It's good to be with you tonight. It's always a joy and a privilege and an honor to be able to share His Word no matter what circumstance, no matter where we are in our lives.
It's good to come here. I had a pretty rough day today. Just being honest with you guys, it's just kind of one of those rough days. A lot of stuff happened at work and I work in the IT field, so when stuff goes wrong, I'm responsible for that and we have to get that stuff working again. It was pretty tough.
So let's go to the Lord and pray real quick so we can just praise Him for tonight and the fellowship that we get to experience together in His Word and in worship.
Heavenly Father, we thank You so much for giving us the opportunity here tonight to hear Your Word, but not only just to be hearers, but also be doers.
So Father, I pray that You would make Your Word alive in our hearts tonight.
Father, that it would transform us. It would transform our understanding of You. It would transform our understanding of the cross and of this topic that's so important for us to understand in our faith.
So Father, I pray that You would use this time tonight, that You would utilize this time tonight for Your glory.
And Father, we would see the ultimate reality of our salvation in You. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.
If you have a Bible tonight, and I hope you do, I invite you to open with me to Galatians chapter 2.
Galatians chapter 2.
And we have a great Word to study tonight.
I know that it's great because every passage that we study in God's Word is great, isn't it?
I love God's Word. It's just great to be able to study it.
But tonight, I'm praying that this chapter will just come alive in this room.
And it will come alive in our hearts.
And that it would transform our lives and transform our understanding of the cross.
And our understanding of our salvation.
And ultimately, our view of our topic tonight, which is, as Nathan already mentioned, justification.
It's very important that we understand that.
And I want to be clear tonight that we're not just teaching topics here.
I'm going to be primarily teaching from a singular passage, which is known as expository preaching,
even though it seems like we might be teaching topically here on Thursday nights.
And it's true that we have an idea of where we're going.
We teach from God's Word. We don't teach from a topic.
And I think it's important for us to grasp that because we find our truth in God's Word, not from man-centered ideas.
And that's why we, as a church, have made a commitment to teaching expository messages on Sunday mornings.
And we teach expository on Thursday nights in our Bible studies because we get our truth from God's Word,
not from an idea where we pull an idea out of our heads and then we try to apply Scripture to it.
That's the wrong way to handle God's Word.
We get our ideology and our ideas because we believe that God has given us a Word that is sufficient.
And we believe that God's given us everything in Scripture that pertains to life and godliness.
And therefore, we get our truth. We derive our truth from Scripture and not from man-centered ideas.
This text tonight speaks strongly toward justification.
And Paul, as you know, is writing to a church of Galatia or the people of God in Galatia.
And what we have here in this chapter, we're going to go through the whole chapter.
What we have here is two episodes, essentially two episodes, and then we have an explanation at the end.
So that's how we're going to divide the text tonight in three different ways.
So let's dive into the first episode, Galatians 2, verse 1.
Then after fourteen years, I went up against Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me.
I went up because of a revelation and set before them, though privately before those who seemed influential,
the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure that I was not running or had not run in vain.
But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek.
Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ,
so that they might bring us into slavery, to them we did not yield in submission, even for a moment,
so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.
Verse 6.
And when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me,
they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me,
that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.
Only they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing that I was eager to do.
Galatians 2, verses 1 through 10, this first episode, the first section that we're kind of looking at tonight,
is a picture of legalism.
It's a picture of legalism.
If you're a note taker, this is what I want you to do, is warm up your pens and get ready for some definitions tonight.
Legalism is a situation where there is a right behavior with a wrong belief.
I'm going to explain that in just a moment.
But here's what's going on.
The problem in the church is that they have these Judaizers who are coming in and saying that you have to do certain things,
you've got to perform certain laws or certain rituals in order to receive grace from God.
And so you have these people who are trying to explain these things,
and namely what we're talking about here is circumcision.
They're saying in order for you to receive grace, it's only available to you if you are circumcised.
This is what these Judaizers are saying.
They're saying you have to follow the law of the Old Testament, the old law.
And this is where Paul talks about how Titus, who he himself, a Gentile, wasn't compelled to participate,
wasn't compelled to be circumcised.
And this was huge.
This was incredibly huge because if Titus had been compelled to be circumcised,
then it would have been an affront to the gospel of grace that Paul was teaching.
Because it would have made the gospel conditional.
It would be conditional upon whether or not you were circumcised.
And you would have had to have been circumcised in order to receive this gospel.
Or you have to do certain things to receive this gospel.
And so here we have legalism at its finest.
That's what's going on in this first section of Scripture, the first section of Galatians 2.
And legalism at its heart is working on our own rules and in our own power.
And ultimately legalism is working to earn God's favor.
You follow a set of rules.
You perform these certain sacraments.
You do things right.
And then you earn favor with God.
That is what legalism is.
I'll give you an example just real quickly of my own life.
When I was growing up, I had a brother that was six years older than me.
And I looked up to him.
Anybody a younger sibling?
We have quite a few younger siblings here.
Man, I looked up to my older brother like he was...
I mean, I just wanted to be just like him.
And so one day we were...
After school, we were at home alone before mom and dad got home from work.
And that's when we usually got into trouble.
You know, that's when we usually did things that we weren't supposed to be doing.
So we went outside.
We were bored.
We went outside one day.
And we started to pick up the little stone pebbles that are in the landscaping...
Like the landscaping pebbles that are, you know, in our bushes and stuff.
And we started to pick those up and just start chunking them over the house.
Don't ask me why.
It's completely pointless.
But we were having a good time.
And so we were picking up these pebbles.
We got a handful of them.
And he starts throwing them.
So I'm the little brother following along with what he's doing.
And I started picking up pebbles and chunking them over the house.
Well, it didn't take real long.
I didn't take too many stones before me as an uncoordinated six-year-old.
I take a pebble and I start to chunk it.
And I just...
Straight into a glass storm door.
And this thing didn't just crack.
This thing started in one little bitty section.
And you could see it as if it was in slow motion.
From that one section, millions of cracks started to spread out from there.
And glass started to rain down from this thing.
And I'm looking at this thinking, I'm in trouble.
I'm in big trouble now.
Because me and my brother did a lot of stuff that we could kind of cover over.
We used a lot of paint in our lifetime to cover up marks on the wall and things like that.
Where we scuffed up the walls or we were doing something we shouldn't be doing and we could cover over.
This was not something that I could cover up.
And so I knew that I was in trouble.
And so I went in my room and I just started bawling.
The six-year-old, you know, you're just like crying because you know you're in trouble.
I said, Craig, you've got to call Mom and my brother.
His name's Craig.
You've got to call Mom and let her know because she's going to come home and find it anyway.
So we've got to get out of this somehow.
And there's no getting out of it, of course.
The consequence, by the way, is really what we're heading toward for the story.
But the consequence was, it must have been around fall time because there must have been leaves in the yard.
And my dad came home and was like, okay, we've got to figure out a consequence for that.
So you guys need to get out in the yard and rake some leaves.
So we rake leaves.
Not just that day.
We raked leaves all fall.
Anytime there was a leaf in the yard, dad was like, remember the storm door?
Get out in the yard and start raking.
The next year came around.
Leaves started falling again.
Remember the storm door?
It's time to get outside.
Third year, fourth year, fifth year.
I'm not even kidding.
It was like we kept being reminded of this thing where we had to do.
We had to go out and rake and rake and rake.
And we never, I mean, I'm surprised my dad doesn't still bring it up.
For how many years he kept bringing that up.
But in my six-year-old mind to 13-year-old, however long it lasted that we had to go rake yard,
I felt or I thought that I had to go rake leaves to earn my father's love.
That's what I thought.
But the reality was that my dad's love was there for me all along the way.
And I know this being on the other side of fatherhood, of being a father myself.
If Joseph were to do something, yes, he would have consequences.
I don't know if he's going to have five years worth of leaf raking, but he would have consequences.
But my love would still remain for him.
I know that on this side of fatherhood.
And I know, looking back, that my dad loved me all along the way.
Now, think about our definition of legalism.
Right behavior with wrong belief.
Was it wrong for me to rake leaves?
No.
It's absolutely not wrong for me to rake leaves.
It was a good thing to serve my family.
I was being obedient to my father.
I was facing the consequences of the poor decision that I made.
But was it wrong for me to think that I needed to rake leaves to receive my father's love?
Yes.
And that's what these Judaizers were saying needed to be done, to be circumcised, to follow Jewish laws.
Needed to be done in order to receive the father's love, in order to be accepted for the father.
Were following Jewish laws or being circumcised in and of themselves wrong?
No, absolutely not.
Circumcision was a huge part of God's story.
It's a huge part of the history of God.
It's a huge part of the old covenant.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with circumcision.
I want you to hear that loud and clear tonight.
There was nothing wrong with following the old law.
But when it became a bad thing is when it was accompanied by the belief that they needed to do these things in order to earn favor with God.
Or in order to earn acceptance with God.
It's right behavior with wrong belief.
Now translate that a couple thousand years later into our context.
We're not talking about circumcision.
We're not talking about Jewish law.
Most of us aren't really stumbling over that issue right now.
But what are the good things we do?
What are the really great things that we do in our Christian lives?
Maybe a quiet time.
Or maybe it's showing up here on Thursday night for Bible study.
You check that off on your list of things that you do good for the week.
You're serving people.
Or maybe it's a prayer meeting on Friday morning.
So you come to you.
Good things.
These are excellent behaviors to which we place, we pour our lives into.
And there's nothing wrong with doing these things.
But where we run into wrong is as soon as they're accompanied by the belief that doing those things finds us more favor with God.
We've missed the point.
Right behavior with wrong belief.
I know some of you right now are thinking, man, what does this have anything to do with justification?
It has everything to do with justification.
I hope you can track with me as we continue on through God's Word.
So we're going to look at the second picture, Galatians 2, 11.
Galatians 2, we'll start in verse 11 for the second picture here.
When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he was clearly in the wrong.
Before certain men came from James.
And he used to eat with the Gentiles.
But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles
because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.
And so what we have going on here right now is we have two different groups.
It's two different segments.
You can almost even think about it, if we want to bring it into our context,
you can think of it as Reformed believers and non-Reformed believers.
You have two different camps and they're believing two different things.
And so you have people who believe that circumcision was necessary.
Then you have those who are Gentiles who don't believe that circumcision was necessary.
And these groups are in conflict with one another.
Believers in conflict with other believers and their beliefs.
And so what he's saying here is that Peter's beginning to draw back from the Gentiles
because he's afraid of what the people who are circumcised, the Jews, with their thinking of him.
All along the way.
Verse 13.
So the first part of Galatians chapter 2 is a picture of legalism.
The second part of Genesis chapter 2 is a picture of hypocrisy.
It's a picture of hypocrisy.
For you note-takers, hypocrisy is right belief with wrong behavior.
Hypocrisy is right belief with wrong behavior.
Let me explain what just happened in Genesis 2, 11 through 14.
It's kind of hard to follow this.
And I believe this is one of those sections of Scripture that's hard to follow because of translation.
It's not just because, you know, it just seems kind of wordy.
And I think that that's how it had to be translated.
But this is one of the most dramatic, most intense episodes in all of church history.
And certainly in the New Testament.
Because what you have here is the Apostle Paul is publicly confronting the Apostle Peter.
Two big shots in apostolic history, okay?
These two big shots in early history.
They are apostles, which means that they're above just a regular disciple.
They are these first major teachers.
And you have Apostle Paul going up against the man who essentially taught the first Christian sermon.
And he was kind of, you can kind of think of Peter kind of like the leader of the apostles in a sense.
And Paul's going up against him in front of these people.
And this was an intense moment.
And there's background here that has to be explained.
It mostly centers around Acts chapter 10 where Peter receives a vision from God
that essentially tells him that the gospel is not just open to the Gentiles.
That salvation is not just open, I'm sorry, to the Jews.
It's not just open to the Jews.
But now it's open to a whole range of people that we call the Gentiles.
The people who aren't Jews.
What was once available only to a small segment of the population
is open up to a whole world of people.
Now this is really important for us in here tonight.
Because most of us who are in here tonight will fall under the category of Gentile.
Most of us are not Jewish by heritage.
So this is a great truth for us.
Because we are now part of the new covenant.
We are allowed to be part of the new covenant in Christ Jesus.
And Peter was there.
Peter knew the gospel.
He believed the gospel.
And he knew.
We know from Acts chapter 10.
He knew that the gospel was open to Gentiles.
He knew that.
But Peter's life wasn't reflecting the gospel.
He knew that all men were accepted before God.
Regardless of whether they were circumcised or not circumcised.
But he wasn't practicing that in his life.
Now again, we can't just keep this in the context of 2,000 years ago.
We've got to bring this back into our context today.
We don't normally get hung up over circumcision.
But are there inconsistencies in your life?
Are there inconsistencies in your life that don't line up with the gospel that we believe in?
If we believed in a Savior that came to preach good news to the poor and to the powerless,
yet our lives aren't entirely abandoned to teaching that and taking that message to the world,
then our lives are out of line with the gospel.
We're out of step with the gospel.
They don't match up with the gospel.
And there's inconsistency there.
And I don't really think we have to give many examples tonight,
because each and every one of us struggle in some way differently.
We all have different struggles.
We all have different inconsistencies that don't line up with the gospel.
I struggle with stuff.
You struggle with stuff.
I might struggle with different things than you struggle with.
But let us suffice to say that if your life doesn't look radically different than the rest of the world,
then you're probably not living for the gospel, for the sake of the gospel.
There's probably inconsistencies in your life.
And these things are often evident, by the way, in the way that we spend our time,
in the way that we spend our money,
the way that we spend our thoughts as we think about things,
even down to the way that we dress sometimes.
There can be inconsistencies.
And so what we have to do, as a people of God, is avoid both of these errors.
We have to avoid legalism, thinking that we have the behaviors right,
and everything's okay.
We have to avoid, on the other hand,
talking and believing in this gospel of grace,
and then living our lives just like the rest of the world.
So how do we bring these two things together?
How do we fuse right beliefs with right behavior?
How do we pull these two things together?
And the answer, it's going to be a Sunday school answer,
and you've got to bear with me on this one,
the answer is faith.
The answer is faith.
And this is where justification comes into play.
This idea of faith and justification fuse these two ideas together.
So let's continue in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 15.
We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners,
yet we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law,
but through faith in Jesus Christ,
so that we 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 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.
Verse 20.
I have been crucified with Christ,
and 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.
You see the two key words mentioned throughout this section of Scripture?
The two key words there are justified in faith.
Justified in faith.
And over and over and over again,
you'll notice that justification,
not just in this passage,
but all over the New Testament,
that justification is one of the amazing results of faith in Jesus Christ.
We know that man is not justified by observing the law,
so we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus,
that we might be justified by faith in Christ,
not by observing the law,
because by observing the law,
no one will be justified.
So what Paul is saying here is that we are justified by our faith.
But what is justification?
It's translated all throughout the New Testament
as justified, just, justify, justification, righteousness, right, or righteous.
All those words can essentially be interchanged in New Testament terminology.
And it's one of the most important concepts that any follower of Christ can really grasp.
And so this is an incredibly important concept for us to understand tonight.
If we walk away from here not understanding justification,
then this is going to be a travesty.
We have to understand what this justification means for us tonight.
Luther said,
The doctrine of justification by faith alone
is the doctrine upon which the church stands or dies.
Sorry, or falls.
John Calvin said,
It's the hinge upon which everything turns.
So it's at the heart of the Reformation,
and it's at the heart of New Testament Christianity.
Luther said in another place, he said,
The justification is the truth of the gospel.
It's the principal article of all Christian doctrine,
wherein the knowledge of all godliness consists.
Most necessary it is, therefore,
that we should know this article well,
teach it unto others,
and beat it into their heads continually.
I like that, don't you?
We're just to beat this concept of justification into each other's heads.
Man, you trip up, you stumble, you fall.
Yeah, you go to your brother and your sister in Christ.
You confront them with their sin,
but then you beat justification into their heads.
Because the reality is that we are justified.
We are justified.
So we clearly see this is a very important concept,
and it's certainly important for us to get this right.
And we get this clear and precise in our understanding.
I've heard people attempt to explain it in this way,
and it's not that this is a wrong way to explain justification necessarily,
it's just that it's an incomplete way to explain justification.
But you may have heard this before,
have you ever heard anybody say,
justification means it's just as if I'd never sinned.
And I think the problem with that is that
in trying to find a cute way of explaining something
so that we can remember it,
we kind of don't encompass the whole of justification.
So it's just as if I'd never sinned.
But here's the problem.
You have sinned.
And the consequences for sin is death,
according to Scripture.
All over Scripture, the consequences for sin is death.
So there's a consequence,
and sin deserves the wrath of God.
And God, who is just and holy,
a God who is just and holy,
can't just sweep sin under a rug and forget about it.
There's a consequence that must be paid,
and somebody, someone,
has to pay that consequence.
And so the best way to understand justification
is to understand just a good, solid definition of justification.
So that's what we're going to do.
We're going to walk through this word by word,
because each word in this definition is incredibly important.
Note takers, here you go.
You're geared up, ready to go.
Justification is the gracious act of God.
So we're going to start there.
Justification is the gracious act of God.
It's something that God does by His grace.
In verse 16, at the very end of the verse,
he says,
Not by observing the law,
because by observing the law,
no one will be justified.
It's the same picture in Romans chapter 3,
where Paul also says,
There is no one who does good,
not even one.
There's nothing that anyone in all the earth
can do to initiate God's justification.
God does it by His own grace,
by His own will,
His own grace.
It's entirely from Him and by His grace.
Justification is the gracious act of God
by which God declares.
By which God declares.
The key word there is declares.
Justification is a declaration.
And the word picture that we have
with this word justification
is kind of in a courtroom setting.
You think of a judge
and how he declares judgment upon someone.
How he declares whether you're guilty
or not guilty.
He passes judgment.
And that's the picture,
the word picture that we get
is a holy judge who passes judgment,
makes a declaration.
And that's the language
that's being used here in justification.
It's not a process.
It is an act.
It happens at one point in time.
And this is huge for us to understand this.
It's huge for us to understand
that this is something that happens
as an act in one point in time
because we can't be more justified tomorrow
than we are today.
And we can't be more justified
a year from now than we are today.
Because justification happens.
It's an act.
It's not a process.
Romans 5.1, Paul says,
Since we have been justified through faith,
we have peace with God.
When we have been justified,
I want to just clarify that
if you're a born-again believer in this room,
you've been justified.
I don't want to make the assumption
that everybody in here is a born-again believer,
that everyone's redeemed,
because that may not be the case.
But God has made a once and for all declaration
over you as a believer in Christ Jesus.
Now that declaration involves next in the definition,
a sinner.
This is how it reads,
Justification is the gracious act of God
by which God declares a sinner.
This is the picture of justification.
It is God as the judge dealing with man, the sinner,
guilty before a holy God.
And this is so big for Paul to be teaching this doctrine.
Why?
Why is it so big that Paul is teaching this doctrine?
Because talk about a guy who,
before meeting Christ,
was trying to follow the rules to a T.
See, he attributed righteousness to himself
by trying to follow the law of God.
Yeah, he was persecuting the Christian church.
That was very true.
He was persecuting the church,
but why was he persecuting the church?
Because he believed that they were an affront
to the Old Testament law.
He believed that they were false teachers at the time.
But they were certainly not false teachers.
So he was attempting to be the best person that he could be.
And when he met Christ,
he was confronted not only with his inadequacy
because of his own sin,
he was also confronted with his inadequacy
to be able to do anything good
or anything righteous
that would live up to the standard of Christ.
Because there's nothing that he can do.
The best things that we bring to the table before God
are wickedness.
They're as filthy rags,
according to the Old Testament.
Nothing that we can bring to God
is good enough.
And so here's the picture.
What you have is a guilty man
standing before the Holy Judge of the universe,
and in justification,
you have a gracious act of God
by which God declares a sinner righteous.
That's the whole definition.
Gracious act of God
by which God declares a sinner righteousness.
That, ladies and gentlemen,
is an amazing, amazing truth.
That is an amazing truth.
That the Holy God of the universe,
the Holy Judge over all the earth,
would look at you and at me
as we're standing there
in direct defiance
and direct obedience to Him,
an affront to the gospel itself,
as we live in our sin,
that a holy God and a holy judge
would look down on me and you,
and He would say,
not guilty.
Not guilty.
Righteous.
Accepted.
Peace before me.
It doesn't make sense
to us in our minds.
How can that happen?
Solely on the basis of faith in Christ Jesus.
That's how it happens.
That's the only way.
How can a sinner be declared righteous in God's sight?
I can tell you,
the process was not an easy process.
It required a perfect human sacrifice,
and it required God to sacrifice His Son,
and not just sacrifice Him,
but sacrifice Him in one of the most gruesome
kind of deaths that a human can experience.
But not only that,
and I may be getting ahead of myself here a little bit,
but not only did He die a gruesome death,
but He took on the sin of the world
into His body
when He hung on the cross.
We're talking about
a radical,
gruesome,
horrifying death.
The answer to the question
is that God has taken
the righteousness of Christ,
He has taken His righteousness,
and He has credited it
to the sinner's account.
This is 2 Corinthians 5.
God made Him who had no sin
to be sin for us.
And don't miss this.
God took all that was in your account,
all the unrighteousness,
all the sinful acts,
all the ugliness of sin,
and the willful rebellion,
and idolatry that was in your account,
and He placed that onto His Son
as He hung on the cross.
He didn't just sweep it under the rug
and pretend like it's not there.
See, Jesus, in His life,
He never minimized sin.
And God never minimizes sin.
In Luke chapter 7,
we have an account
where Jesus was eating
with the Pharisees,
as He often did.
He would eat with sinners,
he would eat with the Pharisees,
he would eat with whoever
invited Him over
because He wanted to make
an impact on the region,
He wanted to make an impact
on the culture,
and so He often would eat
with people who didn't
necessarily agree with Him.
So He was eating
with the Pharisees,
and word gets out around town
that Jesus is in this,
home,
and Simon the Pharisee,
in his house,
he was eating with them,
and word spreading
all over town,
and it gets to this one woman.
This woman was,
according to Scripture,
a known sinner,
possibly a prostitute.
But nonetheless,
we know that she was
a known sinner in the town.
You know, most of us,
we like to kind of
keep our sins private,
don't we?
This woman was not
keeping our sins private.
She was a known sinner.
And word gets to her
that Jesus is eating
with the Pharisees,
and I don't know
how all it spreads
and how it went.
I'm sure that Jesus
was starting to make
a stir in the land,
and so people were
talking about Him
wherever He goes,
and so this woman,
she hears somebody say,
Jesus,
He's over here.
He's in this house.
I saw Him walk in there
with the Pharisees.
She says,
Jesus,
He's eating over here
in this house?
Yeah,
I saw Him walk in.
And Simon,
the Pharisee,
went in his house.
He went in there,
and a couple other Pharisees
went in there,
and Jesus went in.
And this woman,
a known sinner,
I don't know what makes
someone do this,
but she was determined
to get in there.
She was determined
to go in
and to speak to Jesus.
I don't know what makes
a sinner do that,
but she was determined.
So she,
slips in the back door,
knocks out the cook.
I mean,
I don't know how you
get into these places.
You know,
there weren't big homes
like we have today,
so she somehow slips in,
gets to the area
where they're eating.
It says they're reclining
at the table,
which usually meant
that they all had their heads
in and tore the table together,
and they reclined.
It was a custom
that they did back then.
They didn't really necessarily
always sit in chairs
like we do today.
So they're reclining there,
and she makes her way
around to Jesus.
Remember,
a known sinner,
and she begins to weep.
She begins to weep,
and as her tears
are falling off of her face,
they're dripping
onto the feet
of the Son of God.
And as those tears
dripping,
accumulate,
she takes her hair
and begins to
scrub his feet
and to wash
his feet
with her tears.
she brought in
a container
with oil.
She anointed
his feet
with oil,
perfume.
Pharisees
had a heyday
with that.
Pharisees who were
eating with him
had a just,
you know,
if he was the Son of God,
he would surely know
that this woman,
they thought they had
Jesus trapped,
he would surely know
this woman was a known
sinner in this town.
If he was the Son of God
like he says he is,
he would surely know that.
And knowing their thoughts,
you gotta know Jesus
knew what they were saying,
he knew what they were
thinking in their minds.
He turns to them,
he says,
can I tell you a story?
Two men
owed money.
One owed a lot.
And one owed
just a little.
Both of their debts
were forgiven.
Who do you think
was more grateful,
the one who owed a lot
or the one who owed
a little?
They said,
well,
the one who owed a lot.
He said,
yep,
she owes a lot.
She sinned
in a public,
horrible way.
And her debt
is big.
She owes a lot.
See,
it's important to note
that Jesus doesn't
minimize the sin here.
He doesn't minimize
the sin.
He says that her debt
is big.
And he looks at the woman
and he says,
your sins
are forgiven.
Your sins are forgiven.
Your faith has saved you.
Go
in peace.
And even though
her sins
were never minimized,
she found peace
with God
that day
through his son.
And you'll notice
that it happened
in a declaration.
Jesus declaring
her sins
forgiven.
It's the picture
of justification.
And it works
the same way
for us
when we give our lives
over to Christ
and righteousness
is imputed
to us.
We are declared
righteous.
We are accepted
before God.
And this is why
Paul adamantly
opposes Peter
in this circumstance
and anyone else
who undercuts
the gospel
by trying to add
works
by necessity
for salvation.
Because God
has already done
the work for us.
Christ's work
on the cross
was sufficient
for us.
We no longer
have to work
for our salvation.
And I hope you see
why the doctrine
of justification
is such a beautiful
thing in the life
of the believer.
That through faith
in Christ
we are accepted
before God.
And you can see
why people
during the Reformation
were saying
man that just
sounds like
it's just too easy.
Because they had
been living
the life of works
before their doctrine
stated that they
had to do works.
They had to do
good things
to credit
to their account
to credit
toward their
righteousness.
And the church
at that time
had made people
believe this
by manipulating people.
And so Martin Luther
comes along
and Calvin
comes along
and all these
reformers
come along
and they say
no that's not
the way it works.
You get to
receive justification.
It's an act.
It's something
that God
declares us
righteous
because of our
faith.
And they're saying
no that's just
too easy.
You just trust
and that's it.
And it's the same
question that these
Judaizers were asking
in Galatians chapter 2.
Aren't you
undercutting the
obedience to the
law?
And Paul says
no.
Through faith in
Christ we're
accepted before
God.
Number one.
Number two.
Through faith in
Christ.
And this is where
it gets really
really really good
for the life
of the believer.
Through faith in
Christ we are
alive to
God.
So not only
are we accepted
before God
because of
justification.
We are alive
because of our
faith in Christ.
We are alive
to God.
And being alive
to God means
that our
life has been
transformed by
Christ.
And what the
work that he has
done in our
hearts and in
our lives.
And in verse
18 Paul says
if I rebuild
what I destroyed
I prove that I
am a lawbreaker
for through the
law I died
to the law
so that I
might live.
So that I
might live
for God.
Died to the
law so that I
might live for
God.
Paul is saying
that because of
our faith that
we are accepted
before God.
But faith is
also the
only way that
we can live
to God.
It's the only
way to experience
true life in
God.
You see Paul
is leaving no
room here for
a one time
decision that
you walk down
the aisle,
maybe you
prayed a
prayer and
you lived
your life just
like everybody
else.
There's no
room for that
in Paul's
theology.
There's no
room for that
in Paul's
doctrine.
It's not
possible because
if we are
saved by faith
and we also
live by faith,
our works
are a result
of our
faith in
other words.
And then
Paul gives
us a loaded
verse in
verse 20
and I
encourage you
if you've
not already
hidden this
scripture in
your heart,
if you've
not already
hidden this
word in
your heart,
that you
hide it in
your heart
this week.
It says,
I have been
crucified with
Christ and
I no longer
live but
Christ lives
in me.
And the
life that I
now live in
the flesh,
I live by
faith in
the Son of
God who
loved me and
gave himself
up for me.
What an
amazing verse.
I've been
crucified with
Christ.
What does
that mean?
What does it
mean to be
crucified with
Christ?
Does that
mean that
Paul was
there with
Jesus hanging
on the cross
with him?
No, he
wasn't physically
there with
him.
But it
means that
we are
dead and
we're alive.
That makes
sense.
We're dead,
but let me
explain.
We are dead
to our
sin.
We are
dead to
sin and
alive to
Christ.
And this
is why
justification is
so important
for us to
understand because
justification is
different than
forgiveness.
Justification,
they're related,
but justification
is different than
forgiveness.
And this,
that when you
commit something
wrong, you
have to ask for
forgiveness, and
then you go out
and commit another
wrong, you have
to come back
and ask for
forgiveness again.
Forgiveness is
kind of a one-time
thing.
Justification is
all-encompassing.
In justification,
you're justified.
You're declared
not guilty.
You do something
wrong, God's still
looking at you
saying, not
guilty, accepted,
peace with me.
There's no
condemnation for
those who are in
Christ Jesus, for
the law of the
spirit of life has
set you free from
the law of the
spirit of death.
And over and
over and over and
over again, in the
New Testament, you
see this justification.
You see not
guilty.
You see accepted
before God.
Accepted before God.
Not guilty.
Do we believe that
in our lives
tonight?
I mean, do we
really believe that?
That we're accepted
before God?
God, some of us,
we might just need
to just let that
soak in to our
hearts right now.
You, despite your
sin, despite all the
things that you've
done in your life,
you're found
acceptable before God.
That you are
accepted by the God
of the universe,
a perfect and holy
God.
God, I think
sometimes we
struggle to fully
believe this and
fully realize this
in our lives.
We like to hang
on to our guilt,
don't we?
We like to hang
on to that shame
that we experience.
And so often we
think of our lives
like this cosmic
lifelong game of
Simon Says, where
if we don't do
what God says,
then we're out for
the count.
We have to sit
out for a while
until we can feel
righteous again.
And we have to sit
out until we're
made right before
God again.
And that's not what
the doctrine of
justification teaches
us.
We've been bought
with a price and
we have already
been forgiven.
I used to use
this illustration
where I used a
cinder block.
Is Wes still in
here?
Wes, you might
remember this
illustration because
you're the first
person I used as
an example.
I don't know if
you remember that
or not.
But I used to use
an illustration
with a cinder block
and I was all
excited about using
this illustration.
So I went into
the hardware store
and I went in and
I was like, I told
the guy when I
walked in, he was
like, how can I
help you?
I said, you know,
this is what I
need.
I need a cinder block.
I need about 10
feet of the
heaviest duty chain
that you have.
And I need a
bolt cutter.
And the guy
looked at me
really strange and
he was like,
almost like with a
worried look.
He's like, I need
to ask you
something.
You're not
planning on sinking
somebody in a
lake, are you?
And I could look
back on that and
see this does look a
little bit suspicious.
You could chain
somebody to a
cinder block and
sink them alive if
you wanted to, I
guess.
But no, I wasn't.
I was trying to use
a sermon illustration
so it was kind of
cool because I got
to explain that to a
guy who was probably
lost in a hardware
store.
But the illustration
was this.
Before Christ, we
were bound up in
our sin.
That's what the
chains resemble.
You're chained to
this weight and
this guilt that you
carry around before
Christ.
You're chained to
it.
And the picture there
was after Christ.
And what I had, I
actually had Wes,
because he was in
the student ministry
where I was teaching
this.
Do you remember
this, Wes?
You don't remember
this at all?
Amazing.
It had no impact
on the students who
were there.
That's good to
know.
All right, so
anyways, you take
the cinder block and
you put it on to
Wes.
And he basically
at the very
beginning or toward
the beginning of
the sermon, through
the whole sermon, you
had him sitting up
there.
You remember it
now?
Because you remember
you didn't just stand
there the whole time.
He sat down on the
cinder block because
that's the best that
you can do.
You can't stand up
there the whole
sermon.
And so in the
sermon, the reality
is that Jesus, because
of the work that he
did on the cross, you
are broken free from
that guilt and that
shame, from that sin,
the reality of sin.
You're broken free
from that.
You no longer have
to be chained to
it.
You're no longer
bound up in that
sin that you are
before you're a
believer in Christ
Jesus.
And so that was the
visual picture there,
that you no longer
have to carry the
weight and the guilt
of sins.
That's where the
bolt cutters came
in.
And as I recall, I
was very careful to
avoid your Achilles as
you sat there and
pinching that thing
down.
But the reality of the
whole thing is, the
reality is that we are
free from that sin.
And ultimately, we
can pick it up and
we can carry it.
I brought something
over here.
The best thing I
could find.
I had a cinder block
in my crawl space
underneath my house,
but it was dirty and
it wasn't real good.
You can pick up the
weight and you can
carry it around with
you.
Potentially for your
whole life.
You can carry around
this weight of guilt
and shame.
And it's going to be
really hard because
it's hard to walk
into a building like
we're in right now
and to be amongst
other believers and
to worship God,
holding the weight of
the guilt and the
shame that you carry
around in your life.
And you find it hard to
share with unbelievers.
Because you're sharing
with them and you're
saying, you know,
and Jesus is the best
way to life.
Ignore what I'm
holding here.
But Jesus is the best
way to life.
He's the best way to
live.
All the while you're
holding this guilt and
this shame.
Don't truly believe in
the justification that
Christ, this Christ's
work on the cross that
justified you.
You go on a mission
trip and you say,
I don't know how I'm
going to get this
through the TSA,
the metal detectors,
the airport security,
but I'm going.
I'm getting on an
airplane.
I'm going to have a
lot of explain to do
when I get to customs
in China.
But I'm going.
I'm going on a
mission trip and I'm
carrying this with me.
The reality is we
don't have to carry
this anymore.
If you want to pick
it up, you can pick
it up.
But I'm here to tell
you tonight that it
was endaled to the
cross when Jesus died.
And you can pick it
up and carry it if you
want to carry it.
but it was nailed to
the cross and you
no longer are bound
to the weight of
guilt and shame in
your life.
And let that speak
truth over you right
now.
Because some of us
came in here tonight
laden with guilt and
laden with shame.
And maybe you came in
here tonight thinking
that you are out of
the game for a little
bit because you sinned
earlier, maybe right
before you came.
Maybe you sinned at
some point this week
and you know that
you're carrying around
that guilt and that
shame and you brought
it in here with you
tonight.
And I'm telling you,
this doctrine of
justification should be
made real in our
lives.
And whatever we
brought in here, we
no longer have to
carry that with us
because Jesus carried
it in him on the
cross.
This is what God's
word tells us in
1 Peter 2.4, that he
himself bore our
sins in his body on
the tree that we
might die to sin and
live to righteousness.
For by his wounds
you were healed.
By his wounds, by the
sacrifice of Christ, you
were healed.
And that's the picture
of justification.
And it's so important
that when we approach
the text of Scripture
that we see, when we
see these tough
commands in Scripture,
these commands that
are sometimes hard for
us to follow, that we
don't walk away saying,
if I do these things
and I'm accepted before
God, why?
Because that's
legalism.
We don't walk away
ignoring these truths
because that's
hypocrisy.
Instead, we walk away
with our hearts running
toward Christ saying,
Jesus, you are
everything that I need
and I need more of
you and more of you
each and every second
of my life.
and I need you to
show me the places
in my life where my
life doesn't line up
with the gospel.
Show me the places
where I need to be
more conformed into
the image of your
Son.
I need more of you.
And in doing so,
we honor God with a
life that's not just
justified by works.
It's justified by the
grace of Christ that
comes through faith,
only through faith in
Christ Jesus.
And it's for this
purpose that we are
saved by grace alone,
through faith alone,
and in Christ alone.
Let's pray together.
Amen.