THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
June 13, 2004
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
The Rev. M. Anthony Seel , Jr.
Galatians 2:11-21
“Justified by Faith“
Let us pray.
O God, by the preaching of your apostle Paul you have caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world: Grant, we pray, that we, having his wonderful conversion in remembrance, may show ourselves thankful to you by following his holy teaching, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
His father wanted him to become a lawyer, and he studied philosophy and law to that end. At age 20 he was prepared to begin his career in civil law, but during that year something happened that would change human history. Church historian Roland Bainton describes what happened in this way:
On a sultry day in July of the year 1505 a lonely traveler was
trudging over a parched road on the outskirts of the Saxon village
of Stotterheim. He was a young man, short but sturdy, and wore
the dress of a university student. As he approached the village,
the sky became overcast. Suddenly there was a shower, then a
crashing storm. A bolt of lightning rived the gloom and knocked
the man to the ground. Struggling to rise, he cried in terror, “St.
Anne help me! I will become a monk.” [Here I Stand, p. 15]
And he did become a monk, but even that did not quell the religious turmoil that was engulfing his soul. It is said that one time while in his monastery cell he threw an inkbottle at the devil who was disturbing his studies. He practiced the mortifications of the flesh that he believed would bring his peace, but they never did bring his peace. Bainton explains
He laid upon himself vigils and prayers in excess of those
stipulated by the rule. He cast off blankets permitted him and
well-nigh froze himself to death. At times he was proud of his
sanctity and would say, “I have done nothing wrong today.”
Then misgivings would arise. “Have you fasted enough? Are
you poor enough?” Then he would strip himself of all save that
which decency required. [Ibid., p. 34]
Martin Luther says about himself,
I was a good monk, and I kept the rule of my order so strictly that
I may say that if ever a monk got to heaven by his monkery it was
I. All my brothers in the monastery who knew me will bear me out.
If I had kept on any longer, I should have killed myself with vigils,
prayers, reading, and other work. [Ibid.]
Martin Luther was literally killing himself with piety, but it brought him no inner peace. He tried to compensate for his sins through holy striving, but to no avail. He never felt that he could balance the ledger between his sins and his righteous acts. One day he discovered another way, a better way, but we will get to that later.
First, consider Peter and Paul in Antioch. Peter is called Cephas in the first verse of our second lesson, where we read
vv. 11-12 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before, certain men came from James, he was eating with Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.
Paul speaks to Peter, another Jewish Christian, about the hypocrisy of his behavior. Before a group of Jewish Christians who had come from Jerusalem, Peter stopped eating with Gentiles. He feared the condemnation of his Jerusalem brethren, and so he changed his behavior to please them. Paul next reports the result of Peter’s actions:
v. 13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabus was led astray by their hypocrisy.
Because of Peter’s example, other Jewish Christians also refused to eat with Gentiles, including Barnabus. Barnabus was a powerful church leader among the Gentiles. He was Paul’s sponsor when Paul first presented himself after his conversion to the church in Jerusalem. Peter was recognized as one of the most prominent of the apostles, and even Barnabus has been affected by Peter’s practice. Paul comments
v. 14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all; "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?"
Paul confronted Peter about his behavior because it was hurting other Christians. This separation of Jews and Gentiles in the church that Peter was promoting by his behavior was not right. Jews and Gentiles are one in Christ, as Paul says more explicitly at the end of chapter 3. Peter’s behavior was offensive to God, the church, and to Paul personally. Paul acted out of deep concern and great love for the church. Paul sees that the truth of the gospel is at stake, and so he confronts Peter.
The Jewish Christians from Jerusalem were insisting that Gentile Christians follow Jewish practices and Peter was sucked into this. Paul argues that to insist on a Jewish understanding of the law for all Christians is not according to the gospel. Paul explains himself in this way:
vv. 15-16 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
In recognition of his intellectual and spiritual gifts, Martin Luther was made a university professor, and it was during his teaching career that God profoundly changed him. About that period in Luther’s life, Bainton writes
Luther set himself to learn and expound the Scriptures. On
August 1, 1513, he commenced his lectures on the book of
Psalms. In the fall of 1515 he was lecturing on St. Paul’s
Epistle to the Romans. The Epistle to the Galatians was
treated throughout 1516-17. These studies proved to be for
Luther the Damascus road. [pp. 47-48]
As Luther studied Romans a change occurred in his thinking. He writes
My situation was that, although an impeccable monk, I stood
before God as a sinner troubled by conscience, and I had no
confidence that my merit would assuage him…. Then I grasped
that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through
grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. [p. 49]
Luther describes the passage in Romans that opened his eyes to God’s grace as “a gate of heaven” (p. 50). His studies in Galatians served to reinforce what God had shown him in Romans. It is not through our own efforts that we gain merit with God. It is through “grace and sheer mercy” that we are made right with God. This understanding is what the Jewish Christians from Jerusalem were missing, and it was their erroneous version of the gospel that Paul felt compelled to combat.
The "we" that begins verse 15 is emphatic, emphasizing the status that Paul shares with Peter as a Jew from birth. The second clause of verse 15 is from a Christian perspective: no one is made right before God because of their keeping of the Jewish law. It is through faith in Christ that we find peace with God. No one will be justified before God on the basis of his or her works done under the law.
Paul continues
vv. 17-20 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but 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.
Jesus Christ is not a servant of sin because His death on the cross brings us the gift of His righteousness. This does not make Jesus a servant of sin, as if we are now freed up to live unrighteous lives. Paul is saying that this is a misunderstanding of God’s gift of grace to us. As Paul says in Romans chapter 6, we don’t sin in order to receive more of God’s grace. We receive God’s grace and through it we are given the power of God’s Spirit to turn from our sins and live more righteous lives.
Paul is also saying that if we try to build our lives on living by the law, we will not be made righteous before God. We aren’t good enough. We must give our sins to Christ to be crucified on His cross, and then allow Jesus Christ by His Spirit to live in us. Through the power of Christ’s Spirit in us, God makes us righteous.
In the final verse of our lesson, Paul says
v. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
Paul is not going to count on his performance of the law to save him – which would nullify the grace of God. It is only by the grace of God that Paul or any of us is justified before God. Otherwise, Christ’s death on the cross did not achieve any purpose. But Christ’s death on the cross did achieve its’ purpose. Christ paid the necessary price for our sins and the sins of the world. The gate of heaven is now open to all who will accept God gift of grace.
Twenty-six years after Luther’s death, the issue of justification by faith alone was still a hot topic. On Sunday, August 17, 1572, thousands of Christians were martyred for their faith in France. Those thousands who died in what is know known as the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, understood, as Martin Luther did, that at the heart of Christianity is grace, God’s unmerited favor. The Reformation of the Church that had begun in Germany had spread to France, and the Reformation adherents in France, called Huguenots, were killed by French troops and citizens loyal to Catherine de’ Medici and Charles IX.
Thousands were killed that day, and thousands more over the next forty days. In all, about 50,000 Huguenots died because of their reformed religion. Those who believed in New Testament Christianity were brutally murdered because of their faith. What the German prophet had begun reached outside his native country to all of Europe and later to the entire world.
About this central belief of the gospel, Luther said
All heretics have continually failed in this one point, that they do
not rightly understand or know the article of justification… If we
look to the spiritual birth and substance of a true Christian, we shall
soon extinguish all deserts of good works; for they serve us to no use,
neither to purchase sanctification, nor to deliver us from sin, death,
devil, or hell. [Table Talk, pp. 188-189]
Martin Luther’s understanding of justification by faith is enshrined in the 39 Articles of the Church of England that were accepted in the Episcopal Church in 1801. This same understanding is found in our prayer book liturgies. Luther rightly says that justification by faith is “the chief of the whole Christian doctrine” (Ibid., p. 189). If we know that we belong to God because we have accepted Christ as our Savior, then everything else falls into place.
Do you know this in your heart? As our baptismal service asks, “Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as your Savior? Do you put your whole trust in his faith and love” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 302).
Martin Luther did and it changed his life. From the moment that he put his whole trust in Christ’s grace and love, Luther was made a new man. He changed the course of human history because of his insistence that it is by grace alone and by faith alone that we find peace with God. This truth of the gospel has the power to change our lives, also.
Have you put your whole trust in Christ’s grace and love? When you do, the gates of heaven will open for you, too.
Let us pray.
Almighty God, who has given thine only Son to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification; Grant us to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve thee in pureness of living and truth; through the merits of the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. [Thomas Cranmer]
