Saving Face or Saving Faith?
Galatians 2:15-21
Have you ever found yourself in a precarious spot where you had to save face? Have you ever had to make excuses to protect your reputation? Have you ever found yourself trying to justify a course of action you took? If you answer no to all or any of these questions then you are either a liar or oblivious to your own nature.
By nature humans have a great bent for saving face. When God confronted Adam and Eve after their disobedience in Genesis chapter three you find Adam saving face. Instead of taking the blame, Adam diverted the blame to Eve and then to God. Eve saved face by blaming the devil.
For the last 14 years, our nation has seen the highest office in the government saving face. If it wasn’t saving face over a blue dress, then it was saving face over weapons of mass destruction.
I can tell you on numerous occasions where I made a great effort to save face. I can say that because I know my nature. Moreover, by reason of our nature as humans, I can state with great confidence that on numerous occasions you have certainly made great efforts to save face.
Why do we go to such lengths to justify ourselves? We do so to protect our reputation and to avoid the judgment of others.
This same tendency to justify ourselves with others, is also the tendency many have to justify themselves with God. Saving face may justify you in the eyes of fallen man, but it will never work in justifying you before the Creator. Our passage in Galatians chapter two will reveal this truth.
In Galatians 2:15-21, Paul is transitioning from arguing his authority as an apostle to teaching on one of the foundational doctrines of Christianity, justification by faith.
Martin Luther said, “If the article of Justification be lost, then is all true Christian doctrines lost.” He went on to say that we must, “teach it unto others, and beat it in their heads continually.” For the next couple of chapters in our study of Galatians, Paul is going to beat the doctrine of justification by faith into our heads.
Let me point out a few words that are used frequently in verses 15-21. The word “justified” is used 4 times. 3 times in verse 16, and 1 time in verse 17. 4 times you find the word “ pisteo” used. That is the Greek word we translate “faith” or “believe.” 4 times you see the word “works.” 6 times you see the word “law.”
What Paul is going to teach in this passage is that one is not justified by saving face, but by saving faith .
I want to pose a pertinent question to you before we study this text. Are you saving face with the Lord or do you have a saving faith in the Lord? There are three observations that I want to make from this text about saving faith. First, notice the central focus of saving faith, which is the work of Christ.
I. The Focus of Saving Faith is the Work of Christ
Verses 15-21 are connected to verses 11-14. In verses 11-14 Paul speaks about confronting the apostle Peter on sinful behavior. Peter, by his example, was teaching Gentiles that they needed to follow the Jewish dietary laws. Paul confronts the inconsistent behavior of Peter and those who followed Peter’s poor example. At stake was the truth of the gospel. What was at stake was the doctrine of justification by faith .
Notice what Paul says in verse fifteen, “We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles.” In this verse Paul speaks about his and other leaders Jewish ethnicity. Paul is using terminology that was prevalent in Jewish culture. In the Jewish community that Paul grew up in you had a people who strove after righteousness. The Jews had the Law, but not the Gentiles. Therefore, the Jews considered Gentiles to be sinners.
Don’t think for a minute that Paul is calling all Jews saints and Gentile sinners. He is not implying that Jews are righteous and Gentiles are not. He is using common Jewish language to make his persuasive argument for justification by faith. It is good at this point to understand why all people, Jews and Gentiles, need to be justified before God.
The Greek word that is used for “justified” is a legal term. It means to “be declared not guilty, innocent, or righteous.” The opposite of “justified” is “condemned.” Condemned before God is where all humanity stands apart from Christ. Humanity stands guilty before a righteous God because we have broken the laws of a righteous God. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Since we all stand guilty before God, then we must find out what we have to do to become innocent. How can we stand righteous before God? Many take the saving face approach, while few take the saving faith approach. The reason that the saving face approach doesn’t work is found in its focus. Saving face is focused on the works of the law.
a. Saving Face is focused on the works of the law
Look at Paul’s argument in verse 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.”
The phrase “ works of the Law” is used 3 times in this verse. The reason that Paul addresses the “ works of the Law” is on account that the false teacher were teaching that one is not just justified by faith, but also by “works of the Law.”
The word “Law” is used 6 times in this passage. When Paul speaks of the “Law,” he is referring to God’s commandments. The word “works” refers to the obedience provided to the Law.
The Jew believed that hard work in keeping the Law was the only way a person could be justified. That meant that one had to keep the 10 Commandments, love and serve God, and obey both the moral and ceremonial laws to be justified before God. If you keep the law and work hard you can save face and be justified.
The problem with the saving face approach is that one tries to establish their own righteousness by what they do. This is not just a Jewish belief, but a common belief among humans.
All major religions, except New Testament Christianity, take the saving face approach to justification. The saving face approach believes that one creates their righteousness by what they do to be justified before God. The saving face approach believes that one can win his or her salvation, that one can justify himself or herself.
Saving face focuses on the works of the Law to be justified. There’s only one problem, and it is a big problem. One cannot be justified by the “ works of the Law.”
Notice what Paul says 3 times in verse sixteen, “man is not justified by the works of the Law… justified… not by the works of the Law… by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.” Paul says that regardless how hard we work or how well we live; there is nothing that we can do to justify ourselves before God. That is the fallacy of the saving face approach to justification. It doesn’t work.
The only way that one can be justified before God is through saving faith. What makes saving faith a saving faith is its object. Whereas saving face focuses on the works of the law, saving faith is focused on the work of Christ. Saving faith is focused on the cross of Christ.
b. Saving faith is focused on the cross of Christ
Paul teaches a foundational doctrine in verse 16, that no man, nor woman, or boy or girl can be justified before God apart from faith in Christ Jesus. To become innocent before God, one must place his or her faith in Christ Jesus. A faith that saves is a faith in the saving work of Christ Jesus. What is the saving work of Christ Jesus? Go back to verse 4 of chapter 1, “Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins so that he might rescue us…” The perfect Son of God went to the cross of Calvary, not for his sin, for he had no sin, but for humanity’s sins. He took upon our sins so that when we place our faith in his saving work of Calvary, we take upon his perfect righteousness. We become right with God through Christ Jesus alone.
A person who has saving faith understands that they are justified by Christ saving work on the cross and nothing else. The focus of saving face is our works. The focus of saving faith is Christ’s work. Secondly, we notice that the freedom of saving faith is life in Christ.
II. The Freedom of saving faith is life in Christ
One of the arguments that Paul faced from the “false teachers” concerning justification by faith was that of “cheap grace.” Paul’s opponents argued that Paul’s teaching about justification by faith alone in Christ alone gives people freedom to sin willfully. It was the, “I’m forgiven, therefore, I can live how ever I want” argument.
Paul is going to argue in verses 17-21 that saving faith brings freedom in Christ, but not a freedom to continue to sin. The freedom that Christ gives is a freedom to live for God, a freedom that can only come through saving faith.
Follow Paul’s argument beginning in verse seventeen, “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!” Paul is emphatically denying that justification by faith leads to lawless living. Paul says, “May it never be!” Paul is saying that if one claims to be justified by faith and continues to willfully sin, then that person doesn’t give evidence of true justification. Paul’s argument is that saving faith brings freedom in Christ, but not a freedom to continue a life of sin, but a freedom to live for God.
Paul is going to drive this point home in verses 18-21, “For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. "For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God.” To die to the Law means that one is no longer in bondage and its demand for death. Saving face is in bondage to the Law and its demands. Saving faith finds freedom from the demands of the Law in Christ Jesus
Saving faith unites one with Christ’s death and resurrection, which means that the demands of the Law were satisfied in Christ Jesus. Because of this new life in Christ Jesus, the believer is free to live for God. A person who is justified becomes a new creature a new person in Christ Jesus.
Verse 20 is further explanation of what Paul says in verse nineteen, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” This verse is saying that when a person comes to Christ the old is gone and the new has come. You might want to put beside verse 20 as a cross reference 2 Corinthians 5:17. The life of saving faith is a life of freedom in Christ.
When you come to Christ that is when you truly come to life and truly begin living the life God intends for you to live, a life of freedom. Verse twenty clearly speaks of a freedom that comes from pardon.
a. Pardon
Paul says in verse 20, “I have been crucified with Christ.” Saving faith takes us into union with Christ’s saving work. Whenever we are united to Christ through faith we are pardoned from the penalty of sin. We are justified before God. We are forgiven all our sins. We become righteous and holy in God’s sight. That’s freedom. Verse twenty also speaks a freedom that comes from power.
b. Power
“It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” Christ lives in the life of the believer. We have the power we need to live for God and serve God. His presence brings new desires, desires to please God and live holy lives. We don’t become sinless, but we do sin less. Moreover, when we do sin, we don’t like it because Christ lives in us. There is also a freedom of participation spoken of in verse 20.
c. Participation
How do we participate in this Christ-life? How do we tap into the power that lives in us as believers? “And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.” God enables us to live the divine life through faith. There is also the freedom of passion.
d. Passion
“Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Because Christ passionately loved us and gave himself for us, believers can now love him and give themselves to him with passion.
I heard about a tombstone that read, “John Evans, born 1850 died 1915 at the age of two.” On the back of the tombstone was Galatians 2:20. John Evans became a Christian at the age of 73, two years before his death. He told his family and friends before he died that he really only lived two years. The freedom of saving faith is life in Christ. Lastly, notice in verse 21 that the foundation of saving faith is the grace of God.
III. The foundation for saving faith is the grace of God
“I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly." The grace of God is unmerited favor. We don’t deserve justification, but God provides justification for us in Christ. Paul’s point in verse 21 is that if you take the saving face approach to justification then you are nullifying the grace of God. If you believe that you have to do something to justify yourself, then you are saying that Christ’s death is not sufficient to save. On the other hand, saving faith in the work of Christ validates the grace of God.
Saving faith recognizes that one can’t earn heaven. Saving faith recognizes that righteousness can only come through Christ’s work. Saving faith forsakes all sin, and forsakes trusting in self, and looks to Christ alone to be justified. Saving faith recognizes that trusting in self insults the grace of God.
Saving faith is not just an intellectual belief in Christ’s saving work. Saving faith is a personal commitment to Christ’s saving work.
His initials were C.S., which stood for Clive Staples, but his friends called him Jack. He was raised an Anglican, but at the age of ten his world was shaken when his mother died of cancer. Jack wanted nothing to do with a God so cruel as to take his mother. By the time he was a teenager he had become an atheist.
Jack graduated from Oxford where he studied philosophy and English literature. He would spend his life as a professor at Cambridge University.
While at Cambridge, Jack’s atheism was challenged by a respected professor’s belief in the Trinity. Eventually, Jack moved from being an Atheist to believing that an absolute Spirit or God existed.
Over time Jack became more and more convinced that the events of the Bible had really happened. What he struggled with was the teaching that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. One day, on a trip to the Zoo, Jack went from believing in God to trusting Jesus Christ has his Lord and Savior. Many know Jack as none other than C.S. Lewis, one of the great Christian thinkers that God created. C.S. Lewis went from saving face to saving faith.
I started you off with a question. Are you saving face with God or do you have a saving faith in God’s Son Jesus Christ? The answer to that question is a matter of life and death. Do you merely believe in God or do you trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?
Saving Face or Saving Faith?
Galatians 2:15-21
What approach are you taking to be justified before God? Are you trying to justify yourself by what you do, or are you trusting yourself to what Christ has done on the cross of Calvary. Are you saving face with God or do you have a saving faith in God?
I. The focus of saving faith is the work of Christ (16-17)
a. Saving face focuses on the works of the Law
b. Saving faith focuses on the cross of Christ
II. The freedom of saving faith is life in Christ (18-20)
a. Pardon
b. Power
c. Participation
d. Passion
III. The foundation of saving faith is the grace of God (21)
