When a person becomes
justified because of their faith in Jesus Christ, do they become
righteous in God's eyes? Is there more required than believing in
Jesus' substitutionary work which He did on the cross for us? Are
there works we must do to earn our salvation once we are saved? Paul
has been answering those questions and more as we have been studying
the book of Galatians, and he has been reasoning with church members
in Galatia concerning our justification by the grace of God and not
by the law. He continues his thoughts in chapter two and verse
seventeen where we read:
But if, while we seek
to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, [is]
therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
We
learned in verse sixteen that we are justified by the faith of Jesus
Christ which means “just as if I'd never sinned.” But what
happens after we are justified? What if we sin after we have faith in
Jesus Christ? Paul says, “But if, while we seek to be justified
by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners,” which in other
words means, if while we are seeking justification by Christ we have
sin in our lives is our salvation somehow incomplete? If there is a
way for Jesus to justify us and then we involve ourselves in sin,
then are we now unjustified again and in need of re-justification?
Wouldn't this be a horrific cycle? We're in, we're out. We're in,
we're out. We're justified, we're unjustified...
Paul
continues with this question, “is therefore Christ the minister
of sin?” If our justification is based upon our keeping of the
law as the Judaizers were promoting, then the justification by grace
that is offered by Jesus through His faith is one that is flawed, and
Christ would be the minister of “error” or sin. Jesus'
justification would be a mistake if it were this incomplete. Paul
reacts very strongly to this thought.
Paul
states, “God forbid” which means “perish the thought or
don't even think about it.” The problem with the Judaizers'
theology, which they taught to the church members in Galatia, was
that they were inferring that the grace of Jesus Christ was an
incomplete one. They felt there must be more than the simple faith in
Jesus Christ's finish work for salvation and justification. They
believed that the person who believed in Jesus must also obey the law
which they could not do, and this left people with this “in and
out” of justification idea. Paul says, No! And an emphatic No!
Perish the thought, God forbid! Christ is not the minister of an
incomplete gospel. The good news offered by Jesus Christ is that not
only could the church members in Galatia may be saved by the
unmerited favor of God, but we also may participate in His finished
and complete work on the cross. All additional requirements to be
saved would only validate the idea that Jesus' work was not enough.
God forbid!
We have
faith in an amazing God when we believe that Jesus Christ died for
all our sins. When we consider His finished work to offer us His
grace, mercy, salvation and justification, we must react with bowed
and grateful heads, and praise should be ringing from our lips. This
awesome God decided and declared with His own life that we should be
righteous before Him, and His plan is complete and needs nothing
added. May we learn to bask in the greatness of His grace and
understand the completeness of His justification for all the days of
our lives.
Next
time will what Paul says about how we build on our Christian faith,
so read ahead, and let us join together then.
Until
tomorrow...there is more...
Look for
the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation
to Generation” in all major
bookstore
sites, www.amazon.com ; www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to
e-books, and find it
locally
at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore
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