Scripture: Galatians 2:15-21
Sermon Series: Galatians – Set Free, Live Free-Sermon 06

In October of 2021 wildlife officials in Colorado celebrated the successful conclusion of a two-year quest to liberate a wild bull elk from a car tire that was trapped around his neck. It took them two years to do it. No one knew how the tire ended up there but as the elk grew and its antlers grew, it became impossible for this elk to free itself. In fact, the elk became a kind of local landmark. Park Rangers had attempted to tranquilize it and free him on three different occasions. The fourth time they were finally successful.

To get the tire off without hurting the elk, they had to remove the tire and its antlers. Here’s a picture of the rangers holding the tire. But when they removed the tire, they found debris had accumulated in it, and with the removal the elk lost a whopping 35 pounds it’d been carrying around. For at least half his life this poor elk was carrying all this extra weight needlessly. But because of the persistence of the park rangers, it’s now free.

In our study of Galatians, we’ve discovered that the theme is Freedom. The word freedom occurs more time in Galatians than in any other book of the Bible. The reason for that is that these young believers were in danger of giving up the freedom they had in Christ and being weighed down with all sorts of religious rules. Jewish Christians were telling new Gentile Christians that Christ’s cross wasn’t enough to be forgiven and go to heaven. You also had to obey a bunch of religious rules. They added all this needless weight.

When Christ died, He took our weight of sin so we could be free and justified. Justification is a wonderful part of oursalvation. We find that word four times in these verses. God’s justification is like removing that tire from the elk’s neck. It takes all the weight of our sin off of us. It takes all the weight of religious rules off us. Yet even today there are some who teach Jesus’ cross isn’t enough, that it’s the cross plus good works. It’s the gospel plus being moral or baptized or some rule that gets you into heaven. Yet Carrying that Extra Weight will keep you from salvation.

The Bible has some wonderful words filled with spiritual wealth for Christ-followers. One of those is justification. Justification is worth more than the Mega Millions Jackpot because that’s only for this short life. Justification is for today and all eternity! Now that’s a jackpot!

Yet if you were asked to explain justification to win the Mega Millions Jackpot, could you do it?Most Christ-followers now about faith and grace, but justification…they don’t have a clue. So, today we want to unpack justification. We’re going to talk about the definition of justification; the explanation of justification; and the application of justification.

The reason we need justification is that we all have the same problem. God is righteous, we’re not. God is holy, we’re not. God is pure, we’re not. God is perfect, we’re not. In other words, we’re all a major mess.

If you doubt this, watch the news. Something is terribly wrong in this world. Even if we don’t know what it is, we know things aren’t the way they ought to be. It’s why we need justification. It’s our only hope.

Turn to Galatians 2:15-21 (p. 914). 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. 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. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. If you’re taking notes…

1. The Definition of Justification, vss. 15-16. 

Paul just finished rebuking Peter, the pillar of the Church, for adding works to the gospel. Verses 15-21 are a theological summary on what happened at Antioch. Now Paul shares this wonderful doctrine of justification.

Martin Luther, called justification the chief doctrine of the Christian faith. Justification is so important that if you don’t understand this doctrine, you don’t understand Christianity. You could be right about many other doctrines, like the inerrancy of Scripture, the deity of Christ, or the Trinity, but if you’re wrong on justification, you’re wrong at the very core of the Christian faith. Luther said justification by faith alone is so vital that we must believe it, teach it to others, and beat it into their heads continually.

Paul uses the word justify or justification 19 times in his letters. Here he takes on those who wrongly want to add works to salvation because we aren’t justified by being good or moral. We’re only justified by faith in Christ.

Presbyterian theologian, John Gertsner spoke to a group of businesspeople on justification. A reporter from a local paper was attending. Gertsner taught the doctrine of justification as clearly as he knew how. But he was a bit discouraged when he looked at the newspaper the next day and discovered that he’d spoken on just a vacation by faith.

Justification is one of the most important truths in the Bible to understand. You may be a young person who thinks the most important thing in your life is how to find the right marriage partner or to know what career to pursue. You may be married and think that the most important issue is how to be happy in your marriage or how to raise your children properly. You may be a businessperson concerned about financial pressures and how to make wise business decisions. Justification is more important than all of those because it matters not just for this life, it matters for eternity.

So, here’s a simple definition: Justification is the act of God whereby He declares the believing sinner completely righteous in Jesus Christ.

Galatians 2:16 is one of the most important verses in the Bible. 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. Read it carefully and you’ll find several words are repeated – faith three times, justified three times, and law three times. Paul repeats himself so we won’t miss it. He wants to hammer this home: We’re made right with God only through faith in Christ apart from any good works.

“Justify” means to “declare righteous.” It refers to a verdict by a judge. It means the defendant is declared not guilty. There’s no record against him in the eyes of the law. If you’re justified, your record is clear.

When we apply this to the spiritual, we discover justification is an act of God where He acquits guilty sinners, declaring them innocent on the basis of Christ’s death. It’s received by faith. Justified sinners are pardoned, acquitted, declared innocent by God, and treated like they’ve never sinned.

Remember American terrorist, Timothy McVeigh? He was sentenced to death but filed two appeals. He sought a “stay of execution.” He wanted his sentence reduced or commuted from death to life imprisonment. His lawyers never argued that he wasn’t guilty or asked that his sentence be overturned. They wanted the execution delayed so that his sentence might be reduced later. Both appeals were denied, and McVeigh was executed.

Compare that to justification. When God justifies a sinner, He doesn’t just delay punishment or reduce it. When God justifies a sinner, He removes the guilt and punishment totally, declaring the guilty sinner innocent.

Romans 8:1 says there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Justification means the sinner is declared “not guilty” in heaven’s courts. God credits to us Christ’s righteousness. Guilty sinners are pardoned and declared righteous even while they’re still guilty sinners on the basis of Christ’s death. Since justification has nothing to do with anything that we do, it never ends. Even when we sin after salvation, which we do, we’re still justified.

It’s not by the Law. 

Three times verse 16 says we’re not justified by good works. There’s nothing we can do to save ourselves. False teachers back then and still today, say that you’ve got to work at it all your life if you want to go to heaven. John Stott called it The religion of the man in the street. If you interviewed people at Walmart asking, “Do you believe in heaven?” —”Yes…” “Well, how do you get there?”— “You do the best I can, you have to live a good life.” It’s the religion of the man in the street. You earn heaven.

That’s not what the Bible teaches. It says, A man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus. Trusting God is the only means of justification—of being declared right with God. The gap between us and God is too great for us to be “good” because God demands 100% perfection.

We live in an imperfect world, so the idea of perfection is hard to grasp. If you ask people, “Do you have to be perfect to go to heaven?” most will say No. But the answer is Yes. God is perfect and He won’t allow imperfect people to join Him in heaven. If you want to go to heaven, you must be perfect from the moment of birth till the moment of death with no slip ups in between. God’s standard is perfection, 100% of the time. That means there are only two options if you want to go to heaven: 1) We’ve got to be perfect ourselves. 2) We’ve got to find someone who can be perfect in our place.

Since we’ve all blown #1, our only option is #2. Someone might say, “I can’t change the past, but I can be perfect from here on out.” You couldn’t do it even if you tried. Future obedience can’t overcome past disobedience. You can’t do enough in the future to cover what you’ve done in the past. The outcome of trying to be good is frustration. The harder we try, the more we fail.

It’s by trusting in Jesus Christ. 

Here’s the second option. Jesus was perfect in our place. He succeeded where we failed. He obeyed where we disobeyed. He was perfect where we sinned repeatedly. He totally kept God’s law. That’s why He was able to die as a perfect substitute in our place, taking our punishment, paying our debt and dying the death, we should die. When we trust in Him as our Savior, God declares us justified, pardoned, and forgiven.

Salvation is a free gift received by trusting in Jesus and His cross. It’s humbling because it means there’s nothing we can do to save ourselves. If you cling to the idea that you must contribute to your salvation, there’s no hope.

Verse 16 repeats it three times, so we won’t miss it. Salvation only comes to those who stop trying and trust Christ. Paul says, We, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus. My friend, have you put your faith in Christ?

Justification is like this. Envision two open documents on a computer screen. One is the record of your life. It’s horrible. We don’t want anyone to ever read that document. The other document is the record of Jesus’ life. His life is perfect, sinless. When you trust in Christ, it’s as if God does a select all in Jesus’ document, copies it, deletes everything in your document and pastes everything from Jesus’ document over yours. Now, when God opens your document, He only sees the righteousness of His Son. In God’s eyes we’re completely justified, as if we’d never sinned. When we trust in Jesus’ work and not our own, there’s no record in God’s files that we ever sinned.

Though we know salvation is a gift from God, we buy into the lie of religion is that you still must add something to be saved. Often, it’s infant baptism. Many believe they’ll go to heaven because they were baptized as babies. The Bible is clear that you must personally choose to trust that Christ’s cross is enough. Does an infant choose to be baptized? No and they didn’t choose to believe. It’s not salvation and doesn’t result in justification.

2. The Explanation of Justification, vss. 17-18.

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 (Galatians 2:17-18). Paul addresses a misunderstanding many have about grace. Some abuse grace with, “Now I can sin all I want. God’s grace covers me.” So, if God justifies sinners, does it mean Jesus promotes sin? “ABSOLUTELY NOT!” It’s like saying a doctor promotes sickness because he helps sick people. Paul contrasts law and grace by pointing out vital truths.

Good works kill salvation. 

It’s why Paul said, I died to the law. He knew that he couldn’t live up to its standards. You had to keep it all and that’s impossible. By facing the Law, Paul realized he desperately needed a Savior.

The same is true for us. When we realize what failures we are at being good or moral, we know we can’t cut it. Those who insist on being good for their salvation only prove their sinners. Why? Because they can’t keep all of the Law’s commands. They can’t even obey the Ten Commandments. Consequently, they’re condemned while they’re seeking life.

The Law shuts the door to any hope of salvation being earned because we’re failures at obeying God’s commands. It’s like giving terrible Mother’s Day gifts and thinking your mom will be pleased. A recent survey of 2500 mothers said these are gifts you should never give. Weight loss products: 34%. Cleaning supplies: 27%. “How to Cook” cookbook: 18%. Chocolates from another holiday: 6%. Gas station flowers: 4%. Gift card to YOUR favorite store: 3%. A last-minute homemade coupon book: 3%. But what’s worse than gifting something from this list? No gift at all. 52% of respondents said that being forgotten was the absolute worst.

This may shock you, but God’s Word is clear. God justifies those who don’t work and are ungodly! God doesn’t justify good people who go to church and try to live decent lives. He doesn’t justify those who give money to the church. God justifies only one kind of person: sinners…spiritual disasters, specifically those who don’t work for justification, but instead trust in Him!

That we can’t work for our salvation and aren’t good people who deserve heaven is one of the most stubborn ideas to dislodge from the human heart. A researcher surveyed 7,000 teens from many denominations, asking whether they agreed with the following statement: The way to be accepted by God is to try sincerely to live a good life. More than 60% agreed. Yet, the Bible teaches that God’s standard is perfection, not just good. That’s why…

Justification motivates us.

So that I might live to God (Galatians 2;19). It’s not fear that motivates to live for God. It’s gratitude and love. When we realize Jesus paid it all, that we’re forgiven and accepted, even if we mess up in the future – that motivates us to seek to live for God in the present.

Dr. Donald Barnhouse illustrates it this way. Picture a soldier in a cold foxhole, eating K-rations. He has to stay there day and night to hold his unit’s position against the enemy. One night he hears a voice calling out his name and serial number. It’s another soldier telling him, “I have orders to replace you. You’re to go out on the next Red Cross flight. An order has come for you to go home. You’re going back to your mother’s house. They’re going to give you a hot shower and clean clothes. You’re going home and eat your mother’s fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy, with apple pie and ice cream for dessert.” And the soldier replies, “You don’t mean that I’m going to have to leave this nice foxhole and give up my K-rations, do you?”

We smile at the absurdity of that. Yet, there are so many unwilling to leave their foxhole in this life by trying to be good enough for heaven, when God says, “I paid for all of your sin with the death of my Son. You’re now justified. Sit down at my banquet table and enjoy fellowship with Me.

Justification is life in grace. It’s life in the Spirit. Because God loved us and paid our unpayable debt, we want to live holy lives in gratitude to Him.

3. The Application of Justification, vss. 20-21.

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. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose (Galatians 2:20-21).

Galatians 2:20 is one of the most loved verses in the Bible. It’s had a great impact on my own life. But what does, “I have been crucified with Christ,” mean? Paul wasn’t literally crucified when Jesus was crucified. He wasn’t even in Jerusalem. If it’s not a literal crucifixion, what is it?

Justification means death to our old life but new life in Christ. 

When we come to Christ by faith, we’re joined with Him in a supernatural union that’s so strong that what happened to Jesus 2000 years ago happened to us. When Christ died, I died. When Christ arose, I arose. We died with Christ when He died. We live because Christ lives in us. We live by faith in Jesus alone.

It’s hard to imagine a verse more antithetical to our contemporary culture. This is self-denying, our culture is selfish. This death is the surrender of our lives and former selves to embrace the new life in Christ. The life of faith is not a weekend pass. It’s a lifetime commitment. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer stated, When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.

Those who know Jesus as their Savior understand what it means to say, Christ lives in me even if we can’t fully explain it. The most frustrating Christian life is attempting to live for Jesus in your own strength. Letting Jesus live through you is the only way to discover freedom and your true identity.

As long as Christ is outside of us, all that He’s done for us is of no value. It’s not enough to say, “I believe there was a person named Jesus who lived and died 2000 years ago.” But does He live in you? Are you depending on Him and His power? We experience Christ in us only as we surrender and commit ourselves to Him.

It’s like a surgeon’s glove. It’s almost transparent as the surgeon puts it on. But that glove can hinder the surgeon. First, it must not resist the slightest movement of his fingers. It must be almost as if it’s not even there as he performs surgery. But what would happen if that glove said, “I have my own ideas about this operation. I’m going to contribute my own efforts.”

For the glove to initiate its own efforts is disastrous. The life God requires isn’t difficult, it’s impossible. No one in their own strength can do it. The only One able to live the life required by God is the Son of God. The fulfilling and free life only comes when we surrender and let Jesus live His life through us.

Those attempting to live the Christian life in their own strength fail. They’re trying to do it with their own power. Instead, it’s not I, but Christ living through me. It’s Jesus meeting my every need, It’s not my strength or wisdom, it’s His. It’s Jesus only, body, soul, and spirit. Victory and power come from the crucified life of Galatians 2:20. Christ in you radically transforms your life.

Justification means depending on God’s grace. 

This is what’s called “the exchanged life.” Hudson Taylor, a missionary to China, made that term, “The Exchanged Life,” popular. He struggled for years trying to work for God, finding only failure. Then he discovered the key was death to self, the crucified life, and the power of the indwelling Christ. He exchanged his weakness for Christ’s strength and God began doing amazing things through him.

Paul concludes, I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose (Galatians 2:21). It’s a solemn reminder of the issues at stake. If we’re saved by good works, Jesus died for nothing. If a man can save himself, he doesn’t need Jesus.

Salvation by works is an evil doctrine. It makes Jesus’ death meaningless. It condemns those who rely on their morality. The only thing we provide in our salvation is our sin mess that makes it necessary. We bring the sin; Jesus brings everything else. His death provides justification for all who trust Him.

Conclusion

God’s Word teaches the wonderful truth of justification. It’s all of God! You and I can add nothing. It’s all God’s grace. It’s all Jesus’ cross!

Do you remember “Baby Jessica”? In 1987, all of America stopped to watch a real-life drama unfolding in Midland, Texas. 18-month-old Jessica McClure fell down an abandoned well and was trapped. Millions watched the story of Baby Jessica unfold. To the relief of everyone, after 55 grueling hours Jessica was brought out of the well on October 16, 1987.

In case you don’t remember the details of the story, let me give you a summary of what happened: “After two and half days, trapped at the bottom of a 22-foot well, 18-month-old Jessica clawed her way out of the bottom of the pit, inch by inch, digging her little toes and fingers into the side of the well. What a hero, that Jessica!”

Hopefully, you’re thinking, “Whoa! That’s not what happened! She didn’t climb out! She was totally helpless in that pit. She was powerless to save herself. If she hadn’t been rescued by others, she’d have died.

You’re exactly right! You and I were in the same situation. The Bible says, At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6). We can’t do anything to pull ourselves out of the pit of our sin. Like Baby Jessica, we must be rescued by God. It’s grace. God alone rescues us. God is the One who justifies. It’s all because of Jesus’ cross, His sacrificial death that we can be justified.

So, let me ask: Are you confident that God has declared you not guilty? Do you know when that happened in your own life? Think back to the time you trusted Christ to save you. When did you choose to trust Him? Can you remember a time when you realized you stood before God condemned and guilty? Can you remember repenting of your sinful condition and trusting in what Christ has done to pay for your sin?

If you’re not sure you’ve been justified: completely forgiven for all your sins and declared to be righteous in God’s sight, what’s keeping you from receiving God’s free gift of salvation today?

There’s no greater freedom than accepting God’s free gift of salvation. It means we can stand before God with confidence that we’re accepted by Him. He declares us not guilty, pardoned of all our sin, justified and perfectly righteous. Because of that we live His new life now and forever!