God’s Word for You
Galatians 2:17 Justification continues
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, June 27, 2024
17 But if, while we seek to be justified in Christ, we ourselves are found to be sinners, then is Christ a servant of sin? Certainly not!
Paul proposes a condition that forces the reader to think through the problem in a new way. He begins with a truth, the very truth he has been explaining, but then he careens off into a falsehood that exposes the whole problem. The truth is this: “We seek to be justified in Christ.” But Paul asks, while we do that, if we’re found out to be sinners, that is, people who are not in fact justified by God, what then? Is Christ a servant of sin?
By “servant of sin,” Paul means that Christ in this case would be doing the dirty work of sin, causing people to come up short in God’s eyes on Judgment Day. But Christ didn’t come into the world to trip us up or to knock us down. He came into the world to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). But if he were doing sin’s dirty work, as an agent of sin and of the devil (what a coup for the devil that would be!), then Christ would be guilty of pulling a bait-and-switch, of being a divine con man, of giving us false promises only to change his mind when the crucial moment came along.
Christ himself would be guilty, among other things, of breaking the Fifth Commandment. How so? “God rightly calls all persons murderers who do not offer counsel and aid to men in need and in peril of body and life. He will pass a more terrible sentence upon them in the day of judgment.” Christ himself declares: “I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me” (Matthew 25:42-43). If anyone is condemned because of allowing a neighbor to be harmed, or for causing such harm, how much more aren’t those who allow people to be hurt spiritually to be condemned? But Paul shows that Christ would be guilty of precisely that; of being a servant of sin, of death, and of the devil.
Since this cannot possibly be, Paul finishes his thought with an exclamation, “Certainly not!” Because if it were true, then everyone in the whole world would end up short.
And what Paul here shows to be impossible is exactly what Peter’s actions implied in Antioch. It is also the final result of those gospel-twisting Judaizers and their claim that the Gentiles must be circumcised. It would turn Christ into a liar, heaven into an unattainable goal for any human being, and hell the only destination for each and every human being whether they had faith in Christ or not.
This is why the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ alone is the chief doctrine of Christianity. When Dr. Martin Luther taught this as the key to the gospel, he was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church. Why? “For teaching that men do not receive the forgiveness of sins because of their own merits, but freely for Christ’s sake” (Apology to the Augsburg Confession, article IV:1). The confused teaching of the Romans at that time, and which remains today, was that “It is entirely contrary to the Holy Scripture to deny that our works are meritorious” but that in some way man’s works are made meritorious by God’s grace (Roman Confutation to the Augsburg Confession, Part I, Article IV). This simply says that we are saved by our works on account of God’s grace, and yet the Bible actually says that we are not saved by our works, but only on account of God’s grace. Paul explains most thoroughly to the Ephesians: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Justification is also constant. Although justification (that is, forgiveness) happens through faith by the grace of God from the moment we first believe, it is not an act that happened only once in our lives and then rests. Justification constantly continues, for Paul says here, “While we seek to be justified in Christ.” It is an act of God that goes on constantly throughout our life on earth. God constantly counts our faith for righteousness, just as he did for Abraham (Genesis 15:6). From our point of view, we constantly grasp God’s forgiveness and justification out of faith in Christ’s merits—not our own merits. God forgives you every day, and every day you are justified by faith in Jesus.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.