START WITH SCRIPTURE:
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OBSERVE:
Paul consistently declares the doctrine of justification by faith and salvation by grace. In the letter to the Galatians he is intensely concerned about their drift toward legalism under the teaching of so-called “Judaizers.” The Judaizers were attempting to persuade the Galatians that Christianity required a “both/and” approach to salvation — they were told that they were indeed saved by Christ, but they were also required to fulfill all the laws dictated by Moses, including circumcision.
Paul counters this by presenting a contrast between Jews by birth and Gentile sinners. He returns to this contrast again and again in his epistles, but here he only briefly alludes to the difference between Jews and Gentiles — Jews are already members of the covenant with God by virtue of their special status as the “chosen people.” Therefore, Gentiles are de facto sinners because they were once excluded from the covenant.
But here’s the catch: — although Paul was a Jew, and as he tells us elsewhere, prior to his conversion was very zealous for the law, he has come to understand that:
a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.
Just in case the Galatians missed his point, he stresses again that:
no one will be justified by the works of the law (emphasis mine).
As he will later demonstrate in Galatians, and also teaches in Romans, the law is insufficient to justify us (make us right with God). This isn’t because the law is bad — not at all! He tells us in Romans that:
the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good (Romans 7:12).
The only problem with the law is that neither Jew nor Gentile can keep it perfectly:
For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law.” (Galatians 3:10. Emphasis mine).
That’s why Paul admits that:
if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor.
In other words, if he as a Jewish Christian returns to insisting on the strict adherence to the rules and regulations of ceremonial, ritual and dietary law as the means of justification, then he himself is dead wrong!
Then he comes to the heart of his message:
For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.
Because Paul’s obedience to the law — as zealous and strict as he was — was insufficient, the law led him to the realization that he could not be saved by his own efforts. Therefore the law brought him to spiritual death so that he could be raised to life through grace.
So, when he comes to faith in Christ, he identifies with Christ, and Christ begins to live his life in and through him. Justification is not about what we do, but what God in Christ does in us and through us:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is 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.
This death and resurrection motif becomes the pattern of the Christian life. The Christian life begins in baptism and continues daily as the Christian lives the Christian life. The Christian is one who has died to sin and is raised to new life in Christ:
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. . . We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin (Romans 6:3-4, 6).
After these lofty and soaring thoughts that point to a life lived with Christ, in Christ, and through Christ, he returns to his argument against seeking justification by the law:
I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.
Paul has thrown down the gauntlet to the argument of the Judaizers — if fulfilling the law is a necessary addition to justification, then why was it necessary for Jesus to die? The answer is that Jesus, not we, has fulfilled the law perfectly in his life, death and resurrection.
As Colossians says:
And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross (Colossians 2:13-14).
APPLY:
Anyone who has ever attempted to live the “sinless” life can appreciate the blessing offered by the doctrine of justification by grace.
I can remember at one time in my Christian life deciding that I was going to live a “perfect” life one day — in my personal habits and diet, in my relationships with family and church members, in thought, word and deed.
You can imagine how that worked out. Not only did I fail because I became obsessed with the myriad rules and regulations that might characterize the “perfect” life, I also became intensely self-absorbed. I was profoundly concerned with my righteousness, and my obedience to the law.
I was no longer looking at God, or even neighbor. I had become intensely narcissistic!
When we turn to Christ in faith, and are justified (made right with God) through grace, the emphasis is no longer on ourselves. The source of our life and character is Christ!
Then those soaring words of Paul become a source of hope and life for us as Christians:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is 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.
RESPOND:
What a relief that salvation, living the Christian life, and overcoming sin is not my accomplishment, it is the work of Christ. As I come to him daily in faith, I identify with his crucifixion and resurrection. This means that through him I can die to sin, be raised to new life, and live the adventure that he has for me to live. It’s not my accomplishment, but his.
How often we get that wrong, and miss the true source of God’s grace and abundant blessing! I recently heard someone say — with very good intentions — that we must “forgive ourselves.” I know that he meant that to be a word of comfort, but I didn’t find it comforting at all. My response to that is that if I could forgive myself I wouldn’t need a Savior! If I could forgive myself, then my salvation would be based, like that of the Judaizers, on what I do, rather than on what Jesus does.
If I know anything from Scripture and my own personal experience, I cannot save myself and I cannot forgive myself. I can receive salvation and forgiveness as a gift from God by trusting in him.
Lord, I am so grateful that my salvation doesn’t depend on me; it depends on you. If my salvation required that I follow the law, then that would mean I must obey it perfectly, and consistently — and you already know that I can’t do that. I need your grace and mercy, and I am profoundly grateful that you have done for me what I cannot do for myself. Please live your life in and through me. Amen.
PHOTOS: "Galatians 2:20" by Sapphire Dream Photography is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.
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