Justification by Faith and Justification by works

Intro

English Standard Version Chapter 3

23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

Paul was writing this letter to combat false teaching to those who were in the churches of Galatia

Judiazers were teaching that in order to be saved, you must be circumcised

The modern day equivalent would be you need to be baptized to be saved

Paul began this letter defending his apostolic authority(1-2)

Then made it clear that Jews and Gentiles enjoy complete salvation in Christ (3-4)

Then paul showed how the gospel or grace leads to true freedom (5-6)

This takes us to our passage tonight—

What does it mean to be Justified?

It means to be declared righteous

God is holy

Because God is holy he cannot entertain any kind of sin

Sin must be punished by God because He is too perfect to allow it

God is a righteous judge and we are a sinful people

Our judgment has already been passed and it is death

But God sent His son to die for us

Jesus took our judgment on himself—that is why it was necessary that he died

God poured His entire wrath on Jesus, so as not to pour it on the rest of the world

Have any of you ever taken punishment for someone else?

No that’d be ridiculous

Jesus took punishment for us

And because of that, we are now declared righteous before God if we accept this free gift

Our Captivity

We were held captive before faith

We were held captive under the law

The law was created by God

It was created to show man of their need for a Savior

Over many years man perverted the law and made it a religious exercise

God intended that man would be saved through faith in God through the sacrifices, rather than being saved through the sacrifices

We were captive to this because ultimately we would trust more in our religious rituals than in God’s saving power

Sacrifices didn’t save people

Other rituals didn’t save people

God saved faithful people who trusted in Him by giving sacrifices

We had this imperfect system until God chose to send His son (v.24)

Our Freedom (25)

Since Christ came, we now have the ability to be freed from any religious rituals

Nothing apart from God’s saving Grace will save us

No good works, no fancy words, no amazing prayers, Nothing will save us apart from God’s grace

This is the freedom we have—Justificaiton by faith and not works

With works, you will constantly worry if you’re doing the right things with the right motives

Freedom comes in Christ when you accept and trust His perfect saving grace for your life.

That is the freedom you get, and that is what we all want

There are other things that come with this freedom

Our Family (26-29)

Not only do we have justification by faith, but we have a new family

We are all sons of God

There is no racial, economical, or age difference between us under the cross

IF you have received mercy we are all part of the family of God

What does that mean?

You love each other as brothers ()

You pray for each other

You help each other when they are need

You bear each other’s burdens

Paul is going through every difference he can think of to explain that we are all one in CHrist (v.28)

Imagine the Jews and gentiles

They hated each other

The jews consider gentiles dogs

They were so arrogant as to think that God would not save anyone apart from the Jews, so they treated everyone else as lower

Do we do that to people?

Do we treat others lower than us?

Do we refuse to hang out with people befcause we think we’re better than they are

v. 26 says we are all sons of God in Christ Jesus

We should see everyone else as a potential or active brother or sister in Christ

He is our conduit to God

Conclusion

How about you?

Are you enjoying the freedom that comes with justification by faith?

Or are you still living under the tyranny of working hard for your salvation?

Are you realizing that God has put many people in your path that He wants to use in your life or use you in their lives?

Are you seeing each other through God’s eyes and trying to witness to them?

Are you realizing that there is no difference between any of us if we are Christ’s He made us all to be equal and dependent on one another.

Trusts God’s promises to you

He only has good in store for you

What are you trusting right now? Yourself or GOd?