Well, last week we looked at Paul's confrontation with Peter concerning the clarity of the gospel. We saw that Peter and the other Jews by their actions were not being straightforward about the gospel and lending credibility to the false message of the Judaizers. Paul wants to make clear in this epistle the pure gospel of grace and be sure that there is no confusion by word or by deed as to what the gospel is. 

Today in our text, we're going to see the implications of that gospel of salvation by grace through faith alone and Jesus alone in our Christian life. This, in my opinion, is one of the most important texts in the Bible, and it's most instructive for our understanding not only of the gospel, but particularly of how we live the Christian life. 

Now, it's been my observation over the years that there's a lot of confusion in the Christian church concerning the place of the law in the life of the believer. Every Christian understands justification by grace through faith in Jesus' one-time death on the cross. But when it comes to sanctification, how we live the Christian life, we're often all too eager to bring back the law into our life as a means or a way to holy living. This is what was happening in the churches in Galatia because of the false message of the Judaizers, and Peter's actions were confusing the issue even more. 

If we're going to experience abundance, fruit in our Christian life, then we must first understand why it is that we can now live a new life in Christ, and then the means that God prescribes or intends for accomplishing Christ's likeness in and through us. We must understand the why and the how if we are going to be continually conformed to his likeness, if we're going to consistently bring glory to God in the church. 

The Judaizers taught a self-righteous, works, law-centered gospel. And in this system, much the same as all religious systems today, there's really no sanctification at all, but there is a progressive justification. In other words, you can never know if you are justified. You are continually working towards or earning your salvation. You can never know if you have done enough. So these systems are in a perpetual progressive justification. 

And the truth is, what Paul says in our text, is that no flesh can be justified by the works of the law. The biblical truth is that justification comes in a moment, is accomplished by imputation when we turn from our own self-righteousness and law-keeping and turn to Jesus in faith. And when we believe, our sins are at that moment imputed to Christ on the cross, and His righteousness is given to us as a gift, and we are in Christ. We are justified by grace through faith. 

Turn over to Romans 9 at verse 30 with me, please. We'll pick up that text that Mark read this morning, but beginning in Romans 9.30. Paul writes, “What shall we say then that Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith? But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” 

In Galatians 3 at verse 21, it says, “Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not, for if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the scripture has confined all under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” 

Justification, the gift of God's righteousness, is by grace through faith alone in Jesus alone. As long as a man persists in trying to justify himself by the works of the law, as long as he seeks righteousness by religious works or rituals, he will never experience justification. He will never be made right with God, for no flesh shall be justified by the works of the law. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. Mark read that in Galatians 3 as well. We're going to see in our text today that it is through the law that I come to understand my sin and my need. And it is the law, the schoolmaster, that leads us to faith in Christ, that causes us to understand our sin and turn to the only Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Paul writes, “I through the law died to the law in order that I might live to God.” What an amazing statement. I died to the law in order. It was necessary that I die to the law in order for me to live to God. And then he explains that when a man turns from law keeping for righteousness and turns to Jesus and his death in our place for our sins, placing his faith in Jesus alone, he's not only justified, but he's also regenerated. He's crucified with Christ. He's buried with him and raised to newness of life. 

And in this new birth, a carnal man experiences death with Jesus and resurrection to newness of life. He dies to sin, to the law, to the fear of death. And it is this recreation, this dealing with indwelling sin, the law, and fear that is the basis for our new life in Christ, a life of faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Trust in him to live his life in and through me as I abide in him. 

And that's the great and wonderful verse, Galatians 3:20, when he says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” 

Our text today is all about the life that I now live as a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, as a new man, as a new creation. It's about Christ in me, His life lived through me as I walk by faith, living not by the law, the letter, but by the power of the Holy Spirit in me, by his grace through faith. This is what our text is all about this morning as we transition from the implications of the gospel in justification to the implications of the gospel in the Christian life in sanctification by grace through faith. 

Let's look at our text, beginning at Galatians 2:16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified. Paul's trying to be pretty clear here, I think. 

Verse 17, “But if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners. Is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not. For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.” For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. In the life which 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 set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. 

Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? 

Well, I have four points for you this morning on your outline. First, justification by faith. Second, dead to the law. Third, Christ in you. And fourth, sanctification by faith. 

Well, first in our text, we see a clear statement concerning justification. Notice in verse 16, Paul uses the term justified three times. The gospel has been confused by the actions of Peter and the other Jews. The false message is still hanging in the air in the Galatian churches, that a man must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses in order to be saved. And Peter's hypocrisy has further confused this issue. 

So Paul wants to make it abundantly clear how it is that a man can be saved from the wrath of God for his sins. Notice the negative and positive statements. He says, “A man is not justified by the works of the law.” Now, to me, this is a clear statement ending all religion. Every religion of man, Christian denominations and other religions, prescribe that a man has to keep the law, has to do the works of the law in order to be saved. And here Paul says clearly, “A man is not justified by the work of law.” In Romans 3, he says he's justified apart from the works of the law. He has imputed the righteousness of God when he does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly. 

A man is not justified by the works of the law, but on the positive, a man is justified. He is justified by faith. Again and again, Paul emphasizes this basic truth about salvation. We see this in so many other passages, like Philippians 3, Paul's personal testimony, or Ephesians 2. But perhaps the clearest is Romans 3. Let's look at Romans 3 at verse 19, where Paul explains this doctrine of justification by faith and depth in chapter three down through four. 

Verse 19, “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.” So what's the purpose of the law? To make us guilty, to show us our sin, to show us our need. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 

But now the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, how? What is the means that I can receive the righteousness of God? Through faith in Jesus Christ. And who's it for? To all and on all who believe. The Bible is crystal clear on the gospel. The righteousness of God comes to a man only by faith in Jesus Christ. Faith is the means by which he is justified apart from the works of the law. Not including the works of the law. Apart from the works of the law. 

Romans 4:4 says, “Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.” Justification is by God's grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus alone. And this is the only way for a man to be saved, to be justified, and if anything is added to faith, this is a false gospel. If any other means is prescribed besides faith, this is a false gospel. Paul wants us to be clear, first and foremost, about this paramount truth. 

In verse 17, he continues this argument. He says, “But if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not.” The language is a little confusing here, but what Paul is saying is basically this. Jesus preached a message of justification by grace through faith, by believing him. Jesus said the way you can have life is to believe me. He didn't say the way you can have life is to do the works of the law. 

In John 3:18, he says very clearly, “He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already.” Why? Why is a man condemned to hell? Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Jesus taught whoever believes in the Son has life. God gave his Son so that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The Judaizers said, if you don't keep the law, you can't be saved. You have to be circumcised to enter the community. It's like churches today that teach you have to be baptized to enter the church. And then you have to keep the law in order to be saved. That was their message. 

So what Paul is saying in verse 17 is that Jesus led them to salvation by faith in him, not by the law. In fact, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. So if the Judaizers are right, this is Paul's argument here. If the Judaizers are right, as Peter's and the other Jews' actions were indicating, then Jesus led them right into sin, into condemnation because they were no longer bound by the law according to the gospel that Jesus preached. If Jesus made us free from the law and gave us his righteousness through faith, but the truth is, assuming the Judaizers are right, the truth is that we must keep the law, then is Jesus a minister of sin? He says, don’t worry about the law, but the Judaizers say you have to have the law to be saved. Well, is Jesus then leading us into sin? And Paul answers, may it never be, no, no, no, no, no. Salvation is not by the law. What Jesus taught is true, not what the Judaizers taught. That's his argument here. 

Now look at verse 18 in our text. He says, “For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.” These verses are so key to our understanding. In the gospel that Jesus preached, the gospel that he gave to Paul to preach, righteousness is by grace through faith apart from the works of the law. So what was destroyed by this good news message? What was it that was destroyed? It was righteousness through law keeping, good works, religious ritual, so on. 

So what Paul is saying is, is that we learned the Jews, the Jews knew full well being so immersed in the law that the law could not bring righteousness. Think of Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel, remember? And yet what did he say when he came to Jesus at night? He said, what must I do? What do I lack? What other thing do I have to do to enter the kingdom? He lived his whole life meticulously attempting to keep the law and earn his own righteousness, and yet he was looking for what he was missing. 

And Jesus didn't give him two or three more things to add to his long list, right? He told him, you must be born again. You must believe me when I am lifted up. You must look to me, believe me. So Paul says, we Jews, oh, we knew the law, but we misunderstood its purpose. We thought the law was to bring life, but it really is to bring death. Look at Romans 7:7 with me, Romans chapter 7 at verse 7. 

“What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not. I would not have known sin except through the law. I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, you shall not covet.” Now wait a minute here. What law are we talking about that we have died to, we've been made free from? Here it says, thou shalt not covet. That's one of the 10 commandments, as I remember it. 

Verse 8, he says, “But sin taking opportunity by the commandment produced in me all manner of evil desire, for apart from the law, sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.” Now look at verse 10, “And the commandment, which was to bring life, which he thought as Saul of Tarsus, he was going to earn righteousness, go to heaven, bring life through the law, which was to bring life, I found to bring death, for sin taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and by it killed me.” 

Paul's talking about his conversion experience. When the law came, that means when he had a right understanding of the law. You see, he thought the law was the way to life, but when he realized the depth of his sin and the judgment he deserved through the law, he realized that he was dead and that he needed grace. Another law wasn't going to help him. He needed grace. 

In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul calls the law a ministry of death and a ministry of condemnation. The law engraved on stones, he says there. In Galatians 3:19-26, we see that the law could not bring life, just as we see in Romans 8, what the law could not do because of the weakness of the flesh. If there could have been a law given which could have brought life, Paul says, then life certainly would have come by the law. But the law could not bring life because we could not keep it, and therefore, having broken the law, we deserve the wrath of God for our sins. 

So Paul says, having been justified, having been saved, born again, living by grace through faith as Peter was in Antioch with the Gentiles before the Judaizers came, he says, “If I build again those things which I destroyed.” This is so important, my friends. So many in the church teach that the law is a way to holiness, that we need the law to keep us in line, that the law is a rule of life for the believer, that we need to keep the Ten Commandments. But the law can no more produce holiness and sanctification than it could produce salvation and justification. 

“If I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.” Just bind yourself with the law again like Peter was, put the Ten Commandments on your refrigerator, or better yet, the Sermon on the Mount, and every night after dinner, sit down and evaluate how well you kept that law that day. And if you focus on law, if you seek to establish your own righteousness through the law, then you will find that you will make yourself a transgressor. You will fail. Because you cannot live the Christian life, only Christ can. 

When we believed Jesus, we died. We died to sin, to the law, to the fear of death. In Romans 6:1, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” This is the accusation, right? This is the accusation Paul received, that he was antinomian, he was against the law. It's the same accusation we receive today when I say things like I just said, right? Well, if we don't have the law, then we're going to run amok. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin? In other words, if you don't have the law, then you sin all you want, right? Paul says, no way. Can't happen. Why? How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 

And Paul goes on to explain our union with Jesus Christ and His death, burial, and resurrection. In verse 6, he says, “Our old man, that man in Adam, dominated and controlled by indwelling sin died, was crucified with Christ.” That's the core of our text today. So that this body, this physical body controlled by indwelling sin might be done away with or rendered powerless. We died with Jesus the moment we believed, and Romans 7 tells us that we died to the law. Verse 5, he says, “When we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.” 

Have you ever been walking somewhere, maybe in a public place, and you're not even thinking about something? Maybe there's wet paint there, right? And you're just walking by, you don't even know they painted the place, and then you see a sign and it says, “Don't touch wet paint.” What happens immediately? There's an urge in you to touch the paint, isn't there? Because the law has brought that about. He says the law was working in our members, the sinful passions were aroused by the law. That's how it was in Adam, only we had no power to overcome that. 

Verse 6, “But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by so that,” the very purpose here that we died to the law, just like Paul says in our text, “so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.” I was thinking about it, I was at a guy's house the other day and he had a, man I can't remember what year it was, a very old tractor, and he was all excited about this tractor. I think it was 20s, 1920s. Big steel wheels, I don't know what kind of engine it had, but he'd gotten the thing running and he wanted me to see it and run it and everything. 

And I was thinking to myself, man, what a nightmare it would be to ride that thing around these rough fields in Ironwood, you know? And I thought, you know, that guy that got that probably had a horse before that and he probably thought that was the greatest thing since sliced bread. It's a horrible analogy, but what I'm saying is, we don't want to go to the law when we have the Holy Spirit. It's like going to a horse when you've got a brand new New Holland tractor today. The Holy Spirit is so much greater, so much more effective to produce holiness by His power in my life, and the law could never produce any holiness. 

We have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve. How should we serve? How should we live? In the newness of the Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. We no longer serve or live by the law, but in the newness of the Spirit, it is the Holy Spirit that imparts strength to our inner man. It is Jesus Christ who lives in and through us to accomplish His will, and this is Paul's grand conclusion concerning the Christian life in verse 20. Life is not by the law, we do not live by or under the law any longer, we are new men, we are new creations, God has made a better way, a much more effective way to produce holiness through us, and now we live by the power of the Holy Spirit and the life of Christ in us, and this is a life of faith. 

We are compelled by the love of Christ, we want to live for Him. You know, what if someone called you at 3 o'clock in the morning, said, “Hey, I'm broke down out here on Highway 2, can you come down here and help me?” You'd be like, “What? Who are you?” Well, you don't know me, you've never met me, I'm just traveling through, but what if Josh called me and he said, “Hey, John, I got broke down up here on Highway 2, we had to go to the hospital, and now I got a flat, can you come help me?” Get my pants on, wouldn't I? Why? Because I love Josh. I don't even know that other guy. But I love Josh. 

Isn't it much more effective to be compelled, constrained by love than by some external law? This is what our life now is in Christ, because He died for me. I want to live for Him. “I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live, the life which 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 set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. 

Now here in these verses, Paul has moved fully from justification to sanctification. He says, how I live, the life that I now live, that I might live to God. This is all about how we as believers in Jesus Christ can live a fruitful and holy life being conformed to the likeness of Christ, perfected, matured, transformed outwardly to come into consistency with who we are inwardly because of God's regenerating work. 

And this becomes clear down in chapter 3, look at Galatians 3 verse 1. He says, “Oh foolish Galatians, you know, just the heart of Paul here. He spent all this time bringing them the gospel, teaching them, grounding them, pointing them to Jesus, showing them how to live, and now these legalistic Jews come in and everybody's confused.” 

“Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, that's captured you, taken you captive, that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? How was it you were saved? How was it you were justified? How was it that you received the Holy Spirit? Was it by working law, the Gentiles? No, he came preaching the gospel, they heard, they believed Jesus, and they received the Holy Spirit. It was by faith.” 

“Are you so foolish, having begun, that's justification, that's when they heard the gospel and believed, having begun this in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect?” That's sanctification. That's how I live. Are you being made perfect by the flesh, by the works of the law? They've been bewitched by this false message, like so much of the church today, confused, impotent to live the life that God intends, because they are building again the law as their rule of life, rather than Christ, rather than looking unto Jesus and believing Him and trusting Him, abiding in Him as a branch abides in a vine. 

Having begun in the Spirit, now we understand that, we must, if we're believers, we must understand that, that we began, we were saved by grace through faith alone. But now, when we think about how to live the Christian life, when we think about what we need to be fruitful and bring glory to God, we begin to build again that which we destroyed through faith in the gospel. We begin to seek to be righteous through the law. We think we're being made perfect by the flesh, by our good works. 

But the truth is, we must be made perfect, we must continue to grow and mature and bear fruit by grace, through faith, alone in Jesus. “I've been crucified with Christ, it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh.” How do you live it, Paul? You live it by faith. 

I wonder if you've ever had trouble with a computer. I've had several computers, desktops, laptops, eventually they all wear out, they give up the ghost, right? The worst time. Their hard drive becomes corrupted. And when the hard drive is corrupted, you can't buy some screen cleaner or blow out the keyboard with some compressed air, you can't get a new screen saver just to kind of spruce up your laptop. If the hard drive is corrupted, then nothing works, and the only solution is to change out the hard drive. 

The man in Adam has a corrupted hard drive. He's dead in his spirit. He's controlled and dominated by indwelling sin. His problem is not that he sins outwardly. His problem is that he is a sinner on the inside, and you can try religion all you like. You can try law keeping with the most fervent desire, even like Saul of Tarsus, but what you will find is that your hard drive is corrupted. You need a new creation on the inside, and that is precisely what God does in the man who turns in faith to Jesus. He changes him on the inside. That old man dies, and no longer is he controlled by indwelling sin. No longer is he in bondage to the law. No longer does he fear death. He is a new creation with a new spirit, and the Holy Spirit permanently indwelling him, and Jesus himself comes to make his home in the believer. 

And Jesus lives his life out through the believer for the glory of God. And now, we as believers in Jesus Christ must fight the battle of the mind, of our emotions and feelings and the pressures of this world, all the lies coming against the truth of who we are in Christ, and therefore how we should live by his grace and power through faith. 

So how do you fight error? You fight error with truth. Law is not involved in this. Notice what Paul says in verse 21, “If righteousness,” what's the context, how I live the life I now live, “if righteousness, righteous, holy living, comes by the law, then Christ died in vain.” The law only gives us the perfect standard, it gives us no power to keep it. If we are to have victory over sin, if we are to bear fruit for the glory of God, if we are to become more and more like Christ, this can only come as we learn to look to him, to abide in him, to trust him, and to reckon what he says to be true. 

“I am dead to sin. I have put off the old man, I have put on the new, I am free from the law, I have the very power that raised Jesus from the dead working in me to accomplish his will. My life is a life lived by faith, it's God's grace alone that bears fruit in my life as I walk by faith.” 

So I have some error come against me in the world, I have some emotion come up inside of me, I have temptation to sin, what do I do? I bring the truth of the word of God, I take that thought in my mind captive to the obedience of Christ, and I say I'm going to choose to believe God, not my feelings, not my emotions, not what the guy on the podcast says. We have to continually renew our minds to the truth. Because the Judaizers are always there, they're always influencing the church. 

But we are new creations, and we are to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, we are to walk in the spirit, we are to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Do you know what that means? When my doubts and fears assail, I reckon God's word to be true, I choose to believe him and then trust him to work out the details. And when the world tells me I'm a fool, when my emotions and feelings overwhelm me, I turn to Jesus and his word, and I say I'm dead to sin, I'm dead to the law, I'm a new creation in Christ, this is who I am and therefore this is how I should live. I should expect to live a holy life. This is my reasonable, logical service, Paul says in Romans 12. 

The secret of the Christian life is Christ. We need to know him. We need to look to him, not to ourselves, not to our performance, not to some law, any law. We need to look to Jesus and know him more and more through his word and learn to just abide, remain in him day by day by faith. 

This is Christ in you, the hope of glory. This is the new covenant mystery. If you've come to Christ by grace through faith, if you've turned from the law and self-righteousness and turned to Jesus in faith alone, don't build again those things which you destroyed. Don't go back to futility. Don't yield to a false teaching of being made perfect by the flesh. Just keep in the word, keep in fellowship, keep studying and affirming what God says and look to Jesus and you'll never be disappointed. 

Justification is by God's grace and we receive his righteousness through faith. And sanctification is just as much by God's grace as we walk through faith. The just shall live by faith and we can say with Paul, you can say with Paul, if you've believed Jesus, “I have been crucified with Christ.” That old man is dead. It's no longer I who live this life, but Christ lives in me. Can you dare to believe that? Jesus Christ lives in you. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in him, in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. 

Closing prayer. Father, we're so thankful for this book of Galatians that makes the gospel so clear, not only how a man can be saved, but how we now shall live. Thank you that you have dealt with those things that kept us from being able to live a holy life to bring glory to you. That you have dealt with sin, that you've dealt with the law, that you've dealt with death itself that we no longer have to fear. And you've also come to make your home in us, and we have the power of the Holy Spirit and the life of Jesus Christ in us. Help us to learn to abide in him, to look to him in every circumstance, to be fellowshipping with him, talking to him, and learning about him through your word and then choosing to believe what you say and not how I feel. We thank you for your purpose in our lives and the privilege of serving you and we thank you that you died for us so that we might live. In Jesus' name we pray.