Grace In Galatia
Passage: Galatians 2:15-21
15 “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 know that a person is not justified by the works of 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 the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
17 “But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.
19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
Recap: Sermon 6-12-11 – Galatians – What Law Cannot Do
How does one become righteous before God?
Since the time of Moses the answer has been, by obeying the Law. The Law (or the Torah) was given to Moses by God after he had led the people out of slavery in Egypt. The Law included the Ten Commandments but is much much more. We are used to thinking of law as certain things we are not to do, and that the law is a list of restrictions. That is a “Roman” conception of law that we inherited. The Jewish sense of Law is more encompassing. The Law is not just things you are not supposed to do (such as the Ten Commandments) but a whole host of things you are to do. It is life encompassing. God desired to create a holy people and so he chose the Hebrews, redeemed them from Egypt and gave them the Law. Through the Law the people would learn about holiness and righteousness.
In Galatians Paul is challenging the old answer. Paul is arguing as a Jew, that Jewish believers in Christ should know better than anyone that no one cannot attain righteousness before God by works of the Law. The Jews had had the Law for 1200 years and they have not been able to live it out and attain true righteousness. The fact that God sent his Son and they put him to death only demonstrates how far from righteousness they are.
Why is righteousness important?
Unless we are made righteous we cannot be in God’s Presence. God is perfectly and utterly holy and unstained. God’s will is that people would dwell with Him in His eternal kingdom, but unless we are made holy and righteous we cannot enter that kingdom. Somehow we must attain right-standing before God if we are to be saved.
The Law cannot make us righteous. Why?
1. We cannot live it out perfectly and attain the complete holiness of God. Even with our best effort we will fall short in some way.
2. The Law tells us what is good but cannot give us the desire to do what is good. Through the Law we learn we should not murder and yet in moments of anger we want to murder (or lust or covet).
3. The Law only deals with the outward behavior and not the inner heart. Jesus highlighted this truth when he said the Pharisees were only cleaning the outside of the cup and leaving the inside full of bad stuff. Mark 7:15 “Nothing outside a man can make him unclean by going into him. Rather it is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean.”
4. The Law cannot keep corruption from returning. Even if we could get to the point of righteousness, sin is ingrained in the human heart and corruption will find a way to sneak back in. Even those who are committed to solid principals and doing what is right are subject to failing in their own standards. We have seen that in the fall of otherwise godly pastors and in highly principled college football coaches.
Jesus came to do what the Law cannot do.
Jesus was fully righteous under the Law and before the Father. He fulfilled the Law completely, inside and out and lived a life fully pleasing to God the Father. Yet he was treated as one who was unrighteous. He was executed as a criminal and subjected to public shame. Jesus was the one man who did not deserve death at all, let alone such a shameful death. He did that so he could offer to us His Righteousness. We make a trade. He, the righteous one, bears the shame of our unrighteousness. We those who are unrighteous receive and are covered by His Righteousness.
How do we make this great trade?
We make the trade by trusting in Christ. We put our faith in Him and so we are brought into spiritual union with Christ. We join him in his death, and so we will be included with Him in his glory.
We need to claim Galatians 2:20 as our own and experience spiritual transformation.
We cannot make ourselves righteous by just recommitting ourselves to following the Law or being a “better” person. Such righteousness is not in us that we can draw it out. Instead we need to be crucified with Christ. We need to own up to our sinfulness, and the junk in our heart that we cannot get rid of on our own. We need the inner change that can only result from our heart being surrendered to the Lord. We bring Him our life as an offering. We give all that we know of ourselves to all that we know of Him. We trust Him with our heart, our life, our future, our family, our stuff, our responsibilities. We ask him to make something new and better out of our life.
This is both an “ultimate” decision and a daily decision. We need to make the ultimate decision to entrust our lives to Christ and die to ourselves. We desire to follow after Jesus, so we take up our cross and follow Him. Yet just because we make that decision once doesn’t end the challenge for us. We need to reaffirm that decision every morning. We need to daily take up our cross and offer to God our life. We need to pray, “Lord take me as I am, forgive my failings, renew my spirit and live through me today.” It is only as we daily surrender our heart to Him that God works inner transformation in our spirit. He has declared that we are righteous through Christ. Now he begins to make the righteousness a reality in our spirit and in our life. And one day he will complete our purification so that when we enter His Presence we will be righteous and holy for eternity.
Further Thoughts: What we should know about Righteousness (insights from Gal. 2:15-21)
First – Know that you cannot stand righteous before God based on your behavior.
I’ve experienced people getting angry about this. They want to think they are good enough to be accepted by God. They’ve absorbed the truth that God is love, and that God is forgiving and so they think that means that God will just overlook our sin and failings. God cannot just ignore sin and unrighteousness and we must be justified (made righteous) before we can be accepted by God.
Second – Know that it is Christ’s faithfulness that is decisive.
We are justified through the faithfulness of Christ. It was his fulfillment of the Law and sacrifice on our behalf that enables us to be made righteous. Though at times we may be unfaithful it is His faithfulness that matters.
Third – Know that the Lord desires to bring us into true righteousness.
Paul responds to those who ask if Christ is promoting sin because he has released us from the Law. Paul says absolutely not. Christ will make us righteous, not through the Law, but through the Spirit who is at work in our lives. Paul will say more about the work of the Holy Spirit later in the letter.
Fourth – Know that the solution is dying to ourselves so that Christ can live in us.
Because of the ingrained sin and corruption in our heart we cannot live righteously. But we can die to ourselves and allow Christ to live through us. This is the way to true righteousness.
Fifth – Know that Jesus is the only way to righteousness before God
The Crowning Argument of Paul is that if we could become righteous through the Law or through our efforts then God would have never sent Jesus to die. If there was some other way to right-standing with God then Jesus died in vain. Oftentimes the world finds it offensive that Christians claim Jesus is the only way to eternal life, but if we give in and claim otherwise then we are declaring his death to be for nothing.
Further in the Scriptures:
Read Galatians 2 + see also Romans 7 + I Peter 3:18
ý Psalm 19 – Declares God’s law to be perfect – Consider whether Paul is refuting that?
ý Mark 7:1-23 – Jesus talks about the inside/outside of the cup
Take and Seal It
An e-mail follow-up to Sunday morning’s message
By Pastor Mitch Reed - Immanuel UCC, Zanesville – Ohio -- e-mail: cowcountry94@yahoo.com