Galatians 2:14-16 – Justification
By his actions, Peter is forcing the Gentiles to live like Jews. That is, if sincere Gentile Christians see what Peter is doing, they’ll think that to be a proper Christian they can’t eat pork, they need to be circumcised and so on. It’s sending out the message that in order to be acceptable to God, you must believe in Jesus but also do these outward things. That’s why Paul goes immediately in v. 16 to say ‘a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ’.
Peter’s actions strike at the root of how we can get right with God. So in vs 15 and 16 that’s the topic Paul addresses. What is it that makes us acceptable in God’s sight? In v16 he introduces a word, which he uses 3 times. It’s the word ‘justified’. What does it mean? Well the word ‘justify’ is the language of the law court. It describes the judge’s declaration as to whether we are innocent or guilty. And notice that it’s just a declaration by the judge. A judge can’t MAKE anybody innocent or guilty – they just declare what someone already is. To condemn someone is to say that they’re guilty. To justify them is to say that they’re innocent. For God to justify a sinner is to declare that they’re righteous. So how could God possibly do that? Only if we now actually ARE innocent in his sight because of what Jesus has done. So for God to justify a sinner is to declare that someone is not guilty, because Jesus has paid their debt, and his perfect law-keeping has been counted as theirs. If you’re a believer in Jesus Christ that means you’ve been justified. It doesn’t mean that you haven’t sinned in the past or won’t sin in the future. But it means that when God looks at you, he sees the perfect righteousness of his own son.
In v15 Paul says that he and those like him are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners – but they still know that a person isn’t justified by keeping these laws. This is a powerful argument coming from Paul. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews. As to the law, he was blameless – at least outwardly. But he says that that isn’t enough to get him into Heaven. So if converted Jews like Paul weren’t trusting in their Jewishness to get to Heaven, then it would be futile for Gentiles to become Jews in order to try and get to Heaven.
Questions
- What does justified mean?
- How can God declare us justified?
Prayer Points
- Give thanks for the work that Christ has done to save us.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.