Justification Is Worth Fighting For - Galatians 2:11-16 - 9/10 Sermon
Justification Is Worth Fighting For
Galatians 2:11-16
- “Peter stood condemned.” Woah. Peter, one of the 12 apostles, a leader in the early church stood condemned before God. I can’t help but ask, “Why?” Then Paul writes that he “opposed Peter to his face.” Paul and Peter, two giants of God’s church, fighting? Why? What led to this kind of fighting? This reading cranks the action all the way up in the first verse. Imagine your two favorite pastors of all time fighting and opposing each other. Why? This is why Peter stood condemned, this is why Paul opposed Peter: Peter did not fight for this justification.
- First, you need to let me explain what justification is. It’s one of those fancy church words that you often hear. But justification is the most important word in the Bible, it’s the prized diamond of all God’s jewels. Here’s the picture. You stand in a courtroom. The attorney has a stack of papers that reaches to the ceiling about each and every single time you sinned in life. The judge is about to bang his gavel and pronounce you guilty. In walks a man, Jesus of Nazareth, true God, he intercedes between you and the judge. He shows the judge his pierced hands, feet, and side, and says, “I have already suffered the punishment, paid the price, shed my blood on the cross, for every single one of those sins. This person is innocent; in fact, they are a child of God.” God the judge bangs his gavel and passes his judgment: you are innocent. Not through anything at all that we have done, but entirely through the life and death of Jesus Christ.
- Justification means we are perfect in God’s eyes because Jesus took away every sin. Here’s the catch: not at all through our own actions. We can’t do anything to make ourselves right before God. This justification is yours only through faith in Christ Jesus, by believing what Jesus has done for you on the cross.
- Do you understand what justification is? Justification: God has declared you innocent only through faith in Jesus Christ. It is the central teaching of Scripture, it tells us what Jesus has done for us, that we are forgiven, that we are children of God, and that our inheritance is in heaven.
Peter did not fight for this justification. There was a group of Jewish Christians at that time who tried changing justification, who tried to turn it to mean the opposite. They said, “Yes, we are justified through faith in Christ Jesus PLUS… we must keep some of the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament, like circumcision and not eating with Gentiles. We must still do something to earn our justification.”
- Do you see what this does? It twists this wonderful jewel, justification, into a heap of garbage. No longer does Jesus take away that mountain of sin; now we must save ourselves.
- Peter was led astray by these Jews; He did not fight for justification because, “he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.” Fear took hold of his heart.
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It’s 3am. Everyone in the house is asleep. You wake up to drink some water. You look out the window. The neighbor’s roof is on fire, but no one seems to notice. No people. No firetrucks. What do you do? Go back to bed? Have a late-night snack? No! Call the police and run to wake them up. Their life is in danger. So, we take that seriously. Our neighbor’s life is worth fighting for.
We have the truth of justification through faith in Jesus in our lives. This is more important to know and believe than it is to know your roof is on fire! Believing in Jesus is the difference between eternal paradise and eternal hell, it guides our whole life. But like Peter, we do not always fight for our justification, we don’t take it seriously, and all sorts of problems come in.
- We do not fight for justification and so we become afraid, like Peter. Fear motivates our hearts, and we vote, spend our money, use our time based around what we are afraid of.
- We do not fight justification and so we judge others, just like Peter judged those Gentile Christians. If I build my identity on what I do, on my own actions, then it becomes easy to tear others down based on where they live, what they do, how they look, who they are.
- We’re insecure, like Peter who allowed himself to be swept away by the Jewish Christians. If I build my own identity, then I care what others think about me, I want to please other people, I want to appear “righteous” other others’ eyes. That makes for a insecure people.
- Peter thought justification meant he still had to do something, so he led Barnabas astray. What impression do OUR actions and words give to others? When we live as though our salvation depends on our works, we turn the good news of Jesus into just something else we have to do. People already hear what they need to do from so many other sources.
The truth of justification is more important to know than our roof being on fire. It gives us life. But we do not always take it seriously, we do not fight for justification.
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Paul stands in stark contrast to Peter. What made them so different? Paul was not a better Christian, did not lead a holier life. Paul fought for justification. He said, “When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the Gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?” Paul walked in line with the truth of the gospel, he built his life on the truth of the gospel, he fought for justification. As Paul explains in v. 15-16, by gospel he means justification. Paul believed, taught, and lived this: we are justified, declared innocent before God, given eternal life, only through faith in Christ Jesus, and not at all by our own words. For Paul, this truth, justification through Jesus alone, is worth fighting for.
Look at our reading from Ezekiel. God wants every single person to believe in Jesus, to be justified through faith. ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel? “People call God unjust, cruel, mean, judgmental. But God has not made us robots. He doesn’t program us to believe. God sends pastors, others Christians, you and me, his Word out into this world, to declare two truths: we are sinners who cannot stand before God on our own, but we are justified, declared innocent, through Jesus alone. God pleads with us, with all people, turn, turn to Jesus, believe in him. Find salvation, justification, through faith in Jesus. Take it seriously, right for it. It changes everything.
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Fear is replaced with peace. Who cares what the world does? Who gets elected? What happens with my health? Maybe I’ll live till I’m 100, maybe my time is much shorter. We are justified, declared innocent with God, through Jesus, and we have eternal paradise as our inheritance. What peace that gives to us.
Judgment is replaced with kindness. Who cares what someone does, how they look, where they live, even if someone completely disagrees with me, I can treat them with kindness. I am justified through faith alone in Jesus alone. I don’t need to tear someone else down to build myself up; I can show them the same kindness Jesus has shown to me.
Insecurity is replaced with confidence. Who cares what someone else thinks about me? Who cares about living up to someone else’s standard, or trying to be enough? Jesus lived a perfect life for us. We are justified, we are enough, we are worthy in God’s eyes through Jesus.
-Timidity is replaced with boldness. We can share Jesus with others, we can tell them we are justified through faith in Jesus alone, we can speak up, with gentleness & kindness & patience. It matters, more than our neighbors roof being on fire. Justification through faith in Jesus gives life and salvation.
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The most valuable thing in life are often the things we take for granted, the things we see every day. Our spouse, the love of our life,; our children, the jewels of our life; the air we breathe, the food we eat, the house we live in. It’ easy to take all of these for granted.
- Same thing for justification. We are justified through faith alone in Jesus. We stand before God, the judge, and Jesus intercedes. His nail marked hands and pierced side testify for us; our sin is gone, paid for on the cross. God’s verdict over you is this: innocent, saved, pure, blameless, cherished, loved. Not by works, not by effort, through faith in Jesus. This is justification, the central truth of Scripture, and it’s worth fighting for, taking serious, putting as #1 in our life.
