Justified by Faith
We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ 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 justidfied by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified. If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 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 for God. 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. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing! (Galatians 2:15-21).
Let me read to you the first and last lines of the Emancipation Proclamation.
That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever, free…And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God…. —Abraham Lincoln.
Historians have mixed reviews about Lincoln’s personal views. From my study, it appears to me that Lincoln was universally anti-slavery but not an anti-racist. He did not advocate complete equality. He shared the racial prejudices of his contemporaries. He was a man of his time who spoke about slavery and slaves differently. In Lincoln’s debate with Frederick Douglass, he articulated what today would be considered strongly racist sentiments.
I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races. That I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will for ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.
Lincoln was a moderate. Frederick Douglass wrote, “From the genuine abolition view, Mr. Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull, and indifferent, but measuring him by the sentiment of his country—a sentiment he was bound as a statesman to consult—he was swift, zealous, radical and determined.”
Lincoln did not foresee the impact of the Emancipation Proclamation. His thought and his actions evolved over time. If he would have lived, most historians believe, reconstruction would have been a positive experience for both the South and the African-American. Maybe the Civil Rights Movement would have come earlier rather than being so tardy.
Lincoln did not foresee the impact of freedom. Freedom brought equality. Freedom brought opportunity. Freedom has helped us as a nation to grow toward, although not yet accomplished, the unity Paul spoke about in Galatians, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Lincoln’s journey to social justice eventually led to the civil rights movement in our lifetime. Lincoln’s journey to social justice would not and could not lead to re-enslavement of slaves after the war. The result was African-Americans sitting in the front of the bus and not colored slaves in chains. The result was equality.
Although not foreseeable in Lincoln’s day, we now have an African-American sitting on the Supreme Court, an esteemed president Barak Obama, and an ethnically diverse Congress. Can you imagine an African-American Professor of English not only advocating a return to slavery but selling himself back into bondage? Can you imagine the grand-daughter of a share-cropper signing a petition for the repeal of the Emancipation Proclamation?
How much more should freedom be loved by those of us who at one time were enslaved to sin and law keeping principles? Can you imagine a Jew, once accepting Jesus as the Messiah, enslaving him/herself again to the Mosaic covenant? Can you imagine a Gentile who never new Phariseeism, enslaving him/herself to the book-keeping righteousness of legalism? The cross makes a difference! Just as the Emancipation Proclamation made a difference, so does the cross make a difference in our lives.
Some today, like the KKK or neo-nazi groups, still forcefully proclaim anti-black sentiments. Civil rights threaten their ideas for a perfect society. Paul’s emphasis on faith also threatened his Jewish Christian opponents and their understanding of God’s covenant. Some Jewish Christians from Jerusalem were threatened by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore, they proclaimed a legalistic understanding of the Law which perverted the very Law they believed in. They proclaimed a legalistic understanding of the Law which perverted the very gospel they also claimed to believe in.
Let’s examine the fundamental ideas to Judaism’s sense of identity: First, Jews held the conviction that God had made a special covenant with the patriarchs. The central feature of that covenant was the choice of Israel to be God’s peculiar people. God had given them the Law as an integral part of the covenant. The Law showed Israel how to live within that covenant. God’s covenant was God’s atonement.
Even Ten Commandment Law was given as a response to God’s gracious activity. “Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me….”
Paul tells us in Romans seven that the Law is “holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.” And a few verses later he states, “We know that the law is spiritual.” But the culprit is sin. The Jews, by their own sin, abused this understanding and it resulted in a yoke of slavery they themselves could not bear. It resulted in their strong sense of special privilege that led to their hatred of other nations. By abusing the Law, by making it into a legal system of justification, the Jews became self-righteous. And self-righteousness leads to death. Look down at our text. I’m beginning in Galatians 2:15–16a. Paul states, “We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners” know that a man is not justified by observing the law,…” What does Paul mean by “justified by observing the law?” Let me offer these observations: (1) “Works of the law” are those things that characterizes one as being in the covenant and not simply getting into the covenant. Obedience to the law in Judaism was never thought of as a means of entering the covenant only or of attaining that special relationship with God. It was more a matter of maintaining the covenant relationship with God. (2) The expression “works of the law” is a self-evident expression for Paul’s readers for he does not define it explicitly. Although Paul used no word for “legalism,” “works of the law” is the expression Paul uses to express the idea of “legalism” or “Phariseeism.” (3) “Works of the law” are those things that a typical Jew placed his/her confidence in for salvation. Law observance documented his/her membership in the covenant. A Jew’s righteousness was demonstrated by him/her as being a loyal member of the covenant.
Jewish Christians then equated dietary laws (Gal. 2:11–14), circumcision (Gal. 5:6; 6:15), and Jewish holidays (Gal. 4:9–10) as boundary markers for their identity. These Jewish Christians were demanding strict obedience to these rules for justification. Jews cannot live like Gentiles. Gentiles cannot continue to live like Gentiles and be good Christians. Gentiles must learn to live like Jews. Jewish Christians were enslaving themselves and some unsuspecting Gentiles to a yoke of slavery. This yoke of slavery was contrary to the Gospel. Paul called it “another Gospel.” They were enslaved, though emancipated, and enslaving others who had also been emancipated.
Have you ever heard of 3×5 card religion? This is when a Christian writes down good advice upon a 3×5 card to carry around in his/her pocket, or tapes it to the bathroom mirror, or puts it under a magnet on the refrigerator door. When the Christian is driving down the road, s/he can pull out his 3×5 card and read its advice. S/He can commit it to memory. S/He can incorporate it into his/her life.
Let’s pull out a 3×5 card. It reads, “Pray every morning for forty-five minutes. It is best done when you use a prayer journal. Record your prayer requests and God’s answers.” That’s good advice. No one here would argue with that. But if forty-five minutes every morning is good, so would forty-five minutes at night. What about forty-five more at noon? Why not fifty minutes? If fifty minutes makes me spiritual, then two hours surely will. Now we are up to six hours a day. If you are not praying six hours a day, brothers and sisters, then you must not be spiritual.
I’ve even seen scripture placed on 3×5 cards. In fact, I have over a hundred myself. The problem comes when there is abuse. 3×5 cards is only a method. Let’s examine the method. [Take out a stack of cards and shuffle them.] It’s O.K. to shuffle the cards because they are are all disjointed and isolated rules. Truth is truth. Our hermeneutic, our method of interpretation, is called the “PPP” method. “Pocket,” “Pick It,” and “Prove It” method. When you want to prove a point, or win an argument, or show someone they are wrong, just pull your cards out of your “Pocket,” “Pick a card—Any card,” and “Prove” your point.
It is like the Old West. The streets clear. The marshall and the outlaw each take ten paces back. DRAW! The marshall pulls his Bible out of his/her “Pocket,” s/he “Picks” a verse, s/he “Proves” his/her point. And the outlaw lies bloody on the streets of Dodge. And as we have observed in our own fellowship, often the wounded and dead are from our own “friendly fire.”
Yet we feel secure in Zion. But when the method becomes a law, then you have a nullification of Christ. That’s when the 3×5 card becomes 3×5 jail cell. 3×5 card religion does not save me, nor does it keep me saved. Justification does not come by “observing the law.” Any law!
The danger here is when that stack of 3×5 cards becomes a canon within the canon. It becomes a stack of rules. Opinions become requirements. Scriptures become what they were never intended to be. I’m not justified by Scripture. I’m not justified by law. I’m not justified by keeping the rules. I’m not justified by obeying steps. I’m not justified by five acts or three principles or anything else. I’m justified by the blood of the Son! 3×5 card religion does not save me, nor does it keep me saved. Justification comes by faith.
But don’t I need to have a basis to know for certain that I’m saved? Don’t I need to have a plan or a commandment? The rich young ruler asked, “Isn’t there just one more commandment that would guarantee my salvation? I have kept all the 3×5 rules. Is there something more?” The Scriptures teach, “Thou shalt not covet.” The rich young ruler replied, “I have kept that since my youth.” “I have not coveted. Since I’ve kept all the Scriptures, I’m saved. Unless there is one rule I’ve missed. Is your stack of 3×5 cards taller than mine?” You see, the rich young ruler was guilty of using the Law as it was never intended to be used, as a means of justification. 3×5 card religion can only demand, judge, forbid, and condemn. The fault is not in the law, but in the sinner’s abuse of the law. You see, 3×5 card religion does not save me, nor does it keep me saved; it only brings me death.
I pray every morning for forty-five minutes. I attend every service. I partake at the Lord’s Table every Sunday. I sing. I give more than I’m able. I serve on the benevolence committee. I conduct home Bible Studies. I even teach Jr. High!!!! Is there something else I need to be doing to be saved? Have I missed some passage someplace?
3×5 card religion is heard in our prayers. “If we have been found faithful in the end, in heaven save us.” 3×5 card religion is heard in our answer to this simple question, “Are you saved?” We answer confidently, “I hope so. If I’m found faithful.” Let’s just go ahead and change the song, “Blessed Assurance, I Hope Jesus Is Mine.”
3×5 card religion does not save me, nor does it keep me saved. Paul rejects 3×5 card religion. Follow along with me in Galatians 2, beginning in verse fifteen.
We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ know that a man is not justified by observing the law [3×5 card religion], 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 [3×5 card religion], because by observing the law [3×5 card religion] no one will be justified….I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law [3×5 card religion], Christ died for nothing!
Jesus Christ only! Jesus is an exclusive and singular gospel! Liberty! Not Legalism!
What is “Justification by faith?” First, let’s lay common ground: (1) All of us have sinned and are in need of a Savior. None of us are righteous. Our righteousness is but “filthy rags.” It is not a matter of wandering around some place, we are lost. It is not a matter of being sick, we are dead. The dead are utterly powerless to raise themselves. (2) Justification is not unconditional; otherwise, there would be universal salvation. Biblical faith goes beyond acknowledgment to trust in God’s power to do what He said He would do. We are saved by “grace through faith.” (3) We are all in agreement here and the case does not have to be argued that salvation is by “grace through faith and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8). Faith is the proper response to the cross. Faith never stands alone. Salvation is never based upon our having faith in and of itself. Faith always has an object. It is in Jesus Christ that I place my faith. Faith without Christ is not biblical faith.
God does all the work in salvation. God sent His Son. God raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand. When one is baptized through faith, God puts to death the old self of sin. God raises that new self to newness of life. God forgives the sin. God sends His Holy Spirit. God is the one who justifies. We put our faith, our confidence, our trust, in God’s action. We are justified by our faith in what God has done. We are justified in what God accomplished at the cross some two thousand years ago. Therefore, we stand in God’s presence as righteous because of our faith in the atoning death of Jesus Christ. By faith, the cross becomes present reality.
My prayer life, my Bible study, my evangelism, my service, my worship, my obedience all comes from my response to what God accomplished at the cross. It does not mean that if I give up the rules and regulations that I will somehow be a sinner again. That is what Paul is arguing in verses 17-19.
If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinner, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! (me genoito)! 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 for God.
Righteous living is not nullified by the nullification of law keeping.
I do not become a sinner by getting rid of law. To reason like this indicates that one is operating with a wrong definition of sin. The real sin would be to re-assert distinctions in the law that force Gentiles to live like Jews. The real sin would be to insist on law-observance as a condition of being in God’s people. The real sin would be to re-assert that faith in Jesus Christ is not sufficient for acceptance with God.
Being justified by faith in Jesus Christ both enables us to enter and remain His people, acceptable to Him. Our relationship is restored with God. Paul declares, “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 and gave himself up for me.”
Jesus proclaims in Luke 9:23 the basis for crucified living, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” 1 Corinthians 15:31 Paul states this truth for his life by saying, “I die daily.” Paul describes crucified living in Romans 12:1–2 as offering our bodies as “living sacrifices.” We climb upon that altar of service and die all because of “God’s mercy.” Therefore, Paul can confidently profess, “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 and gave himself up for me.”
But crucified living does not justify. We are justified by faith. We live crucified lives by that same faith. As Paul states in Romans 1:16–17,
I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that begins with faith and ends with faith, just as it is written: ‘The righteous by faith will live.
In Romans 3:21–28 Paul explains,
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood….he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies the man who has faith in Jesus. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.
Paul goes on in Romans 4 and 5 to say,
…but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.
“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 and gave himself up for me.” Christ is our master now. We cannot place ourselves into bondage to another. Being crucified with Christ released us from 3×5 card religion and all other authorities in which we formally subjected ourselves too.
Liberty not legalism, yes! But also, Liberty not license. “I do not set aside the grace of God…” You see, some become enslaved again to their own emancipation because they do not live as God intended them to live. They turn their liberty into an excuse to do whatever they want to do. They either nullify God’s grace by submitting to 3×5 card mentality or they nullify God’s grace by submitting to sin. Two options: Legalism or License. I either submit myself to law-keeping or on the other hand I sin. Paul proclaims the gospel is opposed to both those extremes. The opposite of those two extremes is faith. Faith will continue to be the guiding principle for my abiding relationship with God. Faith now will control me. Paul deals with the abuse of liberty that turns freedom into license later in the letter.
“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 and gave himself up for me.” Christ now lives in us. We have been united with Christ. We participated with Him in His death. We also participated with Him in His resurrection. Christ now lives in us. Our dying and rising with Christ presents us before the Father justified, blameless, and faultless. That fact controls us as we live each day in the here and now. Because Christ lives in us, we now live in faith.
Paul wants us to know the liberty we have to live in Christ. We have been given liberty because we have been “justified by faith in Christ Jesus.” We have been given liberty to live the way God intended us to live from the beginning. God created us in His image. We marred that image by our sin. In Jesus Christ, God recreated us through new birth. He restored our relationship with Himself. He justified us by faith, so that we can have the power to live in freedom, to live in liberty, to live in emancipation, to his glory now and forevermore. Amen!