Galatians Week 5 • Galatians 2:15-21

Show Notes

Sunday, February 2nd • Beau Bradberry

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

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Host

Beau Bradberry

Senior Pastor

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Thanks for listening.

I want to start off with a question this morning, and I love this question because we've got

kids sitting in here with parents, and parents sitting in here with kids.

And what we're going to establish from the very beginning is a level of truthfulness.

In fact, let's do this.

Can we bring the house lights all the way up?

Because I want to see the responses.

There we go.

Kids, look at your parents.

Parents, look at your kids.

If your kids are sitting over here, I see some parents trying to break their neck.

Make sure you can see them, all right?

I'm going to ask this question.

Can't lie, you're in church.

All right?

How many of you, by show of hands, have ever done something wrong?

Grayson's right here.

Emma's right here.

Not that you've ever done something wrong.

A little over-eager on raising your hands first, all right?

Have ever done something wrong and gotten away with it?

Like, still to this day, your parents do not know.

Raise your hands, raise your hands, raise your hands.

Keep them up.

Keep Aaron Bradbury, raise your hand.

I'm going to pay for that later.

That was not the Holy Spirit in me in that moment.

I'm so sorry.

Amen.

Let's take Lord's Supper.

We're done.

Oob, can you come preach?

There we go.

Okay.

Years ago, my son got in a lot of trouble.

I've told this story to some of y'all, tell the story to everybody, but Grayson got in the

most trouble that he had ever gotten in.

He's about four years old.

I came into our kitchen.

I sat down at our kitchen table and carved right in the middle of our table was a G.

And so I called him in.

Hey, buddy, did you do this?

No.

Really?

Aaron, Bo, Emma.

Grayson, gee, right there.

Did you do this?

No.

Buddy, I'm not really mad that you did it.

I'm mad that you're lying to me about it.

So one more time.

Did you do it?

No.

Grayson, you know what this means?

And he looked at me and said, let me get a spanking.

I said, yep.

Worst spanking he's ever got.

We still own this table.

This table is still in our house.

And several years ago, we're sitting there having dinner, and I'm recounting back to the time

where my son got disciplined like he'd never been disciplined before and has never been disciplined since.

And I see a smile come across the face of my daughter.

And I said, Emma, what's so funny?

And she said, well, Dad, I was sitting at the table, and I had a pencil, and the eraser was off.

And it had a sharp corner.

And I turned it over, and I carved an E into the table.

And I heard you coming, so I grabbed the pencil back, and I drew a line from the bottom line of the E to the second line of the E, and I made a G.

And Grayson, sitting at the table, said, I knew it.

I told you.

And then demanded justice, right?

Either she gets a spanking, or you get one, right?

Either way.

There's restitution that happens for this.

You know, there's something about us when we do something wrong.

We don't want to be found guilty, right?

In that moment, Emma knew, Dad's coming.

I got to cover it up.

Dad's coming.

I can't get caught.

Even in the midst of hearing her brother be punished, her mouth stayed closed.

Now, I want to be honest with you.

I asked permission from my daughter to share this story this morning, right?

Because the truth is, she, at the age of four, is so much like all of us in here today.

We've all done things and thought we've gotten away with it.

And the truth of the reality is, that the tension within our lives, whether because of the punishment

that awaits, or the shame that is associated with it, we don't want to be found guilty.

It's an interesting dynamic that, spiritually speaking, before a relationship with Christ,

that what you and I need above anything else, above prayers for our health,

above prayers for others, before knowledge of Scripture, before anything,

the greatest spiritual need of anyone who is lost is this, to be made innocent.

Because the problem that all of mankind has faced since the fall of the garden is that we are guilty.

Paul writes in Romans 3, 23, and he says that we all are guilty.

We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God, or fall short of God's standard.

And that's what I want us to deal with this morning.

Of what does the life begin to look like, and what does it mean that in Christ,

and in Christ alone is how innocence is found.

If you've got your Bibles with me, go ahead and open up to Galatians chapter 2.

We'll continue on in our study.

Paul has been telling his story.

He's talked about his conversion, and his call to ministry,

and how the gospel came to him by God and God alone.

We've seen that where Paul's talked about the Jerusalem council and the unity of the gospel,

that the same gospel is the gospel that is proclaimed.

It is the one true gospel.

We started last week with looking at the confrontation that Paul had with Peter,

concerning Peter not living in the gospel fully.

Both the gospel that will save him, and the gospel that he will live by.

And so he's dealing with these matters.

And now what Paul is going to do,

he's going to bring the church of Galatia into the conversation.

It's really going to culminate next week for us,

where we're going to see fully where he addresses them.

But we're going to see here, starting in verse 15,

he begins to draw the church in.

So let's read starting in verse 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 Christ Jesus.

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 is justified.

But if in our endeavor to be justified in Christ,

we too were found to be sinners,

is Christ then a servant of sin?

Certainly not.

For if I rebuild what I tore down,

I prove myself to be a transgressor.

For through the law,

I died to the law so that I might live to God.

I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live,

but Christ who lives in me.

In the life,

I now live in the flesh.

I live by faith in the Son of God

who loved me and gave himself for me.

I do not nullify the grace of God.

For if righteousness were through the law,

then Christ died for no purpose.

And so this begins for us,

the conversation into,

it is not only the gospel that saves us,

but it is the gospel that we live by.

It is what he talked about last week

as we walk in our faith,

that we walk in the gospel.

And what we want to begin the discussion of us for today

and continuing on

is the essential nature of faith.

That faith is going to be the means.

That faith is how we are saved.

That faith is the word that is chosen in this

as Paul writes this forward of what we need.

And so he breaks this down for the church.

And what we begin to understand at the very beginning

as we long for innocence,

as we are all guilty,

as we all have sin,

as we all have not met the standard,

is that it is through faith we are justified.

Look back at verse 16.

He says,

So we have also 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.

Arthur I read this week said that

what you find in Galatians 2.16

is Paul's summation of the gospel.

And it's important for us to know

that when he talks about justified,

that it is a legal term.

It's a legal term.

So if a person stands before a judge

and as the judge declares them something,

if he's going to declare them innocent,

he declares that he's justified.

So when Paul says that we are by faith,

we are justified,

what he is saying is

it's not by anything else that we're made innocent.

It's not by anything else that we're justified.

It is by faith and faith alone

that we are made innocent.

That we are justified.

This goes back to what he's talking with Peter about.

Of what he's accusing Peter of

in the previous section that we read.

Remember the issue is that

Peter wouldn't eat with the Gentiles.

Why wouldn't he eat with the Gentiles?

Because Peter didn't consider them clean.

He didn't consider them innocent.

And so Paul reminds him

what makes us clean.

What makes us innocent.

Or maybe more importantly within that,

what makes us.

What makes you.

What makes me.

What makes a Jew.

What makes a Gentile acceptable to God.

That's a big thing

when we begin to wrap our minds around that.

What is it that gives you and I

the right to stand before a holy God.

What is it that's going to cause

you and I to have the opportunity

to worship him forever.

What gives you and I the opportunity

to gather in this room today

and sing praises to him

and for our words to lift up

and for him to hear those.

What makes us acceptable to God.

Let me start by telling you

what doesn't make us acceptable to God.

What doesn't make us acceptable to God

is who we are in ourselves.

Your race,

your social status,

your career,

your name,

and your nationality

are not what makes you acceptable to God.

Our culture is not what makes us

acceptable to God.

Anything that we try to define

in and of ourselves

does not make us acceptable to God.

What we have done,

what we have achieved,

what we have worked toward

does not make us acceptable to God.

Our good works?

No.

Our observance of the law?

No.

Paul even says in verse 19,

for through the law,

I died to the law.

So what in the world

makes us acceptable to God?

It's our faith in Jesus.

And the remarkable thing about that

is as much as it's not about who we are,

as much as it's not about what we've done,

it is fully our faith

in who He is

and in what He's done.

You see what the gospel does?

It pulls off of us

of who we are.

The gospel pulls off of us

what we've done

and it plants on the Prince of Peace,

the King of Kings,

the Lord of Lords,

the Alpha and Omega,

the perfect spotless Lamb

and plants it on Him

of who He is

and of what He's done.

So in His perfection,

in His holiness,

place all on Him.

And then what He does

is He moves us

from being guilty

and He makes us innocent.

But then a beautiful part of this

is when we're made justified,

when we're made innocent,

there's two parts.

When we're made innocent,

not only do we not have

the penalty of the guilty,

but we also have the benefit

of the innocent.

Think about that.

Think about what that means for us

in our lives

is that I no longer live

as someone been found guilty.

Even though I did it,

even though that was me,

even though I can't deny it,

even though I can't wish it away

on someone else,

even though I did it,

not only am I not found guilty,

but I am found innocent,

which means this,

in spite of all that I've done,

in spite of all that I'm doing,

in spite of all that I will do

in the future,

God looks at me

and declares me innocent,

and that is what defines me.

And so from our faith,

our faith is what justifies us.

Our faith is what saves us.

But also through faith,

we live.

Verse 19,

Paul describes what a person

who is truly saved by God

will live their life like.

He says a person

who has died to the law

so that I may live for God.

The heart application

of the gospel.

Not that I may live for myself,

not that I may live for my agenda,

not that I may live for my sin,

not that I may live

for anything else,

but that I am made innocent.

Paul says,

I died to the law

so that I may live for God.

You see,

before in Paul,

before he was saved,

you could look at his life.

He would look at his life.

He would look at his achievements.

And he would say,

to the law,

I obeyed it.

But his heart for obedience

came as a means to earn

and not as a means to live.

His heart before

was a heart

of earning the salvation

and not transformed by it.

And so when God saved him,

when God came

and radically saved

who he was

and where he was called

and what he would do

and granted him eternal life

that comes with that,

it all began to change for him.

And so now,

Paul's level of obedience

is not just in order

to save himself,

but Paul's level of obedience

is so that he can live

for God.

Look at verse 20.

He says,

I've been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live,

he says,

but Christ

who lives in me.

In the life,

I now live in the flesh.

I live by faith

in the Son of God

who loved me

and gave himself

for me.

One of the more common verses

that we're going to see

in Galatians.

Paul makes the declaration

that I have been crucified

with Christ.

And it's not just Paul,

but it's any of us

who have placed

our faith in Christ.

That the Bible says

that you and I,

that we have been crucified

with him.

Now that's weird, right?

Because that happened

a long time ago.

That happened far away.

We weren't there for it.

So what does it mean

that you and I

are crucified with Christ?

Well, theologically speaking,

what it means is this.

Is that the old me,

the old you,

the us before

a relationship with Jesus,

that we were,

spiritually speaking,

theologically speaking,

crucified on the cross

with Christ.

And then what we get

is a beautiful picture

of symbolism

of what takes place

and what new life looks like.

That the old us

was put on the cross

with him

and died to sin

and was buried

and then just as Christ

came in life

from the tomb

that you and I,

now that we are

walking with him,

you and I,

now that we've been

saved by the gospel,

you and I,

now that we are justified,

made innocent,

that you and I,

we walk in new life.

We walk in new hope.

We walk in what was different

than what was before.

But all of Galatians

is going to point us

back to something practically.

What does that practically

mean for you

and for me

on a day-to-day basis?

Here's what this means.

Because we've been

crucified with Christ,

what we can do

is we can repent with joy.

We can repent with joy.

Because the truth is,

as much as what I've done,

it's what I will do.

As much as it was

taken care of in my past,

I still have my present

and I still have my future.

And I can approach repentance

not with the nature

of getting caught,

but I can approach repentance

with the opportunity

and the understanding

of being set free.

And so repentance

means for me,

it is marked with

not shame,

not guilt,

but joy.

Joy.

The second thing,

what it means

to be crucified

with Christ is this,

that we can live

without fear.

We can live

without fear.

Because we've been

crucified with Christ,

because we've been

declared innocent,

that doesn't go away.

There's not someone

that's going to appear

before us with God

and bring up past charges.

There's not someone

who's going to stand

with us before God

and say,

but did you know

about these things?

That when we stand

before Him

because of the power

and of the work

of Christ,

where we are

is declared innocent.

And so I'm not afraid.

I'm not afraid

of what others may say.

I'm not afraid

of what others may do.

And as much

as as humans

we wrestle

with the fear of death,

as much as we wrestle

with the sadness

that's associated with it,

what I know

is that when I leave

this earth

and however God

calls me home,

I don't need

to be afraid

to stand before Him.

fear

is not

what awaits me.

And then it enables us

to walk

in a true manner

of obedience.

Not because we have to.

Not because we're forced to.

Not because we're told,

if you don't,

then this.

but we get to walk

in obedience

because of who He is.

Church,

when it comes

to the gospel,

there's a phrase

that we use

all the time

and I want us

to remind ourselves

of it today.

When it comes

to the gospel,

it's all or nothing.

When it comes

to the gospel,

it's all or nothing.

You can't place

faith

in yourself

and faith

in Jesus.

You can't place

faith in your works

and faith

in Jesus.

You can't place

faith

in your race

and faith

in Jesus.

It's faith

in Christ

and Christ alone.

And if any

of that

is placed

anywhere else,

then it's not

the faith

in Christ.

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