The Declaration of Grace
Text: Gal. 2:15-21
Introduction
1. Illustration: during one of D.L. Moody’s great campaigns, a man who had been to a number of the services and who, although convicted of his need for Christ, had kept on postponing a decision approached D L Moody. Now the last night had come. The appeal was over, the people were going home, the work crew was busy folding up the chairs and dismantling the platform, and Mr. Moody was preparing to leave. The man finally plucked up his courage. He came to the evangelist and blurted out, "Mr. Moody, what must I do to be saved?" Moody looked at him. "I’m sorry sir," he said, "but you’re too late." "Too late, Mr. Moody?" The man was desperate now. "Surely I’m not too late!" "Yes, sir," said Moody. "You’re too late. As a matter of fact, you’re two thousand years too late if you want to DO something to be saved. All the DOING has been DONE. But if you would like to accept Christ by faith as your personal Savior, you’re just in time. You can do that right here, right now."
2. As American's we are taught that we define our own destiny. We believe that if want something done right we have to do it ourselves.
3. However, when it comes to being made right with God we are...
a. Made Right By Faith
b. Never Right On Our Own
c. Made Right Through The Cross
4. Let's stand as we read Galatians 2:15-21
Proposition: We can only be made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ.
Transition: The first thing we must realize is we are...
I. Made Right By Faith (15-16).
A. By Faith In Jesus Christ
1. The main point of Paul's letter to the Galatians is that we are made right with God only by faith.
a. There is nothing we can do by ourselves to be right with God.
b. We can only accept it by faith.
2. After writing about his disagreement with Peter, Paul writes, “You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles."
a. "As Jews," he was indicating, "we of all people know what it is to live by the system of law.
b. We know the law as a way of life, what it is to function continually under the demands of religious rituals and regulations.
c. Yet even we were saved by believing in Christ Jesus, not by the law. And if we, as Jews, cannot be saved by the law how can we expect sinners from among the Gentiles to be?"
d. In referring to the Gentiles as sinners, Paul was not using the term in the behavioral sense of public immorality (as it is often used in the gospels), but in the legal sense in which it was frequently used by Jews.
e. In the minds of most Jews, Gentiles were sinners by nature because they had no law to guide them in right living and in pleasing God.
f. But with or without the law. Paul was saying, no person is saved who has not believed in Christ Jesus (John MacArthur, MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Galatians, WORDsearch CROSS e-book, 55).
3. Paul then continues his argument by saying, "Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”
a. Paul is not saying that all Jews by nature know that justification is in Christ.
b. Indeed, what Paul is talking about here is a rare experience, one in common only between Jews who believe in Christ.
c. But this rare experience was shared by Paul and Peter.
d. We need to analyze three crucial terms for understanding this passage (and Galatians as a whole): justification, works, and faith.
e. Since the Reformation, no doctrine has had more importance in the church than justification by faith.
f. It was Martin Luther's perception that he could be accepted by God exclusively on the merit of Christ and that if he simply trusted God's promise in Christ he would find that acceptance.
g. Of course Luther did, and his discovery has changed the church. Justification by faith, consequently, has become a central doctrine in the church.
h. The basic term was originally used forensically of a judge's declaring an accused person not guilty and right before the law.
i. It was the opposite of being declared guilty and condemned.
j. Throughout Scripture justification refers to God's declaring a sinner to be guiltless on the basis of faith in Him.
k. It is the free and gracious act by which God declares a sinner right with Himself—forgiving, pardoning, restoring, and accepting him on the basis of nothing but trust in the Person and work of His Son, Jesus Christ.
l. No amount of law-keeping can make a person righteous, because the root of sinfulness is in the fallenness of man's heart, not in actions.
m. Man's basic problem is in what he is, not in what he does. Sinful acts are but the outward expression of a depraved nature that contains sinful thoughts.
n. Consequently, no amount of works of the Law can save a person, because even the best of human works cannot change the nature of the person doing them.
o. The law is important as a mirror to show us our sinfulness; but it can only reveal sin, not remove it.
4. The second term we must deal with is the word faith.
a. What is this faith that saves us? This faith clearly involves an assent (a mental agreement) to certain facts: the resurrection of Christ and the salvation that comes through Christ.
b. While faith for Paul has a beginning, it is also the continual disposition of a Christian toward all that God has done in Christ .
c. We may then define faith as the initial and continual response of trust in, and obedience to, Christ by a person for the purpose of acceptance with God (McKnight, 118-120).
d. Only faith in Christ Jesus can bring a person the gracious gift of righteousness that provides forgiveness and salvation.
e. Faith in Christ is not mere intellectual assent to the fact that Jesus died and rose for man's sin but is personal trust in His death to remove and forgive one's own sins. It is total commitment to submit to Him as Lord (MacArthur, 56).
5. The third term we need to understand is the word works.
a. Paul is not against "good works." When we say Paul taught that justification was not by works, we need to clarify which kind of works he had in mind.
b. Paul is not, or never was, against "good works" as an adequate description of a Christian's moral life and relations with others.
c. Indeed, Paul says we will be judged by our works. However, what Paul is talking about here in Galatians is about the "good works" of the Mosaic law (circumcision, dietary laws, observance of feast days) (McKnight, 118-120).
d. What Paul is saying is following the rules of religion will never save you.
B. Faith Alone
1. Illustration: John Piper, in his book, Future Grace, reprinted a letter by Carl Lundquist, former president of Bethel College and Seminary. In 1988, the doctors told him he had a rare form of cancer called mycosis fungoides, which invaded the skin over his entire body and ended his life three years later. He wrote this letter the day after he heard the news of his cancer: That day in the hospital room, I picked up my Bible when the doctor had left. I turned to the joy verses of Philippians, thinking one might stand out. But what leaped from the pages was Paul’s testimony in chapter one, "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed but will have sufficient courage so that now, as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or death. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain." And I discovered that a verse I had lived by in good health also was a verse that I could live by in ill health. To live - Christ, to die - gain. But by life or by death, it’s all right either way ... So I simply trust that [God] in His own way will carry out for me His will which I know alone is good and acceptable and perfect. By life or by death. Hallelujah!
2. We are made right with God only by faith in Jesus.
a. Acts 13:39 (NLT)
Everyone who believes in him is declared right with God—something the law of Moses could never do.
b. We cannot do it on our own.
c. We cannot do enough.
d. We cannot be nice enough.
e. We cannot be kind enough.
f. We cannot buy it.
g. We cannot earn it.
h. We can only receive it!
3. We are made right only by receiving Jesus.
a. John 1:12 (NLT)
But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.
b. We are not made right because our parents were.
c. We are not made right because of where we live.
d. We are not made right because we go to church.
e. We are only made right by believing in Jesus, accepting him into our lives, and living out that faith.
Transition: The second thing we must realize is...
II. Never Right On Your Own (17-19).
A. Stopped Trying To Meet All It's Requirements
1. Undoubtedly the biggest mistake people make in regards to their eternal destiny is assuming that if they are good enough or do all the right things they will make it to heaven.
a. There are religions systems in the world that teach and foster this kind of thinking.
b. They teach that if you do enough of these and stay away from doing those that will be good enough.
c. However, the Bible teaches the exact opposite idea.
2. We can see this in Paul's defense to the Galatians. He says, "But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not!"
a. Surely this was the biggest fear of any self-respecting and Godfearing Jew: the Christians, with their emphasis on the Holy Spirit as the guide for the moral life, were devaluing the law and, inevitably, would abandon the morality prescribed by the law.
b. They (so they feared) would eventually be no different than either pagans or half-committed Jews.
c. Because Jews, particularly Pharisaic Jews, would have reasoned this way, Paul had to first spell out that the moral implications of converting to Christ.
d. In essence, Paul argues that coming to Christ did not mean that "Christ promotes sin."
e. It was unimaginable (I suppose) for the Jew to conceive of a moral life that did not take its starting point from the law of Moses.
f. And so Paul's question—Does Christ promote sin? Paul's answer: "Absolutely not!" Christ does not minister sin; rather, he eliminates sin through his sacrificial work.
g. But it is true that the gospel Paul preached was a gospel that dealt face-to-face with sin and its consequences.
h. It seems likely to me that Paul's focus on forgiveness (and sin) had given the Judaizers pause because their system assumed forgiveness (in the temple rituals) and then focused more on morality and social relations.
i. Paul's focus on sin and forgiveness, I am suggesting, led to their charge that Christ was one who promoted sin by inviting sinners to come to him.
j. Instead of promoting sin, Christ promotes purity, holiness, love, and attractive personalities. What was formerly found only in the law for the Jews (namely, God's will for his people) has now been fulfilled in God's great gift of the Holy Spirit (McKnight, 122-123).
3. Paul continues his defense, saying, "Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down."
a. By using the term we in the previous verses, Paul had graciously identified himself with the compromisers to a certain extent.
b. Now he even more graciously and lovingly softens the blow to his friends by using himself as a hypothetical example.
c. Rather I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down.
d. In other words, if anyone, including myself, tries to rebuild a system of legalism after he has once destroyed it by believing and preaching the gospel of God's powerful grace and man's sinful helplessness, he proves himself, not Christ, to be a sinner.
e. He proves himself to be a hypocrite and a sinner by abandoning grace for law (MacArthur, 58).
f. What Paul is describing here is not some mystical (daily) experience. He is describing the common conversion experience of Jews: when they turn to Christ, they die to the law as the means of salvation (McKnight, 124).
4. But here is the point we really need to see. Paul says, "For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God."
a. Here is fulcrum of Paul's defense; you cannot serve both legalism and God.
b. If you try and follow religious regulations you set yourself up for failure.
c. In your attempt to "be good," and resist sin on your own, have said, "I can't do this!," you are absolutely right...you can't.
d. Paul is saying. the idea of legalism clashes with God's clearest truth and my own deepest convictions.
e. Now that I have accepted grace and died to the Law, I could never go back to its system of rituals and ordinances. Otherwise I could not live to God.
f. The law is not the believer's master; God is. It is not his relation to the law that saves him, but his relation to God (MacArthur, 59).
g. The bad news is you can't do it; the good news is because of Jesus death and resurrection you don't have to!
B. Earning Salvation
1. Illustration: Listen to this from R.C. Sproul: "Perhaps the most difficult task for us to perform is to rely on God’s grace and God’s grace alone for our salvation. It is difficult for our pride to rest on grace. Grace is for other people—for beggars. We don’t want to live by a heavenly welfare system. We want to earn our own way and atone for our own sins. We like to think that we will go to heaven because we deserve to be there."
2. The truth is none of us will ever be good enough to make it to heaven on our own.
a. Romans 3:10-12 (NLT)
As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous— not even one. 11 No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. 12 All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.”
b. No one is capable of living up to God's righteous standard.
c. No one is capable through sheer will and determination being good enough to deserve salvation.
d. God is not up in heaven with a spiritual spread sheet keeping track of the good things you do.
e. Because it simply doesn't matter.
3. The truth is we can only be saved by God's Grace.
a. Ephesians 2:8-9 (NLT)
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
b. It is only by grace, God's unmerited favor, favor that we are saved.
c. It is not by good works; it is only by grace
d. It is not by religious observation; it is only by grace.
e. It is not by the efforts of our ancestors; it is only by grace
f. It is only by grace!
Transition: Another thing we must come to grips with is we are...
III. Made Right Through The Cross (20-21).
A. Gave Himself For Me
1. The Gospel can be summed up in one word, one ideal, one concept, and this is the Cross.
a. Everything begins and ends with the cross.
b. Our salvation begins at the cross.
c. Without it we are lost in sin; with it we are forgiven and set free.
2. Listen to what Paul says to the Galatians, "My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
a. The life Paul now lives for God is the result of dying with Christ.
b. But the life Paul lives ("I") is the life the Christian finds in Christ.
c. It is a life of the indwelling Christ and the indwelling Spirit.
d. When the Jewish Christian died to the law by dying with Christ (who absorbed the full wrath of God that came about because of the law's work), that Jewish Christian was raised a new person: a post-law Jewish Christian.
e. That person was now indwelt by Christ and the Holy Spirit, who would now guide and control (McKnight, 124).
f. Legalism's most destructive effect is that it cancels the effect of the cross.
g. To go back under the law would be to cancel one's union with Christ's sacrifice on the cross and therefore to go back under sin.
h. The old man, the old self is dead, crucified with Christ, and the new man lives. The Greek verb behind live is in the perfect tense, indicating a past completed action that has continuing results.
i. When a believer trusts in Christ for salvation he spiritually participates with the Lord in His crucifixion and in His victory over sin and death.
j. The true Christian life is not so much a believer's living for Christ as Christ's living through the believer.
k. I do not have such a divine life and the merciful privilege of being indwelt with the living, powerful Son of God because of anything I have done or merited, but only because He loved me, and delivered Himself up for me (MacArthur, 60).
3. Paul concludes his defense by saying; "I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die."
a. All of this saving work is the gift of God's sovereign grace.
b. To say you can do it on your own is a slap in the face of God's gracious gift.
c. You nullify the grace of God by denying the need for Christ's death.
d. The two pillars of the gospel are the grace of God and the death of Christ, and those are the two pillars that, by its very nature, legalism destroys.
e. The person who insists that he can earn salvation by his own efforts undermines the very foundation of Christianity and nullifies the precious death of Christ on his behalf (MacArthur, 60).
B. Only Through The Cross
1. Illustration: Richard Bandler tells one story about visiting a mental institution and dealing with a man who insisted he was Jesus Christ - not metaphorically, not in spirit, but in the flesh. One day Bandler walked in to meet this man. "Are you Jesus?" he said. "Yes, my son," the man replied. Bandler said, "I’ll be back in a minute." This left the man a little bit confused. Within three or four minutes, Bandler came back, holding a measuring tape. Asking the man to hold out his arms, Bandler measured the length of his arms and his height from head to toe. After that, Bandler left. The man claiming to be Christ became a little concerned. A little while later, Bandler came back with a hammer, some large spiked nails, and a long set of boards. He began to pound them into the form of a cross. The man asked, "What are you doing?" As Richard put the last nails in the cross, he asked, "Are you Jesus?" Again the man said, "Yes my son." Bandler said, "Then you know why I’m here." Somehow, the man suddenly recalled who he really was. His old pattern didn’t seem like such a good idea. "I’m not Jesus. I’m not Jesus!" the man started yelling. Case closed (Robbins, Unlimited Power, 184-185).
2. Jesus mission was clear; he had to go to the Cross.
a. Hebrews 9:22 (NLT)
In fact, according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.
b. There was only one way for us to be saved; someone had to stand in our place.
c. There was only one way for us to be saved; someone without sin would have to stand in for us.
d. There was only one way for us to be saved; Jesus had to go to the Cross!
3. The means of our salvation is clear; only through the Cross of Christ.
a. Colossians 1:19-20 (NLT)
For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, 20 and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
b. Through the cross Jesus paid the price for our sin.
c. Through the cross Jesus bought our forgiveness.
d. Through the cross Jesus took away the sting of death.
e. Through the cross Jesus put to death our old person, and made the way for our new person.
f. Through the cross Jesus set us free.
g. Through the cross Jesus said, "It is finished!"
Transition: Life begins at the cross!
Conclusion
1. When it comes to being made right with God we are...
a. Made Right By Faith
b. Never Right On Our Own
c. Made Right Through The Cross
2. Have you been to Jesus for that cleansing power, or are you still trying to do it on your own?
3. Are you trying to make yourself good enough for God, or are you allowing God's free gift of Grace take care of it for you?
4. There is only one way to be saved: By faith through the cross.
