Sermon notes: Galatians Series, Number 15...

We are always in danger of adding works to the process of salvation. Yes, those of us living in the post-Galatians world are still not entirely willing to give up on ourselves.

There are many Protestants who deny the congruent merit and the infused righteousness of the Roman Catholic Church, but turn into a work that faith in Jesus Christ which the Apostle Paul so clearly states is the instrument through which we have imputed to us the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

How easily faith itself may become a work; how easily faith becomes the one thing Jesus has not done, and cannot do, for us—the one thing we must do for ourselves.

NOTE: This is number 15 in a series on Galatians. If this is your first time reading sermon notes here, please take time to read a helpful explanation at the bottom of this post...

From the Pulpit of Church of the Good Shepherd
March 28, 2004; AM
Galatians Series No. 15

For Through the Law I Died to the Law
Sermon Text: Galatians 2:15-19

This Lord’s Day, we turn to our fifteenth in a series of sermons on the New Testament book of Galatians...

Here in our text this morning, the Apostle Paul brings the history of the conflict over circumcision in the New Testament church up to that time to a close, and moves over into the doctrinal conflict proper. Enough background; now he moves into the theology of justification—to the question, what or Whose righteousness saves the Christian?

* Galatians 2:15-19 This is the Word of God, eternally true.

We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles; 16 nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified. 17 But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be! 18 For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God.

So let’s look at his case:

In verse 15, the Apostle Paul begins by casting his lot in with the Judaizers—at least for a time. He says:

We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles;

Notice his use of the word ‘we.’

The Apostle Paul here is acknowledging the past superiority of the Jews, and the inferiority of the Gentiles; and he is identifying himself as being among the superiors—he is a Jew by nature (or by birth), not a sinner Gentile.

In Romans 9 we see the Apostle Paul speaking similarly of the wonderful blessings and spritiual superiority of being born a Jew in the time of the Old Testament or Old Covenant; they were born members of God’s visible and earthly covenant community, and marked as such from birth by circumcision; and this brought to them all these blessings.

Romans 9:3-5 For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, 5 whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

But here also, as in Galatians, he shows this blessing, not in order to attribute right standing with God, judicially, to that membership, but to show that—good as it was—that membership was entirely insufficient to do the work of redemption; both then and now, only Jesus Christ could do the work by which any man could be justified before God, and only through faith in God’s provision of a Messiah, One whose righteousness is able to cover our nakedness and sin, can any man or woman, boy or girl, be saved.

As the Apostle Paul here says in our text:

Verses 15, 16: We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles; 16 nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.

Thus we see the impossibility of a truce, or a ceasefire, between these two sides of the conflict; either the Jews continued to be God’s special people and were correct in calling Gentiles to become Jews through circumcision in order to be saved; or, God was pleased to tear down the dividing wall between the Jews and the Gentiles and, from this point on, to make them one in Christ—and to save them all, not by being born into the Jewish nation or by being marked a Jew through circumcision; not through ethnic and legal, works-based, righteousness, but through faith in the One Who Alone was able to do the works of the Law in perfection; and Who, having obeyed that law, gave Himself up as a sin-offering on the Cross that all who look to Him in faith may be saved.

This is the meaning behind Paul’s statement, in verse 16:

…even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law…

And what is the meaning of this phrase, “even we?”

He’s speaking as a “Jew by nature,” and pointing out to himself and, thereby, all other Jews—natural born Jews: “even we have believed in Christ Jesus.”

This is not just “a Gentile-thing,” to look to Christ Jesus for saving righteousness, whereas the Jews were, and are, able to look to their own ethnic and covenantal and personal law-keeping, simply adding a dollop of Christ’s righteousness to finish the brew. No, to the Jews also Paul says:

…even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law…

And this is a statement entirely opposite to the doctrine of the Circumcision party; first in Antioch, and now in the Galatian church.

The Apostle Paul puts the hopeless conflict—and therefore, the absolutely necessary choice—directly before the Galatians: Which would it be for them?

Romans 9:8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.

Would they choose circumcision and the other works of the law and of the flesh, or would they choose faith in Jesus Christ alone? Would they choose salvation by blood descent or salvation by blood forgiveness—the blood of Jesus Christ?

This argument of the Apostle Paul, presented in verses 15-16, is summarized by the Bible scholar, Timothy George, in this way:

Forget the Gentile sinners. We know they are outside the covenant and hopeless before God. But even we Jews who could claim all the privileges of the chosen people, even we had to realize that no one could be justified by observing the law. We too, no less than the Gentiles, have been accepted by God through faith in Jesus Christ. (George, pp. 189,190.)

This is why Paul would write, in Philippians 3:2-9:

Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; 3 for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, 4 although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. 7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith…

And let us keep in mind the Apostle Paul’s statement at the end of this chapter—a statement that keeps before us precisely what is at stake in this choice between the works of the flesh and the completed work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Please look with me at verse 21:

Galatians 2:21b …if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.

But of course, righteousness most certainly does not come through the Law, as the Jews (more than anyone) know perfectly well.

No; rather, Paul writes in verse 16:

Galatians 2:16 …nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.

First the negatives: “a man is not justified by the works of the Law (repeated twice),” and “by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.”

Second, the positive: a man is justified “through faith in Christ Jesus (also repeated twice).”

Turning first to the negatives: What exactly are these “works of the Law” that the Apostle Paul says will justify no flesh?

As I mentioned last week, some in the past (including Jerome) have argued Paul is only denying the ceremonial law a place in man’s justification—not the judicial and Moral Law—and, most certainly, not the Ten Commandments.

But this Roman Catholic view, that “the Law” here refers only to the ceremonial law, is clearly refuted by Romans 3:10-20:

Romans 3:10-20 as it is written, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; 11 THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; 12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.” 13 “THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,” “THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS”; 14 “WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS”; 15 “THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD, 16 DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, 17 AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN.” 18 “THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”

19 Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; 20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”

Here we see a list of moral laws; verses 10-18 speak of refusing to seek God and lying tongues and cursing and bitter mouths and feet that are swift to shed blood and the complete absence of any fear of God. These are not ceremonial laws, but the very heart of God’s perpetual Moral Law; yet precisely here, in the context of this list of wickedness that permeates every man’s heart, we read Paul’s declaration in vss. 19-20 that no one will be justified by the Law.

19 Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; 20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”

So here in Galatians, also, where we are told in verse 16 that:

…by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.

The works of the Law that will not justify us, then, are not limited to the Ceremonial Law, but here the Apostle Paul speaks of the entire law of God—every part of the law revealed to the people of God in the Old Covenant (and I might add, the depth of the Law also revealed by our Lord Jesus Christ in his soul-searching Sermon on the Mount).

As we will not be saved by the Old Testament ceremonial laws of clean and unclean, of dietary restrictions and such things, so also we will not be saved by honoring our father and mother, by not committing adultery, by not envying, by keeping the Sabbath day holy, by avoiding the making of graven images of God—or even by loving our enemies and doing good to those who persecute us (the law of love which is the law Christ).

In other words, when the Apostle Paul here says, in the context of the debate over circumcision that raged in the Galatian church, that (verse 16) “…a man is not justified by the works of the Law;” (and that) “by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified;” he is not simply speaking of circumcision being powerless to save, but of all the works of the law for which circumcision was a placeholder—the totality of the Old Testament law given by God for the instruction and identification of His People in their time of probation and tutelage—nothing of this Law could (nor would) save anyone.

It is scandalous to deny the Law—particularly that part of the Law called the Moral Law, the Ten Commandments, that is grounded in, and given birth from, the perfections of our Holy God—it is scandalous to deny that Law any place at all in the salvation of man. How can this be? Why would God reveal this law and call all men and women to know and obey it if, finally, it is not able to save anyone?

So you can understand how it is that attempts have been made down through history to salvage this ship that, as the Jews saw it, had carried them so well through the centuries—the ark of the Covenant.

Yes, they were willing to place their faith in Jesus Christ, but they would hedge their bets by continuing to be Jews, also, and by requiring those Gentiles (who no one could deny were being included now in God’s covenant community), by requiring those Gentiles who also were believing in Jesus to join them in those parts of the Old Testament Law that were, beyond question, central to the apparatus of Jewish law-keeping. And certainly circumcision was at the heart of the Old Testament law.

But the Apostle Paul states here, quite categorically, that “by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.”

Today, brothers and sisters, this battle is as real as it was in the time of our Lord Jesus and the Apostle Paul. Today, there are many churches being led and taught by many priests and pastors who are calling their people to the love of God and their neighbor with the threat of eternal death and the promise of eternal life attached to that call. Many churches, many sermons, that directly contradict the Apostle Paul here saying, “by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified,” instead saying that some works of the Law will justify in some way some flesh.

And so, this categorical statement denying any justification to any flesh by any works of the Law is qualified again and again, such that it is eviscerated of its blessed content—the blessed gift of the perfect work and the freely given imputation of that work and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ that, although being entirely foreign to us, is applied to us by the Holy Spirit in such a way that we are, by faith, able to stand before the bar, the bench, the Judgement Seat of God, with the righteousness of Christ applied to our account in such a way that, when God the Mighty Judge, looks at us, He sees not our wicked and sinful hearts and lives, but the perfect obedience and righteousness of His Son, Jesus Christ.

And so, salvation is given, not to everyone who works, but to everyone who believes, who places his or her faith in God’s Son.

We are always in danger of adding works to the process of salvation. Yes, those of us living in the post-Galatians world are still not entirely willing to give up on ourselves.

There are many Protestants who deny the congruent merit and the infused righteousness of the Roman Catholic Church, but turn into a work that faith in Jesus Christ which the Apostle Paul so clearly states is the instrument through which we have imputed to us the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

How easily faith itself may become a work; how easily faith becomes the one thing Jesus has not done, and cannot do, for us—the one thing we must do for ourselves.

Yet what does Scripture say about this faith through which we are saved?

Ephesians 2:1-22 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

To the degree that any human work is set up as a means to stand before God justified, outside of grace, the work of Christ is made nothing and we remain, forever, dead in our sin without God and without hope, both in this world and in the world to come.

Galatians 2:21 …for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.

Now the Apostle Paul goes on and meets the arguments of his opponents:

17 But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be! 18 For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God.

Here the Apostle Paul takes the arguments of his opponents, voices them, and deals with them.

In what sense might they claim that, given Paul’s explanation of God’s method of salvation, Christ would become “a minister of sin?”

It’s the same argument always used against free grace: Namely, that the preaching and teaching of this doctrine will lead to licentiousness, to antinomianism, to loose living in which those who believe in Jesus live like pagans, giving in to every form of immorality but salving their consciences by reminding themselves that works can’t save them anyhow, so they might as well go ahead and sin, trusting in the works of Christ—not their own works.

Isn’t this the flow of the argument in Romans 5, also?

Romans 5:17-21 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. 18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. 19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. 20 The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 6:1-18 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

No, the doctrines of grace do not lead to sin; but rather, to slavery to our Master, Jesus Christ. Those who have lives of bondage to Satan have not yet received the gift of faith that produces, inevitably produces, a life of slavery to Jesus Christ and His righteousness.

17 But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be! 18 For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God.

If I rebuild the Law, returning to it for what I, beforehand, despaired of receiving through it, then I am a lawbreaker—but not a lawbreaker of the Ceremonial, Judicial, or Moral Law, but a lawbreaker of God’s perfect Law of Liberty, the Law of grace.

But praise be to God, through the Law of grace we have died to all other law, so that we are now freed to be bondslaves of Jesus Christ.

Yes, this sounds contradictory, but it’s God’s Truth.

Through the Law we die to the Law, thereby receiving the freedom to be slaves to Jesus Christ and His righteousness.

Read excerpts from Luther’s commentary on Galatians, esp. pp. 158-164.

So we read in the Heidelberg Catechism:

Question 60: How are you righteous before God?

Answer: Only by true faith in Jesus Christ. In spite of the fact that my conscience accuses me that I have grievously sinned against all the commandments of God, and have not kept any one of them, and that I am still ever prone to all that is evil, nevertheless, God, without any merit of my own, out of pure grace, grants me the benefits of the perfect expiation of Christ, imputing to me his righteousness and holiness as if I had never committed a single sin or had ever been sinful, having fulfilled myself all the obedience which Christ has carried out for me, if only I accept such favor with a trusting heart.

* * *

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