131013 Made Legally Righteous Through Faith

The first part of Galatians chapter two gives the historical background to the theological section that we will begin to look at now. Paul had been stopped on the Damascus road, converted to Christ, and immediately began to preach the gospel he had once persecuted. Then after some time he went to Jerusalem and from there he traveled into the regions of Syria and Cilicia and continued his ministry for several years. Then he went to Antioch and out on his first missionary journey. On return from that mission he was confronted by men who perverted the Christian church into a sect of Judaism. He then went to Jerusalem to meet with the elders of the church there and present his case. His gospel was approved by the Council and he returned Antioch. There, he was forced to confront Peter about his hypocrisy in separating himself from the Gentile believers.

Some men, who were Jewish believers, had come from Jerusalem to Antioch. Before they came Peter had been eating with the Gentiles in violation of Jewish custom. When these men came Peter immediately withdrew from his fellowship with Gentiles and his action influenced other Jews to follow including Barnabas. Paul saw this happen and immediately confronted Peter in front of all the others. That brings us to the words of our text Paul is speaking to Peter:

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, 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.

Notice that he included Peter with himself when he said, “we also have believed in Christ Jesus”. He wasn’t accusing Peter of false teaching he was pointing out that his practice didn’t conform to his beliefs. Peer pressure influenced Peter to withdraw from the Gentiles and treat them as second-class citizens. He wanted Peter to understand that belief in the Lord Jesus Christ is the gospel call made effective and it leads to regeneration and conversion. By grace through faith not of works characterize the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There is a general gospel call that goes out to all the world. That general call points out that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; the wages of sin is death; God shows his love for us by sending his Son, Jesus, to die on the cross and, that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord — believing in your heart that God raised Him from the dead — you will be saved. In order for one to come to salvation the gospel call must be made effective. Let’s look at…

The gospel call made effective.

First, For Peter. Peter had a very clear experience of repentance and faith. Jesus had come to the Lake of Galilee and used Peter’s boat as a pulpit to speak to the crowd on the shore. And then we find in Luke 5:4-11, And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” ⁵ And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” ⁶ And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. ⁷ They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. ⁸ But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” ⁹ For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, ¹⁰ and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” ¹¹ And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

For me, this is the time of Peter’s conversion. He had followed Jesus before this but had not yet really committed his life to him. In this scene they had fished all night and had no fish to show for their efforts. After Jesus’ sermon he asked Peter to move away from the shore and let down his nets for a catch. Jesus knew that the Father had kept the fish away from the nets until now. Actually, it seems that all the fish were gathered up in one spot and when the nets were let back down they enveloped all the fish in the area. Peter immediately knew that he was in the presence of a holy man — if not Holy God! He beseeched Jesus to go away from him because he knew that he was a sinner. Just as Isaiah confronted by God in the temple some seven hundred years before and had confessed, “I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips.” only to have his lips cleansed by God. Peter heard Jesus say, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” I realize there is debate about when salvation occurred before the cross but I believe this is when the effective call of the gospel penetrated Peter’s heart. Later, Jesus asked if the disciples would also go away and we have Peter’s own testimony:  “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68-69) and again he said: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” (Matthew 16:16)

The gospel call became effective For Paul. Paul had a more clear-cut experience of salvation. We have looked at it a number of times in previous sermons so I will only read a couple of verses to remind us. Paul had been struck down on the road to Damascus, blinded and led into the city. A Christian believer named Ananias was instructed by Christ to go to Saul, or Paul, and pray for him. Listen to Luke’s account. Acts 9:17-19, So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ¹⁸ And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; ¹⁹ and taking food, he was strengthened.

Paul immediately began to preach the gospel he had once persecuted. The gospel call in Paul’s life was immediately effective. He always looked back to the Damascus road as the time and place of his salvation experience.

Just as Peter and Paul received an effective call of the gospel, in order for salvation to be experienced there must be an effective call…

For all others. Let’s look at an example from Paul’s ministry. Paul had spent a lot of time and effort in Corinth establishing the church there. Listen while I read his words of commendation. 1 Corinthians 1:4-9, I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, ⁵ that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— ⁶ even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— ⁷ so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁸ who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Paul did not commend the church in Corinth for their human talents and abilities. Nor did he praise them for their unity and strict adherence to the gospel. He gave thanks to God for the grace that was given to the church at Corinth. It was God’s grace that made them able to speak the testimony of Christ not their training or ability. They were not lacking in any gift because God has imparted gifts to them. They were never commended as being faithful instead God is faithful. And it was God that called them into the fellowship of his Son.

In order for the gospel call to be effective God must do the calling. Not some preacher, not even an angel from heaven but God himself issues an effective call to the gospel. And an effective call…

Leads to regeneration and conversion.
We must remember that regeneration and conversion is…

The work of God. There are many passages of Scripture that support the idea that regeneration and conversion is not a human work but is instead a work of God. Listen while I read Colossians 2:13-15. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, ¹⁴ by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Throughout the Bible we see that God is a God of love and justice. If salvation could be accomplished by human effort then God is neither loving nor just. Remember, God the Father allowed his only begotten Son to become sin for us and then suffer and die our death after asking if it were possible to let that pass from Him. So what is going on?

First of all, before God works in our behalf we are spiritually dead and therefore unable to make spiritual decisions. All mankind comes into the world with the guilt of Adam’s sin hanging over us. Paul reminds the Colossian Christians that they were dead in trespasses and sins before they met Christ. They needed regeneration. God made them alive in the process of forgiving all their trespasses. God took the sin of mankind and canceled the debt with its legal demands.

All of this is in bookkeeping terms. In order for a debt to be canceled it has to be paid. If you owe the bank an amount of money you cannot pay, and the Board of Directors decides to forgive that debt, money has to be taken from the bank’s profit line and credited to your account.

Our debt was paid by Jesus on the cross. He had no sin of his own and therefore had no reason to die. But he took our sins and satisfied the demand of the law on our behalf. He did this so that we could be converted.

In order for a person to be converted he, or she, must first have spiritual life imparted by God. What is conversion? I will quote from Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology. “Conversion is our willing response to the gospel call, in which we sincerely repent of sins and place our trust in Christ for salvation.” True conversion brings repentance and faith into the life of the new believer. Repentance and faith does not happen because we make some kind of decision. Repentance and faith occur because of God’s work in us because we are unable to respond until he has granted new life. All of the world’s religions, apart from Christianity, involve self-improvement and works of righteousness, as defined by that religion, in order for a person to have any hope of salvation.

I am so grateful that God works…

On our behalf. See what Peter had to say later on this subject. 1 Peter 1:3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,.

Notice that Peter does not say that we decided to be born again to a living hope he said that God is to be blessed, or praised, because he has caused us to be born again.

New life is imparted to us by the mercy of God not by our own efforts. Jesus had told Nicodemus that a person must be born again in order to even see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus was amazed at the thought of being born a second time. Spiritually we are born dead and we need to be born into life in order to have any hope of salvation.

I’m so grateful to God that he works on our behalf…

Allowing us to trust in him. In order for a person to trust God it is necessary for God to first work on his behalf. The new birth is not something that a person decides to do any more than we decided to be born the first time. It’s not the will of man that enables us to receive him and believe in his name. Listen while I read John 1:12-13, But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Luis Palau, an Argentine evangelist, is credited with having said that God has no grandchildren. In other words each generation must be won to Christ. He came to this conclusion after traveling to Wales to express his appreciation that it was a missionary from Wales who led him to Christ.

There was a great revival in Wales in 1904. During that revival literally tens of thousands of people came to faith in Christ in a short period of time. Crime dropped to almost zero and the police formed quartets and other singing groups to help out with the revival meetings. Horses didn’t understand their drivers because profanity stopped. The churches were filled and the bars were emptied — pretty much the entire country of Wales became Christian.

When Luis arrived there in the 1970s he found that less than one percent of the people were attending church, the divorce rate was at an all-time high and the sport of rugby had become the national religion. He could see very clearly that God has no grandchildren. There must be a move of God in each generation in order for individuals come to faith in Christ. An anonymous hymn that comes from the same period of time as the Welsh revival goes like this:

I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew He moved my soul to seek him, seeking me;
It was not I that found, O Savior true, No, I was found of thee.

Thou didst reach forth thy hand and mine enfold; I walked and sank not on the storm vexed sea,
’Twas not so much that I on thee took hold, As thou, dear Lord, on me.

I find, I walk, I love, but, O the whole­­ of love is but my answer, Lord, to thee;
For thou wert long beforehand with my soul, Always thou lovedst me.
~ Anon., c. 1904

It’s a wonderful truth that God is at work on our behalf allowing us to trust in him.

But what happens to the guilt of our sin?

The truth is we have not only inherited sin but we have been guilty of personal sin from our childhood up. You see…

All have sinned and the result is death. Think about, Romans 3:23, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and; 6:23, For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As the comedian, Jerry Clower, used to say, “We’re in a heap of trouble.” If it is true, and it is, that everyone is guilty of personal sin as well as inherited sin and the wages of that sin is death we should take very seriously the idea that we need help and the sooner the better. But the second half of Romans 6:23 tells us that the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Yes, all have sinned and the wages sin is death…

However, he took our sins. When John the Baptist saw Jesus approaching him on the banks of the Jordan River he looked up and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” John 1:29, John had recognized Jesus before either of them were born! He knew that Jesus was Lord of heaven and earth when Mary came to see his mother Elizabeth. The baby, John, leaped in Elizabeth’s womb and Elizabeth recognize that Mary was, at that time, the mother of her Lord. However, beside the Jordan River, thirty years later John could see that Jesus was not only Lord of heaven and earth but that he was the sin-bearer sent by the Father to take away the sin of the world.

Many years after Jesus death the apostle Peter looked back and wrote these words found in 1 Peter 2:24, He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

Jesus himself took our sins into his own body and nailed them to the cross. He did that in order that all condemnation could be taken away from us. Spiritually we died to sin that day with a special purpose in mind. That purpose was, “that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.”

Living righteously is a difficult thing. When we try to do it in our own strength eventually we fail. Remember, the law was a schoolmaster, or tutor, whose purpose was to bring us to Christ…

So that we could become righteous. One of the most blessed verses in Scripture is 2 Corinthians 5:21, For our sake he (God the Father) made him (Jesus, the Son) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

When Jesus asked, in the garden of Gethsemane, that the Father take “this cup” from him he wasn’t speaking so much of the physical pain and anguish he was about to experience he was talking about the spiritual pain and separation within the Godhead he was about to experience. Because of our great need the Father made Jesus to be sin for us! He was not made a sinner for us because he had no sin of his own. Instead he was made SIN for us. He took that sin to the cross so that we could become the righteousness of God in him.

Three times the Bible presents the idea that guilt or righteousness could be imputed from one person to another. First, Adam’s sin was imputed to all his descendants. As a result of that God views it as belonging to us. Second, when Jesus died on the cross our sin was imputed to him. And Christ fulfilled the law on our behalf. Third, Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us. In the mind of God, we are righteous because we are in Christ Jesus and he is righteous. This is a legal action declaring us to be just or righteous not on the basis of our actual condition but rather on the basis of Christ’s perfect righteousness. Apart from that we would have no hope in this world or the world to come. If you feel him tugging at your heart confess him as your Lord today.

All scripture quotes are from: The Holy Bible: English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.