GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
GALATIANS 2:15-16
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15 We are Jews by birth and not sinners from the Gentiles. 16 We know that no one is ever justified by trying to do the works of the law, but is justified only through faith in Jesus Christ, and so we believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by trying to do the works of the law. For no person of flesh will ever be justified by trying to do the works of the law.
The context of this passage comes from two directions. First, Paul is summarizing what his point was on that occasion when he had to correct Peter in public up in Antioch. But secondly, verse 16 is the summary of everything Paul is saying to the Galatians. In fact, it is the heart of the gospel of salvation.
If it were impossible for man to be saved at all, then man is nothing but an animal, and life has no point beyond the sensual and whatever is needed for survival. If it were impossible for man to be saved, then the sparrows who eat and play outside my window everyday are finer creatures than I am, because they are only occupied with what is necessary. They spend no time at all on trifles. However, God himself tells us that we can be saved. He promised this in the Garden after the fall into sin (Genesis 3:15), and Moses sang about it while the waters of the Red Sea were still churning and heaving after collapsing down upon Pharaoh’s chariots: “He has become my salvation!” (Exodus 15:2). David rejoices again and again in the promise of salvation (Psalm 9:14; 13:5; 18:2; 27:1; 35:3; 37:39, 40:10; and so on). But how does this salvation come to us?
There are only two possible ways. Either it is man’s doing, whether this means apart from God or with God’s help– for in either case man is in some way responsible for his own salvation, that is, justification. Or else it is God’s doing, entirely and completely. As Processor J.P. Koehler said, “A third way has never been mentioned on earth. And Paul excludes the first way.”
But just what do we mean by justification? Justification is the Bible’s technical word for how God forgives sins. While there are many ways that this is explained for us and to assure us (redemption, remission, reconciliation, removed, atonement, purging, washing, taking away, and even forgetting ), justification explains in a literal way, a legal way, how it could happen that a holy God would embrace sinners.
“Justify” in the Bible is a technical, legal and forensic word that means “to declare righteous.” It is a courtroom term, a verdict pronounced by a court or by a judge that says that the defendant is not guilty of the crime he is charged with. Since you and I are charged with violating the whole law of God (James 2:10), to be justified by God means to be declared not guilty of any and all sin. On top of that, God declares the forgiven person to be thoroughly righteous in his sight. This is his declaration, and it stands unchallenged and unchanging in God’s courtroom (“If he convenes a court, who can oppose him?” Job 11:10).
But how is it that man might receive this not guilty verdict from God? It cannot be in any way through the works of the law. At the end of this chapter, Paul will cry out: “If righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:21). Paul said to the Philippians, “I do not have a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but I have one that is through faith in Christ– the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith” (Philippians 3:9).
The source of our righteousness is Christ. He steps into the courtroom of God’s judgment as our defense attorney, our advocate, and also as our judge! As our defender, he paid the price, the debt, of our sin in our place. As our judge, he happily accepts that debt and declares us to be innocent. And the Father accepts this judgment from the Son, for the Father “has placed everything in his hands’ (John 3:35) “and under his feet” (Ephesians 1:22).
What does all this have to do with Jews and Gentiles? Under the Law of Moses, Gentiles could not be saved unless they entered into the covenant of circumcision. Without it, they remained outside of God’s family (Ephesians 2:12). They were not under God’s covenant. They could not be saved. But the Jews of Peter and Paul’s day were thinking in terms of the Laws of Moses that we call ceremonial laws; the laws including circumcision, sacrifices, and worship at the temple. But Jesus showed that the ceremonial and all other laws were fulfilled by him and through his life. He kept them in our place, and no one is under those laws anymore.
Not far from the village where I grew up, there was once, long ago (in the 1850s), another village called Oshaukuta. It had a road, streets, houses, barns, and surely rules about safe driving speeds for horses and wagons. But no one today is required to abide by those safe driving speeds, since the town, the old road, and the streets no longer exist. The rules about that 150-year-old place no longer apply. So it is with the Law of Moses. The rules do not govern us.
Paul brings up a proof passage from the Psalms: “For no person of flesh will ever be justified by trying to do the works of the law.” This is a paraphrase of Psalm 143:2, which says, literally, “In your sight, no man living will be justified.” When God goes to court with anyone according to his law, no one can be declared not guilty, “for all have sinned and fall short” (Romans 3:23). This is exactly why David asks God not to do it!
Since justification through the law, or even trying to keep the law, is impossible, then justification through faith is the only possibility. It must be through faith alone. There is more say, of course, and we will let Paul expand and expound on this in the verses to come.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Galatians 2:15-16 Justification