Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Okay, so I feel like since it's been a couple of weeks, what have we been studying?
What are we, Galatians? We are in Galatians, so you can go to Galatians if you haven't already.
We'll start there. But again, like I said, we're going to flip all around. So again, if you don't have a Bible, please get one from the back. It will really benefit you.
And at this point, we're in Galatians chapter two.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: So.
[00:00:30] Speaker A: But we've been doing an inductive Bible study. So what is an inductive Bible study?
What does that mean?
How do you study inductively?
[00:00:49] Speaker B: Study it from the inside out.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: Study it from the inside out. Can you or anyone explain what exactly that looks like? What do you, do you know, what is the inside? Where do we start when we talk about the inside?
Yeah, yeah, we want to start at Scripture. And I'd say even more specifically, we want to start with like, the scripture. We're looking at, you know, the, the words and the phrases and the sentences and even paragraphs. And you get bigger and bigger. You get chapters, you get books of the Bible. You have the whole Bible speaking into it. And so I think today we'll actually get to see a good example. We'll look at a couple different words, but then jump out to other parts of Scripture to help us understand what we're reading in Galatians 2, which you, you know, for this exercise, if you were going to do this at home, I would suggest, if you can, to have a Bible that has good cross references that can be enormously helpful in trying to find what other parts of Scripture talk about this or at least reference this word or this topic.
Study Bibles are also really helpful with that.
Now, you don't need those necessarily. You can do the work, but it is just a lot quicker and easier if you have, have someone, oh, well, let me go to this chapter in Deuteronomy and read and see, you know, how this New Testament book is referencing that. So those are really helpful. But today I'll help us kind of jump around and see how the Bible informs Galatians.
So just as a review, does anybody remember what are some of the topics or the ideas? What are some of the things that you remember from Galatians? So far we've done Galatians 1, 1, 2, 14 for some of the things that's going.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: To.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, basically Paul was called by.
[00:03:14] Speaker B: God, okay, and like, gave him the gospel to teach everybody. And he, like, met up with some of the, like other pillars said, like Peter and James and what we talked about last time we were in Galatians was like how Peter, like.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: He like.
[00:03:41] Speaker B: Ate with Jews or ate with Galatians. I forgot.
[00:03:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
And he what?
[00:03:50] Speaker B: In like, it's like he did something.
[00:03:56] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's okay. No, you got some really important points there. Paul is called by God and he was telling us this because he's trying to enforce that what I've taught is from God. It's not a made up message. This is the gospel.
And so he's just trying to say, I'm not just telling you an arbitrary gospel and trying to tell you guys how to live. I'm telling you this is what God says.
And here's why we know it's what God says. And he talked to Peter, James and John and said, look, I already had this message because I got it from God, but they kind of just confirmed it. But then he does talk about how Peter was living hypocritically. So the eating thing was that he was eating.
He was withdrawing from eating with Gentiles, though he would do so freely in some contexts, eating food that Gentiles could eat, that Jews wouldn't eat.
But because he was afraid of some people in the circumcision party that held really tightly to Jewish customs, he would be hypocritical and step away from those Gentiles. And that would cause some people to be misled and think, oh, well, maybe Christians do need to follow these Jewish customs.
And we should remember Paul's not saying that the way the Jews were living, you know, not eating pork isn't a sin, but he is saying it's wrong to require that.
And the same with circumcision.
It's not a sin to bear that, but at the same time it's wrong to require that as a condition of the gospel.
So that's kind of been the main idea. And here we kind of get into the real heart, the meat of how he's going to argue this. It's because all of these problems, this legalism problem we've been discussing is at heart a misunderstanding of the doctrine of justification.
And we'll talk about justification and look at how we kind of understand it from the Bible. But Paul sees this as the most fundamental problem with what was happening and what he wants to correct the Galatians to understand.
So we're in Galatians 2. Let's just read the verses that are on your page.
Paul writes, we ourselves, this is 2:15.
We ourselves are Jews by birth and not gentile sinners. Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.
So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law.
Because by works of the law, no one will be justified.
Okay, so as I read through that, are there any words or phrases that maybe stuck out to you that seem important?
[00:06:48] Speaker B: Justified.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: Justified, yeah, that's important.
What made you think that was important? Is it just because I was talking about it before?
What.
[00:07:01] Speaker C: The last sentence?
[00:07:04] Speaker A: Yeah, in order to be justified by.
[00:07:06] Speaker C: Faith in Christ and not by the works of the law. Because if you justify by the works of the law, you can't justify. Because God doesn't justify by the works of the law, he justifies by faith.
[00:07:17] Speaker A: Yeah. So you're also talking about works of the law. I think that's another really important phrase.
And if we're wondering why it's so important, I think sometimes it can really help us when we do our personal Bible studies or studies like this, to notice an author repeating something a lot.
And he repeats both of those phrases multiple times, just in two verses.
So I think he really is laboring to help us know that we are justified through Christ and not by works of the law.
Now, if we start looking at verse 15, he starts by saying we ourselves.
Who are the we?
Who's he talking about?
This is where maybe looking in your Bible will help, as you can see the context.
Yeah, I think so. Maybe a specific group of apostles.
Do you know maybe specifically who we're talking about?
So as a general principle, I think it's helpful when we're looking at pronouns in the Bible to try to look near, as near as possible. Sometimes those pronouns can call back a little ways, but usually not more than a couple of sentences.
So I think he is maybe most specifically talking about himself and Peter. He might also be talking about Peter, James, John and himself.
That doesn't mean that this concept doesn't apply to the whole church.
But he is starting by saying we talking about these other apostles. We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. So he's not talking about every Christian ever, because there are many Gentiles. The Galatians are at least mostly Gentile, but he's talking about the apostles. So we are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners.
Now, you know, this is kind of an interesting phrase.
Do you have any idea why Paul calls Gentiles sinners?
[00:09:52] Speaker C: Maybe because they're Not God's chosen people.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: I think that's a good guess, but I'm not quite so sure because Paul in Romans discusses that the church is true Israel, and so that would include Christians like the Galatians.
But I. So we don't think he's. Surely he's not calling gentiles are sinners, Jews are not. Right.
We know he can't be saying that again. In Romans 3, he talks about how for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, no one is righteous. No, not one. And his point is to say that Jews and Gentiles neither of us are. Are righteous, we are all sinners.
I think it might help us.
And the way the original language is constructed, it could be translated as sinners from the Gentiles, which I do think is helpful. You see, to a Jew, which is like these apostles, all Gentiles, they were without the law of Moses.
So they were all sinners just because they did not know the law. And so it's less saying they're sinners, Jews aren't. And more just saying that these Gentiles who are not obeying the Mosaic Law as we are accustomed to, he said, we are not them. We are Jews by birth. So he's trying to just set up and clarify, who are we? I'm an apostle, I'm a Jew. I'm talking to Peter.
He's a Jew. I rebuked Peter. He's a Jew. And these other apostles, James and John, they are Jews.
He said, we're Jews. We are Jews. We are not like the Gentiles. We have the Mosaic Law, we know it. And then in verse 16, he says, yet we know who's the we? It's Peter and Paul still. Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law.
So though, hey, we are Jews, we have the law. But we know even as Jews with the law that you're not justified by it, which is important.
Now, here's what they know as not only Christians, but apostles, but we need to know what does justify mean?
Does anybody know what it means to justify?
To make right.
To make right.
That's good. Yes. Does anyone else have anything?
I think this is a good start. Let's look at the Bible and see how we can start at toward the beginning and kind of work closer and closer through biblical history and redemptive history and see how the Bible progressively reveals what justification means.
The definition does not change, but we kind of learn to understand it as we read the Bible.
So I need some Volunteers, can someone look up and read Deuteronomy 25:1?
Raise your hand if you want to do it. Okay, Anya, you'll do that. Can someone also look up second Chronicles 6, 23.
Anderson, Proverbs 17, 15, Ezra, Romans 2, 13.
Liza, Romans or. I'll do that one, because that one's a little confusing. Romans 4, 5.
Jonah. Okay, and then one more. Romans 8, 30, and 33.
Anyone?
Mike? Thank you. Okay, so Deuteronomy 25:1. Can we hear that?
[00:13:54] Speaker C: When men have a dispute, they are to take it to the court and the judges will decide a case. Acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: Okay, so if there's a dispute between men and they come into the court and the judges decide between them, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty. So this is Deuteronomy. This is the second giving of the law. That's what the word Deuteronomy means.
And so we.
There are just a plethora of verses we could have chosen from this part of the Bible. We kind of see this concept that God thinks it is good for the innocent to be acquitted and the guilty to be condemned.
We see this repeatedly.
So that's, you know, a pretty good summary. Acquitting the innocent, that means releasing, you know, they are acquitted.
The charges are dropped, so to speak, or not really dropped. They just are not guilty. But the guilty people who are guilty should be condemned.
This is how God starts to reveal how he is holy and just and how he interacts with a sinful world. Now, 2 Chronicles 6, 23, make sure you're in Chronicles. I think you might be in Corinthians, which is a confusing difference.
Anderson, do you want to do. You can do Galatians 3, 11, if that might be. Okay, you're almost there.
[00:16:02] Speaker C: Then hear from heaven and act and judge your servants. Repaying the guilty by bringing his conduct on his own head. And if.
Vindicating the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: Thank you. Okay, I'll read that again. Then. Hear from heaven and act and judge your servants.
Repaying the guilty by bringing his conduct on his own head, and vindicating the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness. Is there anything else that stands out from. You know, we just heard the first one. What about this one?
Are there any new concepts?
There's a word that starts with R.
What is it?
Righteous and righteousness. That's right.
So even more than just acquitting or vindicating those who are innocent and guilty being paid, bearing the Punishment that the guilty deserves. But we see the righteous are rewarded according to his righteousness.
So if someone has righteousness, which means they are right, they are upstanding, holiness and innocence, they are rewarded according to that righteousness that he or she has.
So now we're kind of. We got. Righteousness is an important concept in justification. What does Proverbs 17:15 say?
[00:17:49] Speaker B: He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the just, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord.
[00:17:57] Speaker A: Right.
What does this tell us about the Lord?
He who justifies the wicked, he who condemns the righteous, are both alike an abomination to the Lord. What does this tell us about God?
He condemned the wicked and justified the the just. He does. But even more than that, he hates. When the opposite happens, he cannot justify.
Or people ought not be justified when they're guilty.
People should be punished when they're guilty. The righteous shall be justified.
See, God is a good judge. He does not judge wrongly.
What we would call a wicked judge looking at a guilty person and declaring innocence, that is not a good judge. But God is a good judge and he wants righteousness to be done.
All right, now we're going to jump into the New Testament. Romans 2:13.
I don't remember who had these at this point.
[00:19:10] Speaker C: For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law.
[00:19:16] Speaker A: Okay, yeah. It's not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. Okay, maybe. What does this add? What does this teach us about justification?
Yeah, I think we see a connection of some sort, that justification is not just hearing the law paying lip service to it, but it is. We see people who do the law. This is another way to say that people who obey God, they are justified.
Now, I don't think, and we'll kind of maybe see this more, that doing the law gets you justified.
And that's actually not what it says. But the doers of the law will be justified doesn't necessarily mean what. When we take into account all of this, that that is their works of the law are earning them the justification. But we do see a connection there in Romans 2:13.
Now Romans 3:20 and then 23 and 24, which I'll read, says, for by works of the law, no human being will be justified. So a chapter earlier, in Romans 2, doing the law get you justified? Paul is clear, by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight. Since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
So what does this clarify?
What do we learn in this verse?
[00:21:04] Speaker B: That we can only be saved through his gift?
[00:21:08] Speaker A: Yeah, it has to be a gift. Whose gift?
Who's the giver?
God. And it's given through Christ. Right. We see redemption that is in Christ.
So we're justified actually by grace, as a gift.
It's not by works of the law.
But now we do need to understand, and I think we'll start to see this more. Okay, so it's a gift, but God wants. God will punish the wicked.
In fact, to do the opposite is abominable. The wicked will be punished. The righteous will receive eternal life.
All right, who had Romans 4, 5? Did I give that? Yeah.
[00:21:51] Speaker B: And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the other godly, whose faith is righteousness.
[00:21:57] Speaker A: All right, did anyone catch an important concept here? To the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.
What's so important about this verse?
Yeah, yeah, but what you know, how would you be justified according to this verse?
By. Yeah, by faith. His faith is counted as righteousness.
He believes in him who justifies.
So the justifying is not anything that we're working up inside.
Paul is saying, look completely to someone who does the justifying.
And it is counted. Faith is counted as righteousness.
Did I give someone Romans 8, 30, and 33? That's right, Mike. Thank you.
And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.
Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?
It is God who justifies. Thank you. Okay, what do we see here?
We see this chain, right? So we see that God predestines whom he has predestined, he has also called. So this call is the Holy Spirit's call to a sinner to turn from sin and trust in Christ and those who he calls. So he's saying, if you have been called, he will also justify you.
He will justify. As we see made clear in verse 33, it is God who justifies. The work is put in his hands.
And another point to help us realize how it's it is, there's really no condition laid upon the sinner to meet before he can be justified.
He says, who? Those whom he justified he also glorified. This is referencing eternity, a glorified body, new heavens and new earth. With Christ Jesus, if you are justified, you will be glorified.
This is a promise from the Lord.
He's guaranteeing this. And he can guarantee it because it's not based on our ability to hold the gift of grace. That is justification.
No, it is God who justifies.
Now, we can look at Galatians. If you look at chapter three, verses six through nine, we read, just as Abraham believed God, so he believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.
Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, in you shall all the nations, every nation, all the nations be blessed.
So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
And then just a couple verses later, in verse 11, now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law. For the righteous shall live by faith, the righteous shall live by faith. Justification. Then I think when we take all of this together, especially when we remember those earlier texts talking about the law and how judges would decide who is guilty and who is innocent, justification is a legal declaration. It's a legal acquittal of the innocent.
So the innocent, the righteous are declared. So they are given life. They live in righteousness.
Now, does anyone see any possible problems with this definition, the legal acquittal of the innocent? The innocent are declared righteous.
Is there any problem with this or maybe something that maybe a question you could anticipate? I don't think it's a wrong definition. But who is innocent?
None.
It's the legal acquittal of the innocent. But no one is righteous.
No one is innocent. We are all guilty.
And if good and righteous judges acquit or vindicate the innocent, then how can God be both a good judge and justify sinners? How can he then not become an abomination to the Lord himself?
Now, this is kind of a. It's just a question that I think you might get one day. So I want to address. Yeah, how can we.
How can the good God decide that some people are now innocent and other people are not innocent?
Well, we need to look again at how one can be justified. How can a guilty person be considered actually innocent?
Paul first tells us that it's not by works of the law. So it's definitely not by doing works of the law.
But what are works of the law?
Does anyone know exactly what this means.
[00:27:29] Speaker B: They'Re only enough to condemn.
[00:27:34] Speaker A: Yeah, they are. Well, they do condemn. But what exactly does the word, the phrase mean? What are works of the law?
Yeah, I think that can be part of it. I do think.
I think it's probably a bit more encompassing of just general obedience to God's divine law in being right, not sinning. Right. Because that is one part of the Mosaic law. But I think this phrase generally refers to more. But it is actually heavily debated.
But let's look at some other texts just to get an idea. Galatians 3 and a few verses says, let me ask you only this. Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? You know, obviously the answer is hearing with faith, not by works of the law. Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith? It's by hearing with faith. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them.
So this is kind of pointing us to the whole Mosaic law, not just the holidays and the ritualistic parts. If you don't do all things written, you are cursed.
Romans 3 again tells us, for by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
So in all eight uses of those words, Paul discussing justification of receiving the Spirit. And it's frequently contrasted with faith. So works of the law is contrasted with faith. So Paul kind of sees these as kind of opposite ends of how we might seek to be declared innocent, declared righteous in God's sight.
So some say this phrase works of the law just refers to legalism. Some say it refers to specific laws, like Katie said, laws that delineate Jews and Gentiles.
But I think the correct way to understand this is as referring to the whole law of Moses. Every little word.
Galatians 3:10, which we just read refers, actually refers and references Deuteronomy 27, 25, Jeremiah 11:3, and Ezekiel 18:4 to say that one must perfectly keep the law of Moses to be justified. One must perfectly do the works of the law to be justified, but we cannot do them.
So he concludes, along with Peter, that no one is declared innocent or righteous by these works of the law, by the law of Moses. So how can a sinner be justified without making God A bad or corrupt judge.
That's when we see in verse 16, but through faith in Jesus Christ.
So how can we be justified through faith in Jesus Christ? Are there any other ways to be justified?
No, absolutely not.
So we have to conclude that since God is a good and righteous judge and he declares sinners innocent through their faith in Christ, then faith in Christ must somehow transfer. The word we use is actually impute. Transfer Christ's righteousness to us so that God's declaration of our righteousness is not a lie. It's true, because Christ's righteousness is credited to you through faith.
It's like crediting something to your bank account. It is like, now there's. It is yours.
Now I say transfer. I just want to clarify. He's not making you still sin, right? You can be justified and we will still sin until the Lord returns. That's why they use the word. Theologians like to use the word imputation. It just means a crediting to. So the righteousness is credited to you through faith, so that you can actually be seen as innocent in God's sight because you, you are clothed in Christ's innocence.
So he is a good judge and he can justify those who are born sinners.
What a remarkable thing. It's the only way that we can be justified. You see, there's just no other way. We could do it because we can't meet any of the conditions.
If any little aspect is left up to us, our sinful natures will fumble it. We cannot do it, but Christ does it perfectly. You just must believe.
And you don't have to clean anything up or try to make yourself as close to justified as possible before you believe. You just believe and become a doer of the word because you believe.
So since justification is a declaration, that means it's also not a process.
This is significant because other, at least Christian in name religions, the largest of which would be the Roman Catholic Church, they see as a process.
They mingle together justification and sanctification so that over time you become more and more justified.
And that which you don't make up in this life, you make up for in a purgatory.
But see, we see that this is a declaration.
You know, we see it all throughout a lot of these verses that God sees and declares who is righteous, who is just. You know, we read that Abraham believed God and he was counted to him as righteousness.
We read that for our sake he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. It is declared by the good judge.
So to be justified means that you have come to Christ through faith, repenting of your sins.
The punishment for your sins, if this is true of you, has been wholly laid on Jesus if you are united to him through faith.
So we should trust that his Spirit will guide you into holiness and sanctification.
And then finally we read in this verse, as we come to a close, he says, we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law.
So here, the tail end of the verse, Paul says we.
He is still talking about Peter, Paul and Jewish Christians saying that, that we know this, but he is making a point to Gentiles that all Jew and Gentile are justified through faith the same way.
So Gentiles don't have to meet these specific hoops. They don't have to go over special hurdles to get to join in with the Jewish Christians. He's saying, like the Jews too had been justified through faith, not through the law. They were not justified through the law, they were justified through faith.
And for centuries, Jews did not understand this. They kind of lost this understanding, forgetting that Abraham was believed God and is credited to him as righteousness. And this is before he bore the sign of circumcision. He was credited as righteous by his faith before he did the works of the law.
This is so important.
So let us think as we close and pray, how the doctrine of justification by faith alone can promote unity in the church.
See, we can know this and accept and love others because we start at the same sinful point. We are all justified not by anything we have done. We are completely unique in that way. It doesn't matter what size of the world you come from, what battles you fought in life, what background you have compared to someone else, how different you may be. And in personality, it just doesn't matter because we've all come from the same place. All in Christ have been justified through faith.
We have that in common, the most important thing. So let's pray and then we can worship with the church. Father, thank you for your word and for your justifying love that is mediated through Christ. Lord, thank you for your Son who died on the cross and rose again, that by believing in him we can have life in his name.
Lord, thank you for removing all the barriers to eternal life through your son. Lord, we pray that we would truly repent and believe in the Savior, that by grace, as a gift we can be justified and can then share this good news with others.
We pray all this. In Christ's name, amen.
