KASUMIGAOKA
2017/10/29
SERMON: “Justified By Faith Alone” 「信仰のみによる義認」
TEXT: Galatians 2:15-21
I. INTRODUCTION: Martin Luther, The Roman Catholic Church, and Justification
When Martin Luther fastened his “95 theses” to the church door in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517 he challenged one particular error of the Roman Catholic Church—the practice of selling indulgences. The theme of “justification by faith” which guided Luther’s later reforming efforts was not specifically mentioned in the 95 theses. But the truth contained in the expression “justification by faith alone” had already gripped his soul. At that time Luther had been lecturing at the university on Paul’s letters to the churches of Rome and Galatia. Luther was troubled by the apostle’s explanation of the gospel. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel,” Paul wrote to the Romans in 1:16-17. “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘But the righteous man shall live by faith.’” The gospel shows us God’s righteousness. Because God is holy, He is not satisfied by anything less than perfect righteousness. But how can any mere man attain God’s perfect righteousness? What does it mean to “live by faith”?
Luther himself had struggled with this problem. He was a sincere Augustinian monk, but he struggled with temptation and knew that his own efforts daily failed to achieve God’s standard of perfect righteousness. He understood what Paul wrote in Romans 3:23: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” As Luther studied Paul’s life and letters he came to understand that man’s only hope for attaining God’s perfect righteousness must be by God’s work, not man’s. The “righteousness of God” must be God’s gracious gift through faith in Jesus Christ. The church can help by leading us to Christ, but only Christ Himself can forgive us when we sin. Only Christ offers us the promise of being counted righteous by God. That is because God has decreed that those who believe in Jesus Christ will be counted righteous. No one will be judged “righteous” on the basis of his own efforts to keep God’s law (Romans 3:23). This is what Paul says in Romans 3:21-22. “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe.”
In Luther’s day Augustinian monks were thought to be “righteous” compared to most people. They carefully tried to keep all of God’s commandments. They lived a very strict, disciplined lifestyle. But Luther came to realize that even a “righteous man” must live “by faith” in his Savior. Man’s own “righteousness” is totally inadequate to satisfy God’s requirement. That is what the apostle Paul explained to the churches in Galatians 2:16. “Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified.” What is the role of the Roman Catholic Church in this matter of justification? Can the Pope forgive our sins? Can the Church provide to her members the righteousness of God? Of course not! But the Church can show people where to find forgiveness. The Church can lead people to the cross of Christ. The Church can preach the good news of God’s grace and demonstrate a life of faith in Jesus Christ. As we look at our Scripture passage today, let’s think about how this message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ changed the apostle Paul. The same message changed Martin Luther 500 years ago, and it brought reformation to the wayward Church.
II. THE MEANING OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH (Gal. 2:15-18)
First, it is necessary to understand the specific kind of faith that is required in order to be counted righteous in God’s sight. The Bible sometimes uses the word “faith” to describe the collection of teachings held by the Christian church. For example, Acts 6:7 mentions Hebrew priests who became “obedient to the faith.” Gal. 1:23 and Jude 3 also use “faith” as the content of Christian teaching, similar to the way we speak of a “confession of faith.” The Roman Catholic Church at the time of the Reformation frequently used “faith” in this way to describe a person’s relationship to the Church. But this is not the meaning of the term “faith” in the expression “justified by faith.” It is not faith in a collection of teachings, or acceptance of certain statements as true. Justification does not depend on that kind of “faith.” The object of “saving faith” is not certain “doctrines,” nor is it a church that teaches those doctrines. The object of saving faith is a Person—Jesus Christ Himself. In Gal. 2:16 Paul writes, “knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ.” This is a faith that is focused on the person of Jesus Christ. It is a relationship of personal trust. So saving faith is faith in Jesus Christ who is alive and able to interact with us. It is a personal, subjective faith in Christ.
But saving faith in Christ is not only a subjective experience. This personal “trust” requires faith in the real Jesus of history–the Jesus of Nazareth who once lived in Israel about 2000 years ago, taught His disciples, died on a cross, and rose again on the third day, as the Scriptures foretold. In other words, saving faith is not belief in an “imaginary friend” whom we have created in our minds, nor is He only a distant memory of a figure from ancient history. A Christian knows Jesus Christ as a living Lord who hears us when we talk to Him and helps us when we ask Him. It is our belief, or trust, in a person who is objectively real and active. The faith required of true Christians is faith in Jesus Christ. We depend upon His character and His power. We know Him from the record of His life contained in the Bible, and from our own personal experience of His compassionate care. No one who is a believer in Jesus Christ can be ignorant of His character or what He has done. I once asked someone if he were a Christian and received this reply: “Well, I believe in God, if that’s what you mean.” That is not a reply one would expect from a person who has placed his trust in Jesus Christ and who depends upon the risen Savior for his salvation.
III. FAITH OR WORKS OF THE LAW?
In order to understand justification by faith it is also necessary to think about the relationship between faith and God’s Law. The reason Paul wrote his letter to the Galatian churches is that many of the Christians were being misled by teachers who claimed that some acts of obedience were required by God, in addition to faith in Christ, in order to be saved. Paul was an earnest Jew who belonged to the strict sect of the Pharisees. Jesus often criticized the Pharisees for their hypocrisy. But not all Pharisees were hypocrites. Paul (or Saul) tried to keep God’s Law faithfully. But he could never succeed. In Romans 7 Paul wrote about his struggle to keep the Law of God and resist the power of sin. “For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death (Rom. 7:22-24) ?” I believe Paul is describing in these words his personal struggle to keep God’s Law when he was a serious Pharisee, but not yet a believer in Jesus Christ. At that time Jewish Saul had a strong moral conscience, in contrast to the moral laxity of the Gentile society around him. But even a strong sense of right and wrong could not help him to overcome the power of sin. The Law of God, even though it pricked his conscience, seemed to make his struggle against temptation more difficult. In Romans 7:5 Paul says, “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.” At that time Saul was still “in the flesh” as a Jew; he had not yet been “born again” by the Spirit of God. Even though he tried with his mind to serve the Law of God, he realized that as a Jew he could not. Instead, with his flesh he was “serving the law of sin” (Rom. 7:25). The Law of God was a mountain much too high for even Saul to climb! But Jesus had climbed that mountain. If there was hope for any man to attain righteousness, it could not come through a man’s own efforts to keep God’s Law. It must come through Jesus Christ.
Here is the “good news” that Paul came to understand: Jesus Christ the Righteous One died a death that He did not deserve, but God raised Him to life. God gave His Son victory over sin, death, and the Tempter. Now, the risen Christ has become the one source of true righteousness in which others, including Paul, may share. Paul describes this sharing in the righteousness of Christ in Romans 7:4. “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God.” First, one must “die to the Law”; that is, he must renounce any possibility of attaining righteousness through works of the Law. Then, one must be joined to Christ the Savior, so that righteous fruit may be produced. It is union with Christ that produces the fruit of righteousness in our lives. And what joins us to Christ? It is faith. Faith in Jesus Christ is the only way that anyone can bring forth righteous fruit that will please God.
Paul insists that one must first die to the Law, in order to live with Christ. Even the most faithful of Christians will commit sins. For example, even the revered apostle Peter and Paul’s close friend and companion Barnabas could become caught in the snare of sin, as Paul mentioned above in vv. 11-13. But their sin did not nullify the righteousness that they have through faith in Christ. Even when he sins, a believer in Christ is justified before God by his faith union with Christ. This does not mean that Christ ever approves of any man’s sins. Christ is no “minister of sin” (Gal. 2:17) who guarantees our salvation just so that we can continue to live in sin. No one who has been born again to faith in Christ will continue to live in sin. If we sin, the Spirit of Christ in us will give our souls no rest, until we have repented of our sin and been forgiven and reconciled to God through Christ our Savior. But at all times, our hope is in Christ’s righteousness, and not in our own.
Accordingly, when a believer sins, he will not despair, because his hope of salvation rests upon Christ’s righteousness, and not his own. When a Christian believer commits a sin against God, he will repent of that sin and reaffirm his faith in Christ. One who trusts in Christ’s righteousness will not try to “compensate for his sin” by promising some work of “supererogation.” No one can atone for his sins by doing “extra” good deeds! As Paul says in Gal. 2:18-19, “For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the Law I died to the Law, that I might live to God.” Once a sinner has died to the Law and been united to Christ by faith, he can never return to the Law as a means of attaining righteousness. Justification by faith in Christ is a once-for-all gracious act of God. For this reason Paul repeats the reason for his confident hope of salvation in v. 20. “I have been crucified with Christ; and 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 delivered Himself up for me.” That is what justification by faith really means. Christ lives in us and His righteousness covers our sins.
IV. CONCLUSION
The Scriptures do not tell us exactly when Paul came to understand the importance of justification by faith in Christ. Did it happen when Christ appeared to him on the road to Damascus? Or when the “scales fell from his eyes” as he listened to the Lord’s disciple Ananias in Damascus? Or maybe the revelation was given to him while he spent three quiet years somewhere in the wilderness of Arabia (Gal. 1:17-18)? Whenever it happened, it completely changed the way Paul thought about his life. Never again could Paul think of pleasing God through his painstaking labor to keep the Law. From the moment Paul realized the significance of faith in Christ, he was a “new creation.” Martin Luther experienced a similar awakening almost 1500 years after Paul’s. Luther’s personal experience of justification through faith in Christ moved him to take his stand against the errors of the Church in his day. He was convinced that the Church of Jesus Christ must stand—or fall—based upon this single doctrine. Nothing is more important for us to know and proclaim than this teaching about the righteousness of Christ which is imputed to each of us through faith in Christ alone. How has justification by faith in Christ changed your life? Listen again to the testimony of the apostle Paul: (Phil.3:7-9) “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.” For the Christian there is no privilege greater than justification by grace through faith, which is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).