The Heart of the Gospel
galatians 2:15-21
Main Idea: We walk in step with the gospel through a life of faith that embraces our union with Christ.
I. The Source of Grace: Justification (2:15-16)
Paul corrects and rebukes Peter’s sinful behavior (2:11-14) by reminding him of his justification. This is ‘legal’ language, where sinners are declared ‘right’ or ‘just’ rather than condemned. Justification is the “great exchange” as Christ receives our condemnation on the cross and we receive his perfect righteousness by faith, not by works (cf. Rom. 8:1, 2 Cor. 5:21).
2 Peter 1:8-9: “For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.”
Here I must take counsel of the gospel, I must hearken to the gospel, which teaches me, not what I ought to do (for that is the proper office of the Law), but what Jesus Christ the Son of God has done for me: that he suffered and died to deliver me from sin and death. The Gospel wills me to receive this, and to believe it. This is the truth of the Gospel. It is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine, wherein the knowledge of all godliness consists Most necessary it is therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually.
~ Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians
II. The Spirit of Growth: Sanctification (2:17-19, 21)
Though justification by faith is the source of grace, we have a tendency to resist this truth practically in our sanctification and growth in the gospel. Paul’s theological arguments in this section warn against two opposite errors:
1. Antinomianism (2:17) (lit. ‘against law’). While we are indeed free from the condemnation of the law in Christ and our sins have been forgiven, the grace we have been given now “trains us for godliness” (Titus 2:11-14). The gospel does not promote sinful behavior, and Christ is not a servant of sin.
Romans 6:1–4: What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
2. Legalism (2:18-19, 21): Paul has “died to the law” as a way of being saved or justified (cf. Gal. 3:10, Rom. 7:7-13), so that he could truly “live for God” (2:19). To practically live as if we can add to the finished work of Christ or earn our way into salvation is actually to live for yourself.
The commands of the Bible are ‘holy and righteous and good’ (Rom. 7:12). But the commands of the Bible are the steering wheel, not the engine, to your growth. They are vitally instructive, but they do not themselves give you the power you need to obey the instruction… To quietly confirm God's verdict of "not guilty" over us through our own contribution is to cause the entire doctrine of justification to fall to pieces and to become impotent in our daily lives. To do this is, in biblical terms, to "rebuild" what we "tore down" (Gal. 2:18). We "tore down" our own righteousness and all the futility of trying to establish it out of our own resources. Why "rebuild" it? This would be to "nullify the grace of God" (Gal. 2:21)... We lose entirely the comfort of justification if it is vulnerable to any self-strengthening. It must be all or nothing.
~Dane Ortlund, Deeper: Real Change for Real Sinners
There are four ways that we can approach our growth and sanctification in the gospel (*from Dane Ortlund, Deeper: Real Change for Real Sinners):
God then me
God not me
God plus me
God in me*
III. The Shape of the Gospel: Union with Christ (2:20)
Galatians 2:20 expounds the beautiful “umbrella doctrine” of our union with Christ, which is referred to over 200 times in the NT. Our union with Christ is both:
Positional (Macro): Christ is our ‘head’ and we are transferred into him as new creations and into the new realm of the ‘age to come’ (cf. Gal. 1:4)
Personal (Micro): We are intimately connected to Christ, like a vine and its branches (Jn. 15:5) a body and its parts (1 Cor. 12:12ff), and a bride and a groom (Eph. 5:32). Christ has not merely died for an undefined redeemed humanity as a whole, but he “loved me and gave himself for me.”
Our union with Christ means our past is redefined, our present is safe, and our future is secure, since our life is “hidden with Christ” (Col. 3:3). The ‘shape’ of the Christian life is one of crucifixion and resurrection, embracing the tension of “it is no longer I who live” and “the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith.”
A crucifixion of the natural self is the passport to everlasting life. Nothing that has not died will be resurrected… Die before you die. There is no chance after.
~ C.S. Lewis
