Gospel Bible Baptist Church

Gal. 2:16-21

Introduction

The word “Justification” is mentioned here in the New Testament for the first time. Justification by faith” was the watchword of the Reformation, and it is important that we understand this doctrine.

Illustration 1: The Rolls Royce
My friend Dr. Roy Gustafson has the finest illustration of justification I have ever heard. It seems that there was a man in England who put his Rolls-Royce on a boat and went across to the continent to go on a holiday. While he was driving around Europe, something happened to the motor of his car. He cabled the Rolls-Royce people back in England and asked, “I’m having trouble with my car; what do you suggest I do?” Well, the Rolls-Royce people flew a mechanic over! The mechanic repaired the car and flew back to England and left the man to continue his holiday.
As you can imagine, the fellow was wondering, “How much is this going to cost me?” So, when he got back to England, he wrote the people a letter and asked how much he owed them. He received a letter from the office that read: “Dear Sir: There is no record anywhere in our files that anything ever went wrong with a Rolls-Royce.” That is justification!

I. Definition of Justification
A. Justification means “to declare righteous.” Justification is God’s declaration that those who trust Jesus Christ are perfectly righteous before Him. It is a legal concept, as when a judge gives a verdict. God is the great Judge. It is His law we have broken. Before I am saved, God declares that I am a condemned sinner. After I come to Christ, God declares that I am righteous because of what Christ did for me on Calvary. Justification is being brought into a new spiritual position before God (Ro 5:1-2). The believer is no longer a part of the cursed household of Adam, but has entered the blessed household of Christ

II. Truths about Justification
A. How is a person justified?

1. Justification is through faith in Christ (Rom. 3:25-28; 4:3-6; 5:1). Man’s part in justification is to repent of his sin and to trust Jesus Christ.
2. We do not become righteous before God through good works, religious rituals, morality, law-keeping. It is a free gift
3. Justification is free because Jesus Christ paid the price with His own blood and death.
   B. Other important truths about justification:
4. Justification is by imputation, not impartation. Justification is not God making a sinner righteous, but God declaring him righteous. It is true that God gives the believer a righteous nature, which remains in him and causes him to love and serve God, but this is not justification; this is regeneration (2 Cor. 5:17). Justification is God imputing to the believing sinner the very righteousness of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 4:4-6).
5. Justification is in Jesus Christ. To have Christ is to have justification (1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21).
6. Justification is a present possession, not a process and a possibility (Rom. 5:9). Justification is not a gradual thing whereby a person grows in righteousness. The believer is as fully justified the day he is converted as he is after forty years of spiritual growth. Believers do grow in obedience, but this is not justification; it is sanctification (1 Pet. 2:1-2).
7. Justification promises eternal safety from wrath (Rom. 5:9-11). Since the believer possesses justification through Christ’s blood, he does not have to fear ever suffering God’s wrath. It is God who declares the believer righteous; thus, the danger of wrath and condemnation are forever past for those who are justified by Christ’s blood. (WOLE by D. Cloud)

Illustration 2: Jesus Paid It All
Imagine a man before a judge who has been given the choice of paying $100 or serving 90 days in jail. The man doesn’t have any money, but does have an invalid wife and five hungry children at home who are depending on him and him alone. He tells such a heartrending story that the courtroom spectators are moved with pity and take up a collection to help pay the man’s fine. Although it is unlike him, even the judge chips in. Altogether they raise $99.95. Even though they are only five cents short, the judge declares that the entire $100 must be paid, and orders the bailiff to take the man to jail. He dejectedly walks out of the courtroom, thrusting his hands deep into his pockets…where he finds—A nickel! Elated, he rushes back into the courtroom and slaps it on the bar before the judge, declaring “I’m free, I’m free!” In his mind, what saved him?? The $99.95, or the five cents?
If we did anything to merit our salvation, we would be forever boasting about it in heaven. The fact is that we could do nothing, so Jesus paid it all. – C. Ryrie

III. Freedom from the Law (Gal. 2:17-18)
A. Paul’s opponents argued, however, that since justification by faith eliminated the Law, it encouraged sinful living. A person could believe in Christ for salvation and then do as he pleased, having no need to do good works. Paul hotly denied the charge, especially noting that this made Christ the promoter of sin. On the contrary, if a believer would return to the Law after trusting Christ alone for salvation, that Law would only demonstrate that he was a sinner, a lawbreaker. Though Paul used the first person here, he clearly had in mind Peter, who by his act of withdrawing from Gentile fellowship was returning to the Law.

Illustration 3: Negative and Positive Commands
According to a third century rabbi, Moses gave 365 prohibitions and 248 positive commands. David reduced them to eleven in Psalm 15. Isaiah made them six (Isaiah 33:14, 15). Micah 6:8 binds them into three commands. Habakkuk reduces them all to one great statement: The just shall live by faith.
Source unknown

IV. The very Gospel itself (Gal. 2:19-20).
A. If a man is justified by the works of the Law, then why did Jesus Christ die? His death, burial, and resurrection are the key truths of the Gospel (1 Cor. 15:1-8). We are saved by faith in Christ (He died for us), and we live by faith in Christ (He lives in us). Furthermore, we are so identified with Christ by the Spirit that we died with Him (see Rom. 6). This means that we are dead to the Law. To go back to Moses is to return to the graveyard! We have been “raised to walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4); and since we live by His resurrection power, we do not need the “help” of the Law.
B. In Gal. 2:20 Paul enlarged on the meaning of verse 19. He “died to the Law” because he was crucified with Christ; he was able “to live for God” because Christ lived in him. Basic to an understanding of this verse is the meaning of union with Christ. This doctrine is based on such passages as Rom. 6:1-6 and 1 Cor. 12:13, which explain that believers have been baptized by the Holy Spirit into Christ and into the church, the body of all true believers. Having been thus united to Christ, believers share in His death, burial, and resurrection.
C. Paul could therefore write, I have been “crucified with Christ” (lit., “I have been and am now crucified with Christ”). This brought death to the Law. It also brought a change in regard to one’s self: and I no longer live. The self-righteous, self-centred Saul died. Further, death with Christ ended Paul’s enthronement of self; he yielded the throne of his life to Another, to Christ. But it was not in his own strength that Paul was able to live the Christian life; the living Christ Himself took up His abode in Paul’s heart: Christ lives in me. Yet Christ does not operate automatically in a believer’s life; it is a matter of living the new life by faith in the Son of God. It is then faith and not works or legal obedience that releases divine power to live a Christian life. This faith, stated Paul, builds on the sacrifice of Christ who loved us and gave Himself for us. In essence Paul affirmed, “If He loved me enough to give Himself for me, then He loves me enough to live out His life in me.”

V. Summing up (Gal. 2:21)
A. Summing up his case against Peter, Paul declared, I do not set aside the grace of God. The clear implication is that Peter and the others who followed him were setting aside God’s grace. The essence of grace is for God to give people what they have not worked for (cf. Rom 4:4). To insist on justification or sanctification by works is to nullify the grace of God. Further, such insistence on legal obedience also means Christ died for nothing. If righteousness comes by keeping the Law, the Cross was a futile gesture, the biggest mistake in the universe.

VI. Conclusion:
Justification is God’s declaration that those who trust Jesus Christ are perfectly righteous before Him. Have you put your trust in Jesus Christ? Now is the time. Tomorrow may be too late