Sermon Tone Analysis

The Great Doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone

We’ve been pressing the importance of the Gospel message to the Christian life and that the Gospel message is what Paul has been protecting and fighting for in the book of Galatians so far.

But as we transition to our text today.

Paul speaks on an important facet of the Gospel, and this doctrine is so important that scholars and theologians have pressed that this doctrine is at the center of the Gospel, and John Stott even says that one does not understand Christianity who does not understand this doctrine, and this doctrine is “Justification by faith alone”.

“If the article of justification be once lost, then is all true Christian doctrine lost” - Martin Luther

“justification is the doctrine upon which the church stands or falls” - Martin Luther

So for us as a church, if the doctrine of justification is central to our belief in the Gospel and central to our Christian doctrine it is important as a church that we understand what this doctrine means.

This doctrine of justification is what Paul is stressing to Peter as he continues to rebuke Peter and urge him to recall back to the Gospel that he believes in so that he would repent of his actions of ostracizing gentiles and swaying other Jewish Christians to return back to their old traditions of following the law.

Paul’s argument and rebuke of Peter is emphasizing the great doctrine that is “Justification is by faith alone”, we will expound on this great doctrine and focus on 3 benefits for us in this doctrine.

Justified by Faith

Freed from the Law

Alive in Christ

1. Justified by Faith

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Context:

Paul is continuing his rebuke of Peter in v.15, and Paul’s point to Peter is this, that we as Jews came to faith in Christ and we did not find salvation through the law, the law did not justify us.

He is reminding Peter that they have a similar theology, they believe in the same things.

So since we have a similar theology Peter, I have to tell you that your actions are inconsistent and that by you pressing to the Gentiles that they have to keep certain dietary laws to have full fellowship with the Lord and God’s people, you are going against what you believe.

Peter’s actions are likely super surprising for Paul.

They believe in the same Gospel, studied the same teachings, yet Peter’s actions are not in line with his beliefs.

“Peter you and i know that justification does not come from the law but that we believe that we are justified by Jesus, and that we cannot be justified by the law”

Paul is saying that he and Peter grew up as law-keeping Jews and not unlawful gentiles, but still as law-keeping jews they had found that justification was not in the law but in Christ

Understanding Justification:

But what is so important with the doctrine of justification, and why is it so important to Paul in his argument to Peter.

To help us understand the need for justification lets read on what the bible says in regards to this idea:

In justification, we are given the picture of a courtroom where a dispute has taken place.

There is a judge preceding between parties where the judge will either clear the party of their guilt and decide that person is “not guilty” or will find the party guilty of all charges and will impose a punishment on that person.

So in this picture of a courtroom, humanity is on trial before God and our accusations against us is that since God is holy, and man is created in His image, man is on trial to see how faithful man was to the commands that God has for man in keeping and obeying God’s laws.

But mankind is a sinful people who are more wretched and evil than they would know, fail in keeping God’s commands and fail in ‘being holy for God is holy’, and they are not righteous.

Thus is in this courtroom, man stands condemned before God because of their sin.

They deserve to have a “GUILTY” sentence and their punishment, well it is severe but it fits the crime before a holy and righteous judge, their punishment is eternal wrath in hell.

This is a sad truth for mankind, and man’s greatest need is to be righteous before a Holy God but because of sin in man’s life, we know that this cannot be done on their own strength.

This is the type of damning truth that leads Job to say :

How can a man be right before God? and to put this in Paul’s language in Galatians, “how can a sinful, condemned sinner be justified before God?” But, Paul is arguing against Peter and these Judaizers that justification cannot be accomplished through the law but solely in Christ, and he warns Peter, “Peter don’t you know that justification by the law does not lead you to righteousness before God?”

This is why we need to be justified because “how can a sinful, condemned sinner be justified before a holy and righteous God?” To justify in the Bible means to declare of a man on trial, that he is not liable to any penalty, but is entitled to all the privileges due to those who have kept the law.

Justifying is the act of a judge pronouncing to someone that he is not condemned but justified, and that he is acquitted of all charges and has legal immunity.

To be justified means to be acceptable before God

It doesn’t, but what does a life living for the law looks like, what were these Judaizers trying to do?

Justification by the law

The law that Paul is speaking of here is the all of God’s commandments, and when Paul is saying the “works of the law”, he is saying obedience to that law.

So can one be justified by ‘works of the law’ meaning obedience to the law?

This is what the Judaizers believed.

They believed that the only way to be justified is through sheer hard work and obedience to the law.

We must do everything the law commands and refrain from everything the law forbids.

So think through the 10 commandments, this means that, mankind must fully obey and not commit a sin in regards to these commands:

You must not have any other gods besides our God

Do not fall into idol worship

Do not use the Lord’s name in vain

Remember the Sabbath

Honor your father and mother

Do not murder

Do not steal

Do not commit adultery

Do not lie

Do not covet

Besides that you also have the levitical laws that one needs to fully be obedient to,you have to get circumcised and join the jewish party, then you also have the scriptures that say if you have hatred towards a man you have already committed murder in your heart, and if you lusted after someone, you already committed adultery.

Then you have the commands to “be holy for God is holy”, Love the Lord your God, with all your soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor”

So the Judaizers are saying that we can be justified by doing all this perfectly.

This is what it means to follow the law, obey the law, and live for the law.

This is difficult to do church, and not just difficult but impossible, and we are forgetting the fact that we are inherently sinful as well.

You might be thinking, I can’t believe that people actually believed in that at that time, why would people ever believe in that belief system? but Jewish beliefs are not different than any other belief system in this world besides Christianity.

Every belief system in this world will say that if you only try harder, or do this or do that, or meditate harder, or spend more money; you can achieve salvation, nirvana, or be accepted before God.

But we believe that nobody has ever been justified by the works of the law for the plain reason that none of us have perfectly kept the law.

Because church, a strict adherence to the law and its demands are not something that we can do.

We may keep some of the law’s requirements outwardly, but we have never kept them all.

If we look into our own thoughts, our motives, our desires we will see that we are more sinful than we know.

That is why the scriptures say that ‘no one is righteous, no not one’ .

We cannot be justified by the works of the law because we have not obeyed the law perfectly, but thankfully Paul reminds Peter that we are not justified through our obedience to the law, but are justified by someone else’s perfect obedience to the law, and that we are justified through faith in Jesus Christ.

Justification by Faith in Jesus Christ

Paul reminds Peter of the truth that Peter knows but needs to be reminded that we are justified through faith in Jesus Christ.

Paul wants to remind Peter of the truth that Jesus came into this world to live and to die.

Jesus’ life was a life of obedience to the Father but also he obeyed the law perfectly.

In Christ’s death, Jesus suffers for us and suffers for our disobedience to the law.

He died for lawbreakers like us, and the penalty for our disobedience was death and Christ dies.

Paul is asserting here that right standing before God is not through keeping of this law but only through faith in Christ.

For the Christian, we believe that Jesus justifies us and this is through a gracious act by God in which God declares a guilty sinner righteous, and holy before God.

The holy judge of the universe takes a sinner who is in intentional rebellion against God, a sinner who deserves a ‘guilty verdict’ and declares him ‘innocent and not guilty’.

Justification is the opposite of condemnation, God forgives us of our sins once-and-for-all, and declares us righteous.

This verdict is not changed through good behavior or good works, but it is our status and identity for eternity when we put our faith in Jesus Christ.

When you are justified by God, we have peace with God, and we have all the privileges that one has who is righteous before God.

This is what happens to the believer when they believe in the Gospel, when you place your faith in Jesus Christ you receive his forgiveness and his righteousness is transferred over to you.

God looks at each sinner saved by grace and faith in Jesus and says “ I find no fault in that person, I have no record of that person doing any wrong in his life”

Thus no one can bring a charge against God’s people, because we’re considered righteous in his sight.

We are justified by faith and receive Christ’s righteousness by faith.

When we are justified we receive Christ’s righteousness and we receive this righteousness not by doing but believing in Jesus.

That is why theologians call this righteousness, an alien righteousness, because it is a righteousness that is not their own, because it is given to us by Jesus Christ.

keep in mind that Justification does not mean that God sweeps sin under the rug, he has a hatred towards sin and is just in punishing the guilty, but those who have put their faith in Christ, though they are guilty, and deserving of the penalty of sin which is death, Jesus Christ has paid that penalty for them, and our sins were paid by Him.

I know we are expounding thoroughly on what it means to be justified, and not just justified but justified by faith alone.

But even if this is not new to you, this is the doctrine that our Christian faith hinges on and we need to understand it.

He said “And this is the truth of the Gospel.

It is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine, wherein the knowledge of all godliness consisteth.

Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat into their heads continually.

[Martin Luther]

Church family, this is each person’s greatest need in this world, to be justified before God because apart from Christ we all stand condemned, we need to be justified and as Christians we need to understand what this doctrine is and what implications this has for us.

This is what Paul focuses on in the rest of the text: He now transitions on his 2nd benefit [1]in v.17-18 that since you are justified by faith alone, do not revert back to the law since you are Freed from the law

2. Freed from the law

We know that Paul is rebuking Peter for leading others and himself to the old ways of doing things.

Convincing others to go back to the law, implying that some are better than the other, and pushing Gentiles to become like jews.

And Paul wants to emphasize to Peter that you Peter are justified, you have been freed from the law so why are you trying to revert back to it.

We are freed from the law, and Paul in v.17-18 wants to make that point clear.

So these next two verses are a little confusing to understand at first glance, so let me help us understand them.