Dedicated to Truth

Ruth · Veteran Member

Lesson 4 Justification by Faith alone (Gal. 2:15-21)

Dedication · Senior Member

Is there a difference between these two sentences?

1. The just shall live by faith alone.

2. We are justified by faith alone

First let me point out that the there is NO TEXT saying the "just shall live by faith alone".
The text ends with the word "faith" (period)

Romans 1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

The life of faith is lived in obedience.
As Hebrews points out:

Heb 11:7 By faith Noah, ...prepared an ark
Heb 11:8 By faith Abraham...obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

BUT

The second sentence -- we are justified by faith alone, is a different situation.

Justification is the process in which I, a sinner who deserves the wages of sin = death, am restored to right-standing with GOD.

The merits of the substitutionary death of Jesus are applied to my account. I accept the merits of Christ (His merits, not mine) by faith. (Faith is also a gift from GOD.) When the Father looks at me, I am covered by Christ's merits, I am justified — just – as – if – I’d never sinned.

But now -- justified by the merits of Christ we, the just, LIVE BY FAITH in obedience to our Redeemer!

Dedication · Senior Member

Gal.2:15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles

What does Paul mean?

We are Jews, God's laws are important to us.

Not like the Gentiles-- God’s law did not restrain their behavior, and they were outside the covenants of promise.

Gal. 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Paul obviously was NOT heralding the Jews sinlessness, just because God's laws were important to them. He immediately adds that they had to believe on Jesus Christ for justification.

They were Jewish sinners, not Gentile sinners. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. They all needed a Savior from sin.

Paul points out that "even we" people who held the law in high regard, needed to turn to Jesus Christ that they might be justified by faith of Christ.

The law cannot forgive, it cannot take away the guilt. Only faith in Jesus can do that.
No matter how many good deeds we do, they cannot erase one sin. Thus Paul is pointing people to Christ as the only source of true justification.

So Paul is talking to Peter who had fallen back into seqregation practices.

"Peter, you are a Jew and follower of the Torah, and have never practiced sins common to Gentiles, but let me ask you this-- do you still need to be Justified by Christ?"

Peter looks down, remembering his plunders and outright denials of His Lord, yes, he NEEDS the justification that only Christ can give.

Paul continues: "So you KNOW that you were justified by Jesus Christ not the works of the law. You would be condemned even though you have lived by the Torah all your life. By the works of the law no one can be justified."

Ruth · Veteran Member

The lesson says:

The verb to justify is a key term for Paul. Of the thirty-nine times it occurs in the New Testament, twenty-seven are in Paul’s letters. He uses it eight times in Galatians, including four references in Galatians 2:16, 17. Justification is a legal term, used in courts of law. It deals with the verdict a judge pronounces when a person is declared innocent of the charges brought against him or her. It is the opposite of condemnation. Additionally, because the words just and righteous come from the same Greek word, for a person “to be justified” means that the person also is counted as “righteous.” Thus, justification involves more than simply pardon or forgiveness; it is the positive declaration that a person is righteous.
For some of the Jewish believers, however, justification also was relational. It revolved around their relationship with God and His covenant. To be “justified” also meant that a person was counted as a faithful member of God’s covenantal community, the family of Abraham.

There seems to be a conflict here. Justification -- is it a forensic declaration and reckoning that sees a person as righteous due to the merits of Christ or is it "more" than that as in actually being righteous?

Dedication · Senior Member

We should look at this from the view point of the sanctuary

We know there are books in heaven –

"Behold, it is written before Me, . . . your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the Lord." Isaiah 65:6, 7.

"The judgment was set, and the books were opened." Daniel 7:10

“He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. Revelation 3:5

Now we know we’ve committed a lot of sins in our lives. Sins of commission, sins of anger and emotional reactions, sins of omission, sins of fantasy. Therefore the thought of a heavenly court can be quite terrifying.

But we must add the verse:

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. John 1:9

When we come to Christ confessing our sins, and believing in His cleansing blood and His merits, He has promised to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us.

This involves a legal action. That record in the books of heaven will be altered. The words, written with the blood of Christ spell PARDON over our sins.

Do you realize what that means?? When the book is opened those sins no longer speak against you. You are free of them! No longer condemned.

You have been justified!

And now what?

If you are justified, you are to count yourself as “just”.

Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

6:2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

6:12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

6:13 Neither yield ye your members [as] instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members [as] instruments of righteousness unto God.

Not only does God count us as justified, we are to reckon or consider ourselves as having died to sin. Cleansed, acquitted, adopted into the family of God, thus yes, we are “just” in God’s sight and we will want to act like “just” people.

How is that done –

By a life of faith in Christ

The “just shall live by faith” walking with their Lord in obedience.

Peter would also realize the absolute necessity of a living faith that alone enables him to live a life of obedience. So yes, being made righteous, as in sanctification, comes also only by faith in Jesus Christ. Self sufficiency in right doing doesn't lead to any kind of justification.
"The works is the result of the process, not the impetus."