Notes – My Guilt His Grace

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Galatians 2:15-21 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 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. 17 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! 18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. 20 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. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

So going back to verse 15-16a we read;

Galatians 2:15-16 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.

I have said so many times that this Christian path is not for the faint of heart because it is not an easy path. We struggle constantly, the spirit battling the flesh, the flesh constantly attacking the spirit. Paul was very much aware of the problem and so he said in Romans 7.

Romans 7:15-20 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

But does he settle for just laying down in the mud with this problem? No he concludes chapter 7 with this;

Romans 7:24-25 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

He recognizes the power of Christ working in us to overcome the temptations of the flesh. The disciples, who at the time of tonight’s passage had been lifted to the office of Apostle, faced challenges to their flesh that called to their very heritage as Jews. Once having been set free from the bondage of a works based religious system that same system called to their flesh and tried to bring them back to the law. Look quickly at the passage before this one in Galatians 2.

Galatians 2:11-14 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. 13 And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.

This is the same Peter who filled with the Holy Spirit preached a message in the book of Acts chapter 2 at the Pentecost resulting in 3000 people getting saved. My point is the flesh is very powerful and cunning and even the seasoned saint can be brought under its sway. It may not be gross sin, it may be anger, resentment, pride or some other subtle habit or mind set from the past that serves to damage our testimony and bring us back into captivity. What do we do when this happens? We repent with all of our heart get back to acknowledging that only His grace can save us, thinking of what Paul said,

Romans 7:24-25 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

And then we make a mental note to not do that again and when we do it again we do the same thing until the flesh has been beaten into submission by the Lord in us and our desire to obey Him. Looking again at Galatians 2 verses 15-16;

Galatians 2:15-16 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ,

Paul makes the distinction between they who are Jews and what he calls Gentile sinners simply to point out that as Jews they had first- hand experience at living under the law and saw up close and personal its failure to make a person righteous enough to cover sin and so be presentable to God. So he moves on to say;

Galatians 2:16 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.

There is no religious system apart from just faith in Jesus Christ that can accomplish what Jesus did on the cross. You can’t chant yourself to heaven, you can’t take a vow of silence or of poverty and get to heaven, you can’t have sacred enough underwear to get to heaven and you can’t pass out enough magazines door to door to get to heaven. Let’s look at the word justified. In a single word it represents the effect upon us of what Jesus accomplished on the cross. When we receive Jesus as our Lord and then, and this is the important part, when we receive Jesus as our Lord and then live with Him as Lord, giving our lives over to Him completely. And I say this because there are a whole lot of people out there who went forward at the Harvest Crusade or an altar call at a church and said a prayer and think they are saved even though they are living just like they did or worse before they said that prayer. It is not only the prayer that saves you it is the life you live after the prayer. So when we commit to this relationship we are justified. Just as if I’d never sinned. What Jesus did on the cross has washed away all traces of the sin that once condemned us, not just our own personal sin but the very sin DNA that we inherited from our father Adam. We were made clean and were made able to stand guiltless before a Holy, Sovereign and Righteous God. He went from being out judge to being our Father.

Galatians 4:4-7 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

Galatians 2:17-18 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! 18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.

The Judaizers, the ones who insisted that grace alone was insufficient to save argued that if indeed we could be justified by grace and then we fell again doesn’t that imply that the sacrifice of Christ was insufficient? Paul says certainly not! 18 For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. If I fall again then it is my flesh that is at fault, it is not that the cross was insufficient. This brings us to the subject of sanctification. We talked about the justification being the product of the grace that sent Christ to the Cross, well sanctification is the lifelong process of bringing the flesh into harmony with what happened to us spiritually when we were justified.

Proverbs 24:16 For the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.

God makes provision for our failure even after we have been justified. Justified does not mean that we arrive at sinless perfection.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 2:1-2 But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

If you remember I said that when we get saved God goes from being our judge to being our father. Would any of you cast out your children for failing to always do the right thing? Moving on.

Galatians 2:19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.

By seeing my inability to keep the law I learned that I must have Christ in order to live in the Sonlight of the Lord our God.

Galatians 2:20 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.

We indeed do live in the flesh and will live in the flesh until the Lord takes us home, but our hearts and our minds need to be spirit led. It needs to be foremost in our minds that indeed Jesus loves us enough that he suffered unspeakably for our salvation. Part of my daily devotions is a few minutes I spend visualizing the trial, beating and crucifixion of the Lord. Did you guys go home and read Isaiah 53 on Sunday? Jesus said;

Luke 9:23-24 “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

For me to live after the Spirit of God is as simple as when I am faced with a decision, should I do this or should I do that, for me to live after the spirit is when I am faced with those decisions is to always pick the harder one. You see my flesh does not want to live sacrificially, it is always the harder choice, whenever I choose the softer way it always ends up in a wreck.

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

Paul is saying that if there were any other means by which we could achieve justification then the cross would be uneccesary. To me this is the cornerstone of the faith, the proof-text of Christianity. There is no way that if it was possible for us approach God in any other way that He would have allowed His Son who was completely pure and absolutely sinless to endure that horrific cross. Noah was not sinless and yet God called him righteous and spared him and his family at the flood. Lot was a sinner and yet God called him righteous and delivered him from the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah. No if there was anything we could do to get right with God besides turning our Lives over to Jesus then Jesus would not have been crucified.