Justified By Faith In Christ (Galatians 2:11-21)

[Read Galatians 2:11-21]

I want you to picture a situation in which I assume many of you are familiar. You find yourself in an argument with someone about something, maybe it’s a friend, a parent, or a spouse. Either way, you’re arguing about something, maybe it’s something you said, something you didn’t say, or something you did. Maybe you had borrowed something from a friend and broke it. Maybe your spouse was sick and tired of you leaving your socks laying all over the house (or you were the spouse that is sick and tired of someone else leaving their socks around the house). Whatever the situation is, you got into an argument, things got heated, no solution happened, and you both end up walking away in a fit of anger.

Now, I want you to put yourself in that situation and begin to think about what is going on in your mind at that moment. Let’s choose the sock situation for our example. You’re the one who keeps leaving their socks around the house. Most likely you leave the argument thinking something like this: “I can’t believe they are making such a big deal about nothing! Why do they have to nit-pick everything! It’s not like they’re the only one who does anything around this house. It’s not like I don’t pick up other people’s things around the house all time. Yesterday, I noticed one of THEIR socks in the wrong place, and I picked it up for them. I didn’t even say anything about. I didn’t even criticize them about. I just picked it up and put it in the dirty clothes basket. Sheesh!” It could be the same type of conversation with the friend who’s angry because you broke something of his: “It’s not like HE hasn’t ever broken anything of mine. It wasn’t that expensive anyway…”

I’m pretty sure we’ve all been there. I’m pretty sure we are all well acquainted with this happening in our heads. If you were going to label what is happening, as we say these types of things in our head, what would you label it? Some may call it “rationalization,” but I think there’s a better word to describe it—self-justification. Right? Isn’t that exactly what is happening? We leave an argument and we immediately come up with a million different reasons as to why what we did isn’t as bad as they think it is. We are trying to justify ourselves. To say it another way, someone has looked at something we said or did and said that we are GUILTY of something, and in our anger we become lawyers, preparing an argument to show that we are NOT GUILTY. That’s what self-justification is.

The concept of justification is all about seeking a NOT-GUILTY verdict. That’s what the focus of this passage is about—justification—seeking a NOT-GUILTY verdict from God. Last week, I emphasized the depths of our sinfulness—the reality of our sinfulness. And, since we are sinners, we find ourselves in the courtroom, with God as the judge, looking at us pronouncing a declaration of GUILTY over our lives. Yet, we don’t want to be declared guilty, we want to be declared NOT GUILTY—we want to be justified. So, what do we do?

Paul begins by telling us how one way that we are NOT justified. He says, “know that a man is not justified by observing the law…because by observing the law no-one will be justified.” (Galatians 2:16, NIV). You cannot be justified by observing the law. It’s impossible. Can’t be done.

You may be asking, “Well, what does Paul mean by the law?” That’s a good question. The short answer is: everything God requires of us. That means everything, including the Ten Commandments. So, Paul is saying that you cannot be justified by following the Ten Commandments perfectly. Jesus even summed these Ten Commandments up into two (he actually sums the entire requirements of the Old Testament into these two): “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37–40, NIV). So, if you are wondering what God requires of you, it’s summed up right there: Love God and love your neighbor. Yet, Paul says, you CANNOT be justified by doing those things—you cannot be declared not guilty by God by loving God and loving your neighbor. It’s impossible.

I remember listening to R.C. Sproul talk about an evangelism program he was involved in during his college days. They were equipped with two questions to ask people on the streets of the community. Then, after asking the questions and having the conversations, they were to come back and record the answers they received. The first question was something like, “Do you have certainty that when you die you will spend eternity with God in heaven?” He said that basically everyone answered that question in the negative. Then, after asking that question, they were supposed to ask another question: “If you were to die today and found yourself in the presence of God and he asked you, ‘Why should I let you into my heaven?’ what would you say?” He said that 90% of the people asked this question answered it by saying something like, “Well, I’ve been a good person. I’ve always tried to do the right things. I attended church as often as I could. I gave some of my income to church on a regular basis. I helped out at the local soup kitchen…” This entire list could be categorized under the category of “observing the law of God,” and not a thing on that list will justify you in God’s sight BECAUSE man is not justified by observing the law. Period. No additions. No takeaways. You CANNOT be justified by observing the law. You cannot make yourself NOT GUILTY by doing “good things.” It doesn’t matter how much you come to church or how much you give to church or how many “good things” you do in the community. You can do all of these things, do them with your whole heart, do them with excitement and passion, yet not a single one of them will work toward your justification or add to your justification.

Now, in reality, this works itself out more subtly in our lives—especially in the church. I realize that there ARE many people in the world that truly believe they can do enough good things to get into heaven. Paul says they are flat out wrong—no one is justified by the things they do. However, in the church it is much more subtle. We know that we can’t work our way into heaven. We’ve been taught that over and over again. However, we can often find ourselves thinking that we can “increase our odds” at getting into heaven if we do some good things. Maybe we can add to our justification by some good works.

That’s actually what is happening in the Galatian churches. Some false teachers have come into the church and said something like, “Yeah, we know what Paul taught you, but he wasn’t quite right. You DO need to do something to be saved. You DO need to add to your justification by doing some things—like eating ‘clean’ foods, like being circumcised, like…” If you are following Paul’s teaching AND our teaching, then you will truly be saved, but Paul’s teaching isn’t right. There’s more.

Again, this happens in the church all the time. We want to add to our justification—to our NOT GUILTY verdict—by doing “good things.” So, we begin to act as though we are saved by Jesus AND by going to church, or by Jesus AND giving money to church, or by Jesus AND serving in various ministries in the church. I could go on with the list. Yet, the moment you says Jesus AND, you lose the Gospel. Paul actually takes it a step further and says, “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:21, NIV). The moment we begin to say or think Jesus AND, we set aside God’s grace and we make Christ’s death NOTHING! If we think we can earn any single bit of our salvation, then it is no longer grace. If we think we can earn any single bit of our salvation, then Christ was not a perfectly complete savior. Let us not fall into this trap.

Again, this false teaching works itself out subtly in the church. Look at the conflict between Peter and Paul. “Before certain men came from James, 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. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.” (Galatians 2:12–13, NIV). So, Peter, Paul, and the Galatian gentiles have been hanging out for a while and they were all eating together. Peter and Paul were enjoying some of the new benefits of their freedom in Christ—maybe enjoying that freedom over a large plate of bacon. Yet, after Peter has been eating and fellowshipping with the Gentiles for a while, some Jews show up from Jerusalem. Peter becomes afraid of what they will think of him. What if they see him eating like a Gentile WITH the Gentiles? So, he separates himself from the Gentiles and only eats with the Jews.

Paul becomes furious. He says, “When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong…When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ know that a man is not justified by observing the law…”” (Galatians 2:11, 14–16, NIV). Do you see what’s happening here? Why was Peter afraid when the Jews showed up? He was afraid because deep down he still thought that the law could add to his justification—maybe score him some points. Then a bunch of other people began following his lead, and he ended up sending that message to a bunch of people that Jesus wasn’t quite enough, you also needed to follow the law. In doing this he set aside God’s grace and made Christ’s death into nothing. So, Paul opposes him to his face in front of the whole group. Paul doesn’t mess around. He wants everyone to know the true Gospel and he will confront anyone who is leading people astray—even Peter.

So, how are we justified? What can we do to find ourselves NOT GUILTY before out God? “know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no-one will be justified.” (Galatians 2:16, NIV). It’s only by faith in Jesus Christ. That’s the only way you will be justified—found NOT GUILTY—before God. It doesn’t matter how much you attend church or how much money you give to church or whether you attended a Christian school. None of those things will justify you. Only faith in Jesus Christ and nothing more. It’s not faith in Jesus Christ plus church attendance. It’s not faith in Jesus Christ plus serving the church’s ministries. It’s only Jesus and if you add anything to that—if you begin to talk or act like it’s Jesus PLUS—then you set aside the grace of God and make Jesus death into nothing. You are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and not by any work of your own.

Then, you continue to live a life of faith. In a very well-known passage Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20, NIV). I realize this verse can make your brain hurt a bit as you try to figure out what Paul is trying to say. But understand it at a surface level. Paul says that through faith we have been crucified with Christ and no longer live but Christ lives in us. How does all of that work? Don’t worry about that exactly right now, just rest in the fact that Christ is living in you. He’s working in your life. He also says that the life we life is one of faith in Christ—the one who loves us and gave himself in our place. We trust Him with our lives—every part, our salvation and throughout the rest of our lives. We live lives of faith, trusting completely in the one who loved us and gave himself for us. Importantly, remember that we live these lives of faith NOT because we are earning points with God or adding to our justification. NO. NO. NO. We are not justified by any works of the law. However, once put our faith in Christ and have been declared NOT GUILTY, we begin to live out that faith in the world—not to earn points or earn justification—but we do it out of joy for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So, don’t come to church each week thinking that you are earning points—that’s setting aside God’s grace and making Christ’s death worth nothing. Come to church each week because you love your Savior and His people and desire to worship Him WITH His people. Don’t volunteer for ministries in the church because you think you are earning points—that’s setting aside God’s grace and making Christ’s death worth nothing. Volunteer for ministries because you Savior has poured out gifts in your life and you are excited to use them for His glory and for His kingdom. Do you see the difference? We are justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. Rest in that and Rejoice.