Can We Truly Be Justified by Faith (Galatians 2:16-19)

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Idaho.

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Well as we as I looked over this passage again and Studied it continued to look at it.

There were several questions that came to my mind and and they're each one of these verses that

we've read this morning.

There's a question that I wanted to ask.

So and this is going to kind of form an outline for what we're going to where we're going to go here.

So question number one is from verse 16.

This is the question as a believer in Christ.

What has caused my justification?

The question 2 from verse 17 if I know I am justified by faith

and I'm no longer under the restraints of the law then is It possible that

Jesus Christ could be a promoter of my sinful life since I still sin.

That's a long question, but we'll get to that question 3 from verse 18.

What would our lives as believers be like if we were to return to a dependency on the law

on the Ten Commandments and other Mosaic laws.

And question 4 from verse 19.

How can we live to God?

That'll be the conclusion.

So let's look at this this morning.

The first question that I just asked is as a believer What has caused

my justification is is justification caused?

By the Ten Commandments.

By obeying the Mosaic laws, or is it something else now?

I know the songs we sang this morning already answered that question.

So it should be quite clear, but it never help hurts to review it does it?

So just for a little bit of review to put this verse this idea this whole idea into context.

Here's what's happened already in this in this book this book that Paul wrote to the Galatians and we

need to remember that.

Paul.

Didn't write this as an encouragement.

He didn't write this with a happy with happy feelings.

He was correcting an error in the book of Romans and the book of Romans is teaching and

Philippians is very encouraging and Colossians is also teaching but this book is to correct an error

and we note that in back in Galatians 1 verse 6 What did Paul say.

He began his teaching with a rebuke and it was saying this

Brothers and sisters, I am so amazed that you have so quickly.

You're so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a

different Gospel for a different gospel.

But Paul doesn't exactly go into though what this different gospel was yet in the in

the very beginning.

But we wait until he writes about a confrontation in chapter 2 with Peter

verses 11 through 15 however.

Even before this confrontation and this is something that we've already covered and you'll have to read it again If you don't remember

what I said, so just read back through it.

But even before this confrontation Paul does give us a glimpse of what this

different gospel was doesn't he?

This would be adding circumcision adding a legal.

Thing a.

Requirement for believers and Inheritance to one of those more important Mosaic laws.

This was this was what he was talking about.

So he mentions it how he made a special trip to Jerusalem to come together with the

other apostles and discuss this issue because Paul did not want any other thing to stand in the way of

What the gospel is they couldn't teach circumcision as a requirement.

It was important that the gospel had to be all the same With all the Apostles as well.

And then he goes on into verses 11 through 15 as we see in the second chapter where he

confronted Peter for his hypocrisy.

Paul uses this problem then to give us this idea of what this different gospel was.

And here's what it looks like just for a bit more of a summary.

Peter had been worshiping There with Paul and with the other Galatian believers and he'd been eating

together with them at possibly taking communion spending time with them and just it was all one happy

family at the beginning and In doing this he was showing them

that he had laid aside all the legal requirements the laws because

of grace however, when some legalistic Jews came then down from Jerusalem

and visited them and What did Paul do he withdrew from them?

From eating with the Gentile Christians he withdrew because he was afraid of what they were going to think about him.

So by his actions what Peter was doing was agreeing With those legalistic Jews that there was something

still that had to be done to maintain their salvation.

It was no longer by grace he was implying that a believer needed to conform to these laws and specifically that

particular one about not eating with a Gentile a Jew could not eat with a Gentile that was the old rules.

So in a sense he was implying that a man is Justified in part

by keeping some of these legalistic rules.

So Peter and some of the others were being hypocrites, weren't they because there was at first they'd said

let's eat.

Let's all be one happy family.

We're all equal.

We're all the same.

We're all To eat together and then when these guys came in he said no we can't do that anymore.

We have to pull away.

We have to withdraw so he was being a hypocrite.

And Paul knew that this idea would destroy the gospel message that the true gospel.

Peter was promoting this different gospel a false one one of grace plus something of keeping

the laws.

So what does Paul tell these Galatian Christians here in verse 16.

He says 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.

So thus we have the answer to our first question.

What is brought about our justification?

Its faith and actually, you know what?

It's not faith now I can contradict myself, but what it is is the work of Jesus Christ on the

cross.

That justifies us, isn't it?

But it's our faith to believe that and so that's what Paul's focus was was on the faith part.

We are justified by faith alone.

Faith in Jesus Christ now when I started studying this this verse.

It seemed to me that Paul was repeating himself here in this particular in verse 16 because he says First of all, this

is a fact man is not justified by the law but through faith and then he repeats it.

He says it twice.

He says 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.

What's he doing here?

Why why is he repeating himself?

Well, I believe he's saying it twice for a specific reason it's because

it's so unreasonable and So unnecessary to insist on any observance of the

law now.

We have the Mosaic laws and we still study them today, but there's a difference as a believer.

We see them as something else and we'll get into that and just in a little bit here, but it's almost like Paul was

finishing with his his Example of talking to Peter and his hypocrisy and then he

it seems like he turns to the Galatian Christians now.

And he's applying it by saying so guys.

Don't you see it?

We have believed and we are justified before God.

But it is by God alone and it is only because we believe in Jesus Christ.

It can never be about our own works of righteousness.

Can it or our inheritance our adherence to the Mosaic laws?

It can't be about that.

That's what Paul was saying.

So if we make it something other than about faith.

Then it becomes a different gospel.

I really appreciate how the Amplified version I like versions and when I was doing the translation of the into the mon

we language years ago, I used the Amplified as one of my

Not a base text, but one of my texts to study along with a number of other versions.

So I like different versions.

Some of them are good.

Some of them are rather poor.

But they all help to understand what the author was saying.

Listen to what the Amplified version says here.

It says a man is justified or reckoned or reckoned righteous.

Excuse me.

Let me start over.

A man is justified or reckoned righteous and in right standing with

God.

Not by works of the law, but only through faith and absolute reliance on and

trust in Jesus Christ.

Now.

This particular version Likes synonyms and I like synonyms because it does give us a better

understanding sometimes of what's being said.

Actually, sometimes it's way too much.

But this particular one gives us a good definition of what justification means, doesn't it?

Let me read it again.

Just this part.

A man is justified.

That is he is reckoned righteous and is in right standing with God.

So in other words justification means that God reckons us as sinners.

As.

Righteous before him when we believe that is we are placed in a right standing

with God because we believe.

Another way of saying this is that God has credited.

The righteousness of Christ to us hasn't he and that's what it talks about there in Romans that that Dave read here

earlier.

So so let's just think just a little bit about what this means.

Like I say, it's kind of like preaching to the choir because most of us are familiar with this, but it doesn't hurt to repeat it.

Why do we need?

Christ's righteousness.

What's wrong with my own goodness?

Aren't I good?

And when you ask a person Out in the streets if you're ever talking to a person the first thing it's good to

ask them.

Do you think you're a good person and omnius all the time?

They'll say well, yes, I am.

I'm a good person.

So what's wrong with our own goodness?

Well according to the scriptures before salvation We had no goodness.

Not really.

We didn't desire to seek after God.

In fact, we hated everything to do with righteousness didn't we and we call this total depravity.

We were really depraved we only deserve God's wrath and judgment because of our hopeless nature as

depraved sinners and When we were born into the human race, we were already born as sinful creatures and it

didn't get any better.

Because all we did was sin or do something with sinful motives and Over and over again the scriptures

tell us this doesn't it?

If we read the scriptures, this is what it says, you know, Isaiah 53 Says this all of us like

sheep.

All of us like sheep have gone astray each one of us has turned to his own way.

Isaiah 64 verse 6 says this for all of us have become like

one who is unclean and All our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment and all of us

wither like a leaf and our iniquities Like the wind take us away.

It's my emphasis on the all but boy, I tell you it sure says it and Pretty inclusive all of us and then

Paul also writes as well about the depravity of humankind in Romans 3

verses 10 through 12.

And what he does is he combines a number of Old Testament passages together.

Some of them from Psalm 14 and this is how he reads it.

He says as it is written there is none righteous.

No, not one.

There is none who understands.

There is none who seeks after God all have turned aside together.

They have become useless.

There is none who does good.

There's not even one.

Does that say all of us actually says none of us doesn't it?

But it means all of us all of us have sinned.

So each of these passages tell us that all of us are hopelessly unable to save ourselves and desperately lost.

That's pretty bleak.

Isn't it for someone who thinks that they have some idea some way to Get God's approval by something

that they have done, right?

So in legal terms all of us have been found guilty.

We've all been sentenced to death by the judge of the universe before we've even had a chance.

Because he got alone is righteous.

We can't meet up to God's standards because they're so high and we're so we're doomed because we're sinners.

That's the bad news.

And that's the first part of the gospel that anybody needs to hear actually the bad news first.

If we don't understand we won't understand the rest of the story.

Will we however because of what Jesus has done on the cross because of

his work on the cross and because of God's mercy and The grace from that same judge.

We've been given a gift haven't we?

The gift of salvation and Ephesians 8 2 8 9 makes this very clear and other passages I won't quote

them this morning because you some of you know him by heart.

But this isn't the only thing that's been done.

It's not just the gift of salvation that's been given us if we read through Ephesians chapter 1.

There's a number of other things other blessings that each believer has been given.

We've been adopted for instance into his family haven't we there's complete forgiveness.

There's a there's a desire given to us by the Holy Spirit to please the Father.

There's an understanding of some of the mysteries of God, aren't there?

The Holy Spirit has been given to us as a guarantee of that salvation and there's a peace

that no unbeliever would ever have nor understand and there's so many more things it

would be.

It could take two mornings to enumerate on all those things on all those blessings, but one of the more important

things Of having obtained this gift of salvation is that we are no longer seen as

unrighteous.

We're no longer seen by God by that same judge.

And what happens at salvation is that we've been saved from God's judgment from sin.

But Christ's righteousness has been credited to us is what the song said there this morning.

And it's important to remember that it's still His righteousness, isn't it?

It's not ours.

It's his righteousness.

We can do nothing to gain it.

We can't come to church Every Sunday and every Bible study and and pray a

lot and read his Bible.

It's not how we get it is it it's already credited to us.

It's Christ's righteousness and not ours and so this is the issue that Paul was dealing with there as he explained it to Peter and

the rest of the Galatian Christians and Earlier this morning.

We read there.

They've read in Romans 4 and and Paul was talking about Abraham there wasn't he and he said for

what do the scriptures say?

Abraham believed God and it was credited or Assigned to him.

There's many words we can use there.

It was credited him as righteousness.

So in other simpler words, this means that Abraham was justified by faith.

And Paul even repeats this himself in

Chapter 3 he goes right into that again.

Isaiah 53 6 says this the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall

on him.

I read that again.

The Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.

So this is another aspect of that same idea of justification and sometimes we call this imputation.

I know Jim has preached on that.

He's talked about it as well.

So we should have heard this before but what it is, it's it is it's just saying that that's another benefit of our salvation.

That all our unrighteous acts all our sin was placed on him.

So he not only credited us with his righteousness.

But he also took our righteousness upon himself and what does God see he sees when he

looks at us.

All he sees is his son.

All he sees is his Righteousness, so this is both imputation and justification.

Listen as I read 2nd Corinthians 5 21 where Paul was explaining a little more what

God did here.

He says He says it this way for our sake.

For our sake he made him Jesus To be sin who knew no sin

so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Recently, I read an article by R .C. Sproul where he was explaining this verse and he said that what we have here could be called

double imputation.

Listen to R .C. Sproul as I quote him at the heart of the gospel is a double imputation.

My sin is imputed to Jesus and his righteousness is imputed to me.

So in this twofold transaction, we see that God who does not negotiate sin who doesn't

compromise his own integrity with our salvation, but rather punishes sin fully and

Really after it has been imputed to Jesus and he retains his own righteousness.

And so he is both just and The justifier as the Apostle Paul tells us

here.

So what he was saying was that there's two things that happen.

He's taken our sin on himself our sin on himself and thus he bore the punishment for us and

Secondly, his righteousness has been imputed to us or credited to us just like Abraham.

So we're righteous in the sight of God, aren't we?

That's amazing.

It's just so amazing because we have believed What Jesus Christ has done on the

cross?

We are justified by believing that by believing that so in other words, we're justified by faith

and as I mentioned It's not our everyday experience to be just as it to be righteous we're

still capable of sinning and often we do but the righteousness we're talking about here is our

Standing our position before God.

We're forgiven or acquitted of the guilt of our sin.

We're justified that it's not anything we could have done.

So it's been credited to our account all God sees is the righteousness of Christ and

It's by faith alone and Paul made faith the focus here because the Galatian Christians were being fooled by

some of these Jewish Heretical teachers who were thinking that guys you got to do something and Paul

Peter was fooled and they're thinking Oh, I got to go back to to this legalism.

I got to go back to to holding myself better than the Gentiles.

We have to do something.

We have to keep the Mosaic laws and And particularly separating from the Gentiles

and so this is why they were drawn away by Peter's hypocrisy a number of years ago.

When I was over on the East Coast visiting my family that lives over there I was asked by a friend of

mine to teach in their Bible study and that his friend was a Mennonite pastor and Some of you know what the

Mennonites how they understand things and this friend asked me if I would

Teach in their Bible study and so without even thinking about any repercussions I

taught that morning on faith and on grace and the security of the believer.

I

Mentioned that the Bible teaches us that a true Christian is still saved even if he does happen to sin.

Because he's working on those areas.

He's by faith.

Dealing with his sinful nature all the time.

He will sin because he's still human.

This won't unsave him I said in that study.

Because salvation and justification are God's work.

They're not our work and we can't do anything to fix it or maintain it.

All we do is believe that's the faith part.

That's how I went in my Bible study.

Well, these ideas bothered my Mennonite friend and he told me very plainly That

if he started preaching about these ideas in his church about grace.

Then many of his members would just start living in sin.

They would eventually it would lead them to no longer being Christians.

He couldn't afford to lose him.

So he couldn't preach he couldn't teach on grace now.

He didn't tell me if he believed grace, but he couldn't preach on it.

It was so sad his idea Communicated to me that sanctification sanctification was

obedience to God's Laws the Mosaic laws.

He had no idea about justification.

It wasn't clear at all to him that we're declared righteous by faith.

So he had a similar misunderstanding.

Didn't he then that the Galatians had and that Peter had.

That we have to maintain The legalistic laws in order to maintain our salvation

to keep ourselves safe.

Now, is that true?

No, it's not not according to Paul here in Galatians.

So.

And no matter what I said that day it didn't seem to make any difference because he was so afraid That he would

fall away from God.

He didn't understand the security of the believer.

So much like the Galatian Christians it was it was a sad situation.

So as we read through this passage we can see That it is by faith alone, isn't it?

We are not Maintaining our salvation.

It's already finished.

Isn't it already finished?

God has accepted us because of his son.

Let me give you another example.

Some of the mon who he people that we worked with for many many years also struggled with

this idea as well.

My son Jeff who's Currently doing the Old Testament translation was teaching at the

time and he was teaching on Galatians chapter 2.

And what happened among the mon who he people that as he was teaching or when he finished teaching this passage a Rumor

began to circulate around in the villages While he was co -teaching this with another

pastor.

The rumor was that He was implying that it was okay to still sin.

It was okay to to get drunk.

It was okay to run around with other women.

It's okay to live in adultery now.

Jeff didn't say this.

Okay.

Just to let you know but the rumor said that he did.

People were thinking that's what he said because of the way that the teaching goes on Galatians and

Because the mon who he worldview is so tied to gossip and this kind of stuff.

Anyway, it just naturally flowed.

So after Jeff taught on this passage There were two of the pastors of two of five.

Two of the pastors were really struggling with this idea.

I don't think they.

Misunderstood.

But it was a deeper issue.

It was a deeper issue.

These pastors somehow came to think that a Christian had to keep the Ten Commandments.

Or he would no longer be a Christian just like this Mennonite fellow did so the issue was about the security of the

believer they were afraid that if they Taught grace their whole village would fall apart

because people would start sinning all the time.

So they got together.

Jeff got together with all five of these pastors the one pastor that was teaching on grace had understood

it.

Said okay, Jeff read this passage read this passage.

And so Jeff read it and this is what it actually sounds like I'm gonna read it in Montague.

Just so you hear that that language.

It says hey Talib a Poet in Caius because she not he less wet some we did Talib a to

Ola The Jesus Christ, oh and so translating this back for you guys into the English

it was saying this it doesn't come from the law.

That we are God's children.

This is verse 16.

Actually, it's just a part of it.

But it says it doesn't come from the law that we are God's children.

But instead it comes from believing in Jesus Christ.

We know that no one can be stated as good by doing the laws.

Now, I'm pretty sure these guys understood it.

But they were so afraid that if they taught that there would be no longer any control in the village

so on a Shallow surface level it appeared to leave the church and the leaders powerless to keep

their people good.

Because that's what they wanted to hear.

These two men wanted the promise of Justification by faith to not be made clear.

Sadly and so as he read and read this over and over again this verse here in Monholy

finally both of those pastors Admitted that they were wrong and believe in the rumor

and it was about faith.

And so truth they said that truth wins over the law truth wins over the

law.

They knew that.

They didn't need the Ten Commandments to maintain their community.

That wasn't the issue at all.

It is by faith and so that's where the church is today.

They were struggling with us and and I can remember sometimes talking to some of them and it seemed to be they were already going that Way,

but now they've been corrected and all five pastors are teaching grace.

All right.

Let's go on to verse 17.

We come to the second question the question is if I recognize that I'm

justified by faith as it says here and I'm no longer under the restraint of the law.

Then is it possible that Jesus Christ is?

Helping me to sin because I still do.

So let's look at this just a little bit deeper first.

He says of the phrase but if here in this passage, but if.

But if while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners is Christ and a minister of sin.

So Paul is asking a hypothetical question.

He wants them to understand it and paraphrase this would be since we're still finding ourselves sinning

sometimes in our daily experience.

Even though we're believers Who have been justified by Christ's work on the cross?

Does this mean that Christ is a minister of sin and the word minister there is is the same word that we use for

diakono.

The Greek word it means a helper or a promoter.

So the idea is it possible that Jesus could be Promoting me to sin.

Now if I didn't understand Justification sanctification comes by faith.

I get I can just hear myself reasoning with Paul here in this message now look Paul.

What is wrong with me?

I?

Still find myself sinning and I thought that when I got saved

This would stop but it didn't so maybe I could go back to depending on the laws because

the laws have strength.

But since I still sin what's wrong.

Maybe it's Christ's fault now nobody actually said this and so what Paul was

talking about a possible situation here and Why why might one of us ask this

question?

Because we still do sin don't we we have a problem we all do because we're human we still sin.

So what's the answer?

Oh, so we just go back to this keeping the laws, right?

We've got to try harder try harder try harder.

This thing about faith and justification is just too weak.

There's no strength in it.

You see Paul knew how easy it was that these people could be caught up in Resorting back to the Mosaic laws

instead of believing that they were already right in God's sight.

So in a sense they could believe that faith is too simple.

It's too weak.

But this is a real understanding of grace isn't it?

Misunderstanding of grace.

So what do we do?

We have been justified in God's sight.

We are righteous, but we still sin.

So what do we do about it?

Well, we can't blame it on our Inabilities to keep the law and we can't blame it on Jesus as Paul says here.

That's for sure, but we do have the answer and I I think Paul Knew this because

this is what Paul where but Paul was going in first John 1 9.

We have a beautiful answer that John made very clear.

He said if we confess our sins He God is faithful and righteous to forgive us

our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So what John is saying is all we need to do is admit it.

When we sin we admit it before God we humbly come to him by faith and Why can we do

this.

Because Paul says Christ never advocates us to sin.

He liberated us from it.

As a young person I sometimes struggled with the same idea and I thought I just got to try harder and work harder and

keep the laws and and do good and be good and then God will accept me.

But it doesn't work that way because God has already accepted his heavenly.

By faith God can and does that.

When all I have to do is humbly admit that I've sinned and then the Holy Spirit will work in my heart and give me The

strength to live a life pleasing to God and it is by faith.

Question 3.

Verse 18 what would happen if as a believer I were to return to a dependency on the laws?

So Paul says in verse 18 for if I rebuild what I've once destroyed I prove myself to be a transgressor and

paraphrasing the first part of this.

It says how on earth would I ever go back?

Basing my justification on the Mosaic laws.

I've already torn it down.

I've already destroyed my dependency on this.

So Paul knew there was no way he'd go back.

He says then I'd prove myself to be a transgressor if I did that.

Another English translation says then I would show myself to be someone who breaks the law.

And so Paul's saying here that if he were to return to a dependency on the law if he were to rebuild it.

Well, he already laid aside.

It would never be enough to justify him.

It would only prove that he was a lawbreaker.

Thus he would go on sinning.

And he would actually have more understanding of sin, but it wouldn't help him.

And not just that he would be saying that the sacrifice of Christ on the cross was not enough.

Was not enough.

So that's the answer to the question Should you or I return to a dependency on it for our justification

and what would happen?

We would actually be saying.

We would prove that we that the laws Were only meant to show us that we're sinners and we would be saying it's

not enough what Christ did.

It would be a destruction of the pure gospel of grace.

Question four.

So then How can I live to God?

How can I live to God verse 19 in this verse?

He says through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God.

So what he's saying is simply because as far as the law is concerned.

I'm dead and when he finally understood the laws true purpose He realized he had to become

dead.

And we we know about Paul in his early life.

He was he was one who really worked hard really worked hard to become to be a good Pharisee.

With all his might to be accepted by God, but when he realized That it didn't work when

Jesus met him on the on the road to Damascus.

He realized That it wasn't about himself.

And so his dependency had to die he became dead to the law, but that wasn't the end of it.

He goes on to say here, so then I can live to God.

Listen to what Romans 7 4 says.

7 4 through 6 therefore my brethren You also were made to die to the law through the body of Christ so that you

might be joined together to him.

Who was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit to God for while we were in the flesh the sinful

passions Which were aroused by the law were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.

But now we've been released from the law having died to that which we were bound.

So that we might serve in newness of the spirit and not in allness of the life.

So when a person is alive to God He's walking

by faith.

And he's dealing with his sin and he's applying first John 1 9 where it says if we confess our sins He is

faithful and just to forgive us and we go on.

We go on we walk.

So to ask the question again, how can I live to God?

The answer is by reckoning ourselves dead to the laws and alive to God and it's by

faith.

And in our everyday experience as we apply these verses to our hearts We're truly alive

and our relationship with the Mosaic law is dead now, and I said before We still read them.

David read them.

Paul read them all the laws were there to read to see him as a mirror to show us our

sinful nature and the holiness of God.

Praise God that justification though has nothing to do about us.

Does it.

God has done everything?

Through his son's sacrifice on the cross so that we can say as Paul did here in the next verse this

last verse I am 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.

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