The Rev. Dr. Tara W. Bulger
Galatians 2:15-21
We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.
The apostle Paul is not very happy with the Galatians. You can tell from the very beginning of the letter. In his other letters to the churches, Paul starts with a period of thanksgiving: Oh, how I thank God for you, church, for the many good things you are doing in the world. He goes on and on in this extended thanksgiving. But not in the book of Galatians. Galatians essentially starts like this: I, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the church in Galatia: how soon you have forgotten the teachings that I gave you!
He’s mad at that church. It’s a pretty grumpy letter. The reason is this: after Paul left that church, some teachers came in and began teaching counter to what Paul had taught them. He calls them the false teachers, and at issue is this. Paul considers himself an apostle to the Gentiles, and he wants the Gentile people who believe in Jesus Christ to be able to come freely into the church. But these false teachers say, “We were Jews before we were Christians, and so these Gentiles need to become Jews before they can become Christians.”
There are two things in particular they want the Gentiles to do to become Jews first. One is to be circumcised. That has been the sign of God’s covenant people, and so these false teachers say, “You Gentiles have to take part in the covenant of circumcision before you can become Christians.” The other has to do with the table. The Jews at this time had very elaborate laws around what they ate and how they ate, and so the teachers say, “You Gentiles, if you want to sit at the table with us, you have to behave like Jews.”
Paul says that this is too high a barrier for these new Gentile believers. If this is the way we are going to welcome people into the church, some people won’t be able to come, even though they believe in Jesus Christ.
But it’s also bigger than that for Paul. Paul knows that there was a time when humanity stood before God, and God, in His holiness, was so other that we needed some way to be made right with God, some way to bridge the division between humanity and God. For a very long time, the thing that bridged that divide was the law. The law meaning, yes, the Ten Commandments, but by the time Paul comes along, the law also means some 613 laws that people are trying to follow. Paul says no one can follow the law perfectly. No one can do it. If that is the only way we have of being in right relationship with God, then we all fail, and no one can be in right relationship with God.
You know, I said that all doctrine begins with an experience of God, and I think Paul is thinking of his own experience here. Paul was a zealous Pharisee who persecuted every Christian he could find. Paul must be thinking to himself, “How am I to be made right with God when I persecuted Jesus’s own people?”
So Paul comes to this realization: the thing that puts us in right relationship with God is Jesus Christ. Jesus looked at humanity and saw its sinfulness, and saw the way that we could never earn our own righteousness, and because of that, Jesus came into the world, took our sins upon Himself, and died and rose again, so that all people might be justified in Jesus Christ. There are no barriers to coming to faith in Jesus Christ and being welcomed into the circle of God’s grace. All that’s needed is the sacrifice of Jesus and our belief in who Jesus is.
Do you want to know what may be the best news? Your faith in who Jesus is doesn’t even have to be perfect. A shred of faith in Jesus Christ justifies you as you are. In fact, it is the Holy Spirit who gives us whatever faith we have, and so all of it, our faith and our justification, is a gift from Jesus Christ.
Now, you may be asking yourself why this matters, and I think there are two reasons why we should know today about the doctrine of justification and what it means.
The first is this: we have to remember that even today there are no barriers to someone coming into the Church of Jesus Christ except belief in Jesus Christ. Anyone is welcome into the church, into the blessing, into God’s love. You don’t have to look a certain way. You don’t have to believe a certain way. You only have to have faith in Christ, and that is enough for you to receive God’s blessing, for you to be put in right relationship with God.
But the second reason is more personal. I don’t know if this has happened to you, and I hope it never does, but my experience is that at some point in all of our lives, we do the thing we never thought we’d do, and we say the thing we never thought we’d say, and it destroys relationships. We sin over and over again, even though we don’t want to. On that day, and in that situation, I want you to remember that you are still God’s beloved child, no matter what you’ve done or what you have left undone. There is nothing that can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, because through Christ we have been justified.
Now, 1,500 years later, when the Reformation is about to happen, it is this doctrine of justification that will be at the heart of Martin Luther’s call for the church to be the church in a new way. At the time that Martin Luther was a priest, the medieval church taught that through faith you are justified, but that depending on what you did, you could be more or less justified. Do good things, and God liked you more, and you were in a better relationship with God. Do bad things, and you were less justified, less in relationship with God.
Martin Luther took a look at that teaching and said it was no wonder the church had gotten to a place where we were selling forgiveness. It was because of this belief that we can be more or less justified. So Martin Luther says that the foundation of our faith is this: even though we were sinners, we are justified. We are put in right relationship with God.
Many, many years ago, Walker Percy wrote a book called Love in the Ruins, and part of the story is that the protagonist, when he was young, was in a mental institution for some problems he had. Later in his life, he has to go back to the mental institution, and he’s telling his friend about it, and he is crying. His friend says, “Are you sad because you have to go back?” He says, “No, I’m crying because it’s the place where I felt most loved.” Walker Percy writes, “We love those who know the worst of us and don’t turn their faces away.”
This is justification: that Christ knew the worst of humanity, and not only didn’t turn His face away, but suffered and died and rose again for us, that we may all be claimed as God’s beloved children. Thanks be to God. Amen.