freely
by His self-giving love
through faith alone.
Is Christ
then a servant
of sin?
Certainly not,
Paul says.
Certainly not.
Let's pray.
Father,
we take just a moment
and pause
before You.
Lord,
our lives are very busy.
They're full of distraction
and worries
and cares.
But in this moment
as we sit
before
the magnitude
of the cross
and the deep
mysterious wonder
and joy
of our union
with You,
O Lord,
help us again
to experience
the goodness
of these things,
the power
of these things,
the joy
of these things.
Lord,
for those
who've been
contemplating You
and contemplating
the gospel
but not sure yet
where they stand
with You,
Holy Spirit,
open their eyes
to what is true
here
that Christ,
the Son of God,
loved me
and gave Himself
for me.
Would that
great affirmation
rise in the hearts
of all of us
here this morning
and help us
to live lives
of new creation,
joy,
and holiness
as a result.
Amen.