Galatians 2:16 "Justified"

Justified by Faith Alone in Galatians 2:16

For this morning, again, it's a real blessing to see everyone here today. We are going to be in Galatians chapter 2, so please start making your way there for this morning. Galatians chapter 2, we're going to be specifically just in one verse for this morning, which is verse 16.

It's a mighty verse to be in, and I think today, this text, the reason that we're just going through one verse today is because of the important theology that's taught in.

Here.

Today, we will see one of the most clear texts in all of the Bible that teaches us how we are saved. And if we are to fend our faith, so if somebody was to come up and say, how are you saved? To any one of us in this room, I would hope that you would have in your back pocket and maybe even memorize Galatians 2 .16.

And I would actually encourage you today, if you do not have this verse already memorized in your mind, memorize it today.

It's one verse.

It'll take you only a moment to memorize it, and if you cannot do it today, do it this.

Week.

Teach your little ones. Teach your kids Galatians 2 .16. That's how powerful this message or this verse here is today. And so that's why we are going through this one thing is because I almost seem to reference any time I do evangelism, any time I talk to somebody about the gospel, this is a verse that almost undoubtedly will come up, Galatians 2 .16.

So let's go ahead and pray before we read this text. We will read all of 16 to 21 just to see what the context for today's message is going towards.

Let's go ahead and pray.

Lord, I do thank you again, just for each one of the little ones that you've blessed our church with, Lord. God, we want to lift up our nation in general, Lord. It's going to take you to change people's hearts, Lord.

So God, we would ask that you would change people's hearts. Call your sheep unto yourself. Open individuals' eyes. Let them see the salvation that rests in Jesus Christ, your son, and may they have faith.

That justifies them, Lord.

God, we come to you humbly because we know that it's not us that has been justified through works, but that we've been justified through faith in Jesus Christ. That there's nothing good that dwells within us, but that you've granted something mercifully and undeservingly to us, Lord.

So God, we lift up a mighty praise to you today in worship, in praise, in honor. And Lord, we want to give you glory, and we say this in your name, amen. Let's go ahead and read verse 16 to 21 for this morning.

It says this, nevertheless, knowing that man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works, the law, since by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified.

This is the text that we're in today and this morning. Let's continue to read, though, like I mentioned. But if while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin?

May it never be. For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, 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, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. I do not set aside, your translation might say, I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly.

Or Christ, maybe some of your translations might say, Christ died in vain. Very strong language that Paul puts forth for us this morning. So let's go ahead and pray one more time as we look at this. Lord God, I would just again ask that you would be glorified in today's message, Lord, that you would help myself utter that which is honoring and correct and is exhorting your people, Lord.

God, I would ask that today we would take confidence in what you have accomplished on our behalf, Lord, that we would rest in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Lord, I would ask that if there is anyone in here, including myself, including the children, including the elderly, Lord, that if any of us look to the righteousness, the supposed goods that our hands have done, Lord, that you would correct us, that you would humble us, and that you would show us that there is nothing good in us, that it is you alone that is good, it is you alone that has justified us, Lord.

God, may we be reminded today that it is not the works of the law, but it is through faith in Jesus Christ that we are saved, this object of our faith that is true, that is good, that is the way,.

That is the life unto you, Lord.

So, God, may we take hold of that truth, that way, and that life, and just have confidence in a world that seems to hate you,.

That seems to hate us,.

That seems to have continually, have already done and has continually rejected Jesus Christ, the man in whom we have been justified. So, Lord, we say this in the God-man's name, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Paul’s Rebuke of Peter and the Danger of Hypocrisy

So, for context today, I want to just discuss. Last week, we discussed just that boldness of Paul in rebuking the Apostle Peter, that courage that would have had to take place in Paul's life to go to the Apostle Peter and say,.

Peter, you're being a hypocrite.

Peter had fallen into hypocrisy after several faithful years of ministry, is what we talked about last week, and his conduct was not consistent with the gospel. As he was showing unhealthy favoritism and the fear of the circumcised party, meaning that when he would be eating with the Gentiles, if one of these circumcised men, the party of the circumcised, these Judaizers, if they came into the building, you would see Peter, guess what he would do?

He would immediately stand up and go and fellowship or want to join in with the circumcised party. He didn't want to be associated with the Gentiles, and that again is after that vision he had received in Acts that told him not to do such, that we saw in Acts 10 and 11.

So Peter had become a hypocrite through years of faithful ministry. After Peter had been obedient to God's word, God's command, he fell into hypocrisy. And so I hope that out of everything that we learned last week, that we implemented this week and we would continue to implement, that we should not be hypocrites, that we should live a life that is honoring to God, that is obedient to His word, and that is consistent with the testimony of the gospel, that we are saved by the grace of the Lord alone, and that there's no distinction amongst others.

Again, if you think that you could be a Christian on Sunday, or when it is convenient for you, and then Monday through Saturday you are a hypocrite, and you live a life that is not holy, that is not set apart, that is not unto the Lord, you need a rebuke.

You need to be told to stop. We need to live a life that is glorifying God without exception of what's going on around us. So today's message, however, is going to be teaching us how Paul was saved, how Peter was saved, how the apostles were saved, how Abraham, Isaac, Moses, Ruth, Joseph, Job, David, and all the other Old Testament saints were saved, and likewise how all past and current suffering saints of the church today, all the church fathers, all the reformers, all the Puritans, all the well-known pastors, and all the teachers, all the unknown and forgotten saints, how each one of us, if saved, how we are saved is what today's message is going to be talking about, what is set forth in the text today.

And let me be clear in saying this, none are justified, none are saved by the law, but those who are saved are justified by faith alone. And this principle, faith alone, is a principle that is of absolute essential to the faith of Christ, the faith of the Christian religion.

This is a doctrine, faith alone, that we should be willing to die upon, a doctrine that that doctrinal heel of faith alone is a heel that we should be willing to die on. We might disagree on eschatology, ecclesiology, the study of the church is what that is, the regulative principle of worship, the dates, then that has to do with how we worship.

We might disagree with the dates that are set forth in the Bible. You and I might disagree with who the author of Hebrews is, or maybe it's Jesus, Melchizedek, the politics in the Bible. We might disagree with evangelism methods and much more, but listen to me, we cannot, we must not disagree with this, that we are saved by faith alone.

That is a doctrinal heel that cannot be denied. And if one was to say we are saved through faith plus something else, that would be to deny Christ and to make him die needlessly is what 21 says for us here.

It's to deny the Christian religion.

Unto which his elect, Christ's elect are called unto, which I would hope today you would say that's the religion that I have been called unto. Romans 1, 16 through 17 says this, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For in it, and listen, this is the verse that opened Martin Luther's eyes to see the grace of God. It says this, for in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

That verse right there is what started the whole Protestant Reformation. Scripture is what started the Protestant Reformation. Scripture was the fiery furnace that forged God's church. It's what we live on today is this continual reforming effect, this continual reminder that it is not through going to a priest, it is not through saying Hail Marys, it's not through listening to what the priest tells you to do that you are saved, but it is through what God's Word has told us.

We are saved by faith. The righteous lives by faith. And so today, I would like to tell us the theme of today's message is going to be covering three things. And that's one, what it means to be justified.

Two, what are the works of the law? And three, what is faith in Christ? What are those three things that we're gonna be looking at? So let's go ahead and read 16 again. It says this, nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, since by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified.

What Biblical Justification Means

What does this word justified mean? What does justification, justified, justifying, what does this word mean? The worldly definition, if you were to type into Google, what does justification mean, is this.

It gives you this definition. Having or shown to have a just, right, or reasonable basis. And I would argue with us today that that definition that Google spits out for us is not even close to what justification is defined in God's word, what justification is according to the Bible.

This type of worldly justification, which again, having or shown to have a just, right, or reasonable basis, that Google definition, this type of justification is not something that we should try to step before God and try to justify our actions based off of.

This is how the world thinks. They think something along the lines of this. I can demonstrate before the living holy judge of all creation that I was right, just, or reasonable in my actions, in my life,.

In the way I behaved, in the ways that I lived,.

And therefore, I should not be punished by him. Listen, how many people, and this is something I've seen very regularly when talking to unbelievers, and I would hope that you've seen this, how many of us have seen somebody say, I'm going to heaven because I'm a good person?

That's almost undoubtedly the answer that is heard when you ask someone, are you going to heaven or hell? They'll say, I'm going to heaven because I'm a good person. Their eyes see themselves, their eyes see themselves as meeting the standards that they have made in their own mind to say, I am good.

Romans 3 .10 says, no one is good, no not one. It's almost like if we were to go before a worldly judge to argue our case, that's how the world thinks about it. Imagine for a moment, you are in your home, someone breaks in, we live in Idaho, so you grab your gun, and you shoot the person,.

You shoot and kill the intruder.

That has broken into your house. He was facing you and he had a gun, right? This seems to be a justified action, right? That seems to be a justified response to an intruder. What if the intruder that you killed was shot in the back as he was fleeing from you?

Seems to be a little less justified, right? But regardless, what would you still do when you go before a judge regarding that incident? You would try to justify yourself. You would try to justify your actions.

But in this instant, you are the party.

Wronged by the intruder.

That's how we always try to think of this. I can justify myself because I'm the one being wronged. I'm the one, I can justify my actions. I can create a standard that I fit. How about this for the example?

You are the intruder. You have broken into the person's house and you killed the homeowner. The police have caught you and now you go before a judge. Again, guess what you're going to try to do? You're going to just try to justify yourself.

And your actions.

You're still going to try to make yourself the guiltless party in that instance.

My neighbor wronged me. I'm poor.

Whatever the excuse is, you're going to try to justify your actions before a judge. You're gonna say, I did something that was just, reasonable, and right. What standard are they held to though? What standard are we held to?

We make standards that we can fit and somehow try to make ourselves into the hero and morally just person in the world and in every instance. That's what nature tries to do for us. You can almost see, this started out in the very garden, brothers and sisters.

What is the response of Adam when God questions him.

For breaking the law?

It was the woman that,.

I'm just, I didn't do anything wrong. It was the woman who you gave me. That's the reason I fell. Trying to justify themselves before a holy and righteous God. Eve comes and what does she say? It was the serpent.

That's how mankind behaves. They try to justify themselves. We try to justify ourselves before a judge. We don't like to take responsibility. Listen, we're gonna use a very serious example here. In 2023, many of us probably can recall there was a school shooting done by a transgender at a Christian academy.

And let me pause here. This is so pertinent because guess what just happened yesterday? Somebody shot at Trump and killed someone. If that person had not been killed, what do you think that they would try to do?

Justify their actions. How would they justify it?

Trump is a terrible being.

I had every right to shoot at him.

That's how they would try to reason.

That's how they would try to think through their actions. But let's look at this example. This 2023 example, like all mass shootings, we can obviously and quickly identify that the shooting was obviously wicked, wrong and sinful, right?

We can clear, everyone in the world can look at these things and say, this person was wrong. However, what do you think goes through the murderer's mind about their actions? They thought that they were justified.

They thought they were doing what was right in their own moral compass. This girl in that 2023 account with the Christian academy thought that since the Christian academy taught things.

That were in line with the Bible.

And went against her feelings, she felt she was wronged while attending the school and therefore, therefore because of her feelings, she felt justified in shooting it up. What about Columbine? The Aurora Theater shooting, the Mountain Menno Massacre of 1857 or the Las Vegas shooting of 2017?

I bring these examples up because they are obviously immoral, horrible, detestable. This including every secular sense of morality, people can see this as wrong. However, each of these cases involved men and women who thought that their actions were justified.

And why?

Why do you think that they think.

That their actions were justified? Because they thought their actions were warranted, reasonable, just or right in response to how they were treated. Without the moral law, without man submitting himself to the objective standard of God, guess what man will always do?

Make themselves into God in their own eyes and the essence of what they think truth is. That's what man tries to do. Can we do this before a holy and just God? Can you and I go before God and say, God, look at all the good things I've done.

This is why I did those evil things.

You shouldn't punish me. Can we do this?

Absolutely not.

Listen, if you were to come up here and slap me in my face this morning, what do you think I'm gonna probably do back to you? I might get angry. Maybe I'll slap you back, maybe. I don't think I probably would.

I would probably just stand up here in shock. Let's say you go slap someone out on the streets. What is most likely gonna happen? They're probably gonna call the cops on you. What happens if you slap the cop when he gets there?

What's gonna happen to you?

You now go to jail.

Let's say you slap the president.

Of the United States on the face. What do you think is gonna happen to you? The action is the same, but the punishment changes from the authority of who you slap in the face. Action the same, the authority has changed.

The punishment, therefore, is different. The reward you have received is different. What if you slap a holy, eternal God who is your creator, maker, and sustainer? What do you think is going to happen?

An eternal God is going to give you an eternal punishment. Can we go before an eternal, holy, righteous God and say this is the reason I was slapping you because my standard said so? Is that gonna fly?

Is that going to make it right in judgment day?

Absolutely not.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism, which is very similar to the Spurgeon Catechism that we use as a church, it asks a question, what is justification? Let's define biblical justification, brothers and sisters, because we've looked how worldly justification tries to make yourself think that you can just be just based off of what you think is right.

What is biblical justification? This is what the Westminster gives as an answer. It says justification is an act of God's free grace wherein he parteth all of our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone.

This is worded very, very specifically for us.

If you would like to,.

You can turn with me to Romans 3, 22 through 30 for this. Again, Galatians 2, 16, this is one of the most serious and important Bible verses that we could ever see. But Romans 3, 22 through 30 talks also about faith in Christ and justification.

It says this, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe,.

For there is no distinction,.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I wanna pause there. All of us have sinned against God. All of us have slapped God in the face. We have all fallen short of his glory. We have all fallen short of his standard.

Look, we can point out the obvious sins of the world and think that we are better than the obvious sins of the world. At the end of the day, we have all fallen short. We have all fallen short of God's standard.

Listen though what Paul says here even in Romans. And are just, so all fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to receive, to be received by faith.

This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be the just and the justifier of one who has faith in Jesus.

Then what becomes of our boasting? This is the question that Paul then asked. What becomes of our boasting? Because think about it. What is Paul talking about when he says boasting? He's referencing the law.

The Pharisees, the Jews, guess what they could do? I'm more holy than you. I've kept the law better than you. Paul says, what about this kind of boasting?

Is it excluded?

By what kind of law? By the law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart. Listen, if you have a pencil or a pen, this is a great place to mark. Mark apart, circle it, show it so clearly in your Bibles, apart from the works of the law.

Or is God the God of Jews only?

Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Are the Jews saved a different way? No, are the Gentiles saved a different way?

No, there's only one way that we're saved,.

And guess how we are?

Through faith in Jesus Christ. That's what Paul argues here. Being declared righteous before God is through faith and without distinction. We are justified by the unmerited favor of God as a gift through the righteous life and propitiation of Jesus Christ.

This good news is received through faith and not by works. The difference between the unbeliever and the believer is not that the believer is better or has done more or has lived a more holy life, but instead the believer throws himself to the mercy seat of the gospel for their righteousness and a just standing before God.

Listen, we must come unto Christ through faith. That narrow path, that narrow gate that Christ talks about is not entered through your endurance,.

Not through your strength,.

But it is entered through faith in Jesus Christ who is the door, who is the shepherd, who calls us unto him. We are justified by the way, the truth, and the life. It is not through our endurance, it's not through our supposed good, for our good is nothing but abomination, nothing but filth in the eyes of the Lord.

Listen, if for a moment you were to suppose that in your life there was not a moment you weren't sinning against God and that's why you think you should be justified, imagine the best, most wonderful gift that you've ever received in your life.

You have that picture in the back of your mind. Maybe you were gifted when you were young a car from your parents, whatever that example is. And it's a gift that you were not deserving of. Could you imagine for a moment reaching into your pockets and grabbing one penny out and saying, I got you, I paid you back.

That's the type of attitude that so many supposed Christians have regarding the righteousness of Christ. The most wonderful gift that outweighs all the gifts we've ever received in this room, that outweighs all of creation itself, Jesus Christ, the only good, dying for us.

It's like us taking a penny out and saying, I paid you back, Christ. That is not how you're justified. So then what is the law? So listen, we are justified, we are reckoned with righteousness through faith, meaning that you and I can go before God now in Christ Jesus being covered with His righteous life so that when God looks at us, guess what He doesn't see?

He doesn't see Braden, the filthy, rotten sinner. He looks at the believer and He says, I see my son. I see his righteousness. I see a holy life now. That's what justification is, is that we stand before a holy God, not based of us lowering a standard, not based of us trying to reason with God, but He sees the one who lived perfectly, that never failed, that never sinned.

That's what He sees when we as believers stand before God. Hallelujah. That's justification is being able to stand before God being declared legally righteous in His own eyes, not because of our own obedience, but because of Christ's obedience, because of His imputation.

The Works of the Law and the Moral Standard of God

So then here, turn back with me to Galatians 2, excuse me, 2 .16, let's read this again, because we wanna memorize this today, brothers and sisters. And how do we memorize it? We read it over again, repetition is key.

If you think for a moment that you can't memorize the Bible verses because you're being lazy and you haven't read the Bible verse, just read it over and over again, you'll memorize it. Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law.

Since by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified. Notice in here, what is, that's the question that we need to ask. What is the works of the law? So we've defined what biblical justification is.

What is the works of the law here in verse 16? I believe it would be best to distinguish some things before jumping right into this text regarding the law. And I would argue that something, I would argue for something in theology called the tripartite division of the law, meaning that there's this three divisions of the law is essentially what I would argue for.

These three parts would be known as the moral law, the ceremonial law and the judicial or civil laws.

Depending on how the person refers to these things.

So the moral law, ceremonial law and civil law. And the confessions that I would hold to and I would encourage us to seek theology within speaks of these three part division of the law is this. The moral law is the law that was first written on man's heart and was formally given to Moses on stone tablets in the form of the 10 commandments.

The 10 commandments is the law that is over all men. It's the righteous rule of all men. But then God specifically gave to the nation of Israel more positive law. And that was the ceremonial laws that prefigured Christ such as a sacrifice, temple works and so on.

And then God also gave, so that's the ceremonial law. God also gave to the nation of Israel positive judicial laws that were meant to order the ethnic Jews, keep the people in the land and ultimately protect the promise of the seed.

Who is Christ.

So there's these different, when you look in the Old Testament and you start looking into the law, there's law that does not apply to us today at all. That was meant for the nation of Israel. In fact, we're gonna see here in the next chapter and I believe it's in verse 15 or 16.

It says that the law was until Christ. And that's referencing these laws that were meant for the nation of Israel. They were until Christ.

They're completed.

The purpose of them to protect that promise seed has been accomplished. Jesus says that all things must be accomplished and that's exactly what happened is Christ accomplishes all things. That law is no longer needed to protect the nation of Israel.

The ceremonial sacrifices is another really great example of that. This is totally going off on a rabbit trail. So I apologize, I'll try to make it quick.

But in the book of Hebrews,.

It's very clear that these ceremonial laws have ended in Christ. How many of us go year after year after year to Israel and sacrifice a lamb?

Praise God, we don't have to do that.

That was a ceremonial law that has ended in Christ Jesus.

That's not how we are to behave.

In fact, to obey such a law like that would actually be disobedience is what Hebrews is arguing for. If we don't think the finished work of Christ is the finished work that those sacrifices were pointing forward to, we're trampling on the blood of Christ is what Jesus argues or what Paul in the book of Hebrews argues.

Now I gotta find my place in the notes.

Because I chased the rabbit, I apologize.

But God gave these nations positive judicial laws that were meant to protect them is the point of this. And the confession also argues, which I am completely compelled by scripture.

To admit as well,.

That the moral law is the only law that is transcendent and continues today as what binds all men to God and demonstrates our falling short of His glory. The ceremonial law and the judicial law which was spoken, which again will be more spoken on thoroughly in chapter 3 was until Christ and ceased with the nation of Israel.

Again, that moral law, those 10 commandments that we're going through with the kids, how many of us in this room have ever stolen in our lives? That gets a hearty yes, right? We all have. How many of us have stolen from God.

Without even realizing it?

We live in His creation.

Has there been a moment where we have been out in His creation taking in, basking the air, breathing the air that's, who owns the air? God owns the air. Can we give Him back any air? We unknowingly are stealing from God all the time.

How many times do we go out into creation and we bask and marvel in His creation and we take something home and we don't give Him thanks for it? We still against God and each other continually is what I'm trying to say.

The moral law, those 10 commandments is what binds us to God as showing our fallenness. That's the standard, brothers and sisters, and not one of us has ever lived up to it. This moral law, again, according to Reformed tradition, according to specifically Luther, he would say that the moral law is like a mirror.

When you wake up in the morning and, right, we have that morning breath and morning hair, where do we go to try to fix it? We go to the mirror and we say, okay, I got a piece of hair out right there. I need to get a shower most definitely.

You get out of the shower, you dry, and then you, I'm thinking of a guy, right, I don't know what girls do, but curl hair,.

But you do it in a mirror, right?

It exposes you.

It demonstrates to you. That's what the law is like. You look at the law and you say, I have miserably fallen short of this. I need to live a better life according to God's law.

It's like a mirror, right?

It exposes us.

However, the Judaizers in this text, this is where this is going for us.

When it says the works of the law,.

The circumcised party, also known as the Judaizers, were trying to force circumcision, which is, guess what, a part of what law? Do we see circumcision in the 10 commandments? No, but what do we see it in?

Ceremonial and judicial law. They're trying to push something that, guess what, was finished in? Christ Jesus. They're trying to take a law from the Old Testament that was meant for the Jews for a nation until Christ,.

And they're taking that law and they're saying,.

We need to put that law upon the Gentiles. We're going to try to make and compel them to live unto something that was not ever intended.

Nor given to them.

They argue that if you did not obey such a command, ceremonial and civil law, like the law of Moses is what they refer to here, but circumcision, if you didn't live unto that law, you're actually not really a Christian, and guess what was so blasphemous in this way of thinking and saying?

Christ couldn't save you if you didn't obey the laws of Moses. Christ couldn't save you if you weren't circumcised. If we needed to obey the law in order for Christ to save us, let me be very clear in this, there would be no hope, there would be no salvation, and we would all be doomed to eternal hell if that's how we were saved.