Text: “Know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:16).
Message: As Christians, we are saved by faith not by religious works.
Doctrine/Teaching: Justification through faith.
Response: To trust Christ alone for salvation, not one’s own religious works.
I. Introduction
A. Religion tells people to earn merit through works.
1. Once, when I was in Pakistan, I saw a man with a flock of birds in a cage. Another man came and bought a bird. I thought he was buying the bird for his kids to play with, but to my surprise, he immediately set the bird free. My translator explained that some people in Pakistan believe that setting a bird free is a good deed that erases a previous bad deed. They look for forgiveness through the ritual of setting birds free.
2. On another trip, I was in Ethiopia. The week before our team arrived in the city of Chuko, the townspeople sacrificed nine cows. They felt this religious ritual would give them favor with God.
3. In the nation of Nepal, the birthplace of Buddha, I visited the famous Monkey Temple that stands on a hill overlooking the city of Katmandu. I saw an old man diligently spinning prayer wheels. I witnessed a woman offering rice to a statue. I saw an old monk burning incense. These individuals were trying to earn merit through human effort.
4. To many of us, it may seem strange to think that setting one animal free or killing another, that spinning wheels, offering rice, or burning incense could affect one’s status with God. But, beliefs like this are common all over the world.
5. A common trait of every religious tradition is the need to perform a “special deed” or a “sacred ceremony” in order to be blessed by “the gods”: Muslims pray towards Mecca five times each day; Hindus offer incense to idols; Buddhists go on long pilgrimages. And for most religions, being on “god’s” good side requires a lot more than one or two simple rituals—there are whole lists of “to do’s”: Buddhists follow an eight-fold path, Hindus believe in karma, Jews keep the Torah, and Muslims impose Sharia law.
B. Even the religion of Christianity tells people they can earn merit through works.
1. Each religion asks its followers to do special deeds and good works in order to keep “the gods” happy, to avert divine or cosmic wrath, and to atone for sin. Through these means, religion makes spiritual discipline the key to a successful walk with God. Spiritual disciplines include things like fasting, prayer, penance, alms-giving, serving in the community, and generally doing good. As a person does all these things (and whatever other things in terms of moral laws and ethical codes that religion requires), religion promises the rewards of divine blessing and favor, with the ultimate reward being some form of “eternal life.”
2. Unfortunately, even Christianity has been turned into such a religion. The Christian “religion” often tells people they have to perform a special task in order to be blessed by God, to be saved from sin, and to be rewarded with eternal life.
II. Justification does not come through the works of the law.
A. The Background of the Book of Galatians
1. Galatians has been called the “Emancipation Proclamation for Christians.” Just as Abraham Lincoln proclaimed all American slaves free, so Paul sets free those who have been enslaved to the Law. Twelve times in this letter Paul uses the word “freedom” or “liberty.”
2. Paul initially visited the region of Galatia (part of modern Turkey) during his first missionary journey. He went to the cities of Pisidia, Iconium, and Lystra in order to encourage the churches there (Acts 14:20-21). Paul’s second missionary journey took him once more through the province of Galatia on the way to Mysia and Troas (Acts 16:7-8). Galatians was written either during or just after this second missionary journey.
3. Galatians was written because Paul was angry. The Gospel of grace was in danger. Paul had personally led many of the Gentiles from the region of Galatia to the Lord. He taught them that salvation comes by faith in Jesus Christ. But a group of Jewish believers began teaching the churches in Galatia that Gentile believers must be circumcised and must observe Jewish holidays (Galatians 4:10; 5:2; 6:12). The antagonists that Paul combats in Galatians are likely from the same group that Paul dealt with in the Jerusalem Council, the “Judaizers.” Paul calls them “the circumcision party” (Galatians 2:12). The Galatian Christians, who had started out by trusting Jesus for salvation, were now, because of the urging of the Judaizers, turning to the works of the Law in order to “improve” their Christian walk.
4. What is justification? “In its most basic meaning, justification is the declaration that somebody is in the right.” “Justification is the act of God, whereby he declares the believing sinner righteous in Jesus Christ.”
B. The Message of the Book of Galatians.
1. After his greeting and introduction, Paul launches into a rebuke of the Galatians for forsaking his original teaching on grace:
a. “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel” (Galatians 1:6).
b. He writes, “If anyone (even an angel from heaven) preaches any other Gospel to you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8 paraphrase).
c. If his audience didn’t get the message, Paul emphatically repeats himself in the very next verse: “…if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:9).
d. Paul calls the Galatians “foolish” and “bewitched” (Galatians 3:1) for believing that legalism could save them or anyone.
e. He explains that if anyone tries to keep even one part of the Law, then they must keep the whole Law (Galatians 5:3).
f. Moreover, if someone wants to try to be justified through the Law, then Christ has no effect in that person’s life and they have fallen from grace (Galatians 5:4).
2. You set aside the grace of God when you try to be righteous through the Law rather than faith in Jesus Christ (Galatians 2:21). Other versions of this passage help us understand what Paul is saying in this verse. The Amplified version says “I do not treat God’s gracious gift as something of minor importance and defeat its very purpose.” This is what Paul is charging the Galatian believers of doing—of making the sacrifice of Christ, His death on the cross, and the gift of salvation that His death paid the price for, something of little value. In fact, Paul says, Jesus death was to no purpose if you can be right by your own work of keeping the Law.
3. It is foolish to try to be right with God through the works of the Law. Paul questions the Galatians: “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3). Trying to improve your walk with God by the works of the Law is foolish for many reasons.
a. No one is justified by the Law to begin with (Galatians 2:16, 3:11). The Law was never a means of being made right with God—so it is foolishness to think that it could ever become part of that experience. Paul points out that Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, was not made righteous through the Law. Abraham lived four hundred and thirty years before the Law was given to Moses and Israel on Sinai. He was righteous without the Law solely because he “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness” (Galatians 3:6).
b. You actually put yourself under a curse by trying to keep the Law. “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them’” (Galatians 3:10). If you do not obey the whole Law perfectly then you are subject to the curses that are part of disobeying the Law. What foolishness then to make the keeping of the Law part of salvation. It actually undoes the work of Christ who died on the cross to set us free from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13).
c. Under the Law you are a slave, but under grace you are a child of God and an heir with His Son, Jesus Christ (Galatians 4:1-8). What foolishness to choose slavery over sonship, to choose bondage over freedom. But this is what the Galatians were doing, and something that believers today are often tempted to do.
C. The issue of Circumcision
1. As those who are under grace, your identity is in Christ, and is in no way any longer connected with the works of the Law. The identity of the Jews was very much wrapped up in the Law—the rite of circumcision being a significant sign of this identity. While circumcision is not an issue in the church today, the principle of what Paul says regarding circumcision is applicable to many situations in the church today.
2. Circumcision was at the center of the Jews’ identity, and Paul uses it as a symbol of the entire system of Old Testament Law. Originally, God gave circumcision (the cutting off of the male foreskin) to Abraham and his descendants—the people of Israel—as a sign of their covenant. Circumcision set Jews apart from the Gentiles, marking them as the special people of God. But, is circumcision something that Christians have to do to be saved and included among the people of God? This was a vexing question for the early church, and one that Paul addresses.
3. “Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing” (Galatians 5:2). Paul is telling the Galatians that if they as Gentile believers submit to circumcision because of the suggestion of the Judaizers, they will have lost their faith. Instead of trusting in Christ alone for salvation, they would be relying on their own works. Paul informs them that they cannot mingle salvation by grace alone with the false righteousness that comes through works of the flesh. If the Galatians got circumcised, they would be turning their backs on Christ’s work on the cross.
4. Are we saved by faith, or are we saved by obeying the laws and fulfilling the rituals of the Old Covenant or any other traditions however ancient or modern? Paul is not actually against circumcision or the observation of religious traditions in and of themselves. We see this in Acts 16:3 when he circumcises Timothy. In Acts 21:26 he shaves his head before visiting the Temple. It is only when someone is coerced into doing works of the flesh in order to earn salvation that Paul is against these traditions. There is nothing wrong with keeping the Sabbath, getting circumcised, obeying the commandments, etc. It is only when these things are required for salvation or merit with God that they become wrong.
5. Some churches preach that people have to dress a certain way in order to be saved. They feel that if someone dresses “inappropriately,” they are sinning and damned to hell. This kind of thinking actually teaches people to rely more on outward appearances and behaviors than on faith in Christ. In Christ, believers have a new identity that is not linked to any work of the Law: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation” (Galatians 6:15).
III. Justification comes through faith in Jesus Christ.
A. The Law is impossible to keep.
1. If you break even one of the laws, you might as well have broken every single one of them: “For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10).
2. Once you decide to try to be righteous by keeping part of the Law, you have to keep the rest of the Law too—it’s an all or nothing venture.
B. One cannot pick and choose what parts of the Law to obey.
1. The book of Leviticus (part of the Law of Moses) tells us that it is wrong to eat pork, shrimp, or lobster, and that it is wrong to wear poly-blend cotton, work on the Sabbath, charge interest, or shave your beard. Also, every man must be circumcised, and women must not cut their hair. Do you know anyone who follows all these laws?
2. The Law encompasses the Ten Commandments and various other civil, moral, dietary, and sacrificial laws. No one manages to keep all of these laws. Some choose to only follow the Ten Commandments. Others choose to ignore the dietary laws, but they follow the moral laws. Animal sacrifices are decidedly outdated. Everyone picks and chooses the rules they want to keep.
C. Jesus fulfilled the Law, and grace is the new reality for those who put their trust in Him.
1. Grace and works are like oil and water, they do not mix. "And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work” (Romans 11:6). If even a little bit of human goodness is required for salvation, then salvation ceases to be the work of God alone.
2. Andy Stanley says, “Grace plus anything is anything but grace.” Paul reveals that salvation comes only by grace, from the beginning to the end, or salvation is not by grace at all. If righteousness comes through my works, then Jesus died for nothing. If righteousness comes through my obedience, then Jesus only paid part of the price.
3. Once you accept the concept of grace, you can’t fit your life into the old paradigm of trying to keep the Law. As Jesus said, “You can’t put new wine in old wineskins” (Matthew 9:17). As soon as you try to balance grace and the Law, you render grace null and void. If even a little bit of religious work is required for salvation, then salvation stops being the work of God and His grace. If you are counting on even one Law to make you righteous, then you are not trusting the work of Christ at all, but the Law.
IV. Conclusion
A. The law no longer applies to a dead person.
1. My grandfather did not file a tax return with the IRS this year.
2. Normally, the IRS would launch an investigation and prosecute him for failing to pay his taxes, but they did nothing to my grandfather. Why? For one simple reason: my grandfather is dead. The law no longer applies to him.
B. The law no longer applies to you.
1. It is time for you to start walking in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. As a friend posted on Facebook, “The Law is rigid. It demands brick but denies me straw. But the gospel of grace is liberating. It bids me to fly and gives me wings.”
