Letter to the Galatians -- Chapter 2
“Not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. This matter arose because some false brothers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you” (Galatians 2:3-5).
Paul was adamant that the old covenant was broken and that in Christ Jesus men are freed from obligation to the Jewish laws and ceremonies. Paul was circumcised himself and was an upstanding and strong Jew, however his devotion was to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he did not want to distort or prohibit that in anyway. It is for this reason that Paul refused to let those who wished to remain enslaved to Jewish tradition put their yoke of slavery upon the Gentiles. He knew that for the Gospel to be pure it had to be unconditional and therefore he wanted nothing to do with those who wished to impart manmade conditions upon the followers of Jesus Christ. “Do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them” (Matthew 23:3-4).
Here is the Gospel that along with Paul we fight for. This Gospel is the news of the unconditional grace that is ours in Christ Jesus. There is no condition for this. Faith is not a condition that must be met, done, or chosen; faith is the gift and work of God in our hearts that clings relentlessly to Jesus Christ and His merits for all things. Fallen sinful man looks within himself for all things. When looking for salvation it is no different, he looks to some condition, state, work, act, something, anything from within himself that is cause for justification. The last bastion of this utterly lost sinfulness is manifested as man attempts to even make the awesome news of salvation in Christ Jesus something that ultimately comes from within. How does he do this? He does this by making faith something that originates from within us, something that we will or do in order to be saved. Nothing could be farther from the Truth! “The Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the ‘stumbling stone’” (Romans 9:30-32). Faith has its origin in Jesus Christ’s Cross, in His obedience and righteousness. If our faith comes from within, then we have faith in ourselves or in our own faith and pursue this faith as if it were a work; but faith that grasps to the Cross alone comes from outside of us, it comes from Jesus Christ’s immutable work of grace. Let us listen to the Words of God, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus is the author (the one who begins and writes our faith in our hearts!) and the perfecter (He sustains and finishes the work of faith in our hearts!) of our faith; it is founded, rooted, and created by and in Him. It is this faith that comes from Jesus Christ that Paul is talking about, “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last” (Romans 1:17).
Justification by the grace of Jesus Christ crucified alone through faith alone is our entire message. This is the complete and simple Gospel and it is for this reason that there can be no compromise, yielding, or distortion of this justification. It is for this article of faith that we must fight to the death, for it is the foundation of every other article of faith. If we lose this article then we have lost Jesus Christ, if we retain this article then by grace we have laid hold of our Lord and Savior. It is both that simple and that dramatic. Let us listen to the inspired words of Scripture, “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood…Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law” (Romans 3:23-25, 27-28). We must fight for this Truth and Message at all costs for this is God’s Word and promise that stands for all time. “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:19-23). We have simple faith and hope that clings not to anything from within us, but solely to the work and love of God that has come to us in the blood of Jesus Christ crucified. With Luther we say, “I must listen to the Gospel. It tells me, not what I must do, but what Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has done for me.”
“As for those who seemed to be important—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance—those men added nothing to my message” (Galatians 2:6).
How can we dare trust what other men, the world, and our flesh say over God Himself? Is it because we doubt that Scripture is God’s revealed Word to us? Or is it because we actually trust our own reason and senses over the Word of our very Creator? We must never forget that the Word of God stands head and shoulders above all men, including our very selves. Even when the Word of Scripture seems weak and foolish to us we must remember that even that which seems the lowliest of God’s Word is in fact infinitely greater than the best man has to offer. “The foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength” (1 Corinthians 1:25). Anytime there is a dispute over doctrine we must go to God’s clear Word remembering that His testimony outweighs even the loftiest and most eloquent of man’s rationalizations. Paul willingly stood up against the other apostles in order to preserve the purity of God’s Word and we must be willing to do the same. Even if the world’s most respected theologian were to say something contrary to God’s Word it would be our duty to stand up against him boldly and firmly. God’s Word and salvation lasts forever whereas man is nothing but dust. “Do not fear the reproach of men or be terrified by their insults. For the moth will eat them up like a garment; the worm will devour them like wool. But my righteousness will last forever, my salvation through all generations” (Isaiah 51:7-8). It is in the moment that we begin to give man and his teachings weight over God’s Word that we will fall and stumble. “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe” (Proverbs 29:25).
One humble Word from the mouth of God is to be esteemed and believed over one hundred thousand wise, eloquent, charismatic, and pleasing words from the mouths of wretched sinful men. God’s Word is flawless and eternal and thereby we can stand on it with all confidence against whatever the world throws our way. “The word of the LORD is flawless” (Psalm 18:30). “Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him” (Proverbs 30:5). “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8). In order that we don’t come to esteem the messenger over the Message God makes His messengers humble, broken, and sinful. He gives them vices and shortcomings which force us to realize that it is not they who are to be respected, but the Word of the Lord that they have been chosen to bring. Every prophet and apostle that God has chosen for His work has repeatedly been brought low in order that the power of God’s Word shines forth. “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power” (1 Corinthians 2:1-5). It is for this reason that we fear no man and willingly go before princes, kings, rulers, theologians, philosophers, scientists, all men, standing up for God’s clear Word. “In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise—in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (Psalm 56:10-11). “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say” (Luke 12:11-12).
For the sake of Jesus Christ crucified we must be zealous, bold, and unwavering. For the clear message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ we will stand against all who oppose us, willingly forsaking all things for His cause. “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things” (Philippians 3:8). This may appear to be boastful, and indeed it is, but it is boasting in the sureness of God’s immutable and perfect Word that assures us salvation for the sake of Jesus Christ. “Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord’” (1 Corinthians 1:31). We do not boast of ourselves, but we boast of the power of God’s Word as it shows us to be nothing but weak and unworthy vessels. “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness” (2 Corinthians 11:30). We are compelled by the awesome grace of our God to stand firm for Him, proclaiming Him with our lives without ceasing. Paul and Jeremiah were clear on this, “Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16). “The word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long. But if I say, ‘I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot” (Jeremiah 20:8-9). It is on the Word of God that we willingly stake our lives for it is what we live on, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Let us pray that we cling fiercely to God’s Word no matter how weak and foolish it may seem to the world and our reason; resting on the assuring Message of Jesus Christ crucified for the forgiveness of our sins.
“When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, ‘You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?’” (Galatians 2:11-14).
Once again we see what Paul is willing to stand up against in the name of the Gospel. No human relationship could have come between Paul and the Gospel he was specifically entrusted with from Christ Himself. If we are willing to let any person in our life come between us and Jesus Christ then we do not understand the Gospel at all. Paul surely did as he fully grasped what Christ meant when He proclaimed, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). This does not mean that we despise our family and fellow man, but it means that no human relationship can come between us and our devotion to God and His will. Our love for Jesus Christ and His Truth trumps every other bond we have in this life. It is God’s cause that we fight for, and it is for God’s cause that we love our neighbor; everything must flow downhill from our “undivided devotion to the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7:35).
Peter, the man whose very confession of faith Christ chose to build His Church upon, had fallen into error and Paul was forced to rebuke and correct him. This must force us to stop and reflect, “If Peter, Christ’s chosen disciple, can fall into doctrinal error how capable are we of the same?” Scripture is full of warnings about false prophets, teachings, and gospels in order that we may be aware of the dangers that lurk trying to pull us away from the doctrine of God’s Word. The warning is clear, “If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!” (1 Corinthians 10:12). We must never become complacent and must always be on guard to protect ourselves from Satan’s lies, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). It is for this reason that we must rely on God’s Word, on His sure promises and not on our self or any man. All men are fallible and in need of the complete salvation and guidance of Jesus Christ, “There is no one righteous, not even one…there is no one who does good, not even one” (Romans 3:10, 12), “No one is good—except God alone” (Luke 18:19). Instead of looking inside ourselves, to the world, or to any man, let us look to the Cross. “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).
When we feel utterly alone in our faith and in our stand for the Truth we need to graciously remember those who went before us that walked much lonelier paths than we. Paul stood alone against the entire early Christian Church in order to preserve the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ; Luther stood alone against the entire Papacy and Roman Catholic Church in order to preserve the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ; but most of all let us not forget the One who walked the loneliest path of all, the path to the Cross, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:3-6). Let us pray that no matter how dark and lonely our path becomes that we remember the immutable promise of our Savior and remain steadfast in our undivided devotion to Him. “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
“We know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:16).
If we are capable of loving, fearing, and trusting God above all things why do we need Christ? If we can earn and work our way to salvation why do we need Christ? If we can merit grace through our own will and deeds why do we need Christ? If we are born free and able to please God why do we need Christ? These are all important questions which we must face anytime we think that anything from ourselves is acceptable to God. Anyone who is capable of performing acceptable works to God does not need Jesus Christ one bit. It is only the completely helpless sinner before God that needs Jesus Christ. If we don’t truly see our helplessness, then Christ is of no benefit to us; He becomes only a good teacher and example and no longer a Savior.
The error at the root of works righteousness teaching and man-initiated salvation is always an incorrect view of sin and of man’s fallen state. This wrong view is essentially the state of a Pharisee; it is one who doesn’t see sin for the utter and complete depravity that it is. These teachers may recognize sin in a certain sense but they fail to realize the helplessness and slavery that man is in by nature (especially themselves!). Many think they are “doing God a favor” by working for their own righteousness and salvation; they see themselves as graciously “saving God the trouble” of having to help them out. This is ultimately an issue of control; man wants control over his life, he wants independence. Little does he realize that independence is death, independence is rejection of God in the greatest of ways; all of our independent good works are filthy rags. “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins” (Isaiah 64:6-7). Everything we try to do on our own (in independence) is in fact an attempt to please God with rejection and hatred of Him, to please Him with sin. Do we really think God wants our filthy rags, our efforts? He has given us the pearl of greatest worth (Jesus Christ) and we throw this away and try to give Him our filthy rags instead.
This is God’s plan for salvation. The Law breaks us down and shows us our pharisaical attitude and heart that is completely dead and enslaved to sin. This despair of our own ability to do anything whatsoever (not even believe!) is what opens the door to the Gospel Message of grace. If one does not understand God’s Word of Law about sin then we will never cling by faith to God’s Word of Gospel about grace. When we look to Jesus Christ’s life we see that He never preached a word of forgiveness to the Pharisees; He constantly bombarded them with the Law and accusing them of their utter filthiness and hypocrisy before God, urging them to turn from their self-righteousness. Why? Why on earth would Jesus deny them the Gospel Message of forgiveness? Because the proclamation of forgiveness of sins must be preceded by repentance; the Law must precede the Gospel. “The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations” (Luke 24:46-47). Christ realized that the hearts of the Pharisees were consumed with their own merits, abilities, choices, and decisions; they needed to hear that even their best efforts were complete rubbish and dung. So what is repentance? It is literally a turning; a recognition of our complete filthiness and a turning away from our own righteousness, abilities, and works to God’s righteousness, abilities, and works. Is this something we can do? Do we have to do repentance before God will grant us forgiveness? No. Repentance is also the gift of God; it is the work of His Word of Law on our hearts, it is God opening our eyes to our filthiness and complete need of Him. “Gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 2:25). “God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life” (Acts 11:18). “The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel” (Acts 5:30-31). These two, repentance and forgiveness, Law and Gospel, culminate in the Cross of Jesus Christ. No natural sinful man can understand the Cross for it makes no sense to him; he does not understand why our supposed Savior hangs bloodied on the Cross. The Cross is God’s justice and wrath towards all sin combined with His mercy, grace, and forgiveness; until we recognize sin for its complete filth and magnitude then we will never understand why God had to sacrifice His only Son for the forgiveness of the world. Let us pray that we are daily granted repentance and forgiveness, clinging only to Jesus Christ by faith for all things.
“We know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:16).
We are freed from death, sin, the world, the flesh, and the devil in Christ Jesus, but it is not until the redemption of our bodies in the next life that we shed this body of death that we carry around our necks. “We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently” (Romans 8:23-25). We wait patiently for the redemption of our bodies and like Paul we cling fiercely to Jesus Christ who rescues us from our horrid sinful nature, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:18-24). We too see the wretchedness of ourselves everyday and despite this we cling in faith to the sure promise of the remission of our sins for Jesus Christ’s sake. No matter how great the opposition of sin is in our life we must remember that the sacrifice of the Lamb of God is more than sufficient for our atonement and forgiveness.
We need to look to Scripture to see how we are to proclaim God’s Word and Message. This order of proclamation is: [1] condemnation of God’s wrath towards our sin and our utter helplessness and slavery in this sin (Law) then [2] justification by grace thru faith in the work of Jesus Christ alone (Gospel) and then [3] good works and love for our neighbor that we are empowered to do by the Holy Spirit working in us and thru us (Sanctification). The entire Epistle of Romans lays out this order perfectly and even a few verses in Ephesians show this clearly. “[LAW:] As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. [GOSPEL:] But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. [SANCTIFICATION:] For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:1-10). This is the complete Message of God’s Word and to leave out any part is wrong, and to muddle together any of these parts and order is also wrong. Good works and the Law must remain separate from God’s grace and justification because we in no way earn, merit, or contribute to our salvation. However, all those who are saved and are in faith will do good works; there is no choice here, those who have faith in Christ Jesus will produce His fruit in their life and anything else is nothing but fake imitation faith.
Let us pray that by God’s Law we are granted repentance, seeing that we are truly deserving of God’s wrath, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). “They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them” (Romans 1:29-32). “You are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God ‘will give to each person according to what he has done’…those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil” (Romans 2:5-6, 8-9). This is us; and let us not pretend it isn’t! Do we not see that we will not inherit the kingdom of God? We have set up our unmentionably filthy sinfulness, pride, and selves as our idols and we flaunt them in the face of our Creator! God is not kidding or pretending here; we are storing up God’s wrath of judgment against ourselves. Surely we are eternally lost and utterly deserving of it! What hope is there for such disobedient men as us? “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (Romans 5:8-10). “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24). “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11). Alas! Where we are filthy, dead sinners Christ has come and washed us thru Baptism and His Word, proclaiming His once and for all grace of Jesus Christ crucified for the sin of the entire world! We have been redeemed, justified, and forgiven by the pure grace of God! So do we continue in our old ways of sin now that we have been redeemed by the undeserved grace of God in Christ Jesus? “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:1-4). “Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace” (Romans 6:11-14). We have been saved and redeemed, freed from the slavery of sin! Let us no longer continue in our lives of filth but let us offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God, doing all things in accordance with His will and righteousness. “I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:1-2). Let us pray that God’s grace in Christ Jesus empowers us to a new life of faith, love, and service in accordance with God’s perfect will as we shed the old life of sin that we have lived in the past, living a new life in the power of the Holy Spirit.
“If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not!” (Galatians 2:17).
We cannot have it both ways. Either Jesus Christ is our justification or He is not. Anytime we try to elevate something (like our will or the Law) that “cooperates” or “works in parallel” to Christ’s work on the Cross we completely and totally destroy and undermine His sacrifice. Christ’s sacrifice and work on the Cross only has value and meaning if it is sufficient and “stand alone.” It is all or nothing. This is not something our sinful nature wants to admit. We all try to keep our own hidden closets where we don’t let Christ reside, a little part that remains “ours;” a little part that is “our work” and “our righteousness” or even “our pet sins.” Oh, how extremely dangerous this is! Christ’s justification is all or nothing so His call also demands all or nothing. “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters–yes, even his own life–he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple….In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple”(Luke 14:26-27, 33). We must concede and recognize this point; it is time for us to stop deceiving ourselves. This “Christianity” thing cannot be a part time endeavor and cannot be a hobby. Following Jesus Christ is a yes and no, black and white issue that has no “neutral” or “safe” ground. We are either with Him 100% or we are His enemy 100%. “He who is not with me is against me” (Luke 11:23). He demands 100% discipleship, no exceptions, for He is 100% of our justification. “So, because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16).
It is amazing how those who deny Christ’s perfect work for our atonement validate their beliefs with Christ’s own words. They take Christ’s proclamation of God’s Law and turn it against everything that He came to do. We need to understand Christ’s relationship with the Law. Christ came proclaiming God’s Law and calling men to repentance and unlike some believe, He did not come to abolish the Law. However, the gravest of all are those who believe He didn’t come to abolish the Law but to establish a new Law. This also is extremely and detrimentally false. So what did Christ come to do? If not abolish or establish a new Law? “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). Christ came to fulfill the Law, not to destroy it or establish a new one. Christ came to obey and fulfill the Law on our behalf, to do what we couldn’t and can’t; He came to bring sinners back to life thru His obedience. “Just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man [Jesus Christ] the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).
We must cling to God’s grace thru His promises in Jesus Christ; this is our only hope. So many is Christendom deny the promises of God in the Gospel, Baptism, forgiveness, etc. and set up their own “way” and law for coming to God. To deny God’s promises is to rely on the Law, and the Law demands this: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Wow. How can we ever do what the Law demands? How can we be perfect like God alone is? We simply cannot and we are cursed because of it. Even partial obedience to the Law is worthless before the eyes of God, “Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10). We are helpless without Jesus Christ and the promises that we have been given thru Him; we must therefore cling fiercely to what Christ has done on our behalf, for His work and righteousness is the only way. Let us pray that in faith we realize that the promises of God in Christ Jesus our Lord are the only way we are saved and forgiven, rejecting all teachers and false gospels that point the way to a new law, obedience, or decision of our own.
“If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God” (Galatians 2:18-19).
Once the hammer of the Law has broken us and crushed our self-righteousness and pride, the ministry of the Gospel swoops in to save us. Where our conscience is burdened by the Law and our inability to uphold it, the Gospel comes in to destroy sin, death, wrath, and the devil, freeing us from the burden of the Law. We are now dead to the Law in Christ Jesus. We must not rebuild what is dead to us. How exactly does one do this? We rebuild the Law when we attempt to mingle our salvation in Christ Jesus with any act of our own. We make the merits of Christ insufficient for us as we attempt to justify and validate ourselves thru our own merits after we have heard the Gospel. The forgiveness of God in Christ Jesus is free and as soon as we attach any condition to this free promise we weigh it down and destroy it, making it insignificant. Paul’s words are crystal clear, “we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law” (Romans 3:28). Our justification is completely the work of Christ and is fully apart from any observation of the Law on our part.
How many times do we ourselves fall into this trap, and how many churches are fully entrenched in this? Many churches are very quick to profess Christ with their lips, calling Him Lord and Savior, but at the same time denying His true power to save. Is He our salvation or not? Many say He is Savior, but then they deny His completely sufficient grace and salvation by adding conditions to the free promise of forgiveness in Him. Do we have to live a certain way to be forgiven? No. Do we have to do something to get this forgiveness? No, it is ours by the way of God’s promise, everything has already been done for us! Do we have to have a right heart in order to be forgiven? No; Jesus Christ saves sinners, men with black hearts of death, completely and totally by an act of pure grace. Let us cling to Christ’s awesome power to save us and redeem us apart from anything good in us or from us. “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24).
We no longer live subject to the Law. The Law has been fulfilled for us in Jesus Christ, and we now live by faith in and for Him alone. This does not mean the Law no longer exists for it is still God’s immutable will, breaking sinners and preparing them for the Gospel. However, we in Christ are dead to the Law, it no longer exists for us. In Christ the Law is fulfilled to us and we have His righteousness by the grace of His saving act on the Cross. “It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because law brings wrath” (Romans 4:13-15). We are heirs by faith in God’s promise, faith that rests on the work, merit, and righteousness of Jesus Christ crucified. Let us pray that by grace we rely fully and completely on the saving work of Jesus Christ refusing to look to any self-concocted merit or goodness of our own.
“If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God” (Galatians 2:18-19).
Paul tells us a very strange and foolish sounding thing: to die to the Law is to live for God. What can he mean by this? To die to the Law is to ultimately die to our own will and way, to give up on pleasing God thru our own efforts and will and to let God’s will reign. When we try to keep the Law and draw near to God thru it, we only fail and ultimately reject God. “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never…make perfect those who draw near to worship” (Hebrews 10:1). When we are dead to the Law we no longer are focused on achieving merit and goodness of our own and we willingly rest on the goodness of God alone. We seldom realize that living for the Law is very self-focused and self-righteous, but when we live for God by faith in Jesus Christ we become centered on Him outside of our own self and selfish ways. Ironically, when we are dead to the Law by faith in Christ we in fact begin to uphold the Law (in its real sense) for the very first time. “Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law” (Romans 3:31). When we pursue the Law as a righteousness of our own we will stumble, but in faith, when we seek no goodness or righteousness of our own, we find righteousness outside of ourselves in Christ Jesus. “The Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works” (Romans 9:30-32).
Christ is the greatest peace and comfort there is; He is the only true rests for our souls and the only One who can fill the void inside of us. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). Everything we could possibly fear in this life is powerless against Jesus Christ; we cannot be separated from God’s love in Christ Jesus, nothing can change what He has done for us and how He has died for our sins: not circumstance, sin, evil, death, demons, our enemies, natural disasters, our selves, angels, the future, the unknown, and even God’s wrath. “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all… I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:31-32, 38-39). Whenever we are tormented and assaulted by any fear or anxiety in this life we can boldly cling to the fact that Almighty God is on our side in Christ Jesus our Lord; we are secure and safe in the loving arms of grace.
Christ became the Law, death, and sin on our account in order to propitiate God’s wrath against us. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Where we were disobedient, He was obedient; where we were sinners, He was sinless; and where we were deserving of eternal death, He brought us to life. When we were slaves under the Law, sin, and death Christ came to destroy their power over us so that we might be free thru and in Him. “He too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery” (Hebrews 2:14-15). Let us pray that by grace thru faith we see that we are freed from all the burdens, evils, and enemies of the world, sin, death, and the devil. When we were God’s own enemies, who had everything to fear, Christ reconciled us to God and brought us to Him by the grace of the Cross. “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18).
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
By faith we share in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This means that we have suffered God’s wrath towards our sin in the Cross, we have died and conquered death in the Cross, and we have conquered Satan in the Cross. The battle wages on in this life, but the war has already been won thru the Cross of Jesus Christ. The Law itself has now been fulfilled for us in the Cross as Christ has crucified all of the written codes that were against us. “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:13-15).
If we look to ourselves in the least bit for our righteousness then we are lost, dead, and eternally condemned. God illustrated this to the people of Israel when they were wandering in the desert. In their frustration the people spoke against God and so He sent a plague of snakes which started killing the Israelites. God, however, in His mercy, helped them, “The LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived” (Numbers 21:8-9). We too (mankind as a whole) have rebelled against God and our sin is killing us. God in His immeasurable grace and mercy has sent Jesus Christ as our bronze snake, who saves us when we look upon Him in faith. “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). Jesus Christ is our only way out of the snake den of our sin. If we look to ourselves in any way, shape, or form then we have looked away from Christ, our only true salvation. Our trust must be in God’s promise that we are saved in the Cross of Jesus Christ, we must not fall for the lies of Satan which tempt us to look to some decision, choice, or act of our own. We can only have one master and we can only put our faith in one Savior, is it Jesus Christ or is it our self? “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).
Christ is our righteousness and purity. When we look to our self and flesh we see that we are all sin. But when we look to Christ living in us by faith we see that we are instead pure and blameless for we have been washed with water thru the Word in Baptism. “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:25-27). By faith we cling to Christ as our righteousness and by faith we receive the blessings of our Baptism. It is in looking to Jesus Christ for everything that we are found in Him as righteous. “Be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith” (Philippians 3:9). Let us pray that we live in a constant realization that Jesus Christ is our salvation, completely and totally, in whom we receive God’s free gift of grace and righteousness. “God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17).
The life we live in our body is by the faith of Jesus Christ. Before we are born again in Christ we live in our bodies and for our bodies; the flesh governs what we do, we live to serve our flesh. When we share in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ our flesh is put to death and it no longer controls us and guides us; it becomes a servant and tool of our faith. Just like our reason, the body is our enemy apart from Christ, but in Him it is a great tool to be used for His glory.
The Christian lives in constant battle and resistance to his flesh. The difference between the Christian and the unbeliever is that thru the grace of God the Christian has control over the flesh and no longer lives subject to the every desire of the flesh. Fasting is ever so important for the daily walk of the Christian because thru fasting the flesh is mortified and subjected to the will of Christ. Fasting is a way for us to show our flesh and body that its every desire is not in control of us and that we do not live in order to satiate the appetite of our body. Our body is subject to Jesus Christ first and His desires, a tool for proclaiming Him and giving Him glory in all things. If we give in to every demand and desire of our body then it becomes our master. “I will not be mastered by anything. ‘Food for the stomach and the stomach for food’—but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body…Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:12-13, 19-20). If we live for our flesh then we are enemies of the cross of Christ for in the cross our flesh is crucified and mortified daily so that we live by faith for Jesus Christ alone. “Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:18-21).
It is fascinating that one of the great errors of the papists still lives on in “protestant” Christianity. If you go around asking Christians, “Will God demand more from you than you can do?” you are likely going to here the vast majority answer “no.” They will insist that God only makes demands that He gives us the power to carry out. In reality this is the farthest thing from the Truth. God demands this, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), and also informs us of this, “No one is good—except God alone” (Luke 18:19). Are these not contradictory to our reason? They are, and therefore they are a stumbling block to many. Only by the grace of God will we see that the demands of God are in place to humble us and make us aware of our helplessness and impotence. God doesn’t make demands so that we will earn righteousness before His eyes, but He makes impossible demands so that we will despair of any ability or goodness of our own, clinging to the righteousness of His Son, Jesus Christ, instead. “‘If you want to enter life, obey the commandments…If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me’ When the young man heard this, he went away sad…When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible’” (Matthew 19:17, 21-22, 25-26). The demands of God are simply impossible for man to carry out and accomplish, and it is for this reason that God sent His Son into the world in order to fulfill the Law and His demands on our behalf. We must not fall into the trap of thinking that we are capable of perfect obedience and must instead realize our utter futility and helplessness apart from Jesus Christ. God’s demands that we are powerless to carry out have been fulfilled by Jesus Christ who loved us and gave Himself for me and you.
When we truly and deeply recognize that Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, had to be given into death for our sins we can no longer cling to any falsehood of self-righteousness. It is when we ignore or gloss over the true magnitude of this sacrifice that we invent our own little ways to come to and to appease God. If I was a freewill creature who could choose to love and trust God why on earth would He need to give His one and only Son over to torture and death for my sake? And why do we insist on making the sacrifice that Jesus Christ paid on the Cross only part of the price and part of the work for salvation? Do we really think that God’s only Son given into death wasn’t enough to completely save us wretched sinners apart from any work, merit, choice, or goodness of our own?
If we lose the Truth of Jesus Christ sacrificed for our complete salvation from death, sin, and the devil then we will fall into all sorts of false teachings, doctrines, and gospels. It is only when we understand the Truth of God’s grace in Jesus Christ given and shed for the forgiveness of our sins that all other teachings and doctrines of the church can be rightly understood. An error or misunderstanding of Christ’s work and sacrifice on the Cross will propagate into false teachings on Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, predestination, conversion, freewill, sin, the Law, everything. Jesus Christ, hanging bloodied on the Cross, given into death for my sins, is the starting point of God’s revelation to me, and if we lose this central Truth then we will lose everything else He is trying to tell us. “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).
If we see ourselves as wretched sinners in complete need of help and saving then we can be assured that Jesus Christ was given for us. “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13). No matter what happens to us in this life and no matter what doubts, troubles, problems, and sins we encounter we must cling fiercely to this singular Truth: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, loved me and gave Himself for me. This we must know and cling to at all times; whether the storm of life brings rain, shine, snow, sleet, hail, or tornado our way we know despite all this we have been loved, saved, and forgiven in Jesus Christ our Lord who went to the Cross on our behalf. “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body… Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:8-11, 16-18). Through all things we know that Christ was given “for me” and that His sacrifice, that was completed 2000 years ago, before we were even born, can never be taken away from us. We can look all trouble, persecution, illness, enemies, anxiety, sin, demons, death, and even the Devil himself straight in the eye and proclaim, “Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, loved me and was given into death on the Cross for me so that I might live; thru Him I have already won the war and you can do nothing to pull, steal, or separate me from God’s love for me in Christ Jesus my Lord!” “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35-39).
“I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:21).
To seek salvation by any means except by way of Christ’s work and merit on the Cross is to reject God’s grace and commit the most abominable sin of all. It is this rejection of grace that Paul’s entire message to the Galatians is focused on. He saw them unwittingly rejecting Jesus Christ and God’s grace thru the false gospels they had acquired. We must remember that rejection of God’s grace doesn’t always come in the dramatic form of outrage and hatred, but that it is often cloaked in good feelings, sentiment, and nicety. There are many who claim to be on the side of Christ, yet reject His grace, Cross, and work all in His very own name and under the banner of His cause. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
We must ask ourselves these important and insightful questions of Luther. When we do, we will see how absurd it is to think that salvation has anything to do with any work of our own or any cooperative work in conjunction with God’s work. We will see that salvation is and must be 100% the work of Jesus Christ crucified. If we make Christ’s death and resurrection anything less than the complete and sufficient atoning work for our sins then we make His death in vain. If we have to work or act to receive righteousness and if Christ was not raised to life for our salvation then we are lost and our faith is utterly empty. In the face of all things we must hold to God’s Word that Jesus Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection saves us by the grace of God. “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead…For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:17-20, 22).
The scariest part of Paul’s message to the Galatians is the subtleness of the false gospels that cause us to reject God’s grace and despise Jesus Christ. This is no laughing matter because the rejection of God’s grace is easy, in fact, terrifyingly easy. Anytime we seek salvation thru any work, act, decision, choice, merit, goodness, or anything whatsoever of our own and from ourselves then we reject Jesus Christ crucified and spit in His face. Natural man rejects and despises Christ’s work as our sinful nature cannot believe, trust, nor submit to God. Therefore our fallen reason and mind will want to cling fiercely to any message that quietly robs Christ’s Cross of its true work. We must be aware of this fact and on guard at all times, remembering that our sinful nature and mind is fully pitted against us, ready to convince us that false gospels are true at every turn. We must stand firm on the plain and clear Word of God that proclaims that Jesus Christ crucified has saved us completely from the world, sin, death, and the devil regardless of all the world’s wisdom and rationalizing. “Brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
Paul was adamant that the old covenant was broken and that in Christ Jesus men are freed from obligation to the Jewish laws and ceremonies. Paul was circumcised himself and was an upstanding and strong Jew, however his devotion was to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he did not want to distort or prohibit that in anyway. It is for this reason that Paul refused to let those who wished to remain enslaved to Jewish tradition put their yoke of slavery upon the Gentiles. He knew that for the Gospel to be pure it had to be unconditional and therefore he wanted nothing to do with those who wished to impart manmade conditions upon the followers of Jesus Christ. “Do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them” (Matthew 23:3-4).
Here is the Gospel that along with Paul we fight for. This Gospel is the news of the unconditional grace that is ours in Christ Jesus. There is no condition for this. Faith is not a condition that must be met, done, or chosen; faith is the gift and work of God in our hearts that clings relentlessly to Jesus Christ and His merits for all things. Fallen sinful man looks within himself for all things. When looking for salvation it is no different, he looks to some condition, state, work, act, something, anything from within himself that is cause for justification. The last bastion of this utterly lost sinfulness is manifested as man attempts to even make the awesome news of salvation in Christ Jesus something that ultimately comes from within. How does he do this? He does this by making faith something that originates from within us, something that we will or do in order to be saved. Nothing could be farther from the Truth! “The Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the ‘stumbling stone’” (Romans 9:30-32). Faith has its origin in Jesus Christ’s Cross, in His obedience and righteousness. If our faith comes from within, then we have faith in ourselves or in our own faith and pursue this faith as if it were a work; but faith that grasps to the Cross alone comes from outside of us, it comes from Jesus Christ’s immutable work of grace. Let us listen to the Words of God, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus is the author (the one who begins and writes our faith in our hearts!) and the perfecter (He sustains and finishes the work of faith in our hearts!) of our faith; it is founded, rooted, and created by and in Him. It is this faith that comes from Jesus Christ that Paul is talking about, “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last” (Romans 1:17).
Justification by the grace of Jesus Christ crucified alone through faith alone is our entire message. This is the complete and simple Gospel and it is for this reason that there can be no compromise, yielding, or distortion of this justification. It is for this article of faith that we must fight to the death, for it is the foundation of every other article of faith. If we lose this article then we have lost Jesus Christ, if we retain this article then by grace we have laid hold of our Lord and Savior. It is both that simple and that dramatic. Let us listen to the inspired words of Scripture, “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood…Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law” (Romans 3:23-25, 27-28). We must fight for this Truth and Message at all costs for this is God’s Word and promise that stands for all time. “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:19-23). We have simple faith and hope that clings not to anything from within us, but solely to the work and love of God that has come to us in the blood of Jesus Christ crucified. With Luther we say, “I must listen to the Gospel. It tells me, not what I must do, but what Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has done for me.”
“As for those who seemed to be important—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance—those men added nothing to my message” (Galatians 2:6).
How can we dare trust what other men, the world, and our flesh say over God Himself? Is it because we doubt that Scripture is God’s revealed Word to us? Or is it because we actually trust our own reason and senses over the Word of our very Creator? We must never forget that the Word of God stands head and shoulders above all men, including our very selves. Even when the Word of Scripture seems weak and foolish to us we must remember that even that which seems the lowliest of God’s Word is in fact infinitely greater than the best man has to offer. “The foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength” (1 Corinthians 1:25). Anytime there is a dispute over doctrine we must go to God’s clear Word remembering that His testimony outweighs even the loftiest and most eloquent of man’s rationalizations. Paul willingly stood up against the other apostles in order to preserve the purity of God’s Word and we must be willing to do the same. Even if the world’s most respected theologian were to say something contrary to God’s Word it would be our duty to stand up against him boldly and firmly. God’s Word and salvation lasts forever whereas man is nothing but dust. “Do not fear the reproach of men or be terrified by their insults. For the moth will eat them up like a garment; the worm will devour them like wool. But my righteousness will last forever, my salvation through all generations” (Isaiah 51:7-8). It is in the moment that we begin to give man and his teachings weight over God’s Word that we will fall and stumble. “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe” (Proverbs 29:25).
One humble Word from the mouth of God is to be esteemed and believed over one hundred thousand wise, eloquent, charismatic, and pleasing words from the mouths of wretched sinful men. God’s Word is flawless and eternal and thereby we can stand on it with all confidence against whatever the world throws our way. “The word of the LORD is flawless” (Psalm 18:30). “Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him” (Proverbs 30:5). “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8). In order that we don’t come to esteem the messenger over the Message God makes His messengers humble, broken, and sinful. He gives them vices and shortcomings which force us to realize that it is not they who are to be respected, but the Word of the Lord that they have been chosen to bring. Every prophet and apostle that God has chosen for His work has repeatedly been brought low in order that the power of God’s Word shines forth. “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power” (1 Corinthians 2:1-5). It is for this reason that we fear no man and willingly go before princes, kings, rulers, theologians, philosophers, scientists, all men, standing up for God’s clear Word. “In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise—in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” (Psalm 56:10-11). “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say” (Luke 12:11-12).
For the sake of Jesus Christ crucified we must be zealous, bold, and unwavering. For the clear message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ we will stand against all who oppose us, willingly forsaking all things for His cause. “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things” (Philippians 3:8). This may appear to be boastful, and indeed it is, but it is boasting in the sureness of God’s immutable and perfect Word that assures us salvation for the sake of Jesus Christ. “Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord’” (1 Corinthians 1:31). We do not boast of ourselves, but we boast of the power of God’s Word as it shows us to be nothing but weak and unworthy vessels. “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness” (2 Corinthians 11:30). We are compelled by the awesome grace of our God to stand firm for Him, proclaiming Him with our lives without ceasing. Paul and Jeremiah were clear on this, “Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16). “The word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long. But if I say, ‘I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot” (Jeremiah 20:8-9). It is on the Word of God that we willingly stake our lives for it is what we live on, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Let us pray that we cling fiercely to God’s Word no matter how weak and foolish it may seem to the world and our reason; resting on the assuring Message of Jesus Christ crucified for the forgiveness of our sins.
“When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, ‘You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?’” (Galatians 2:11-14).
Once again we see what Paul is willing to stand up against in the name of the Gospel. No human relationship could have come between Paul and the Gospel he was specifically entrusted with from Christ Himself. If we are willing to let any person in our life come between us and Jesus Christ then we do not understand the Gospel at all. Paul surely did as he fully grasped what Christ meant when He proclaimed, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). This does not mean that we despise our family and fellow man, but it means that no human relationship can come between us and our devotion to God and His will. Our love for Jesus Christ and His Truth trumps every other bond we have in this life. It is God’s cause that we fight for, and it is for God’s cause that we love our neighbor; everything must flow downhill from our “undivided devotion to the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7:35).
Peter, the man whose very confession of faith Christ chose to build His Church upon, had fallen into error and Paul was forced to rebuke and correct him. This must force us to stop and reflect, “If Peter, Christ’s chosen disciple, can fall into doctrinal error how capable are we of the same?” Scripture is full of warnings about false prophets, teachings, and gospels in order that we may be aware of the dangers that lurk trying to pull us away from the doctrine of God’s Word. The warning is clear, “If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!” (1 Corinthians 10:12). We must never become complacent and must always be on guard to protect ourselves from Satan’s lies, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). It is for this reason that we must rely on God’s Word, on His sure promises and not on our self or any man. All men are fallible and in need of the complete salvation and guidance of Jesus Christ, “There is no one righteous, not even one…there is no one who does good, not even one” (Romans 3:10, 12), “No one is good—except God alone” (Luke 18:19). Instead of looking inside ourselves, to the world, or to any man, let us look to the Cross. “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).
When we feel utterly alone in our faith and in our stand for the Truth we need to graciously remember those who went before us that walked much lonelier paths than we. Paul stood alone against the entire early Christian Church in order to preserve the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ; Luther stood alone against the entire Papacy and Roman Catholic Church in order to preserve the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ; but most of all let us not forget the One who walked the loneliest path of all, the path to the Cross, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:3-6). Let us pray that no matter how dark and lonely our path becomes that we remember the immutable promise of our Savior and remain steadfast in our undivided devotion to Him. “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
“We know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:16).
If we are capable of loving, fearing, and trusting God above all things why do we need Christ? If we can earn and work our way to salvation why do we need Christ? If we can merit grace through our own will and deeds why do we need Christ? If we are born free and able to please God why do we need Christ? These are all important questions which we must face anytime we think that anything from ourselves is acceptable to God. Anyone who is capable of performing acceptable works to God does not need Jesus Christ one bit. It is only the completely helpless sinner before God that needs Jesus Christ. If we don’t truly see our helplessness, then Christ is of no benefit to us; He becomes only a good teacher and example and no longer a Savior.
The error at the root of works righteousness teaching and man-initiated salvation is always an incorrect view of sin and of man’s fallen state. This wrong view is essentially the state of a Pharisee; it is one who doesn’t see sin for the utter and complete depravity that it is. These teachers may recognize sin in a certain sense but they fail to realize the helplessness and slavery that man is in by nature (especially themselves!). Many think they are “doing God a favor” by working for their own righteousness and salvation; they see themselves as graciously “saving God the trouble” of having to help them out. This is ultimately an issue of control; man wants control over his life, he wants independence. Little does he realize that independence is death, independence is rejection of God in the greatest of ways; all of our independent good works are filthy rags. “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins” (Isaiah 64:6-7). Everything we try to do on our own (in independence) is in fact an attempt to please God with rejection and hatred of Him, to please Him with sin. Do we really think God wants our filthy rags, our efforts? He has given us the pearl of greatest worth (Jesus Christ) and we throw this away and try to give Him our filthy rags instead.
This is God’s plan for salvation. The Law breaks us down and shows us our pharisaical attitude and heart that is completely dead and enslaved to sin. This despair of our own ability to do anything whatsoever (not even believe!) is what opens the door to the Gospel Message of grace. If one does not understand God’s Word of Law about sin then we will never cling by faith to God’s Word of Gospel about grace. When we look to Jesus Christ’s life we see that He never preached a word of forgiveness to the Pharisees; He constantly bombarded them with the Law and accusing them of their utter filthiness and hypocrisy before God, urging them to turn from their self-righteousness. Why? Why on earth would Jesus deny them the Gospel Message of forgiveness? Because the proclamation of forgiveness of sins must be preceded by repentance; the Law must precede the Gospel. “The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations” (Luke 24:46-47). Christ realized that the hearts of the Pharisees were consumed with their own merits, abilities, choices, and decisions; they needed to hear that even their best efforts were complete rubbish and dung. So what is repentance? It is literally a turning; a recognition of our complete filthiness and a turning away from our own righteousness, abilities, and works to God’s righteousness, abilities, and works. Is this something we can do? Do we have to do repentance before God will grant us forgiveness? No. Repentance is also the gift of God; it is the work of His Word of Law on our hearts, it is God opening our eyes to our filthiness and complete need of Him. “Gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Timothy 2:25). “God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life” (Acts 11:18). “The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel” (Acts 5:30-31). These two, repentance and forgiveness, Law and Gospel, culminate in the Cross of Jesus Christ. No natural sinful man can understand the Cross for it makes no sense to him; he does not understand why our supposed Savior hangs bloodied on the Cross. The Cross is God’s justice and wrath towards all sin combined with His mercy, grace, and forgiveness; until we recognize sin for its complete filth and magnitude then we will never understand why God had to sacrifice His only Son for the forgiveness of the world. Let us pray that we are daily granted repentance and forgiveness, clinging only to Jesus Christ by faith for all things.
“We know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:16).
We are freed from death, sin, the world, the flesh, and the devil in Christ Jesus, but it is not until the redemption of our bodies in the next life that we shed this body of death that we carry around our necks. “We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently” (Romans 8:23-25). We wait patiently for the redemption of our bodies and like Paul we cling fiercely to Jesus Christ who rescues us from our horrid sinful nature, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:18-24). We too see the wretchedness of ourselves everyday and despite this we cling in faith to the sure promise of the remission of our sins for Jesus Christ’s sake. No matter how great the opposition of sin is in our life we must remember that the sacrifice of the Lamb of God is more than sufficient for our atonement and forgiveness.
We need to look to Scripture to see how we are to proclaim God’s Word and Message. This order of proclamation is: [1] condemnation of God’s wrath towards our sin and our utter helplessness and slavery in this sin (Law) then [2] justification by grace thru faith in the work of Jesus Christ alone (Gospel) and then [3] good works and love for our neighbor that we are empowered to do by the Holy Spirit working in us and thru us (Sanctification). The entire Epistle of Romans lays out this order perfectly and even a few verses in Ephesians show this clearly. “[LAW:] As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. [GOSPEL:] But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. [SANCTIFICATION:] For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:1-10). This is the complete Message of God’s Word and to leave out any part is wrong, and to muddle together any of these parts and order is also wrong. Good works and the Law must remain separate from God’s grace and justification because we in no way earn, merit, or contribute to our salvation. However, all those who are saved and are in faith will do good works; there is no choice here, those who have faith in Christ Jesus will produce His fruit in their life and anything else is nothing but fake imitation faith.
Let us pray that by God’s Law we are granted repentance, seeing that we are truly deserving of God’s wrath, “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). “They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them” (Romans 1:29-32). “You are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God ‘will give to each person according to what he has done’…those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil” (Romans 2:5-6, 8-9). This is us; and let us not pretend it isn’t! Do we not see that we will not inherit the kingdom of God? We have set up our unmentionably filthy sinfulness, pride, and selves as our idols and we flaunt them in the face of our Creator! God is not kidding or pretending here; we are storing up God’s wrath of judgment against ourselves. Surely we are eternally lost and utterly deserving of it! What hope is there for such disobedient men as us? “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (Romans 5:8-10). “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24). “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11). Alas! Where we are filthy, dead sinners Christ has come and washed us thru Baptism and His Word, proclaiming His once and for all grace of Jesus Christ crucified for the sin of the entire world! We have been redeemed, justified, and forgiven by the pure grace of God! So do we continue in our old ways of sin now that we have been redeemed by the undeserved grace of God in Christ Jesus? “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:1-4). “Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace” (Romans 6:11-14). We have been saved and redeemed, freed from the slavery of sin! Let us no longer continue in our lives of filth but let us offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God, doing all things in accordance with His will and righteousness. “I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:1-2). Let us pray that God’s grace in Christ Jesus empowers us to a new life of faith, love, and service in accordance with God’s perfect will as we shed the old life of sin that we have lived in the past, living a new life in the power of the Holy Spirit.
“If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not!” (Galatians 2:17).
We cannot have it both ways. Either Jesus Christ is our justification or He is not. Anytime we try to elevate something (like our will or the Law) that “cooperates” or “works in parallel” to Christ’s work on the Cross we completely and totally destroy and undermine His sacrifice. Christ’s sacrifice and work on the Cross only has value and meaning if it is sufficient and “stand alone.” It is all or nothing. This is not something our sinful nature wants to admit. We all try to keep our own hidden closets where we don’t let Christ reside, a little part that remains “ours;” a little part that is “our work” and “our righteousness” or even “our pet sins.” Oh, how extremely dangerous this is! Christ’s justification is all or nothing so His call also demands all or nothing. “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters–yes, even his own life–he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple….In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple”(Luke 14:26-27, 33). We must concede and recognize this point; it is time for us to stop deceiving ourselves. This “Christianity” thing cannot be a part time endeavor and cannot be a hobby. Following Jesus Christ is a yes and no, black and white issue that has no “neutral” or “safe” ground. We are either with Him 100% or we are His enemy 100%. “He who is not with me is against me” (Luke 11:23). He demands 100% discipleship, no exceptions, for He is 100% of our justification. “So, because you are lukewarm–neither hot nor cold–I am about to spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16).
It is amazing how those who deny Christ’s perfect work for our atonement validate their beliefs with Christ’s own words. They take Christ’s proclamation of God’s Law and turn it against everything that He came to do. We need to understand Christ’s relationship with the Law. Christ came proclaiming God’s Law and calling men to repentance and unlike some believe, He did not come to abolish the Law. However, the gravest of all are those who believe He didn’t come to abolish the Law but to establish a new Law. This also is extremely and detrimentally false. So what did Christ come to do? If not abolish or establish a new Law? “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). Christ came to fulfill the Law, not to destroy it or establish a new one. Christ came to obey and fulfill the Law on our behalf, to do what we couldn’t and can’t; He came to bring sinners back to life thru His obedience. “Just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man [Jesus Christ] the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).
We must cling to God’s grace thru His promises in Jesus Christ; this is our only hope. So many is Christendom deny the promises of God in the Gospel, Baptism, forgiveness, etc. and set up their own “way” and law for coming to God. To deny God’s promises is to rely on the Law, and the Law demands this: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Wow. How can we ever do what the Law demands? How can we be perfect like God alone is? We simply cannot and we are cursed because of it. Even partial obedience to the Law is worthless before the eyes of God, “Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10). We are helpless without Jesus Christ and the promises that we have been given thru Him; we must therefore cling fiercely to what Christ has done on our behalf, for His work and righteousness is the only way. Let us pray that in faith we realize that the promises of God in Christ Jesus our Lord are the only way we are saved and forgiven, rejecting all teachers and false gospels that point the way to a new law, obedience, or decision of our own.
“If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God” (Galatians 2:18-19).
Once the hammer of the Law has broken us and crushed our self-righteousness and pride, the ministry of the Gospel swoops in to save us. Where our conscience is burdened by the Law and our inability to uphold it, the Gospel comes in to destroy sin, death, wrath, and the devil, freeing us from the burden of the Law. We are now dead to the Law in Christ Jesus. We must not rebuild what is dead to us. How exactly does one do this? We rebuild the Law when we attempt to mingle our salvation in Christ Jesus with any act of our own. We make the merits of Christ insufficient for us as we attempt to justify and validate ourselves thru our own merits after we have heard the Gospel. The forgiveness of God in Christ Jesus is free and as soon as we attach any condition to this free promise we weigh it down and destroy it, making it insignificant. Paul’s words are crystal clear, “we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law” (Romans 3:28). Our justification is completely the work of Christ and is fully apart from any observation of the Law on our part.
How many times do we ourselves fall into this trap, and how many churches are fully entrenched in this? Many churches are very quick to profess Christ with their lips, calling Him Lord and Savior, but at the same time denying His true power to save. Is He our salvation or not? Many say He is Savior, but then they deny His completely sufficient grace and salvation by adding conditions to the free promise of forgiveness in Him. Do we have to live a certain way to be forgiven? No. Do we have to do something to get this forgiveness? No, it is ours by the way of God’s promise, everything has already been done for us! Do we have to have a right heart in order to be forgiven? No; Jesus Christ saves sinners, men with black hearts of death, completely and totally by an act of pure grace. Let us cling to Christ’s awesome power to save us and redeem us apart from anything good in us or from us. “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24).
We no longer live subject to the Law. The Law has been fulfilled for us in Jesus Christ, and we now live by faith in and for Him alone. This does not mean the Law no longer exists for it is still God’s immutable will, breaking sinners and preparing them for the Gospel. However, we in Christ are dead to the Law, it no longer exists for us. In Christ the Law is fulfilled to us and we have His righteousness by the grace of His saving act on the Cross. “It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because law brings wrath” (Romans 4:13-15). We are heirs by faith in God’s promise, faith that rests on the work, merit, and righteousness of Jesus Christ crucified. Let us pray that by grace we rely fully and completely on the saving work of Jesus Christ refusing to look to any self-concocted merit or goodness of our own.
“If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God” (Galatians 2:18-19).
Paul tells us a very strange and foolish sounding thing: to die to the Law is to live for God. What can he mean by this? To die to the Law is to ultimately die to our own will and way, to give up on pleasing God thru our own efforts and will and to let God’s will reign. When we try to keep the Law and draw near to God thru it, we only fail and ultimately reject God. “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never…make perfect those who draw near to worship” (Hebrews 10:1). When we are dead to the Law we no longer are focused on achieving merit and goodness of our own and we willingly rest on the goodness of God alone. We seldom realize that living for the Law is very self-focused and self-righteous, but when we live for God by faith in Jesus Christ we become centered on Him outside of our own self and selfish ways. Ironically, when we are dead to the Law by faith in Christ we in fact begin to uphold the Law (in its real sense) for the very first time. “Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law” (Romans 3:31). When we pursue the Law as a righteousness of our own we will stumble, but in faith, when we seek no goodness or righteousness of our own, we find righteousness outside of ourselves in Christ Jesus. “The Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works” (Romans 9:30-32).
Christ is the greatest peace and comfort there is; He is the only true rests for our souls and the only One who can fill the void inside of us. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). Everything we could possibly fear in this life is powerless against Jesus Christ; we cannot be separated from God’s love in Christ Jesus, nothing can change what He has done for us and how He has died for our sins: not circumstance, sin, evil, death, demons, our enemies, natural disasters, our selves, angels, the future, the unknown, and even God’s wrath. “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all… I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:31-32, 38-39). Whenever we are tormented and assaulted by any fear or anxiety in this life we can boldly cling to the fact that Almighty God is on our side in Christ Jesus our Lord; we are secure and safe in the loving arms of grace.
Christ became the Law, death, and sin on our account in order to propitiate God’s wrath against us. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Where we were disobedient, He was obedient; where we were sinners, He was sinless; and where we were deserving of eternal death, He brought us to life. When we were slaves under the Law, sin, and death Christ came to destroy their power over us so that we might be free thru and in Him. “He too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery” (Hebrews 2:14-15). Let us pray that by grace thru faith we see that we are freed from all the burdens, evils, and enemies of the world, sin, death, and the devil. When we were God’s own enemies, who had everything to fear, Christ reconciled us to God and brought us to Him by the grace of the Cross. “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18).
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
By faith we share in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This means that we have suffered God’s wrath towards our sin in the Cross, we have died and conquered death in the Cross, and we have conquered Satan in the Cross. The battle wages on in this life, but the war has already been won thru the Cross of Jesus Christ. The Law itself has now been fulfilled for us in the Cross as Christ has crucified all of the written codes that were against us. “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:13-15).
If we look to ourselves in the least bit for our righteousness then we are lost, dead, and eternally condemned. God illustrated this to the people of Israel when they were wandering in the desert. In their frustration the people spoke against God and so He sent a plague of snakes which started killing the Israelites. God, however, in His mercy, helped them, “The LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived” (Numbers 21:8-9). We too (mankind as a whole) have rebelled against God and our sin is killing us. God in His immeasurable grace and mercy has sent Jesus Christ as our bronze snake, who saves us when we look upon Him in faith. “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). Jesus Christ is our only way out of the snake den of our sin. If we look to ourselves in any way, shape, or form then we have looked away from Christ, our only true salvation. Our trust must be in God’s promise that we are saved in the Cross of Jesus Christ, we must not fall for the lies of Satan which tempt us to look to some decision, choice, or act of our own. We can only have one master and we can only put our faith in one Savior, is it Jesus Christ or is it our self? “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).
Christ is our righteousness and purity. When we look to our self and flesh we see that we are all sin. But when we look to Christ living in us by faith we see that we are instead pure and blameless for we have been washed with water thru the Word in Baptism. “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:25-27). By faith we cling to Christ as our righteousness and by faith we receive the blessings of our Baptism. It is in looking to Jesus Christ for everything that we are found in Him as righteous. “Be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith” (Philippians 3:9). Let us pray that we live in a constant realization that Jesus Christ is our salvation, completely and totally, in whom we receive God’s free gift of grace and righteousness. “God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17).
The life we live in our body is by the faith of Jesus Christ. Before we are born again in Christ we live in our bodies and for our bodies; the flesh governs what we do, we live to serve our flesh. When we share in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ our flesh is put to death and it no longer controls us and guides us; it becomes a servant and tool of our faith. Just like our reason, the body is our enemy apart from Christ, but in Him it is a great tool to be used for His glory.
The Christian lives in constant battle and resistance to his flesh. The difference between the Christian and the unbeliever is that thru the grace of God the Christian has control over the flesh and no longer lives subject to the every desire of the flesh. Fasting is ever so important for the daily walk of the Christian because thru fasting the flesh is mortified and subjected to the will of Christ. Fasting is a way for us to show our flesh and body that its every desire is not in control of us and that we do not live in order to satiate the appetite of our body. Our body is subject to Jesus Christ first and His desires, a tool for proclaiming Him and giving Him glory in all things. If we give in to every demand and desire of our body then it becomes our master. “I will not be mastered by anything. ‘Food for the stomach and the stomach for food’—but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body…Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:12-13, 19-20). If we live for our flesh then we are enemies of the cross of Christ for in the cross our flesh is crucified and mortified daily so that we live by faith for Jesus Christ alone. “Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:18-21).
It is fascinating that one of the great errors of the papists still lives on in “protestant” Christianity. If you go around asking Christians, “Will God demand more from you than you can do?” you are likely going to here the vast majority answer “no.” They will insist that God only makes demands that He gives us the power to carry out. In reality this is the farthest thing from the Truth. God demands this, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), and also informs us of this, “No one is good—except God alone” (Luke 18:19). Are these not contradictory to our reason? They are, and therefore they are a stumbling block to many. Only by the grace of God will we see that the demands of God are in place to humble us and make us aware of our helplessness and impotence. God doesn’t make demands so that we will earn righteousness before His eyes, but He makes impossible demands so that we will despair of any ability or goodness of our own, clinging to the righteousness of His Son, Jesus Christ, instead. “‘If you want to enter life, obey the commandments…If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me’ When the young man heard this, he went away sad…When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible’” (Matthew 19:17, 21-22, 25-26). The demands of God are simply impossible for man to carry out and accomplish, and it is for this reason that God sent His Son into the world in order to fulfill the Law and His demands on our behalf. We must not fall into the trap of thinking that we are capable of perfect obedience and must instead realize our utter futility and helplessness apart from Jesus Christ. God’s demands that we are powerless to carry out have been fulfilled by Jesus Christ who loved us and gave Himself for me and you.
When we truly and deeply recognize that Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, had to be given into death for our sins we can no longer cling to any falsehood of self-righteousness. It is when we ignore or gloss over the true magnitude of this sacrifice that we invent our own little ways to come to and to appease God. If I was a freewill creature who could choose to love and trust God why on earth would He need to give His one and only Son over to torture and death for my sake? And why do we insist on making the sacrifice that Jesus Christ paid on the Cross only part of the price and part of the work for salvation? Do we really think that God’s only Son given into death wasn’t enough to completely save us wretched sinners apart from any work, merit, choice, or goodness of our own?
If we lose the Truth of Jesus Christ sacrificed for our complete salvation from death, sin, and the devil then we will fall into all sorts of false teachings, doctrines, and gospels. It is only when we understand the Truth of God’s grace in Jesus Christ given and shed for the forgiveness of our sins that all other teachings and doctrines of the church can be rightly understood. An error or misunderstanding of Christ’s work and sacrifice on the Cross will propagate into false teachings on Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, predestination, conversion, freewill, sin, the Law, everything. Jesus Christ, hanging bloodied on the Cross, given into death for my sins, is the starting point of God’s revelation to me, and if we lose this central Truth then we will lose everything else He is trying to tell us. “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).
If we see ourselves as wretched sinners in complete need of help and saving then we can be assured that Jesus Christ was given for us. “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13). No matter what happens to us in this life and no matter what doubts, troubles, problems, and sins we encounter we must cling fiercely to this singular Truth: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, loved me and gave Himself for me. This we must know and cling to at all times; whether the storm of life brings rain, shine, snow, sleet, hail, or tornado our way we know despite all this we have been loved, saved, and forgiven in Jesus Christ our Lord who went to the Cross on our behalf. “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body… Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:8-11, 16-18). Through all things we know that Christ was given “for me” and that His sacrifice, that was completed 2000 years ago, before we were even born, can never be taken away from us. We can look all trouble, persecution, illness, enemies, anxiety, sin, demons, death, and even the Devil himself straight in the eye and proclaim, “Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, loved me and was given into death on the Cross for me so that I might live; thru Him I have already won the war and you can do nothing to pull, steal, or separate me from God’s love for me in Christ Jesus my Lord!” “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35-39).
“I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:21).
To seek salvation by any means except by way of Christ’s work and merit on the Cross is to reject God’s grace and commit the most abominable sin of all. It is this rejection of grace that Paul’s entire message to the Galatians is focused on. He saw them unwittingly rejecting Jesus Christ and God’s grace thru the false gospels they had acquired. We must remember that rejection of God’s grace doesn’t always come in the dramatic form of outrage and hatred, but that it is often cloaked in good feelings, sentiment, and nicety. There are many who claim to be on the side of Christ, yet reject His grace, Cross, and work all in His very own name and under the banner of His cause. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
We must ask ourselves these important and insightful questions of Luther. When we do, we will see how absurd it is to think that salvation has anything to do with any work of our own or any cooperative work in conjunction with God’s work. We will see that salvation is and must be 100% the work of Jesus Christ crucified. If we make Christ’s death and resurrection anything less than the complete and sufficient atoning work for our sins then we make His death in vain. If we have to work or act to receive righteousness and if Christ was not raised to life for our salvation then we are lost and our faith is utterly empty. In the face of all things we must hold to God’s Word that Jesus Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection saves us by the grace of God. “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead…For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:17-20, 22).
The scariest part of Paul’s message to the Galatians is the subtleness of the false gospels that cause us to reject God’s grace and despise Jesus Christ. This is no laughing matter because the rejection of God’s grace is easy, in fact, terrifyingly easy. Anytime we seek salvation thru any work, act, decision, choice, merit, goodness, or anything whatsoever of our own and from ourselves then we reject Jesus Christ crucified and spit in His face. Natural man rejects and despises Christ’s work as our sinful nature cannot believe, trust, nor submit to God. Therefore our fallen reason and mind will want to cling fiercely to any message that quietly robs Christ’s Cross of its true work. We must be aware of this fact and on guard at all times, remembering that our sinful nature and mind is fully pitted against us, ready to convince us that false gospels are true at every turn. We must stand firm on the plain and clear Word of God that proclaims that Jesus Christ crucified has saved us completely from the world, sin, death, and the devil regardless of all the world’s wisdom and rationalizing. “Brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
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