If you want to follow along in Galatians chapter 2, we're continuing. We're going to be picking it up in verse 11 today, and I want to go through at least verse 18. The Lord would allow us to get that far. I'll try not to hold you too long, so I'm going to cover things that are very important. and try to do it succinctly. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your Word. We wouldn't know the truth if you didn't reveal it. And you've chosen to reveal it in a written form that men can't alter. We have it here before us. We can all read it, and we delight to read it and find again the truth you've given to us about our eternal salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. A salvation that doesn't depend upon us. A salvation that you determined, provided, promised, and the Lord Jesus performed. And now it's ours, all by your grace, all by his work. You've given us your spirit to know it and believe him. And we're thankful. We're so thankful. And we pray for grace to rest in this salvation. We pray and bless us, Lord, for Jesus' sake. And you would receive honor and glory in doing so. Bless each one here. We pray, Lord, that as we meet together week by week and year by year, you wouldn't leave any who hear your word unsaved. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Galatians chapter 2 and verse 11. Paul said, when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. Peter came to Antioch This was Peter who had been taught that the Gentiles were equally accepted by grace. He himself had preached it at the gathering there in Jerusalem in Acts 15. He believed it. Somehow, he did something here that denied by action what he had taught by words and believed in his heart. And that teaches us something very serious, doesn't it? That we're all prone to fall. God has to hold us up, even those who think they're strong. The scripture says, if you think you're strong, then remember that you're not, you're just flesh. The Lord, our strength is in Christ. And it teaches us again that there was nothing in Peter that we are supposed to revere, but only the work of God's grace in Peter. The Apostle Paul himself said, I am what I am by the grace of God. Catholics revere Peter. They claim he was the first Pope, and therefore infallible. Obviously, that's false. He was very fallible. And therefore, God teaches us not to glory in men. In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, the Apostle tells the Corinthians this was their problem. Some say you're of Paul, some of Apollos, and some glory in Cephas. He said, don't do that. That's wrong. And so, through this weakness on Peter's part, we see our own frailty, our own sinfulness. And that's an encouragement, isn't it? I heard Bruce Crabtree say one time, unbelief loves company. And that's what we find in ourselves. Fear. and guilt, we find comfort in knowing that we're not alone in this. But it's not to be left there. We're not to wallow in our unbelief and fear and our own sinfulness, but we're to look away to Christ. And that's the point of this passage, is that Peter himself had to live in the same way that the Gentiles did. Which he had been doing, but now he had faltered. So when Peter was come to Antioch, Paul said, I withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed. What he did affected others, and so it had to be corrected publicly. Verse 12, For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles. To eat with the Gentiles means he fellowshiped with them. He ate the same food they ate. He ate in their houses. He ate with them. There was no distinction. He knew that. And so that's why he did this. He lived in this way with the Gentiles as a Gentile. Not as the Jews. That's an important point. He lived as the Gentiles did. He ate what they ate. Fellowship with the Gentiles. He made no distinction because God made no distinction. He purified their hearts by faith. The Lord Jesus Christ was their sin-cleansing atonement before God, and He knew it. He knew that was His only hope, too. It says here, "...but when he did eat with the Gentiles before these came from James, but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision." The circumcision were the Jews who believed that their circumcision was necessary to salvation and that it somehow separated them and made them better than the Gentiles. And so Peter stopped fellowshipping with the Gentiles, stopped eating with them, and only ate with the Jews, and ate what the Jews ate. He was kosher at that point, where before he was not kosher. Verse 13, And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him, insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. This means that their actions contradicted their profession. Peter's actions went against what he was preaching and teaching, and what he actually believed, and what he had been shown by Christ. It was very clear he knew these things, but what he did was a bigger sermon than what he said, and so even Barnabas, who had been a traveler, a co-missionary laborer with Paul, was led away. I've been led away after I believed. I have been caused to believe for a while that there was something I had to do. And every time that happens, and it happens recurringly in our lives, we're brought back to see that our salvation is in Christ alone. And when we see that, then we rest again, our shoulders slump in relaxed mode, and we're saying, oh, it's so good to know that though I'm a sinner and my faith is unstable and weak, my hope is in Christ. And so Barnabas was led away, and Paul's going to correct this, because their error was a great error. Verse 14, but when I saw Paul, when Paul saw, when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel. So what is the standard that they were being held to by Paul? And by the Holy Spirit who is speaking now through Paul? The truth of the gospel. Because in this new covenant age, the gospel is our rule of life. And so Paul said to Peter, before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of the Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compelst thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? What is he saying? Peter was a Jew. But he had been living with the Gentiles as a Gentile. He was not observing the distinction between Jews and Gentiles. It had been done away in Christ. He was not holding the Gentiles to a requirement that they had to be circumcised and keep the law to be saved. He was eating with them, eating the food they ate, and fellowship with them. He was living like a Gentile, wasn't he? And so Paul says, if you live like a Gentile, if you're a Jew and yet live like the Gentiles, why do you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews? Because that's what he was doing when he got up and left the fellowship and eating with the Gentiles and he went to be with the Jews. The Jews were put under the law. They had to do all these ceremonial things and keep the law in order to be righteous before God. At least that's what they understood. And so they were bound to the law like a schoolmaster until Christ came. And yet, though they were under the law as Jews, now Peter was no longer under the law because Christ had come and he looked to Christ and saw that his satisfaction to God for his sins and his fulfillment of God's law was in Christ alone. And so he left, as a Jew, he left trusting in the law and he trusted only in Christ. But then he changed, and this action that he did by leaving the Gentiles and their fellowship to be with the Jews, and acted as if the old covenant was still in force, the new covenant had not put it away, and therefore what Christ had done really hadn't accomplished anything more than just some contribution to salvation, instead of our entire salvation. A deadly error. And so why are you doing this? It's complete hypocrisy to be a Jew and say, I'm not under the law. I can live like a Gentile. And yet when the Jews come, you revert and you tell the Gentiles, now you have to be like the Jews. And so Paul says in verse 15, we who are Jews by nature, we were born Jews. And we were raised as Jews. We were taught the law and we lived under it. We're Jews by nature. And not sinners of the Gentiles. They weren't born Jews. They weren't called by God's name. They didn't live under the law. They didn't know what they worshipped. They worshipped idols. We're not sinners of the Gentiles. How do the Gentiles live? There's no law. I'm not under a law. And so Peter had been living that way while the Gentiles were there in Antioch, before the Jews came. I'm living like the Gentiles. I'm not under the law. He says, we who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles, because that's what the Judaizers called the Gentiles, sinners. They don't have law. They don't live under the law. We do. We have the law. We live under it. We're not sinners. That's what the Jews thought. If that's what you're preaching by your action, Peter, why do you do this? And then verse 16, we, we who are Jews by nature and not sinners among the Gentiles, knowing, we who have been convinced by Christ, this is something we know. And this verse and what follows is the very heart and soul of the message of all of Scripture. This is the justification that God has provided for sinners in Christ. Knowing, this is something we're certain of, 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. Not one. Not Peter. Not Paul. Not Abraham, not Noah, not Adam. None. None will be justified by their own personal obedience before God. Three times in this verse the negative is used. You will not be justified before God. Three times. By your own works in keeping the law. Because that's what it means, the works of the law. It means my obedience to God's requirements. Something I do. Some value in me. Something about me. Something that I can say belongs to me. Something I did or experienced. It can be insignificant in comparison to what the law requires, but if I trust in it, then that's trusting in my performance. But the law itself says the law is no hiding place. It's no refuge. There's no salvation here. Look at chapter 3, verse 10. The law itself says, don't look to the law for salvation. Verse 10, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. There it is. For it is written in the law, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. That's what the law says. If you don't do everything in the law, all the time, perfectly, then you're cursed. So there's no salvation there is there for a sinner. And verse 11 and 12 goes on. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident. For, and now he's going to quote the prophets. The just shall live by faith. Habakkuk 2.4. The just live by faith. The just are the righteous. The righteous, how do they live? By the law? No, by faith. And verse 12, and the law is not of faith. Living by the law is not living by faith. The demands of the law are demands placed on the individual. The gospel places all of God's demands on our covenant head, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, our Substitute, our High Priest, And the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them. You'll live if you do it. That's what the law says. So the law itself denies that we are justified before God by our own law-keeping. Job said, how shall a man be just with God? How shall he that is born of woman be clean? In Job 25.4. So the law all throughout says that we're not justified by the law. We're sinners. And in the Psalms, in Psalm 32, David said, Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven. The law doesn't do that. Whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. In other words, we're saved by something else. We're saved by the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness. Christ's righteousness was credited to him. That's what the law says. And don't you hear the law? In chapter 4 of Galatians, Paul says, don't you hear the law? That Abraham had two sons? The law itself. Genesis through Deuteronomy says, Abraham had two sons, one of the bondwoman, one of the free. But he that was born of the bondwoman was born after the flesh. And he persecuted him that was born after the spirit, the son of promise, Isaac. That's the way God saves his people, is through promise, by grace. And not by what we do, not after the flesh, but the spirit of God. So we're not justified by the works of the law. What does it mean to be justified? It means that we appear in the court of heaven. Like a criminal appears before the judge. Or a man, maybe not a criminal, appears before the judge in our land. This happens all the time in our land. We're very familiar with it. If you ever go into a courtroom, you'll experience it. And if you're an adult, after you're registered to vote, they call you in to be a juror. And you'll experience this. You'll go into a courtroom. There will be a judge. There will be an attorney defending the one who's accused. And there will be someone who's prosecuting, bringing evidence in order to prove the guilt of this person. And then there's going to be these people who are going to listen to the evidence presented. And they're going to give to the judge what they think. And the judge is going to make the final verdict. But God in heaven sits as judge alone. It's His law. He is the one who imposed His law upon us. God Himself as judge requires us to appear in His presence. He looks at the law and He looks at us. If He finds anything in us that violates His law, or any shortcoming that didn't fulfill the requirements of His law, then he condemns us. And this condemnation, this sentence of condemnation, passed on us when? When Adam, our father, committed that sin in the Garden of Eden. That one sin, by that one sin, we all became sinners and we were condemned in Adam. All in Adam die. That's what the judge said. Then how can we be justified? The judge has to find for us a righteousness. So pure that His law is fulfilled. So satisfying to His justice that all of our sins are taken away. And the punishment for those sins is brought upon us in such a way that God is satisfied. And he therefore finds another, one for the many, just as Adam stood for his, all of his people, Christ stood for his. And God looks at the evidence of what Christ has done, and based on that, he justifies. He pronounces as righteous those to whose credit God gives or imputes the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Justification. It means God says, you are righteous. But not based on our own, because we have none, but based on the righteousness, the obedience of another. By His sufferings our sins were covered, and by His obedience our righteousness is established. And that's the only justification that there is before God, the Judge. We have to appear. Everyone will appear before the judgment seat of Christ. And the Judge will sit, and He will judge out of the books according to their works. And everyone who is not found written in the book of life shall be cast into the lake of fire. Because only in the book of life has Christ blotted out our sins and fulfilled our righteousness for us. And that's the only way that the judge of all the earth can do right and yet justify the ungodly. That's justification. Justified by the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he says here in verse 16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, not by what you do. I remember as a young person, I wanted to be saved. I did not want to go to hell. What do I have to do? You have to do this. You have to raise your hand. You have to come forward. You have to talk to the preacher. You have to ask Jesus into your heart. You have to commit your life to Christ. You have to be sincere. You have to keep doing these things or you haven't been saved. And I began to try to do those things. I went forward, crying, afraid to go to hell, asking Jesus to come into my heart. At least I thought I did. I don't remember. It was so long ago. That's the trouble with depending upon what you do. You can never remember. Did I really do it? Was I in my right mind? Was I sincere in it? Did I have the right understanding? Did I make the right decision? It all comes back to you, you see. And that leaves us without a hope, without any justification before God. And so the works of the law are anything that we bring. It can be our tears, our sorrow, our resolve to do better, our reform, our repentance, even our faith in Christ. We can trust our confidence in Christ. There was some, a couple of guys came to my house and they were, I was talking to them. And one of them, in the course of the conversation, said, yes, but I believe that God has given grace to all and that we have to accept Him. I said, okay, well let's assume that's the case. Did you accept Jesus? Yes. Well, how do you know? How do you know you did it right? How do you know you accepted the right propositions? How do you know you were sincere? How do you know that you did? Well, because of my works. Well, how do you know you've done enough works and that you continue, that you will continue in them? How do you know? It all comes back to you, doesn't it? You see, when the Lord convinces us, we not only look away from ourselves, but we look to Christ and we confess, this is my hope, this is my message. This is what I'm living by. So we're not justified by the works of the law. Not by anything we do. No contribution on our part. God does not respond to us to justify us. That's what he convinces us over time. At a moment in time. In order for us to be saved, Christ had to do something. And God had to receive it for us. And that's the end of the story. And he has to give it to us to know it. So we're not justified by the works of the law, but we are justified, he says here, listen, look what it says, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. The King James Version is the only version available today that I know of, actually, no, there's one other one, that actually puts it in this way, where the faith belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. the faith of Jesus Christ. Most translations say, our faith in Jesus Christ. But that's not what it says in the original. It actually makes it clear in the original that this is faith belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ. It belongs to Him. So what is this faith of Jesus Christ? Because by the faith of Jesus Christ, we are justified according to what Paul says here. We are not justified by what we do, but we are justified by the faith of Jesus Christ. What is this faith? Well, as I've done so many times before when I've read these words in the past, I've said, I don't know what this means. And I've asked the Lord, what does this mean? Why did the scripture write it this way, the faith of Jesus? Why didn't it say it so that I could understand it without struggling over it? Have you ever read the Bible that way? I don't understand what it means. Why didn't God make it clearer? It's frustrating. The reason it's not clear to you is that you have to go to the Lord and ask Him for it. And then He'll show us. Faith is spoken of in scripture in two ways. Faith is what we believe, or faith is our believing it. So faith can be the thing that we believe, or it can be our own exercise of trust in, our understanding of and trust in what we believe. Now what this is saying here is that the faith of Jesus Christ is what we believe. It's who we believe. It's what He did. It's not our subjective experience of being persuaded and trusting Christ. But it's the object of our faith. I've used illustrations of this before, but even in scripture these illustrations are used. Remember what Jesus said, if a man builds his house on the rock, when the storms come, what happens to his house? It stands firm. But if a man builds his house on the sand and the storms come, then the sand washes out from under the house and the house crumbles. The first one is the faith of Jesus Christ. The second one is something else. It's sand. Jesus said in scripture that men trust in their riches. Men trust in their righteousness. Men trust in lots of things. Their own law keeping. Their own goodness. But there's only one trust that won't fail. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's other examples given to us. Remember the example Christ gave that there's a broad way that leads to destruction. A broad way. It's as wide as it needs to be for everyone to go in. And it's so wide and smooth and clean looking. And everyone's going that way that most people go that way. It's like there's a great chasm. You know what a chasm is? When I was a little kid, my parents took us all to the Royal Gorge. A place where the Colorado River is a mile below the cliff. You can look down one mile and see the bottom of the valley. So steep. And I remember thinking back how I was actually, as a child, there were no barriers sitting and walking around on that precipice just at the edge of that cliff. I was surprised and thinking back that I'm sure my mom was biting her nails. She always trusted the Lord. But I think back about that, I could have fallen. I remember looking down and seeing the river down there and still thinking how far away it looked. That's a chasm. It's deep. They have these things in the ice called crevasses or crevices. I don't know how you say it. It depends on whether you're from Scotland or the US. The guys that work from Scotland would say crevasse. Glacier. Anyway, glaciers and crevices or crevasses and glaciers. But a chasm is a very deep thing. And think of faith, the object of our faith like this, the Broadway, is a path across the chasm. a crossing of the chasm. And most people go in there. But is the crossing strong enough? Is it long enough? Can you get across it all the way? Because if you get into the crossing, the bridge, and it ends or it fails, then you're going to end up falling into the chasm. The chasm I'm speaking about is that separation between us and God. And what lies beneath is eternal perdition, damnation, eternal hell. And there's a broad way that goes across. People think it goes across this chasm. And that consists of our own personal obedience to God's requirements. And somehow, because of our sorrow or tears or reform or resolve to do better, our hope that we can somehow be better someday, we're going to get across this chasm. That's the broad way, that's the way everyone goes, except a few. And then there's another way called the narrow way, and it's so narrow that few people find it, and few people go in there, and so narrow that you can't carry any tools to repair the bridge while you're there. And the strength of the path, whether the first one or the second one, the first one, the signs all around it say, only the strong enter here. Only those who persevere enter here. And so people are emboldened in that, and they think, I can do this. It's like Nike. Just do it. Just go for it. We have confidence in ourself. I know I can do this. I'll just resolve to do it. Pull myself up by the bootstraps. It's like the Army or the Air Force. I went out a long time ago to a Beale Air Force Base and had this building. And P, period, R, period, I, period, D, period, E, period, pride. Professional results in daily experiences. Something a man can beat his chest about. We can do this. We're all in this together. It can't fail if everyone's going this way. Oh yes, it can. In fact, if everyone goes that way, it will certainly fail. If we depend on our ability, then it will fail. But the other path, the other path, the other path is so narrow. that only a few find it, and a few enter therein. And that's the way of the faith of Jesus Christ. It's the way of grace. And what is this way? Well, as I said, God speaks of faith in two ways in Scripture. What we believe, or who we believe, versus our believing it. And so in Romans chapter 1 verse 5 it says, "...by whom," by Christ, "...we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name." The faith here is the faith objectively. It's what we believe. It's the teaching, the doctrine, the truth. It's not our believing it, but our obedience is that obedience of our own believing it. That persuasion. Our understanding of it. Our resting upon it. But the faith itself, here spoken of, is the teaching and the truth, we believe. And what is it? It's the gospel. In essence, it's Christ and Him crucified. And so, like the two crossings, those going over the wide way are depending on, in some way, their strength and wisdom to get across this path. It seems easy. Everyone's going. It seems like everyone's doing it, so it's got to be okay. They're not thinking about what God thinks. They're thinking about something that they can do. Or maybe they are. They think, well, God's going to look upon me with favor because I'm doing my best here. I'm sincere in this. I mean, God's not going to send people to hell who are sincere. Is He? I mean, they might be wrong, but if they're sincere, He won't send them to hell, will He? You see, that's depending upon us. Our own personal understanding and convictions. But the faith spoken of is the faith of the Gospel. And so He speaks about it here. Look at Romans chapter 3 and verse 3. He uses this in the same way there. He says in Romans 3.3, In other words, if I don't believe the truth, does my unbelief change the way things are? If I don't believe that the world is round, for example, if I think it's flat, do I change the world? Make it flat? Or so many other examples. If I think that the wide bridge is going to hold me up, but it's weak because it depends on my strength, will it really hold me up? If it ultimately depends on my understanding, and I grow old and forget, and I lose my mind, then I'm lost. Or if I lose my resolve, or my interest, or all those things, then I'm hosed. But there's another faith spoken of in scripture, and it's our persuasion of the truth. It's our understanding, persuasion of the truth. And it's our trust in what we believe. And everyone has that kind of faith in something, don't we? Everyone believes that. Children are really good examples of trusting. We all trust our parents in some way, don't they? Mom and dad say this is the way things are. Yeah, it must be that way. Dad said so. There's no doubt. Until you get older and you begin to hear teachers at school and they say opposite things. And then there's this big process of trying to correct things. But anyway, we all trust naturally, don't we? Do you put your money in the bank? Some of us do. Why? Because you trust the bank's going to keep it. You trust that the whole banking system's going to be sound, so you put it there, don't you? You get in your car, you smash down the accelerator, and you go toward the stop sign, and you're going like 40 miles an hour, and you're only a little ways from it, and you take your foot off and you hit the brake. You expect you're going to stop, don't you? Because you trust that the brakes are going to work. Otherwise, you wouldn't barrel down the road like you do. We trust things, naturally. So all people trust things. But it's not our degree. of trusting. It's not our understanding. There's people who can read Greek and Hebrew and Latin and English and lots of other languages, French and Italian. One person, knowing all these languages, is able to converse clearly in them. And knows history, very intellectual, analytical, and all these things that we might admire in men. And they don't know the truth. They believe a lie. It doesn't matter how big our faith is. Our salvation doesn't depend on the strength of our faith, but it's the strength of the one we believe. The faith of Jesus Christ means the object of our faith. And what is that? Well, it's the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ came from heaven as the Son of God, took on our nature as man, and bore our sins before God. And because He bore them, He endured the punishment of our sins, the wrath of God, and took it away. And He also, in His love for His Father and for us, fulfilled God's law so that every requirement of God on us was fulfilled by Him. And in all that He did, in His life, in His death, in His obedience, in His love to His Father and for His people, that obedience that fulfilled the law, because love fulfills the law, in His whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, Never thinking of anything except doing the will of God, in love to his Father, for his people, laying his own life down, giving himself, that fulfilled God's law. That's the object of our faith. That's the faith of Jesus Christ. It's what he did. That's the only bridge that'll get you across the chasm of hell. and satisfy God. That's the only way that you can appear in the courtroom of heaven and God will pronounce you just and righteous. Knowing that a man is not justified by anything the man can do, but only by what Christ has done, even we have believed in Jesus Christ. That's what he says here. I'm paraphrasing, of course. But he says it in verse 16. But by the faith of Jesus Christ, by all that God has said concerning His Son, what He did, who He is to us as Mediator, Surety, Substitute, High Priest, King, Reigning Lord, Intercessor and Advocate, And all that He did, He obtained our eternal redemption. He made propitiation for our sins. He washed us from our sins in His own blood. We are seeing Him, understanding Him as our substitute, persuaded that He's enough in all, and we depend on Him. We're trusting. Before God, I have no other confidence then that God would look on Christ and receive me for His sake. That's it. And I'm not trusting in my degree of knowledge, or in my persuasion, or in my trust in Christ. I'm trusting Christ Himself. That's what he's saying here. Even we have believed in Jesus Christ. You can't believe in Christ and also believe in yourself. You're either in the broad road, on the broad bridge, or you're on the narrow path. You're either built on sand or stone. There's no two ways. You're either trusting your riches and your righteousness or you're trusting Christ's righteousness. You're either believing Christ or you're not. But we believe in Jesus Christ in order that we might be justified. Not that our faith causes God to do something. Faith doesn't move God. Faith doesn't change God. God can't change. His decrees are eternal. His work has already been accomplished in Christ. But faith allows us to enter in and take and receive to ourselves what God declares to us to have been done. So our faith, that subjective depending on Christ, our understanding from scripture, that causes us to look away from ourselves and say, it's all in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we can ask these questions. And we need to ask these questions of ourselves. Who justifies you? Do you appear before God and defend yourself? Or does God justify you? It says in Romans 8.33, it is God that justifieth. If you think that you're going to stand and appear before God and answer God, maybe even debate with Him, or even present the evidences why you should be justified, then you've already lost. But God justifies. So the next question is, why? What moved him? What induced God to justify you? If you say, well, because I asked Jesus into my heart, or I accepted Jesus, or I really was sorry for my sins. I shed great tears of sorrow. I remember that experience. It was so climactic in my life. I remember it well. You're thinking back about that. No. Faith looks to Christ and Him only. So the only motive that moved God, that cause that induced Him to justify us, was His own grace, justified freely by His grace, without any consideration of what we could do or had done. In fact, in spite of all of our sin, Who justifies God? Why? Because of His grace. And what is the basis? What is that legal basis on which God can say, you are righteous before me? There's only one. It's the obedience and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that your only basis for justification? Do you think that God is moved by what you did? Or do you think that He did it out of His own grace? When you were a dead dog sinner, guilty before Him, naked, barren and undone, and unable to do one thing. You see, if you see that God must justify, if you see that He must do it by His grace, and He does it only for what He thinks of Christ, then you have the faith by which we receive that justification. And God has declared it to you. That's the faith of Christ. That's the truth declared. And we could go on. Is your faith that which satisfies God? Did your faith die for you? Did your faith obey God's law? Is your faith perfect or does it increase? If we look to ourselves in any way, then we're constantly finding some other way across the chasm. Something more solid than what Christ has done. But if you have only one hope, if God has persuaded you that you're a sinner and you have no hope in yourself, then you have only one hope. It's got to be Christ. If He didn't answer for me, I have no answer. If He doesn't answer for me now, and in judgment, I will have no answer. And if He didn't clothe me in His own righteousness, if He didn't wash me from my sins in His own blood, then I'm filthy and naked before God. And that's where we leave it. That's my only hope. What is your hope? The message of the man I was talking about, his hope was that he had received what God did for everybody. But if God did it for everybody, and only you and some others receive it, then ultimately you're talking about what you did. The difference you made. Something about you that made a contribution. That's called the broad way, the sandy foundation. trusting your own righteousness. So we see here in this verse the whole matter of our eternal life is based on what Christ has done. Are you persuaded of this? Has God convinced you that it's only Christ and Him alone? And what God thinks of Him? Or do you think that God's going to ask something of you and demand something of you that you have to provide and that you can do? Because if you do, then you haven't been convinced yet that you're a sinner. May God help us to see that. Verse 17. Paul goes on, "...but if while we seek to be justified by Christ..." Now, we here. He's identifying himself with Peter. We who believe Christ. "...if while we seek to be justified by Christ..." Because that's what faith does. Believing in Christ. We're coming to God. We're depending upon the Lord Jesus Christ. We're coming to Him, Lord, look upon Christ for me, so that we might not make God justify us, but so that we might receive in our own conscience the peace and joy and enter into the praise and thankfulness that Christ is all and God has provided Him to His glory. We seek to be justified by Christ. If, while we do this, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. You see, Peter, by getting up from the Gentiles and going to the Jews and leaving the Gentiles, he said, I'm seeking justification in Christ, and yet, I've found a sinner. Either because he was acting as if he had to do something to keep the law in order to make himself saved, to make a distinction, and therefore his salvation depended somewhat on what he did, what he was, and therefore he had to be a sinner before God. Is Christ the minister of that? No. Of course not. God forbid. Or, if, by this verse he means, if Peter, you say that you're trusting Christ only, and the Judaizers say, no, you have to keep the law too, and in their eyes you look like a sinner, if he's saying here, if while we seek to be justified, you perceive us as just being sinners before God because we're trusting Christ alone, is Christ the minister of sin? Does he leave us somehow short? And in our sins? No, God forbid. Both are not true. And there's this subtle notion in this passage of scripture where the Judaizers are taking the view that if God saves us entirely by His grace, then that's going to leave us with this attitude, well, I can do whatever I want. And that's a dangerous attitude. We can't let people be that free. And by thinking that way, think about it. If you say, well, if I'm saved by grace alone, then I'll do whatever I want to do, and that's lawlessness. We can't let people do that, so we have to preach Christ plus law keeping. Then what you're saying is the only reason that I serve God is because I fear his wrath, or I'm trying to earn his reward, and it's not out of love, because love springs only from pure grace, a complete and finished salvation received by Christ alone." So if while we seek to be justified by Christ, because we do, and yet others think that we're sinners because we haven't done what they expect to do for our salvation, or if we sinfully depart from Christ and begin to hold to the law. Either case, Christ is not the one who caused this, this sin. He didn't leave us in our sins. He fully satisfied for us and clothed us with His righteousness. And He also doesn't have a gospel that teaches us to one day believe Him only and then go try to fulfill His law the next day. Neither one is true. Verse 18. For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor." It's not Christ. If Peter gets up from the Gentiles and goes to the Jews, and by doing that he says, the new covenant didn't actually complete the old. The law is not fulfilled in Christ. I have to do something now. And the old is still in place. If I build up what I destroyed when I said, Christ is enough and Christ is everything. And you began to preach that and live that way, like Peter did. But if now I begin to rebuild what I once destroyed saying, yes we are saved by something we do. I begin to build it up again, then I make myself a transgressor. I show that I'm still under the law. And I'm not trusting Christ only. In verse 19, let me just briefly say this. Let me read it. For I, through the law, am dead to the law. How am I dead to the law? Why am I dead to the law? Because the law says you're a sinner, and a sinner must die. I, through the law, am dead to the law. But I didn't die. I, yes. But my substitute who took my sins died, and I died with him. Through the law, the law demanded my death, my sins were laid on Christ, the law demanded He be cursed, and He was hung on a tree. I, through the law, am dead to the law, not that I might live to myself, but that I might live to God. not to be a transgressor, not to act as if I have to somehow keep the law now, but I live to God by the grace in Christ alone. I do what I do out of love because of this faith that God has given me. In verse 20, perhaps the most significant verse in all of scripture, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Do you see how personal salvation is? Me. He. Gave himself for me. I live by the faith of the Son of God. I don't live by my own law-keeping, but His. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, our Holy Father, We pray that you would receive us for our Savior's sake. Find us in Him, not having our own righteousness but His. Not having our sins because He took them away and made satisfaction for them. Buried them in that grave and we rose again with Him. Lord, find us so we're trusting Him alone. We don't look for anything from ourselves. We know ourselves to be weak. We know our faith to be imperfect. even temporary. One day we'll see by sight, it won't need it anymore. And yet we know the Lord Jesus Christ and His obedience to you and His own body as a man and His and his nature as God fulfilled your law for everlasting ages, and that's all of our hope and salvation. And we're thankful, and we rest in it, we trust, and we ask you for more grace to increase our faith, to continue resting, and trust him more, and joy in him even more greatly. Take glory to yourself, Lord. Give us worship in our hearts for you, for what you've done. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.