Epistles of Paul 20

We are continuing today with Galatians chapter 2. We hope to complete chapter 2. Last time we went up to verse 4 of chapter 2. Galatians is a gem. In fact, the whole Bible is a gem, but Galatians is a gem, packed with so much truth. But regrettably, it is twisted and misinterpreted. So as a recap, let's go to right at the beginning. It says that Paul, an apostle, not from man, or through man, but through Jesus Christ. So it was God the Father through Jesus Christ that gave him that responsibility of being an apostle. And then it says, wishes everybody grace and peace, and that directly from God the Father and from Jesus Christ. And then he says, who gave himself for our sins, which means he's voluntary as per God's will. And then he says that he might deliver us. This is an important word, deliver us from bondage. Deliver us from this present evil age. And the point here about this evil age, we mentioned it before, we are in bondage of this evil age, and this evil age is a malicious age. The word evil there, I mentioned before, is a word, poneros, which brings trouble. Trouble brings pain, brings trouble maliciously, with malice, with wanting mischief, wanting suffering. So it's not just evil, but because Satan is the God of this world, this evil world, he wants to maliciously do evil on mankind. So that word evil there implies more than just evil, implies a desire to be malicious and create pain and suffering. But the hour is the very gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ, which in the end is the gospel of the kingdom of God, but of what Jesus Christ has done for us is this grace of delivering us from this present evil malicious world. But regrettably, then he says from verse 6 to verse 9, people are already twisting it. People are twisting it. And then people say, who do you think you are? Paul, you see, that's why he was in verse 10, saying, you know, I do not speak to or say or I'm not trying to please man, but it's because he's been given this responsibility. And then Paul, in the rest of chapter 1, and up to about till about verse 14 of this second chapter, Paul is defending his authority as an apostle of Jesus Christ, that he's been given this authority by Jesus Christ himself. We see that in verse 11 and 12 of Galatians chapter 1, that it says, I've been trained by Jesus Christ himself because he says, I didn't receive this gospel from man, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ himself. In other words, this gospel of Christ, as it's mentioned in verse 7, you know, it's the gospel of Christ. It's the good news of what Christ is doing for us. It did not come from him sitting at the feet of Galatians Gamaliel. It was not that he was at the feet of Gamaliel. He didn't learn it from Gamaliel. Yes, from Gamaliel, he received instruction about the law, about the Jewish interpretation of the Old Testament. He received instruction about the traditions of the elders and of the Jewish customs. In other words, Judaism, or very strict Judaism, as Paul himself calls it, in verse 14, I advanced in Judaism. And we know he was a Pharisee, so it's a very strong sect or group of those Jews. So he received from Gamaliel that instruction, but not the gospel of Jesus Christ. So he didn't get that from man. And when it was the right time, at the time that God decided, we read that in verse 15, and when it pleased God at his time, he was obviously separated from his mother's womb, and when it pleased God, he was called.

God called me through his grace. And that was probably about AD 32, probably about a year after Christ died. And then we see in verse 16 and 17 that it says, then Paul went to Arabia. He says that at the end of verse 17, he went to Arabia. And were he very there by some sort of vision or or way he was taught by Christ, by revelation, as we see or as we read in verse 12. So he went to Arabia and he was taught by Christ. Then we know that after three years, then that puts it around about, say, around about AD 35 after three years. Then he says, I went to Jerusalem just to see Peter and remained with him for 15 days. I saw none of the other apostles except James and Lord's brother. So he went there. And then we know that he had his first missionary trip. And then after that first missionary trip, we see that he went back to Jerusalem at AD 49. And that's why in chapter 2 verse 1 says, then after another 14 years. So AD 32, probably, about that was when he was cold. Then three years later, brings us to AD 35. And then another 14 years puts us to AD 49, which is when was the Jerusalem Conference of Acts 15. So we read that then he went to Jerusalem with Barabas and also with Titus. And I went up by revelation. That could have been translated.

And in fact, in my New King James Version Bible, it's got a little number next to the word by and it says because of. And so when you read that word in the concordance, it could be translated also as disclosure. So we would probably put it in today's language as for full disclosure. So they went to Jerusalem for full disclosure of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which he preached to the Gentiles, which says here in the middle of chapter 2, verse 2, which are preached amongst Gentiles. But he went up to Jerusalem. By going to Jerusalem, he went there to confer with those men privately, as it says there privately, to those who were of reputation. It was to the leaders. It's like saying went to the council and other leaders that were there at that time as well. So he went to Jerusalem, to Jerusalem Conference to confer with them. Why? Because he was preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ as he was taught by Christ, which he had discussed with Peter after three years. As I mentioned a little earlier on, that we read in Galatians 1 verse 18. And now, after his first missionary trip, because there was certain situations that were developing by what he calls false brethren, we see that in verse 4, this occurred because of false brethren. So there were some false brethren that were criticizing what Paul was preaching to the Gentiles. And there were great fruits, as we know, at the end of the first missionary trip. There was very good fruit of that. So he went to Jerusalem with others, as we saw, so that the work that he was doing, as we see at the end of verse 2, would not be in vain, but it would be, let's call it, endorsed. So he went to speak to the leaders for full disclosure of what he was doing, so that he would have the backing, the endorsement of the whole leadership, lest this all would be in vain. And this was because, as he says in verse 4, to address a situation created by these false brethren, which wanted to, as it says there, that they wanted to bring us back into bondage, back to slavery. You see, because those people wanted justification to be by works of ceremonial law, as well as by works of ceremonial law. And Paul was making it very clear that a justification was by the act that Jesus Christ did, and that was because of the faith of Jesus Christ. And so, what is true liberty? And by the way, this is where we stopped at the previous study. So let's just cover a little bit more about what is true liberty. Liberty is the liberty to live as we should, you see, and not to be in bondage of Satan, of his malicious evil world that we are all in, for us to be freed from this. So from what are we liberated as Christians? Are we liberated from the eternal spiritual law of God? Of course not. In other words, we cannot kill, we cannot steal. No, we're not liberated as Christians from God's law. God's law is not a bondage. God's law is a law of love. Then liberty from what? To what were we slaves? Well, if we read in Romans chapter 6 verse 20, if we turn there quickly, Romans chapter 6 verse 20, and you probably want to keep a marker in Romans because we're going to go to Romans a few times today, but Romans chapter 6 verse 20 says, for when you were slaves of sin. We were slaves of sin.

So we were slaves. Our slavery was not to the law of God, was to our sins. And so it says, also in Romans 6 verse 16, do you not know that to whom you present yourself slaves to obey? You are that one's slaves whom you obey. And so we are in this world, or we were, slaves of sin. But now we need to be slaves of obedience, of doing what God wants us to do, which leads us to righteousness. So when we are slaves of sin, we are slaves of Satan, and Satan brings fears. And and affects people's minds. I have come across people that have been seriously influenced by demons, and they have fears. The interesting thing is what what bought brought those people into this kind of bad spirit sometimes, obviously is disobedience, but sometimes was, oh, when they had this thing, they had this thing, and they had an amazing sense of peace. But that is a temporary deceitful peace, because after that they have no peace. You see, sermon is very deceitful, because it gives you the impression that it's very good, gives you a pleasure, but it's temporary, because in the long term it's suffering and pain. The same thing with this evil influence. It does not bring peace. All these people say, I had such a wonderful sense of peace. But there was no peace after some time. They just did not have peace. So, with slaves, when people are disobeying, they are slaves of sin. So, that's why, through Christ, we have been freed from that bondage. And that's why, when we go back to Galatians chapter 1, verse 4, he says that he might deliver us from this present, malicious age. In other words, that we are bondage under this. We are slaves of the society.

And so, our calling as Christians is to be liberated from this bondage. Our calling is not for us to be free to live as we please, which really does not make us free, but slaves of Satan and his demons. Therefore, we are really free to live as we should. And so, that's why we read in James chapter 1, that it's the law of liberty. And in James chapter 1, verses 22 and 25 talks about that law of liberty. And then in chapter 2, verse 10 through 12, identifies a number of the points of that law, which is some of the law of the Ten Commandments. And so, we are free from bondage. Bondage, which is brought to us by sinning. But then, there is an understanding that, and this is the Gospel of Christ, that only Christ's suffering will liberate us, will deliver us from this bondage. Now, Christ's suffering was symbolized, was pointed to by the ceremonial law of sacrifices.

And those were works of law, works of the ceremonial law. And that ceremonial law, as we read in Galatians chapter 3 verse 19, its purpose is that it was added because of transgressions to God's eternal law.

And this is what people were distorting. They were distorting that being made right with God was not just by the sacrifice of Christ, which was symbolized by the killing of the possible lamb and other sacrifices that pointed to that. They were therefore saying, no, we need to continue doing those sacrifices, and particularly the Gentiles need to do that because that is part or required to be justified.

And that was, let's call it, a twisting of the Gospel of Christ, or what Christ sacrificed, the good news of Christ's sacrifice is for us. And so Paul is saying, this is what his false brethren, which came in secretly or through stealth to try and take that liberty out.

And he says in verse 5, to whom we did not yield submission even for a tiny bit, as we'd call it today, or for an hour. So we did not accept that. We said, no, no, no, no, no, oh, this is not correct. We do not admit it, that the truth of the Gospel might continue with you. The truth that we are made right with God freely by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

And Jesus Christ did that sacrifice because he had absolute trust in the Father that the Father would resurrect him. He had no doubts. And so another word for trust, his faith. It's the faith of Jesus Christ, because of his faith, because of his trust in the Father, of his faith in the Father, he gave his life for us.

And therefore, he died for us. And he therefore became our Passover Lamb. That's what, basically what it is. And so Paul did not submit to that idea at all that you still required the physical sacrifices, because those physical sacrifices were only a tutor, an instructor, as it reads in Galatians chapter 3 verse 24. Therefore, the law of these sacrifices, those ceremonial sacrifices, was our tutor, was our instructor, was our teacher, right, to bring us to the real Passover Lamb, which is Christ, where we might be made right or justified, made me right with God, maybe justified by faith, by faith of Christ, by the faith that Christ had in the Father, and therefore he died for us.

So continuing reading, we finish reading verse 5, verse 6 now of Galatians chapter 2, but from those, okay, let me read verse 5 again, to whom we do not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.

But from those who seem to be something, whatever they were, it makes no difference to me. Well, if these people appear to be real big, important people in the church, they went because they were false brethren. He says, wherever they went, it makes no difference to me. God shows personal favoritism to no man. For those who seem to be something added nothing to me. So God is not partial and says, oh well, these people are important, so you've got to listen to them. No, it's God's truth, and we've got to stick to God's truth.

That's one thing that in the United Church of God and in God's church, we are very strong in making sure we stick to the truth. We are very strong in that. It is extremely important for us to stick to the truth, to not deviate from the truth. Now, granted, when we speak the truth, we will be truthful, when we act in a truthful way, and when there are little issues, we've got to speak the truth, but we've got to do it in a loving, kind way, speaking the truth in love, granted.

But we have to stand up for the truth, not deviate from the truth. And that's why it says, these people that came and seem to be big shots, or very important, God doesn't show favoritism to those. But on the contrary, verse 7, when they saw that the gospel, that the good news of this sacrifice that Christ had done, and therefore opened a way for free justification of when this good news for the Gentiles, you know, was the ones that had not been circumcised, had been committed to me, that's Paul, as the gospel to the circumcised, the Israelites, the Jews, was to Peter.

For he worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised, and also worked effectively in me towards the Gentiles. You see, so there were fruits, there were fruits, and God, through Christ, worked with Peter for the Israelites, and worked through Paul to get to the Gentiles.

And then he continues. And when James and Cephas, which is Peter, by the way, that shows there's nothing wrong with translating names, right? So, but anyway, and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, and yes, they were pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, it was those who were pillars in the church, right? They gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. In other words, we teamed up. We teamed up. We worked together as a team, that we should go to the Gentiles and to the Israelites, to the circumcised. And as we know, when we read Acts 15, the decision there was, they decided only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I was eager to do. So, so we can see, yeah, Paul is basically giving or defending his apostolic authority. He is backing it up because, as I mentioned, people say, hey, who's this guy? Who's Paul? So Paul is defending it. Now continuing, and then he identifies in verse 11 and through 14. He says, now when Peter had come to Antioch, so he's talking a situation, Peter came from Jerusalem and he went up to Antioch. That's an area south of Turkey, which today, or of recent, is practically destroyed because of the earthquakes they've had in that area. So it's very sad, but it's practically destroyed that area. And I would stood him to his face because he was to be blamed. So Paul had the courage and the guts to say, Peter, you're wrong.

So, so then he says, I would stood him to his face because he was to be blamed. He was wrong. And so he continues, for before certain men came from James, what do you mean some men came from James? It's because James was, let's call it, the pastor of the Jerusalem congregation. So they came from the Jerusalem congregation, or in other words, they came from James. It's just a way of putting it. They came from that area. It's like, for instance, if somebody's a pastor, for instance, in Lawton, you could say, well, they came from, and then you use the name of the minister that is responsible in Lawton or Klom. I'm not mentioning names, not to embarrass anybody, but it's just the ways. When some men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles, but when they came, so that's before they came, but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing that those who were of the circumcision. So Yah is Paul describing Peter and calling Peter, his attention, the attention to Peter, that Peter made a mistake when he came to Antioch. And what law was, were they breaking about eating separately? There's no law that they had to eat separately. It was just a tradition, a Jewish tradition. It was not God's law. It's one of those traditions of the fathers that was in the oral law, a phatocycle oral law, which Christ criticized. And then he says in verse 13, and the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrites. So when Peter did this, then everybody else went along in the bandwagon, and in other words, which was an hypocrisy. And so that even Barnabas, now Barnabas had traveled with Paul in his first missionary trip, and even Barnabas kind of got caught up with this, he says, was carried away with their hypocrisy. And so Paul identified this thing which became very public, and therefore he had to address it publicly. And let's read that in verse 14. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, and what's the truth of the gospel? We all equal. The gospel, we all justified by Christ, we're the Jews or Gentiles. We're all equal. Remember that dream that Peter had with those animals and cleaner and clean animals, and then they were not to call any man common or unclean. So just because a person is a Jew or a person is a Gentile, they're not any better or any worse. We all sinners, human beings. Yes, God is working through some first. That's God's prerogative. But we all human beings of equal standing before God. So that is not a justification to, well, I'm not going to eat with those people. So that was an hypocrisy and not, as he says, not about the truth of the gospel. And so Paul says, I said to Peter before them all, publicly, he says, if you being a Jew live in a manner of the Gentiles, yeah, privately, you are different. But yeah, in public, why do you act differently? And that's what he says here. If you being a Jew living a manner of the Gentiles and not as the Jews, was the Pharisaical Judaism traditional law rather than God's law, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? And so Paul had the courage to publicly correct Peter. And this again emphasizes his apostolic authority. His apostolic authority. And therefore, he's defending it, this authority very conclusively. But as he has completed going through this apostolic authority, Paul now pivots. Now what I mean by pivoting? Pivot is like it's transitions. Transitions from this area of identifying or defending is a apostolic authority. It transitions. It's like a link step in a sermon or in a sermonette. It transitions in a very smooth way to the actual main theme of this epistle, which is justification by the faith of Jesus Christ.

Now he has a principle for speakers. Say, for instance, you're giving a message and you have a very specific purpose statement. We need to have a very specific purpose statement when you give a sermonette or a sermon. So the brethren know where we're going. And also when we're very specific and purposed, people don't get lost. Now some people think, oh well, my specific purpose statement is, for instance, love. Now love is not a specific purpose statement. It's a very general statement. You've got to narrow that down to something more specific. For instance, you go and give a sermonette and you give a sermonette about God's Ten Commandments. That is not specific. You've got to narrow it down on one. And even then, when you narrow it down on one, you've got to narrow it down, the application of that one, on a specific point. But when you do that, you have sub points. And when you move from one to the other sub point, you need what they call a link step or a transition or a pivoting statement that links one to the other. So there's continuity. And that's what Paul is doing here. He is pivoting in verse 15, because he's talking about this Jewish approach. And then he says, we who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles. And it may come across and say, what? We who are Jews by nature but not sinners of the Gentiles. Well, that kind of comes across a little bit self-righteous. But you've got to understand that he's talking to, he was talking to that people that had this attitude, a Jewish type attitude. And he said, we who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles. Because the Jews point to the Gentiles as sinners. Right? And so, look at verse 17. Let's just jump to verse 17 of chapter 2. For if while we seek to be justified by Christ and we ourselves also are found sinners, you see, he's now bringing, we are also sinners. It's not just the Gentiles that are sinners. We are also sinners. Right? So, this Jewish mindset of saying, well, the Gentiles are sinners. He's saying, wait, wait, wait, we're also sinners. So, he's actually bringing a point here. And now I want to emphasize another interesting word here. We who are Jews by nature. What does he mean, we are Jews by nature? We are Jews by birth. He was talking, we are Jews by our natural bloodline, by our descent. We are Jews.

We're not Gentiles. We are Jews. It's like saying, for instance, you could say, well, I'm an American, or I am a British citizen, or I am, for instance, a German by birth, by nature. That's a way of using that word nature. That word nature could be used that way by descent, by birth. It also could be used, obviously, by natural ways. For instance, let's just talk a little bit more about this point about by nature. In Romans 11 verse 24, Romans 11 verse 24, it's talking about this tree, olive tree. Romans 11 verse 24, it says, for if you were cut off of the olive tree, which is wild by nature. So, why? Because of that, descent, if the word descent is a correct one in this application, but by that line of the tree, the seed of the wild tree that grows more wild trees, would by nature, by descent, would also be wild trees. So, by descent. So, you can see the word by nature is also applicable in this sense of a line, like a genealogy line or a line of the seed going from one to the other.

But now look, keep that in mind, and now look at Romans chapter 2 verse 14. Romans chapter 2 verse 14. And here we read, for when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature. Oh, what do you mean? They do not have the law by nature. You see, you could have translated this as Gentiles who do not have by nature the law. It was Gentiles which by their own natural line of descent, they have not received the law through the line of the Israelites, through that lineage. By their lineage, they do not receive the law. So, so let's, so there in verse 14, you know, that could be a way that that could be read. So, I don't want to delve too much more onto that because we're studying our Galatians. So, let's go back to Galatians, Galatians chapter 2 verse 15. So, I just deviated there a little bit to give you a little bit of an interesting little gem as well. We who are Jews by nature and not sinners, the Gentiles, so he's pivoting the subject. What do you mean? He's pivoting the subject from the, what piloted it wrong, what those Jewish people went on with that. He's also been talking about, he's a postolic authority, but now he's bringing in the other subject which is critical in this letter, which is justification by faith. And so, here he says, for we were Jews by nature and not the sinners of Gentiles, but basically we're all sinners. And so, basically what he's saying, let me put it in very simple words and then we're going to read this in more detail, he's saying even us, being Jews, are not justified, made right with God by our nature, by our descent. You see, we are not justified, we are not made right by our natural descent.

We are not declared righteous with God by works of the law either, by, of the ceremonial law. We're not made righteous with God. But we, Jews, and Gentiles, we all are declared righteous by the faith of Jesus Christ.

You see, no one is justified by any law. Romans 3 verse 20. Romans 3 verse 20 is, let's just read that very quickly. He says, therefore by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified. In God's sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. You see, the law defines what sin is. Romans 4 verse 15. Romans 4 verse 15. He says, because the law brings about wrath. For where there is no law, there's no transgression. You see, the law defines what is sin. And if we break the law, there's a penalty. There's a wrath. And so the law defines what is sin, and the law brings about wrath. Penalty imposes a penalty. Again, in Romans 7 verse 7. Romans 7 verse 7.

So what shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not. On the contrary, I would have not known sin except through the law. You see, the law identifies what is sin. Look at 1 John chapter 3 verse 4. 1 John chapter 3 verse 4.

1 John chapter 3 verse 4. Whoever commits sin also commits loneliness, and sin is loneliness. So what is sin? He's breaking the law. So the law has a demand, as a penalty. And what is the penalty? Romans 6 verse 23. Romans 6 verse 23. For the wages of sin, which is breaking the law, we just saw that in 1 John 3 verse 4. For the wages of sin is death. And so the law has two powers. 1. Identify what is sin. And 2. Impulse a penalty. In this case, breaking the law, sin, the penalty or the wages of the law, is death.

The law does not have a third power to pay for the penalty of the sin. You see, the law does not pay for the penalty of the sin. The function of the law is not to pay for sin. If you and I were justified by obedience to any law, to any law, then why would Jesus Christ have to die for our sins? You see, how is sin paid? The ceremonial law, the sacrifices, showed how? Symbolically. By saying life for life, and the life is in the blood. The real sacrifice of human life for human life is the true Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ. And our true Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ, is given to us freely. The Old Testament, all the sacrifices point to the Passover Lamb, and the true Passover Lamb is Christ. So that was just a shadow, an analogy of the reality, which is Christ, which is what pays for our sins. So, here we have. We have to believe that Christ has indeed done this for us. And if we believe that he has done this, we are going to do what he tells us to do. We are not buying. We are not buying. And so, behind the world, believe. Always see obedience and action.

Again, if there was a law that paid for sin, why did Jesus Christ would have to die for us? Why would he have to empty himself from being of the form of God, Philippians 2, verse 6 and 7, and why did he have to become a human being, and why did he have to voluntarily humble himself to death if there was a law to pay for it?

Why would he have to go through that pain and suffering? In fact, people say, oh well, because now Christ has died, God can change the law, and therefore you don't have to obey the law anymore. What do you mean? If God could change the law, obviously, God is all-powerful, but the law is love. God is not going to change his nature of being love. So, if God was to change his nature of love, which he wanted, but if he could change the law, why did he do it before Christ died? Before Christ died. You see, so any indication or any implication that with any human effort you can earn salvation, that's legalism. Think about it. Legalism is any hint that you can earn salvation by obeying some law, because no law will pay the price of life for life, because life for life. That's what the law says, life for life. And so, that's what legalism is. Or, in other words, is works of law. Legalism is nothing else than works of law. Only the sacrifice of Jesus Christ can forgive us from our sins. Now, God's grace, God's graciousness, includes a lot of acts of kindness and of love, and one of those. One of those, amongst many others, but one of those, which is a major one for sure, is that He forgives us and He has mercy on us by just forgiving us and giving us His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us. That demonstrates His love for us, but that does not give us card blanche or a green card to just continue sinning, because once we accept that and we realize what Christ has done, and you and I are free from this jail, we now must not continue doing it, otherwise we're going to go back to jail. So, God's grace of forgiving us and giving His Son, yeah, that's a grace, but you know that God's law is also grace from God. Why? Because God's law is love, and when we practice love towards one another and towards God, there is a wonderful blessing, a gracious blessing for everyone. You see, God's law is a gift from God for our good, and it shows God's grace towards us.

Imagine a world, which is what the world tomorrow will be, when people will be obeying the Ten Commandments. The result will be one only law, and there will be no more war, no more disaster, no more suffering at that level. So, there is no law, put it in summary, there is no law, there is a medicine or a pill or a remedy to sin. There is no law that pays for sin.

The law identifies what is sin, and the law tells us if you break it, you have a penalty.

Therefore, seeing that the law does not pay for sin, the only method for that sin to be paid, because the wages of sin is death, the only way to pay for that death is to have another death. In place of. And that death, in place of, is death of Jesus Christ, the only one that never sinned. And he died for us because he trusted that the Father would resurrect him, because he had faith in the Father. And therefore, you and I are justified, I may write with God, not by works of law, but by the faith of Christ. And that's what Galatians chapter 2 verse 16 says. And if you have a King James Version Bible, an old King James Version Bible, which puts it much clearly, clearly, I'm going to read it with the statements or the wording that the old King James Bible uses. But I'm reading it off the new King James, but I'm just using the wording as applicable from the old King James. So let me read Galatians 2.16. But I'm going to use the prepositions as it's used in the old King James. Knowing that a man is not justified by works of law or the works of the law. In Greek, the word there is not there. So knowing that a man is not justified by works of law, any law. No law pays for your sins. But, in other words, we are made right with God, but by faith of Jesus Christ. The King James Version has by faith of Jesus Christ. We are made right by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Christ. Oh yeah, we believe that what Christ has done is sufficient for us. So we believe that. But you and I are justified by the faith of Christ, and we believe in that. We believe in that.

So let me continue. Knowing that a man is not justified by works of law, but by faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith of Christ. So that we may be made right with God by faith of Christ, and not by works of law. For by works of law, no flesh shall be justified. You see, when we understand this, and this is what Paul is saying, it is so critical.

You see, so remember that Paul is talking in the context of Peter's situation, of those that came from James, from Jerusalem, and they were being hypocrites. And it says that all Jews that considered the Gentiles sinners, and now he's explaining, we all sinners. And therefore, because we're all sinners and we're forgiven by Christ's action of faith in the Father, that therefore he died for us, thus this therefore gives us carte blanche to sin. Because if it gives us carte blanche to sin, then Christ is a minister of sin. That's what he says in verse 17. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, it was by the faith of Christ, right, we just seek to be justified by Christ, right, we ourselves are also found sinners. Is Christ therefore a minister of sin? So if we continue living in that sinful way, after we have believed in this, which means, once we believe in Christ, we have to obey. We have to change. Otherwise, Christ would be a minister of sin. He would say, well, therefore, because we're justified by his act of faith, we can just go on sinning. No, Christ is not a minister of sin. Certainly not. And then he continues, if I build again those things which are destroyed, I make myself a transgracer. In other words, if I build again the reasoning that I can go on sinning, well, we have to repent, right, we've got to change, then I am a transgracer. I can't go back to the old man. We know what it says in Romans that we need to change and that the law demonstrates the way as to live. And we read in Colossians that we have the old man, and we're going to change from the old man to the new man. And because of the law, I've learned what I need to do. So I need to become a new man, a new person. So that's what I'm going to be. And so continuing in verse 19, for I, through the law, died to the law that I might live to God. For I, through the knowledge that the law tells me what I must do and what I must do, right, so for I, through the law, I died to the condemnation of sin, right? But now I have to obey. I have to repent. When we baptized, we have to repent. So that says, for I, through the law, died to the law, died to the penalty of the law. You see, why? Because now I'm going to live a new man in Christ. Because through the law, we receive the Lamb of God. Yes, that was in law. Exodus 12 is part of the law, the Lamb of God. That was part of it. Christ came to fulfill the law, which included his sacrifice. There was predicted in the law or prophesied in the law and in the prophets and in the psalms. So we have died to that penalty of the law. Why? Because we change. Because we repent.

I have been crucified with Christ. In other words, Christ died. My old man needs to die. And therefore it says, it does no longer I will live. It's no longer that old man that lives, but Christ lives in me. Through God's Holy Spirit, Christ lives in me. I am trying to imitate Christ. I'm trying to live like Christ. I'm trying to be a new man, which I now live in the flesh. I live by faith right off the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. So I live because of the faith of Christ, that he died for us by that faith. I also trust in him. And it says, therefore, I do not set aside the grace of God.

You see, I'm not setting aside that grace of God, because I'm not justified by killing goats and sheep and I am justified by grace. So I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteous comes through the law, killing lambs and goats, etc., then Christ died in vain.

You see, so therefore, if we could be justified by law, then Christ died unnecessarily. So for us to be just before God, we can only be just, right, justified before God by Christ's sacrifice, which is eudard because of his faith in the Father. And therefore, that's what Paul is saying. What a wonderful good news, gospel, of hope that we all have in this gospel of Christ, which is one key section of the bigger whole gospel, which is the gospel of the kingdom of God.