Galatians 2:15-21 "Communion in the Death, Life, and Righteousness of Jesus Christ"

Galatians 2:15–21 ESV

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, 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. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

Our obedience to the Law does not remove our sin or place us in a right standing with God. (vs. 16)

Celebratory communion is meaningful because of our actual communion in the death, life, and righteousness of Christ.

Our belief and dependence upon the work of Jesus Christ leads to our justification (vs. 16)

Galatians 2:15–21 ESV

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, 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. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

REJECTION of individual self-righteousness results in humble ACCEPTANCE of our sinfulness—and this lets us see our NEED OF JESUS. (vs. 17-18)

Jesus’s perfection and perfect fulfillment of the Law resulted in an offering of life to us. (vs. 19-20)

17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

Failure to believe in and submit to the work of Jesus Christ results in hopeless condemnation. (vs. 21)

Our obedience to the Law does not remove our sin or place us in a right standing with God. (vs. 16)

One common objection to joining the church that I’ve heard through the years is this: “I need to get my life in order before I can come to church.” I’ve often wondered why so many say this. Why do we think we need to “get better” to go to church for the first time or to return? I know that we think that we are a highly educated, greatly-refined, and superior people when compared to past generations; however, we fall into the same conceptual traps as those who went before us.

Q: What does this mean for us as we celebrate and observe communion?

What I mean is this, for all of our advancements in technology we still fail to properly understand who we are and to arrive at a consistent worldview. A worldview is an overall philosophy of life. Everyone has a worldview. Everyone answers the same questions. However, our answers are not all the same. The variance of our answers has led some to say that we cannot know or should not care—we call these people Agnostics. However, to be an agnostic (against knowledge) is to willfully submit to a life of great contradictions and inconsistencies. For this very reason there are very few TRUE agnostics.

We are reminded of our sin = Represented by our presence

Once we remove the agnostics from the conversation, we are left with the vast majority of the world’s population (>93%) striving to define and live within an adequate worldview. When I use the word “worldview”, what I mean is the assimilation of the answers to 6 overarching questions.

We are reminded of Christ’s perfect substitutionary sacrifice = Represented by the bread

What are the questions we answer in establishing a coherent worldview?

We are reminded of Christ’s redeeming, life-giving, grace, and mercy = Represented by the blood

How did I get here?

Why am I here?

Why am I here?

Where am I going?

Where am I going?

What is wrong?

What is wrong?

What is the solution to the problem?

What is the solution to the problem?

If there is a God, how can I know and what can I know about God?

Over the past couples of years, I’ve handled each of these questions in great depth on Wednesday nights and on the occasional Sunday; therefore, I want to look at only one question at the moment—"WHAT IS WRONG?”.

If there is a God, how can I know and what can I know about God?Over the past couples of years, I’ve handled each of these questions in great depth on Wednesday nights and on the occasional Sunday; therefore, I want to look at only one question at the moment—"WHAT IS WRONG?”.

ALL Biblical Christians should acknowledge that the major problem within our world is sin. All pain, suffering, and evil is directly related to sin—originating from Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden. Earthquakes and hurricanes? The result of a fallen world because of sin. Murder? Sin. Starvation? Consequences of a distorted natural environment affected by sin and the sin loveless-selfishness of those who could end starvation. No matter what problem you look at, sin is at the heart. It is either your sin, someone else’s sin, the original sin of Adam and Eve, or the sin of Satan. All Christians agree with what I just said because this is what the Bible teaches.

However, just because we understand the sin is the problem does not guarantee we understand the extent of sin.

When Paul tells his audience that “a person is not justified by the works of the law” he’s attacking the Jewish understanding of sin and its solution. The person that thinks, “I need to go fix myself before I come to church” is stuck in the same trap of the Jews in Paul’s day that were teaching “get right through circumcision and cultic obedience before coming to Christ.” That is, the Judaizers were teaching this formulaic heresy:

MY OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW + JESUS’ OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW = SALVATION

There are numerous reasons why this formula is TOTALLY wrong, but we will look at three similar reasons intimately connected to one word--SIN

1. We have sinned

2. We still sin

3. We will sin

If we, and Paul’s audience, rightly understood the pervasiveness of sin within us, we would arrive at a proper understanding of the Law and why God prescribed it. However, the Jews thought that the Mosaic Law saved them, and they thought that this was their hope. Hence, Jesus was not the means to righteousness for them rather, their devotion to “doing” all the Law required would release them from God’s wrath. However, there is fatal flaw within this thinking.

When Paul says in that a man is not justified by the Law is says this because the purpose of the Law was to reveal sin (). When we make our self-righteous adherence to the Law our basis of hope we forget:

1. Present perfect obedience does not remove past transgressions.

2. Present perfect obedience does not prevent future transgressions.

If we should manage to perfectly fulfill ALL of the Mosaic Law, we would find that it did nothing to remove the penalty for past infractions, nor does it guarantee that we will ALWAYS obey. Thus, by relying on self-righteousness we ignorantly deny that we are, in fact, unrighteous.

Paul desperately desires that his audience understand we have no hope of justification through self-righteousness.

So where do we find hope? Paul answers this in verse 16

Our belief and dependence upon the work of Jesus Christ leads to our justification (vs. 16)

16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.

We say it all the time, “WE ARE SAVED BY JESUS CHRIST”. But what does this mean, exactly? Well, there are two truths we need to grasp in order find justification in Christ.

1. We must hear the true gospel

2. We must respond to the true gospel

I know this seems overly reductionistic, but these two truths receive frequent rejection by those who call themselves leaders and active within the modern church. This was true in Paul’s day as well. Paul says in ,

“I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.”

The so-called spiritual leaders of Paul’s day had departed from the true gospel of Jesus Christ and presented an augmented gospel to the Galatians that was NO GOSPEL AT ALL. The result? The church was departing Christ for another gospel and another Christ that would NEVER provide salvation. The truth is simple to state and understand: IF YOU CHANGE JESUS AND HIS MESSAGE, YOU DO NOT BELIEVE IN THE JESUS OF THE BIBLE, NOR THE GOSPEL OF GOD—THERE IS NO HOPE IN THIS, BUT A TERRIFYING FEAR OF JUDGMENT!

Such an understanding should guide us into the affirmation and adherence to these two points every day of our lives:

1. I need to hear the true gospel

2. I need to respond to the true gospel.

We know that we hear the gospel from the word of God (for this is our only way of knowing God, His work, and His promises), but how do we respond to the true gospel?

This is Paul’s next point…

REJECTION of self-righteousness results in ACCEPTANCE of our sinfulness—and this places us in the position to NEED JESUS. (vs. 17-18)

17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! 18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.

These two verses can be a little tricky to navigate and initially seem to be unclear to us. However, when you take few moments and look at the context of the passage and the gist of Paul’s message, these two verses are quite important for our understanding of what God is saying through Paul.

Allow me to rephrase these verses:

“If I, a great and faithful Jew named Paul, realized that I am a sinner though I perfectly follow the Law… IS JESUS A SINNER BECAUSE HE FOLLOWED THE LAW AND IS THE LAW USELESS? NO! In fact, if I return to the Law for righteousness, after coming to Christ, I am a sinner!”

Once we read it like this, we see a few challenges Paul addresses:

1. If you saw the Law does not remove sin, and Jesus perfectly followed the Law, is Jesus a sinner?

2. Why cannot I not have Jesus AND follow the Law?

Both of these questions are answered by the following:

The law reveals our sin, but it does not take it away. Jesus never sinned; as such, following the Law did not take away His sin but identified what was sin—to which Jesus never violated the law. THE LAW SHOWS US OUR SIN—BUT IT CAN’T FIX THE FACT WE’VE SINNED!

All of this should make us come to the following realization:

1. Self-righteousness is absolutely contradictory to the truth of our sinfulness

2. Self-righteousness is absolutely contradictory to the work of Christ.

When we think that the Law and our adherence to it removes sin, then everything we do is a work of self-righteousness; in that, we are expending great effort to make ourselves righteous. This absolutely contradicts the message of the gospel. We are clearly told that:

All of us are sinners ()

The wages of sin is death ()

The works of the Law do not justify ()

Justification is the result of God’s love and mercy not our works ()

Bearing this in mind, we must affirm and adhere to the truth that if we rely upon our self-righteousness we reject the clear truth of God’s word and the sacrificial work of Christ. For Paul states that if we rebuild what we tore down (our self-righteousness) we prove ourselves to be transgressors—WE ARE OUTSIDE OF CHRIST.

Thus, to seek our own means of correction for sin is to outright reject Christ—this contradiction means we are lost!

So… what is the solution. Jesus! Why?

Jesus’s perfection and perfect fulfillment of the Law resulted in an offering of life to us. (vs. 19-20)

Let’s begin with two truths:

1. As God in Flesh (the God/Man) Jesus embodied perfection (He was without Sin)

2. As God in Flesh (the God/Man) Jesus embodied perfect fulfillment of the Law (He was our Sacrifice)

Failure to believe in and submit to the work of Jesus Christ results in hopeless condemnation. (vs. 21)

· Grace is nullified through self-righteous works

· Christ’s death is meaningless to those who rely on self-righteous works

What does this mean for us as we celebrate and observe communion?

It reminds us of our sin = The reason we are here

It reminds us of Christ’s perfect substitutionary sacrifice = The bread

It reminds us of Christ’s redeeming life-giving grace and mercy = The blood