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Announce Text: Gal 2:11-21. This will be my second sermon from Galatians.

Background: The last time I preached here, we saw that there were false teachers

known as Judaizers who infiltrated churches that the apostle Paul had started in the

region of Galatia. They were teaching that for a person to be right with God, faith

in Christ alone was not enough; a person also had to do the works of the Law of

Moses. So Paul writes to the churches of Galatia, and says that anyone that would

dare preach or teach this false Gospel should be cursed by God.

Read Text, Pray

Intro

Recently I read an article about a High School in Mississippi that has

segregated proms. In other words, Blacks and Whites who attend the same High

School nevertheless go to separate proms even though segregation was outlawed in

1954. But the reason that these proms could still be segregated was because they

were organized by parents, not the school. Now, the Black proms were never

segregated. White students could always go to the Black proms, but they never dobecause of fear. One person said that some white students werefrightenedof

what their families might do if they were friends with black students.

And we see something similar to this going on in or text today. The apostle

Peter, who was a Jew, didnt want other Jews from Jerusalem tosee him eating

with Gentiles, because this was thought to be a violation of the Law of Moses.

Yet, even though Peter knew that the Gospel had destroyed all barriers

between Jew and Gentile, when he saw other Jews approaching him, he separatedhimself from the Gentileshe stopped living in a way that was consistent with the

truth of the Gospel because he was afraidof what others might think about him.

So the apostle Paul confronts Peter, and reminds him that the Gospel is

something that changes the way we live. And the transforming reality of our text

today is that: We are justified by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ

aloneso thatwe might live our lives by faith in Jesus Christ alone. There are 2

points well look at today: the Core of the Gospel; and the Control of the Gospel.

I. The Core of the Gospel: The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news that Godhas determined to save sinners through the life, death, burial and resurrection of

Jesus Christ. Now, there are a number of foundational truths that must be believed

related to the Gospel: The Trinity, Jesus is fully God and man, Jesus death on

cross, and His bodily resurrection. However, the false teachers that Paul confronted

believed all of those things, yet Paul says they were preaching a false Gospel.

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So we must ask the question, what is the core, or the very heart and center of

the Gospel, that if it be denied, we no longer have the Good News of the Gospel?

Well, when Paul confronts Peter, he tells him in very specific terms just what the

core of the Gospel is. Look at v. 16. Paul says 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 bejustified by faith in Christ and not by

works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

Paul here tells us clearly that the core of the Gospel is the simple truth that

justification is by faith in Jesus Christ alone, and not by the works of the law. And

this raises the question: what is this doctrine of justification all about?

The term justification is a legal term. It has to do with the law and issues

of justice, guilt, and righteousness. One way to think about it is to just think about

our legal system here in our country. When a person is accused of breaking thelaw, hes brought before the Judge. After the Judge reviews all the evidence, he

then renders a verdict of guilty or not guilty. If the person is found guilty, the

Judge then sentences the person to the appropriate punishment.

The doctrine of Justification works pretty much the same way. God is the

Supreme Judge of the Universe who has given us His law, such as in the 10

commandments, and because He is holy and perfect and just, He requires that we

obey His law perfectly in word, thought, and deed, and if we dont, if we are found

guilty of having broken His law at any point, we must suffer the penalty and

punishment that Justice demands.

But how did this all come about? Well, to answer that question we need to

go back to the beginning, to our first parents, Adam and Eve. It was there, in the

Garden of Eden that God entered into a covenant of works with Adam. In that

covenant, God promised life to Adam and his descendants, upon the condition of

perfect and continuous obedience to Gods law. So, God required perfect

righteousness. If Adam met that requirement, man would live forever. But if

Gods law was broken at any point, he would suffer the penalty of physical and

spiritual death, meaning that man would be alienated from God, under Gods curseforever.

Well, as we all know, Adam and Eve disobeyed Gods law by eating of the

tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And when Adam and Eve disobeyed God,

they plunged themselves and all of their descendants after themusinto a state

of sin and misery and condemnation.

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And so now everyone born after Adam has inherited both the guilt of

Adams first sin, as well as a corrupted sinful nature. And what this means is that

mans entire being: his mind, emotions, will, has been radically corrupted to the

core by sin. We are conceived in sin, born in, and we are slaves of sin; sin

dominates and controls everything we do; all of our desires, all of our choices, and

all of our actions. Man is, as the Scriptures make clear, spiritually dead and blind

and deaf to the things of God so that he is unable to obey Gods law or to respond

savingly to the Gospel. This may sound harsh, but listen to Word of God:

Romans 3:10-12 "There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who

understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have allturned aside

There is none who does good.."

Rom 8:7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor

can it do so.

Ephesians 2:1-3 As for you, you were deadin your transgressions andsins...Like the rest, we were by nature objects ofwrath.

I know we dont hear about this very often especially on so-called Christian

TV, and there are many other Scriptures that could be mentioned. But we need to

hear the bad news, and just how serious our dilemma is before a Holy God before

we will ever understand the Good News of the Gospel! And the bad news is that

even though we are born in sin and incapable of keeping Gods law, the Scriptures

teach that Gods requirements havent changed. He still requires perfect obedience

to His law.

Some people might think that God should lower standards, because all

people would be doomed. But you see, God cant lower His standards. If He did,

God would no longer be holy, or perfect, or just. Gods law has been broken, and

Justice mustbe satisfied. And the wholepointof Gods law is to show that we are

doomed, and are in desperate need of Savior!

As you all know, I am currently attending seminary, and I remember this

past semester, I took a quiz, and I only a point. Thats 98%, an A+! But lets

suppose for a moment that I had to get 100% in order topass? As good as myscore was I would have failed. And now lets suppose that I had to get a score of

100% on every quiz and every test that I ever had to take. Needless to say, I would

be doomed to failure. And this captures a little bit of our dilemma before God.

Because God is absolutely holy and perfect, He requires nothing less than 100%

perfection. 99.9% isnt good enough. Gods standard is absolute 100% perfection.

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And the kicker for us is that not only is achieving a score of 100% with God

impossible in terms of keeping Gods law, but, when we factor in all of the ways

we break Gods commandments in word, thought and deed, our score is actually in

the negatives. And there is nothing we can do in and of ourselves to make it better.

As a matter of fact, our situation only gets worse for us with each passing sin that

we commit. As Rom 2 says, we are just storing up wrath for the Day of Judgment.

Do you feel the weight of this? Do you really grasp just how horrifying our

situation is before the face of a holy God? (PAUSE) Most of us dont. Were

masters at distraction. We do anything we can just so that we dont have to

contemplate the horror of standing before an absolutely holy God with nothing

between us andHis justice and wrath. But, the inevitable plight for every human

being is that were all going to die, and after that, were going to face the Judge.

These things are frightening. And frankly, they should be.

But, by Gods grace, this is not the whole story! God, in His grace, was

pleased to make a second covenant, called the covenant of grace. In this covenant

God freely offers sinners life and salvation through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

But in order for that to happen, Divine Justice still had to be met. Gods

justice requires perfect obedience to His law, and demands that those who break

His law must suffer the penalty due their sin. And so Jesus comes and fulfills

everything that God requires, and He succeeds where Adam and we failed: He

obeys Gods law perfectly on our behalf.

But not only this, Jesus also pays the penalty for our law-breaking. So when

we trust in Jesus Christ alone to save us, we are forgiven because Jesus has paid

the penalty for all of our sins on the cross, and Jesus perfect record of law-keeping

His righteousnessis credited to our account.

And this is what the doctrine of justification is all about. The Westminster

Shorter Catechism really sums it beautifully when it states that justification is an

act of Gods free grace, wherein He pardons all our sins, and accepts us as

righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, andreceived by faith alone.

So, there are three things we need to see here: first, justification is act of

Gods free grace. In other words, we dont deserve it, and we cant earn it; it is not

according to our works, as Paul has made crystal clear in our text. Second, in

justification, God pardons us of all of our sins, past, present and future.

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So, we stand before the Judge, and He pronounces as not guilty. Now as

wonderful as that is, if we are merely pronounced as not guilty, we would still

not have eternal life. Remember, Adam and Eve werent guilty before they sinned,

yet, they still didnt have eternal lifethey needed to have apositive record of

perfect righteousness because thats what God requires for us to be in His

presence. And this is precisely what we have now in Christ. Not only are we

declared not guilty, but, we have apositive righteousness before God. We have

the righteousness of Jesus Christ credited to our account, and God now declares as

righteous, that is, He looks at us as though we have kept His law perfectly in word,

thought, and deed, because Jesus record of perfect obedience is now ours forever.

Maybe this illustration will help us get a picture of what God has done for

us: Lets suppose for a moment that every detail of my life: all of my thoughts,

words, and deeds; everything that I have ever done and ever sin Ive ever

committed is recorded in this book, which well just call my Record Book of Sins.What God did was that He took my Record Book of Sins, and placed it on Christ

on the cross, so that Christ paid the full penalty for all of my sins, past, present and

future. But thats not all. God also now gives me a new book, and stamped on the

front cover of that book is Forgiven and Righteous in Christ Forever. So

when I do stand before the Supreme Judge of the Universe, He will have before

Him that book, and it will be on the basis ofthatbook that I will be judged, and the

judgment will be not guilty and righteous and He will say 'Come, you who are

blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since

the creation of the world. (Matt 25:34)

And so, we have seen then that the core of the Gospel, is that Justification,

or being right with God, is by grace alone, through faith alone, in and because of

Jesus Christ alone, and not by our own works. But now we must ask, what

difference does this truth make in my every day life? This takes me our 2d point:

II. The Control of the Gospel: When the apostle Paul confronted the apostle

Peter, the problem wasnt that he and the others with him were denying the Gospel

by theirwords; rather, they were denying the Gospel by theiractions. So when

Paul confronts Peter he reminds him about the truth of the Gospel, and how it is toaffect how we live our lives. Look at vv 19-20. Paul says: 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 fleshI 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 justification were through the law, then Christ died

for no purpose.

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Pauls point is that in Christ he has a new identity which defines everything

about him, and hes not about to compromise that for anyone. Paul identifies

himselfso closely with Christ and His work that he says here in v. 19 that he has

been crucifiedwith Christ. In other words, Paul is saying that he is completely

unitedto Christ in His death and resurrection, and because of this intimate union

with Christ, he has been set free both from the penalty and condemnation of the

law, as well from the bondage of trying to earn Gods favor on the basis of keeping

the law.

And all of this directly affects how he lives his everyday life. Paul says that

the life that he lives, he lives by faith in the Son of God. In other words, Paul

doesnt live his life as if he is trying to earn Gods favor or acceptance through the

works of the law. Instead, Paul says that he lives his life trusting and resting in

Jesus Christ, the one who delivered him from the curse of the law, and the one

whose obedience to the law has been credited to Pauls account.

And then Paul just hammers home his point in concluding his thoughts to

Peter when says in verse 21: I do not nullify the grace of God, for if justification

were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. In other words, if we live

as though our right standing and acceptance with God depended on our own

performance and good works, instead of on Gods grace and the work of Christ on

our behalf, then there would be no need for Gods grace, and the horrible death of

Jesus on the cross would have been an absolute waste.

But lest we come down too hard on the apostle Peter, the fact is that this

truth that Paul is speaking about is very difficult for all of us to grasp. You see,

many us think that the Gospel is only something that we preach to unbelievers so

that they might be saved. And after were saved, we put the Gospel on the shelf,

and then the hard work of the Christian life begins. In other words, the common

view that most of us have is that initial salvation, or justification, is by the Gospel

and the grace of God, but sanctification, that is, the life that we live as Christians

and our growth in Christ, is all by the works of the law and dependent totally upon

my performance, and we live as if we need to earn Gods favor and acceptance.

So for example, you begin to think that if you do certain things, then God is

going to bless you. You think that if you give more money, if you go to church

more, if you read your bible more, if you do a lot of good works, then God will

accept you and be pleased with you, and you can fully expect to receive only the

best from God.

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Now, Im not saying that we shouldnt do all of those things. We should!

The problem though is that we end up doing those things and looking to those

things as the basis of our acceptance and favor with God. Our faith then turns

away from Christ and what He has done for us, to what we are doing, to ourown

performance and ourown good works.

We begin to put our trust in the things that we do instead of in Christ, and

the Christian life becomes something that is based entirely on our performance

and how well we perform whatever list of dos and donts that we create. And

then, we begin judge other Christians to see if they measure up to our standards of

self-righteousness, and if they dont we puff ourselves up, thinking that we are the

spiritual giant, while the others are spiritual weaklings.

Theologian and Pastor Dr. Greg Johnson really captures the truth of this

when he says: There are two religions calling themselvesChristianity today:Strength Christianity and Weakness Christianity. Strength Christianity is that

religion which places both feet squarely on the Bible and proclaims, Iam strong.

Isought the Lord.Im a believerIread my Bible and pray every single day.Im

for God! Weakness Christianity, by contrast, places both knees squarely on the

Bible and says, I am weak, but theLordhas sought me. I believe, but help now

my unbelief. I fail and am broken by my continued sinfulness. Have mercy on me,

Lordfor apart from you I can do nothing. Those who pursue Strength

Christianity will never find joy in God, for they will never find God. Our Father

refuses to be approached in that manner. They will find only increasing religious

pride andsecrethardness of heart. On the outside, they will project a picture of

righteousness. Theyll have it all together. Theyll be spiritual. But only on the

outside. For those who stumble across the rare jewel ofWeakness Christianity,

however, there is provision beyond what we can possibly imagine. Our suffering,

our failures, our weaknesses and disappointments all gain an incredible spiritual

significance. God never says hell be glorified in our religious accomplishments.

But he does promise that his power will be made perfect in our weakness.

So the Gospel is not just for unbelievers, it is for believers, because as

believers, we will never cease being weak and needy people. And this is what Paulmakes clear when he says that the life that he now lives, he lives by faith in Christ.

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But what does it mean to live by faith in Christ?

It means that we live recognizing that in and of ourselves, we are weak and needy

sinners who left to ourselves deserve nothing except the wrath of God for our sins.

It means that we recognize that apart from Christ we can do nothing.

It means that we look away from ourselves and live with an absolute reliance upon

Christ and His work on our behalf.

And heres the thing: when we stop trying to impress God with our good

works, and we live trusting in Jesus Christ alone; we willobey Gods

commandments. We willpursue holiness. We willread our bibles. We willgo to

church. We willgive money to the church. We willdo good works. When we live

by faith in Christ, we willhate our sin, but, we will also rejoice at the truth that allof our sin and allof our guilt was nailed to the cross.

And when we live by faith in Christ, we will do all of those things with the

right motive. The motive for doing our good works wont be so that we can exalt

ourselves, or so that we can get something from God.

Rather, when we live by faith in Christ, the all consuming passion of our

lives will be that God alone would be glorified in all that we do. When we live by

faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us,we will

live lives of

self-sacrifice and service to others, notto gain acceptance or favor with God, but

because we are already accepted and have favor with God. When we live

recognizing that we have been crucified with Christ, we will do things not toget

anything from God, but, because we already have everything we could possibly

imagine in Christ.

And so, we do things that please God, not togain righteousness, but because

we have been declared righteous in His sight. We do things that please God, not to

gain favor with God, but because we already possess the complete favor of God.

We do things that please God, not togeta blessing from God, but to be a blessingto others for God because Christ is our treasure, He is our reward, and in Him we

are already blessed beyond measure!

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III. Conclusion

Well, today, we have seen the Core of the Gospel. The very heart of the

Gospel is that we are right with God forever by Gods free grace, through faith in

Jesus Christ alone. But God has promised to eternal life to everyone who turns

from their sins and trusts in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation. And so the

application here is related to a simple question: What are you trusting to get you to

heaven? If you were to die today and God asked you, Why should I let you into

my heaven? what would you say? Let me encourage you this day to agree with

God, that youre not perfect; that you are a sinner who need to be saved. Turn

from whatever it is that you are trusting in for your right standing with God, and

place all of your trust in Jesus Christ alone.

Next we say the Control of the Gospel, and the truth that what God has done

for us in Christ is to control every area of our lives. And the application for ustoday is to realize that we never outgrow the Gospel. Not only did the Gospel save

us, but, it is the Gospel that is needed for our every day lives, and what we need to

do is that we need to preach the Gospel to ourselves everyday.

In other words, we need to remind ourselves of the wonder of Gods

amazing grace, and the incredible work of Christ on our behalf. We need to

remind ourselves that before the Judge, we have been pardoned from all of ours,

and are counted as righteous in His sight because of the righteousness of Christ

that has been given to us. We need to remind ourselves of our desperate need for

Christ every waking moment of the day.

And so let us then meditate on the Good News of the Gospel and how it

affects our lives on a daily basis. Are there ways that we may be denying the

essence of the Gospel by our actions? Do we live in a way that we are trusting in

our own good works for Gods approval, and we are in turn casting a judgmental

on others when they dont live up to the standard we have created? Let us, with

Paul, say that the life I now I live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me

and gave Himself for me. I do no set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness

comes by the law, then Christ died in vain.

We are justified by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, so

let us now live our lives by faith in Jesus Christ alone, trusting in who we are

in Christ and what He alone has done for us, all to the glory of God alone.

Amen.

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