Galatians 2:15-21

It’s important for us to justify our actions, our purchases, our thoughts. And we have this desire for other people to agree with us.

Deer hunting season ended this week. I am new to hunting and I am not sure what sparked it in me but for the last few years I wanted to take up hunting. Took my gun safety course, because I wanted to hunt and be safe with a firearm. Did a lot of research. I actually didn’t go last year becaues I didn’t feel like it would be sporting for me to go out and know nothing. So I practiced shooting my bow. Made sure I knew what I was doing. And this year was going to be my year. So between November and January 31 I went out probably a dozen times or so, and no deer. Some of you feel my pain, others of you are like, “yay! The deer won this round!”

But I got to mid January and I felt the need to Justify why I was going out so much. I mean, I bought this gun (for gun season), I bought arrows for this bow, I have put hours and hours in of practice, I work hard, I deserve to go out.

I justify it. We have a desire to be justified. And it isn’t just about hunting. This goes for everyone. Everyone seeks justification in some area or another.

But Christians tend to do it when it comes to our faith. We justify why we belong to God. Why do I deserve to get into Heaven? Why do I deserve to have God love me. I read my bible, I pray, I give, I serve. All those things. But they don’t cut it. Even though we have this desire to be declared right.

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.

We all have a desire to be right. We all have a desire to be declared right. For the Christian we have a particular vocabulary which is important. One of the most important words in the Christian language is justification. Justification. We want to be justified.

We want to be justified.

Justification is actually a Legal term which is foundational for our Christianity. It is actually a term that is the opposite of condemnation. It refers to the judicial act of God where he pardons the sins of those who trust in Christ. This means when we surrender our lives to Jesus and trust in Him solely as our savior, God pardons all our sins and He is satisfied. It is an action that is pronounced by another. You can’t buy it or earn it, it can only be given to you by God. And when He does save you He also Justifies you, you are saved. There is nothing else you can do to make it any better.

You go outside, you sink that first shovel into the snow and you realize that there is no snow. Someone did it for you! Holy Mackerel! Somebody took care of the whole driveway. You are done! All done. But then you keep shoveling. Even though there is no snow there. You keep moving that shovel but you aren’t getting any snow on it because it was already taken care of.

That is what it looks like when we have been declared righteous by God, justified and then not rely on that justification as the basis for our salvation. The work has been done by the only one who can do it. We can’t add anything to it.

And it is given only when we trust solely in Jesus Christ as our savior. So there is only one way to be justified

So there is only one way to be justified

But there is a problem. Problem

And the problem for many is that they want to find another way. Even though there is only one way.

We have difficulty with that because we are always looking for another way. We are forever trying to figure out a new and different way of doing things. There are lots of different ways to do things. It’s almost a habit for us.

We have difficulty with that because we are always looking for another way. There are lots of different ways to do things.

When I go on my iPhone and put directions in, I find out that I can choose from different routes. I can take 95 or the bay bridge. Two completely different roads to get to the same place. Sometimes there are even choices to make as to how I want to get there. I have had my phone give me walking directions before.

When I want to listen to music I have all kinds of different ways that I can listen. If I want to use my phone I can use iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, or youtube, or if you really want to go old school I can put in a cd. There are all kinds of ways to accomplish all kinds of goals.

Until it comes to justification. To be declared righteous by God.

In order to be justified there is only one way to do it. Only one way to be declared righteous before God.

And this is what Paul is talking about when he says in verse 16

Galatians 2:16 ESV

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.

Galatians

It’s a biblical term. Actually, it is a legal term. We know we have a need, the need is to be declared righteous or justified.

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.

Remember how these verses came to be. We talked about this Last week because Peter was in the practice going back to being Jewish. He didn’t believe you had to be Jewish to be saved but he had consciously stepped back from the Gentiles and was only eating with the Jews, which culturally spoke volumes. And with the influence he had and the way he was acting would have been sending a message steering people in the wrong direction. He was scared of the Jews and he was people pleasing.

Give me a second to talk about this. We touched on this last week but people pleasing is so dangerous, it is so damaging and it is incredibly prevalent today among Christians. We all struggle with it on some level.

People pleasing is when we modify our behavior to impress or repress something because we want approval. This isn’t just a Christian thing, this is a human thing. When we care so much about what others think that our behavior is altered it is people pleasing.

For the Christian, especially, we cave when it comes to us communicating God’s truth. We don’t want to offend someone. We don’t want to ruin a friendship, we don’t want to make someone uncomfortable, when the reality is that we don’t want to be uncomfortable.

And the problem with that is that you make people bigger than God. When you don’t say the truth for fear that someone might not like you or that someone will be offended, even though it is the gospel truth, if you cave into that then you are worshipping people above God. You are making people more important than God. It’s idolatry.

This could be a whole series. It is truly an epidemic. And Christians have to really think about who they are trying to impress because if it is your life commitment to try and make everyone happy, to manage everyone’s opinion of you you are in for a very hard and difficult life. It’s impossible to manage it.

Remember this: It’s none of your business what other people think of you. Right? Sounds harsh but it is true. It’s none of your business what other people think of you.

But that is what Peter was going through. Trying to be on the side of God AND men. And this is so powerful. So powerful that we saw in the chapter from last week that there were other guys who got sucked into this with Peter. Solid guys! Leaders! And they got pulled down into it.

That is why Paul made such a major case out of it. He knew that if this people pleasing continued then the message of Grace would have been lost. Grace, that undeserved gift God gave would have been clouded. What Jesus did would have not had the same amount of power behind it if that kind of stuff continued.

How are we living our lives? Are we trusting in God’s Grace? Are we working to be good? Or are we trusting in what Jesus did on the cross?

How are we living our lives? We have been talking about God’s grace for a few weeks now and I hope you are starting to get it. Because there really is an epidemic that exists among Christians even today where they act like what Jesus did really wasn’t enough. We would never say that but we really do act like it.

We have been talking about God’s grace for a few weeks now and I hope you are starting to get it. Because there really is an epidemic that exists among Christians even today where they act out like what Jesus did really wasn’t enough. We would never say that but we really do act like it.

Looking at our Christianity as a duty or a job to do.

We start to look at our life with God as a duty, a job. We have to help out with Church, we have to Go to Church! We Have to read our Bibles, we Have to pray more, share our faith more, we have to have to have to. If we aren’t careful it ends up being works.

We are supposed to do those things and those things aren’t always easy, we aren’t always motivated correctly but we need to remember why we do them. God loves you and he wants your heart.

Psalm 37:4 ESV

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Delight in the Lord! It’s not a duty to be preformed. That is trusting in works.

The minute we look at our walk as a duty we disconnect from what we are really trying to do. Doesn‘t mean that we aren’t obedient, we are. But we also remember the grace.

For the last few years I have been doing the “read the bible through in a year” reading plan. And I have gotten through it for some years but there came a time when it became a duty.

I started out doing it because I wanted my life to be soaked in God’s Word. There is nothing bad about reading God’s Word. But as time when on, I began to go through it just to get through it. I was racing myself. The first year I did it, I was done in March. I was pretty proud.

What began to happen was that I wasn’t doing it simply because I wanted to be in God’s Word. I began to look at it like something I have to do. I gotta get through it. That is what makes those Bible Apps tough. They remind you when you are behind. Don’t want to get behind. Maybe I will get ahead because I have a busy day coming up.

Our life with Christ isn’t a duty. It’s a delight.

C. S. Lewis wrote a great book called the Screwtape letters. It is a fictional book which is supposed to be a series of letters from a demon named wormwood to his Uncle, Screwtape (another demon) about a patient that Wormwood been assigned to, whom he has to tempt. The book, although fiction gives us great insight into the possibility of how then enemy gets us to do things we aren’t supposed to do. How he tries to put a road block between the relationship we have with Jesus.

There is a great idea in the story where Wormwood tells his uncle about this patient. He says that the Patient won’t stop doing the things of (the enemy) Christianity, reading his bible, going to church, enjoying prayer time. All good things, but Screwtape says that the way to get him away from what the Enemy (God) intends for those things, to make them a duty instead of a delight. Make him feel like he has to to them, make him feel like he is behind instead of naturally doing them.

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.

When we make those things that God wants for us a duty, a job, a requirement in our life we begin to treat our relationship with God as a chore that we have to keep up on our end. Like if we don’t keep putting wood on the fire it will go out. Nothing could be further from the truth.

When Christ saves us we are justified, that is God’s job, then our responsibility is sanctification, the stuff we do to deepen our relationship with God.

This is what Paul is talking about; relying on our right standing with God. Did you know that when you trust in Jesus Christ as the only reason you are saved, that you have been justified? That term again. It means you have been pronounced not guilty.

There have been a lot of people over the years who say that justified means “just as if I hadn’t sinned”. It makes it an easy way to remember it. And I know they mean well, but that kind of definition—I believe—takes away from the enormity of what Jesus did. We did sin, we are still sinners by nature.

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5And we are justified.

That word “while” in the Greek is eimi and it is a present active participle which means that it is now. It doesn’t mean that when we were sinners earlier and stopped. No, it means while were sinning, Christ died for us.

So we cannot take any credit it. We weren’t so lovable that God saved us. He saved us in spite of the fact that we were sinners. In spite of the fact that we were sinners. Saved us on our worst day. Pulled us out of the miry pit.

So it kind of makes sense that Paul would speak this way in

The only price we have to pay for our salvation is our life!

Galatians 2:15–16 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.

16

The focus ins on two verses which is actually one sentence in the original Greek.

What are we relying on for our “right standing” with God?

How do we approach our lives when we mess up? How do we deal with disappointment? How do we manage when our plans fail?

We don’t deserve salvation because we are so lovable, as if God was obligated to save us because we are so great.

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans

We live in light of the truth of the gospel. We trust in Jesus for our Salvation. That is continual.

Apart from Christ we are nothing.

We are dead… Let me say, not just dead, Paul uses the word crucified

Galatians 2:20 ESV

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.

meaning the old man is gone. The old woman, child, whatever is gone. Dead. But we have been made alive in Christ!

We are dead… Let me say, not just dead, Paul uses the word crucified, which of course is humiliating and torturous. The cross was designed to invoke fear and no one would have been anxious to wear that symbol. People who died on a cross were guilty, and humiliated. It’s not only a death but it is an ugly death.

The only price we have to pay for our salvation is our life! And we don’t belong to ourselves anymore. What does that mean? It doesn’t mean that we are robots without a will. But it does mean that we don’t belong to ourselves anymore.

The only price we have to pay for our salvation is our life!

Romans 14:7–9 ESV

For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

This... potentially could make our lives so much easier. If we think about our lives. If we think about the issues we face, if we think about the fears we have, if we think about the way that we approach life doesn’t it make it easier to know that you belong to someone else? Doesn’t it make it easier to know that you don’t have to figure it all out? You can put it on Christ who lives through you.

So we have been crucified with Christ, but that isn’t where it stops. There is more! look at the second part of that verse.

Galatians 2:20 ESV

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.

We do have a life to live. We have Christ live through us. Our lives have the resurrection power of Jesus.

This is why Paul was so fearless. He understood that Jesus was living through him and he did what Jesus wanted him to do. He didn’t care if it made sense or not. Didn’t care that he would be humiliated, made fun of, threatened, beat up, cold, hungry. All of that. Paul had the attitude that Christ was living through him and he was just a vessel that Christ would use in this world.

We trust in Jesus for our Salvation.

The only price we have to pay for our salvation is our life!

Galatians 2:21 ESV

I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

disappointment? How do we manage when our plans fail?

How do we approach our lives when we mess up? How do we deal with disappointment? How do we manage when our plans fail?

We trust in Jesus for our Salvation. That is continual.

Love what Paul does here. He backs it all up by saying that if we actually could do stuff to be saved then Christ died for nothing.

Let’s understand, train our minds that we can’t do anything to save ourselves. We aren’t making a better salvation. We aren’t making God love us more. There is nothing you can do to make yourself justified. It’s a mindset. Train yourself in the scriptures that we are recipients of the greatest gift there could ever be. The gift of God’s Grace. The gift of a relationship with the creator of the universe. It’s amazing to think about.

We live in light of the truth of the gospel. We trust in Jesus for our Salvation. That is continual.

Let me end with this illustration

Imagine that it snowed three feet last week. Just imagine what that would have been like. Imagine that you are looking out the window and have to shovel the driveway. Nobody else can do it. Even if you are in one of those communities that does that. No kids are knocking on the doors. It’s just you and it has to be done.

You go outside, you sink that first shovel into the snow and you realize that there is no snow. Someone did it for you! Holy Mackerel! Somebody took care of the whole driveway. You are done! All done. But then you keep shoveling. Even though there is no snow there. You keep moving that shovel but you aren’t getting any snow on it because it was already taken care of.

That is what it looks like when we have been declared righteous by God, justified and then not rely on that justification as the basis for our salvation. The work has been done by the only one who can do it. We can’t add anything to it.

If you haven’t you can.

meaning the old man is gone. The old woman, child, whatever is gone. Dead. But we have been made alive in Christ!

When you do you thank him and live for him, not out of duty but out of our love for him.

it’s none of your business what other people think of your

We don’t do it ourselves, we can’t do it ourselves.

Imagine that we got two feet of snow this week. Imagine that you wake up, look outside and realize that someone’s got to shovel that driveway! It’s got to be shoveled. So you go outside and you grab your shovel. And when you begin to drop that first shovelful into the snow you realize that someone has already shoveled the driveway! It’s already done! How about that! It’s amazing! Someone had already cleared it for you.

And then you drop your shovel again, even though there is no snow there. You spend the rest of the day shoveling a driveway that had already been cleared. That is what has been done for us!

Jesus died and rose again to pay the price for you. It’s done. There is nothing left for you to do about your salvation except live it out. Just live it out like it has been done for you. There is no reason to feel the need to do anything to earn God’s approval. It is done.

Galatians 2:15-21

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