Galatians 2:15-21 Bible Teaching

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Okay, Paul has set the stage for him having the right to apostolic opinion equal to those who had come before Him.

The war being waged is a war against Judaisers who have stepped in and influenced the Galatians to embrace the Law as a means to justify themselves before God.

This war started the moment Jesus entered the scene and was put to test on how he and his disciples followed the Law (after all, he was breaking the Sabbath in their eyes, and their laws of purity in a number of ways, and so they were all over him when he was alive) so it’s not surprising that the war would continue with the Apostles, and even out to our day.

I have had a couple of friends in the faith who, after leaving Mormonism, have found the liberty and freedom of the Gospel too much to handle, and have to some extent or another, returned to the law or legalism of their former faith.

One couple have embraced what is called Orthodoxy, and spend their time trying to make disciples of it and all that it prescribes as Christian.

Two other couples – one recently – have actually returned to obeying the Law of Moses – one as Messianic’s – people who believe in Yeshua and the Law, and the other, just last week, rejecting Yeshua as the Messiah, and embracing the full Judaic way, are waiting for the only true Messiah to come forward and reveal himself.

The temptation is constant for the simple reason that our flesh believes it is capable of being compliant to rules that God will appreciate, recognize and use to vet those who enter his Kingdom.

Aside from these extreme examples, our sister Sarah who visits churches and considers the contents of their services, says that one church in the Valley – a big church – taught in one of their recent services that “any Christian who says that their freedom in Christ allows them to do anything that they want” are dead wrong. And they went on to teach how Christians cannot do anything they want.”

That sounds like a reasonable message – but it’s a form of legalism and is religious to the core. Let me explain why this is the case by appealing to an example:

Suppose there is a gathering of animal loving vegetarians who have personally chosen to not eat meat.

And lets suppose they have a convention and the keynote speaker spends the whole time warning and commanding the attendees to not eat meat.

The message isn’t necessary in the least – because the attendees have all chosen to be vegetarians and to not eat meat on their own, right?

So it is with preachers telling Christian congregates that they cannot do anything that they want. A Christian automatically KNOWS this – and if they don’t – they are not truly Christians, they are merely attending a Christian church.

And if that is the case, then the Pastors who are speaking to them are merely trying to reform the flesh of their members.

And in either case the sermons is a foolish waste of time and is NOTHING but church playing.

No true Christian on earth needs to be told that they can’t do anything they want. On the contrary, they need to be told that they can, in fact, do anything they want for the simple reason that what a Christian, by the Spirit WANTS to do, is to please God.

Who they were (in the flesh) is not who they are, that is their former person who has been crucified with Christ, buried with him, and their new woman or man is their true identity.

Telling that identity that it cannot do any thing it wants is like telling a committed animal loving vegetarian that they cannot eat anything that they want – where the message is actually the reverse:

The vegetarian can eat ANYTHING they want, because the vegetarian would ONLY WANT to eat non animal food.

Does this make sense.

So the expanse of ways – some subtle and some overt – that men have tried to enter into the true Gospel and subvert it are beyond imagination.

So Paul having confronted Peter, adds a line in his epistle that is difficult to understand. After saying in verse 14:

Galatians 2:14 But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

He adds, speaking of the Jews Peter was trying to get the Gentiles to follow:

15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,

I am going to try and summarize what this passage means and what it doesn’t mean.

All Paul seems to be saying is, in reference to verse 14 and why Peter would try to compel the Gentiles to live like the JEWS . . .

(and he adds)

We who are Jews by Nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles.

The term “sinner of the Gentiles” can have a couple meanings relative to the Greek. It can mean that they are sinners by NATURE of being automatically sinful from birth, and then relative to the Jews by Nature, who were born under the law, were NOT like them OR Paul meant that the Gentiles were merely SINNERS by virtue of the fact that they were not born under the law, were not Jews, and therefore as naturally coming from pagan lands and practices, were godless and therefore sinful as a result.

There is debate but the Greek word SEEMS to suggest that what Paul meant was that they were sinners due to not knowing the true and living God.

And so, he continues, saying our text for today as he apparently continues to either say this to Peter or he is commenting on what he said to Peter to the Galatians (verse 16):

Galatians 2.15-
Milk
March 24th 2019

16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
18 For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

Before we cover the verses know this ahead of time:

Verse 16 is easy to understand.
Verses 17-19 are complex, and
Verses 20-21 return to clarity.

Okay, so after saying that he confronted Peter before them all, I am going to teach the verses that follow as though they are NOT connected to the story of this confrontation simply because its easier and more clear that way.

That being said, Paul confronting Peter was the context so it seems like we would read verse 16 as a continuation of his words to Peter, meaning he asked Peter in verse 14,

Why do you try to compel the gentiles to live like the Jews . . .

And says at verse 16:

16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

In some ways, the passage fits the parameters of a Chiasmus, which is a form of Hebrews written expression that starts and ends the same way, then works forward and backward to a central message.

Here we see the first line of the passage being (ON BOARD):

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law

(CORE MESSAGE IS)

but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law:

(AND THEN THE LAST LINE IS)

For by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified.

So where Paul begins and speaks of the JUST living by faith he shift the point specifically to the apostles themselves, who were all once Jews and say “even we” here (as in “even we apostles have believed in Jesus Christ and been justified by it and not by the works of the Law).

The object of Paul here seems to be to show, that as they had believed in the Lord Jesus, and thus had been justified, there was no necessity of obeying the law of Moses with any view to justification for anyone else – ever.

Then for reiteration he adds, “For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.”

Let me repeat this for ANYONE within the sound of my voice who might think otherwise:

FOR . . . by the works of the LAW (remember that phrase) shall no flesh be justified.

Now, hang with me. Justification is a word that is applied to courts of justice. For instance,

A man is charged with killing his neighbor’s cat and taken before a judge.

He can

either deny that he performed the act charged to him or he can admit to it.
If he admits to it, he must set up a defense for his right to do it if he wants to be exonerated and set free.
If he proves grounds for exoneration, he will be see as innocent in the sight of the Law and it will have nothing against him. In other words, he will be seen as justified.

In the case of all of us standing before God all human beings have some serious charges brought against them – by God Himself. They seem to be centrally founded on selfishness, failing to love God and neighbor above self, and essentially playing into moments of varying degrees of depravity.

It is a charge not only against the hands of humankind but most importantly against the mind and heart of humankind.

Of course human kind works VERY hard at self-exoneration. It builds itself up or defends itself in innumerable ways.

Popular today is the idea that God MADE us all this way so therefore we are excused for our selfish depraved states.

But Romans chapter one levels this idea to the ground telling us that none us have an excuse before God for our lives and the decisions made therein.

Certainly there will be circumstantial factors that play into our individual culpability, but in the end, to cite Romans 3:19

19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

The charges against human beings extends to all of us and to the entire life of every unrenewed man. And one failure, in terms of alienation from God, is tantamount to a billion. Certainly the afterlife results for an agregious offender verses a minor offender will vary, but all unjustified offenders will experience alienation FROM the presence of God.

This is the biblical stance no matter a persons eschatology.

The interesting thing is that it is impossible for anyone to vindicate themselves from the charges against them.

This is a sobering reality if we really think about it. As mentioned, in our day, some try to suggest that God made us sinners and so therefore there will be no culpability before him.

Others suggest that God refused to elect them to righteous justification and so therefore they are also exonerated.

Im sure some will blame their upbringing, others their genetics, but in the end, every human being is culpable and responsible for the selfish depraved thoughts, intents and acts that they chose to embrace.

Standing before the Creator will not be like standing before a circuit court judge as the Creator will see right through ever single factor, every single motive, every act and accurately deliver the personal responsibility all have for the choices made and lives lived.

In this light, the scripture makes the status of human beings before God clear:

We are all without excuse.

What Paul is getting to hear is especially applicable to religionists – first the Jews, and then Gentile appeals to religion.

And the point he makes clearly, plainly and without ANY equivocation is that the LAW – adherence to it, will not acquit anyone.

In fact, as we mentioned last week, it will do the exact opposite – it will holds him guilty.
Condemn him. And no argument will work to bring about his exoneration.

The reason for this (besides what we’ve already presented last week) is that there can be NO justification for violating the Laws of God.

None.

For the law does not make any provision for pardon in the face of justice, fairness and the Goodness of God.

Justification before God, therefore, can only occur in and through an approach that is distinct from the law, and in which man may be justified on different principles than those which the law presents.

If we miss this we will find ourselves naturally appealing to either our own justifications before God for ourselves and/or returning to elements of the Law to fill in the Gap.

The other and only system of true and perfect justification is that which is revealed in the good news based on the birth, life, death, resurrection and return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Before we discuss it not that this Gospel does NOT consist in the following:

First, the system does not make humans innocent. Human beings are not innocent or declared innocent in our flesh. Remember that Romans 4:5 says that God justifies the “ungodly.”

Once Christian by regeneration of the Spirit we, the human, continually abides in the sinful state of her or his flesh. Forget this or miss this you run the risk of thinking that having begun in the Spirit that you have the capacity to then perfect the flesh.

That will not ever happen. Ever. The realization keeps us reliant on Him for continued strength and support via His Spirit.

Listen to something radical – it will always true that the “justified sinner” has no claims to the mercy and favor of God. It is His grace that saves us – not the fact that we have received it NOR the fact that we continue to walk with Him in faith. We are not MORE justified by our contributions. We were and are justified by Him and His grace, not our contributions to it.

Second, because we have been the recipients of His grace does not mean that we do not personally deserving it. I know it’s a hard line but believe it or not, we all deserve His wrath and death.

Third, there is a big lingering question on how much we found Him verses how much he found us.

I personally believe that He calls all, I also believe that he elects whom he will, and I also believe that all have the choice to receive His call or not.

These paradoxical factors are difficult to reconcile. But in the end, we did NOT save ourselves. He called and redeemed us, saved by His grace, therefore NONE of us can boast.

Our justification can be said in the following way:

It appears to be the declared will and purpose of God to regard and treat sinners who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as though they had not sinned, on the basis of the merits of His Son.

It is not a mere pardoning. A pardon is a free forgiveness of past offences. It has reference to those sins as forgiven and blotted out. It is an act of remission on the part of God.

Justification has respect to the law, and to God’s future dealings with the sinner. It is an act by which God chooses to treat him hereafter as a righteous man or as if he had not sinned.

The ground or reason of this treatment are the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ; merits that we can actually plead them to be our own.

The thinking is that the Lord, by his life and death accomplished in the life of the sinner a life of total complicity to the Laws of God.

The way to see this is perhaps like this:

In and through the death or punishment of the sinner himself nothing would be gained or changed in the universe. Nothing. The death of Jesus paid, repaid, more than paid for every wrong any sinner has every committed.

And by taking our place, as the perfect sacrifice qualified to die in our place, He has fully met the demands of justice, which would have fallen on our own head if he had not accomplished what he has accomplished.

Because I see His life, death and resurrection as efficacious for all, I see as all sinners everywhere meriting the eternal justification to life granted by him.

The Law has been utterly obeyed and fulfilled by Him, for all, and the justification to life has been given.

Because God so loved the world.

Of course, the application of His work to His own, in that age, and by which He saved His bride from certain destruction is an all together different matter of the past which we do not need to worry ourselves over.

But we are left with the application to believers today – and it is to this which we will now talk – which was to whom THIS very epistle was written – gentiles.

So with the law having been fully obeyed by one who came to save us, and the one upon whom we place our faith we, by and through Him, are seen as also having been perfectly obedient to God’s perfect law – which, by the way, is all hung on the two saying of

Loving God and Loving Neighbor was ourselves.

Do not lose sight of this. Upon these two commands hang ALL the law and the prophets. This will become important in a minute.

So, having laid this out in verse 16, that there is no way anyone can be justified before God by the Law, he adds a verse that is odd, saying:

17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.

The connection and meaning of this passage to the rest of the context is not too clear, but some scholars believe that Paul was taking some pre-emptive measures at offsetting what some Judaeisers would say about this principle of salvation, which would be:

Without the law then there would be no rule for living, and without rules, human beins will fall into sin, so therefore, this teaching would only make Christ a master of sin, if this is the good news that he brought to the world.

Again, this is why Paul says here, almost out of the blue:

17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.

These objections existed early, and have been found everywhere where the doctrine of justification by faith has been preached.

In other words, Christ is no way shape or form can be considered the master or teacher of sin as He Himself was sinless.

Nor can his gospel be seen as promoting the practice of sin – in the least. In fact, the opposite reality exists in the presence of the good news being received – sin abates.

And this is something that human beings cannot seem to fathom – even the senior pastors at many Evangelical churches.

In other words, when the Good News is received into the lives of human beings, and those human beings were once consciously aware of great sin and failure in their lives, the Good News LIBERATES them from sin, and will not ever lead someone into it.

With this understanding, Paul is able to say here:

17 But if, while we look to be justified by Christ, and we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.

Christians, remember, continue to sin. So the principle is important. But just because a Christian will discover themselves in sin over the course of their walk cannot be construed to mean that Christ Jesus is the captain or minister of sin. To this idea Paul says, God forbid!

Meaning that is not the aim of the Gospel. And at this point Paul throws in another sentence that is not easily discerned relative to the previous passage but it is connected to the general message he is trying to convey about the law, and therefore to the previous passage as he says:

18 For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

Now stay with me here.

In verse 17, Paul makes it clear that just because a person seeking to be justified by the Gospel of Grace is found in sin, there cannot be a link to the Gospel of Grace and the sin the individual is guilty of committing.

In the next verse Paul begins with the word, FOR . . . and that word tells us that what he about to say IS connected to what he just said.

So, again,

17 But if, while we look to be justified by Christ, and we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
18 For . . . if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

Where does the strength of sin lie? In the Law. Without a law, there can be no sin. In verse 17 Paul says, if “we ourselves” (this is speaking to people who have received the Good News by faith) are also found sinners” (how would they themselves be found sinners? Only by reintroducing the Law into their lives! And then he adds “is Christ the ministers of sin?? God forbid.”

FOR . . . (notice Paul now speaks in the first person) FOR if I build AGAIN the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor!”

What things would Paul have destroyed that had the capacity to make him a transgressor? There is only one thing possible? The Law.

So, let me rephrase this verse in light of this now:

17 But if, while we look to be justified by Christ, and we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
18 For . . . if I build again the things which I destroyed, meaning the law, I make myself a transgressor.”

And then the final difficult passage on first glance:

19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.

Commentators are by no means agreed when it comes to this passage. What is agreed upon is that in the phrase “am dead to the law,” the law of Moses is referred to, and that the meaning is, that Paul had become dead to that as a ground or means of justification and therefore it ceased to have influence over him in his life.

To be dead to something is to be insensate to all of its presence and powers. A dead man to the Law hears nothing; sees nothing; and nothing affects him relative to the Law. So again, when we are said to be dead to anything, the meaning is, that it does not have an influence over us.

He did NOT obey it – he couldn’t obey it – he was dead to it.

But on the meaning of the phrase “for I through the law am dead to the law,” there has been enormous difference of opinion.

Some commentators think Paul is saying:

“By one law, or doctrine, I am dead to another;” that is, the Christian doctrine or law of Christ has caused me to cast aside the Mosaic Law.”

The other main view is that he is saying that by contemplating the true character of the law of Moses itself and the result of its place in people’s lives he became dead to it.

I agree with this view. In his early life Paul expected to be justified by the law. He had endeavored to obey it and calls himself a most zealous Jew of Jews.

Recall Philippians 3:4-6 where he says:

4 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
6 Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

And what did all of this produce in Paul? Well, when we met him he was putting other men to death, wasn’t he?

Speaking of God, it is not surprising that we read the following in 2nd Corinthians 3:6

“Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”

OR

Romans 4:15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.

OR

Did you know that Paul refers to the Law (in 2nd Corinthians 3:7) as “the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones,”

But then adds:

8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?

I would suggest that in his encounter with Jesus on the Road to Damascus, Paul saw clearly, or at least began to see with spiritual eyes (I do not think it is by mistake that he was physically blinded) the fact that the Law in His life turned him into a killer, and it allowed him to later call it, “the ministration of death,” and to say “that it works wrath”and that the “letter killeth.”

See, before, and under the Law of God (which was perfect but men are not) Paul thought that he was living for God, and that he was doing his bidding in putting Christians to death.

Not so. In fact the presence of the law had an opposite effect on Paul and the rest of the Nation of Israel. As it does in the lives of all who embrace it or elements of it – it turns us into killers.

Killers for things that are not how we like them. And in the end this is the opposite direction Yeshua takes us.

Yeshua told us to love our enemies and the sinner, to forgive those who hate us, to do good to those who despitefully use us, etc. etc.

The Law produces the opposite effects by allowing us to justify hating sinners, criticizing those who do not keep it, and maligning those who we believe deserve it.

Show me a Christian who is critical of others – for their sin, their failures, their lifestyle, their beliefs – and especially those who suggest punishment for such – and I will guarantee that they are embracing the Law to some extent or another.

I’ve seen it in far too many cases in ministry than you can believe.

A person comes out of Mormonism and enjoys for a season the freedom and liberty in Christ. But they cannot stand this liberty for too long. They have a revulsion to the sins and lifestyles of others – and they want to do something about it.

They want order, Law, and ultimately control. And so they look around and say, this Jesus bit is not enough. There is supposed to be MORE!

And they, like the Galatians here under Paul, like the Corinthians did to some extent too, find a system of religion that provides LAW:

Messianic Judaism
Catholicism
Orthodoxy
Legalist Evangelicalism
And most recently, a total return to Judaism, to the point that Jesus is rejected all together.

If JESUS is the Good News, and ONLY Jesus, then anything added to faith in Him and what He has done is a rejection of Jesus and the Good News.

Can you see this? That is the end result – to some extent or another.

If you add a prophet to Jesus, then what we are saying is Jesus is not prophet enough.

If we add This rule or that law, same thing.

And in the end a person can add so much to their plate that Jesus will disappear all together.

Paul tells us why he became dead to the Law that was once in him, adding

“That I might live unto God.”

Did you catch it? Paul says that by dying to the Law he might then LIVE unto God!

The direct implication here is that to live unto the Law is to live unto something other than God.

This is how serious the subject is, folks – and I take it super seriously. That the Law of Sin and Death, the Law of Wrath, the Law of the ministration of Death produces the OPPOSITE of living unto God – and therefore is antithetical to life with God!

You want to consecrate your life to the Living God? Be like Paul and die to the Law, and live by faith in His Son.

Being dead to the law, means you are dead to sin, which caused Paul to write in Romans 6:11:

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And he adds

Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Embrace the mindset, the heart set, and be free from the sin which is by the Law.

Remember Romans 7:6 where he wrote:

“But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”

The letter includes letters composed in this what we call the New Testament, which is NOT the New Testament, for the New Testament is where God writes upon our minds and hearts.

These letters are for insight and instruction but we cannot make them a new law anymore than we can make the Old Testament a continued law!

Certainly learn! Certainly grow and be informed, but never let letters which kill make you a killer.

The fruit of the Spirit is love – so we serve in the newness of the Spirit, being dead to the letter of the Old.

Resulting in what Paul wrote in Romans 8:2

Saying, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

Are you free from the law of sin and death?
I ask because our brothers and sisters who went back to the law never were.

They remained shackled to the idea of sin and death by the presence of the Law in their lives. And as a result, returned to it in full.

Paul wraps our time up with the most beautiful verses, saying at verse 20-21:

20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

(beat)

We will continue with those two verses next week.

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