Justified By Faith
YAFI 2025 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Have you ever witnessed that moment - sometimes rare - in the court room where someone is declared not guilty? I’ve seen it in perhaps some TV shows, but never in real life. So, what does one do when one wants to watch something like this? He goes to good old Youtube.
After a few tries, I found a video that gave reactions from innocent convicts when they were set free. All the stories were amazing, but the one that got me the most was the story of a man named Daniel Villegas. The man served 2 decades for a double homicide he never committed. Though eventually realized on bond, he was still “in the system” so to speak. While out on bound he had started a family. Then it came down to the moment when he sat again in the court room, reviewing the evidence, again waiting for the verdict. Would he go to jail, or be a free man?
I watched this man in the video stand up to receive the verdict. As the judge proclaimed him not guilty and the crowd cheered, this man was so overcome with relief he couldn’t even stand.
It can be hard for us to relate to that if we’ve never been through it ourselves, but to be called not guilty, to be set free, is I think for Daniel Villegas one of the greatest gifts he could ever receive. He has been justified before the court, and now is a free man.
Daniel Villegas was an innocent man wrongfully accused. But can you imagine if you were actually guilty, and about to go away forever, yet someone else took your place instead? Some of you have no doubt heard this illustration before. I don’t mean to use a maybe over-play illustration, but rather to get us to feel the emotion. What would it be like to be declared not guilty. To have the guilty taken off of our shoulders for good? This is what faith in Jesus Christ is like.
YAFI series intro
Question: What does it mean to be justified by faith? (Galatians 3)
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.
Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?
Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?
Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?
Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—
just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”
So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”
Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”
But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.”
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
Answer: We are made right with God through faith, not through our own merit.
Today we are going to look at three proofs of justification by faith that Paul lays out in these verses.
Experience
Experience
Before we dive in, let’s get the context: Paul is addressing the Galatians on an important subject involving Jews and Gentiles. Paul starts early in Galatians with a look to His own calling from God and eventual acceptance by the early church leaders. Paul’s call specifically to Gentiles - those outside the Jewish nation who didn’t observe God’s law - was clear. Paul worked hard to show that the defining factor for rightness before God was now faith, not following a legalistic set of rules, as the Jews had been doing. This was a big debate in the early church! When Peter came and visited, he upheld this, fellowshipping with Gentiles and Jews alike. But when he came under pressure, he chose to separate himself from the Gentiles, creating distinctions in the church. Paul openly opposed this.
We need to realize the fundamental question here: how are we made right before God? Some thought that by following the law of Moses in the OT faithfully, you could be considered right before God. Paul’s entire premise is that the only way to share right relationship with God is through faith alone in Jesus Christ. Trusting fully in Him, and embracing the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, we are justified by faith.
What is justification? To be justified means to be made right before God. It is a legal term. Think of a court scene. Rather than being found guilty for your sin and rejected by God, you are declared not guilty because Christ instead takes on your guilty sentence. You are therefore accepted by God.
“Christ’s sacrificial death… accomplished complete reconciliation for all who believe and thereby receive the Spirit.” - Cornerstone Commentary, Galatians.
We cannot save ourselves. No matter how hard we try we cannot keep God’s law perfectly. However, the law serve to show us God’s character, and to show us our need for a Savior. Therefore we are made right with God through total faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That has been God’s plan all along!
This brings us to chapter three, where Paul starts by basically saying “who has bewitched you, how can you be so foolish?”
Why would he start by addressing them as fools? Does he feel better than them perhaps, or condescending? Paul has deep concern for them, and is exposing a fundamental error of their ways. Their logical is faulty. Why? Because although they know the story of the cross, they have rejected faith in Christ in favor of legalistically turning back to the OT law! So Paul appealed first to their experience and asks:
How did the amazing things in your life happen? Through faith, or adhering to the law of Moses?
Publicly portrayed: not that they actually saw the crucifixion, but that Paul’s telling of it helped them to feel as if they were almost really there.
Paul asks them a question: How did you receive the Spirit? By keeping the law, or by faith? It’s rhetorical here. For Paul the fundamental characteristic of the Christian was receiving the Spirit. This is how you know you are regenerate - the Holy Spirit live inside of you! We receive him at the point of conversion:
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
If then you begin your Christian life with the Spirit, Paul asks why would you be so foolish as to think you can keep going and growing by observing the law? The Bible’s perspective is that you receive the Holy Spirit upon salvation, and continue the journey in His power and presence until you reach eternity!
So Paul asks, have you suffered what you have suffered for no reason? Apparently the Galatians had suffered persecution for their faith. Yet there is purpose in this suffering for they did it for Christ. Yet now they were forsaking their faith that they had suffered for for empty religion.
Look friends, we cannot become more like Jesus Christ on our own. The goal of the christian life is to live now for God’s glory, and become more like the perfect Savior. How could humanity be so foolish as to think we could do this on our own, without the help of God’s Spirit? Yet this is where the Galatians found themselves: lead astray into such a stupid idea.
Finally Paul asks:
Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—
Then Paul uses his first Old Testament example: Abraham
just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?
This is a direct quote from Gen 15 6
And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
How was Abraham - the father of the Jewish nation and forefather of Jesus Christ counted as right before God? Was it through his really good works? Was it through perfect observance of the law? No! It was through faith in the promise that God would give him a son! He trusted in the promises of God and this was counted to him as right standing before God.
Paul appeals first to the experiences the Galatians have had: how did you receive God’s Spirit? How did miracles happen among you? Why did you suffer? The answer to these things is faith. This is the first proof of justification by faith: experience.
Friends, the temptation to doubt the efficacy of Christ’s sacrifice as “enough.” We may be lured into the trap of thinking that it is faithfulness to God’s law that will get us into heaven. It is not. Rather, we too can appeal to experience of Christian life and see that we are made right with God by the saving work of Jesus Christ alone. Only through faith - totally trusting in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ are we saved. Does this mean we should not live as redeemed people? Of course we should! But now out of love and relationship with our God. Not trying to buy His good graces into heaven.
If you have experienced the Holy Spirit’s work in your life, if you have suffered for the gospel, if you have seen miracles happen, remember this is all from faith in Christ and the grace of God. Experience is the first proof that faith alone brings us into right standing before God.
Remember the big idea: We are made right with God through faith, not through our own merit.
The first proof of this is experience: we experience the benefits of being right with God through faith. Now Paul employs a second proof:
Blessing
Blessing
Paul now turns to a theological argument that surrounds the greatest of Israel’s patriarchs: Abraham.
Already we have seen Paul appeal to Abraham’s faith as righteousness. But Paul wasn’t finished with this trail of thought:
Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”
So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
We need to understand something fundamental about the identity of God’s Old Testament people Israel: They were His chosen people. Through them Messiah was supposed to come. They were the ones who were supposed to show the world what it meant to have relationship with the One True God. They were the children of Abraham, heirs of the same promise he had been given, as we read in Gen 12 3
I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Through Abraham, down through his son, and grandson, and great grandsons, through King David, and Solomon, all the way down through to Mary, God kept His promise to Abraham: He gave His Son, Jesus, as Paul puts it:
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
Yet the question is raised throughout this section of Galatians, “how can I be part of God’s people?” To be part of God’s people in Christ, some said that strict adherence to the law and circumcision was necessary. By this standard, Gentiles - who were considered “unclean” by most Jews - had much work to do in following OT law to be pure enough before God. The Galatians were being lead astray in this. Paul exposes the theological problem with this: It is not through our strict adherence to the law that we are saved, but through faith in Christ. Lest the Jews thought otherwise, they needed to remember that even Abraham was declared righteous through faith.
By the time of Paul, the idea of faith from Genesis 15 had been turned into “faithfulness.” In the sense that, because of Abraham’s faithfulness in trial he was counted righteous. But if you look at Genesis you see what Paul saw. Abraham was counted righteous and had God’s favor before he had proven himself through following God faithfully. Rather, it was through faith - confident reliance and trust in God’s promise that Abraham is declared righteous!
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
Only through faith - confident reliance and trust in Jesus Christ that we are made right with God.
This was true for Abraham, and Paul makes it clear that the Bible saw - from the beginning - that Gentiles too would be offered such hope. Why else would God make the promise that all nations, not just ONE nation, would be blessed?
Who then is saved and experiences the blessing of the promise?
… those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
Abraham received the blessing by faith. (Gen 15:6). This promise was for Messiah to come. All who believe receive the promise of salvation as well. Faith in Christ alone saves us, not works. Abraham was not counted righteous because of how good he was, but because he trusted wholly in the promise of God.
It is all those who have faith in Jesus Christ who are part of Abraham’s children and God’s people. Christ breaks down the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile.
This second proof of justification - being made right with God - through faith is found in the blessing. We are blessed with God’s favor through faith, even as Abraham was. The Galatians as well received are God’s favor they believed in Jesus in faith. They receive the blessing of Salvation through faith! So too we, 2000+ years later are heirs to the same promise because we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ alone. Even as Abraham’s faith was counted as righteousness, so is ours now.
Our big idea is: We are made right with God through faith, not through our own merit.
The second proof Paul employs is blessing. How is the blessing of salvation and right relationship experienced? Through faith - even as it was for good old Abraham!
Life
Life
Now Paul turns to this final proof and uses Scripture to show us that those who are righteous before God live by faith!
In this section, Paul employs a final proof - using Scripture - to show us the difference between the law and faith, and what that means for our lives.
Paul starts by saying that those who dwell under the law alone are under a curse. Why?
Think logically for a minute… have you ever sinned?
Seek answers
Biblically speaking, we have all sinned
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Sin is breaking God’s law. God cannot be around sin, He hates it and cannot have anything impure in His presence.
Logically then, if everyone has sinned, and the law acts as our accuser - showing us our faults, anyone who would try to flawlessly keep the law is doomed. This is Paul’s point in Gal 3 10
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”
Here Paul is quoting Deut 27 26
“ ‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
Now perhaps you would say “I keep the law! I don’t steal, I don’t cheat, I don’t covet, I’m faithful to my spouse.” Good for you. Yet we read in Jam 2 10
For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
Even one sin declares us guilty - condemned to hell.
How then can we have right relationship with God and somehow find salvation from the curse of sin?
Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”
The third proof that we are made right before God through faith is that the righteous - those in right standing before God live by faith!
“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.
The call of Scripture to us here is that we as sinners, cannot possibly keep the whole law! There has to be another way! Legalistically keeping the law will not gain us life. Only through faith in the eternal Son of God, who gave His life as a ransom does life come!
So we read:
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
Paul uses Deut 21 23 to show us how Christ fulfills the OT.
his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.
Truly Christ has become the curse. He has taken it upon Himself and away from all who come to Him in faith and accept the free gift of salvation. What is accomplished as a result of this?
so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
Now we know that promise to be true. We are living proof that God has poured out his Spirit, even as He said in Joel 2 28
“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.
How amazing this is!
I was listening to the song how deep the Father’s love for us on Friday, as I was sitting writing.
Part of the song says “Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer. But this I know with all my heart: His wounds have paid my ransom.
How deep the Father’s love for us, that He would take the initiative from start to finish to bring us back into right standing before Him! Then pouring out His Spirit, as a deposit guarunteeing the reward of faith: Eternity with Him forever. Now all who live by faith are declared righteous! For keeping the whole law is not possible for fallen human beings. But Christ became the curse for us. He paid our debt so that, through faith, we might receive the promise of salvation.
That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,
The promise of salvation rests squarely upon the grace of God - His unmerited favor - in which He sent Christ the Son. The promise of salvation is therefore guaranteed to all who believe in faith.
The third proof of being made right before God through faith is that Scripture shows that the righteous - those in right standing before God - live by faith in God’s promises through Christ. Not through legalistic keeping of the law, but through faith.
This week it occurred to me that we as a church have spent a lot of time talking about living right in Jesus. How does God want us to live? How do we resist the devil? How do we draw closer to God? These are good things. But friends, if there has ever been a time from this pulpit or elsewhere where I have made it seem like the way to right relationship with God was about doing everything you could, I ask your forgiveness. Our relationships with Christ rest on faith in His atoning Sacrifice as enough. You can never do anything to be good enough, but you do not have to. You must believe and be saved. From this standpoint, God calls us to life lived out of love for Him, ever becoming more like Christ. Yet we must remember, our salvation rests upon faith in Christ’s atoning sacrifice.
Conclusion
Conclusion
We are made right with God through faith, not through our own merit.
Paul employs three proofs of this:
Experience. How do we experience salvation and the coming of the Spirit? Through faith? Why do we go through trials and persecutions, because of faith!
Blessing. Paul shows that the blessing of Abraham - that promise to send Messiah and bring salvation - is extended to all who will believe and put their faith in Jesus Christ.
Life. The righteous shall live by faith! Want to be right with God? come to Christ. Don’t try to get good enough for God. Instead, accept the free gift of salvation in Christ Jesus, and live for Him!
Finish court room scene & salvation call
