Galatians 2:15,16 – Why Sola Fide?

Once again, here is my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁵We [being] Jews by nature and not out of sinners of Gentiles, ¹⁶knowing that a man is not being justified out of works of law but rather through faith of Jesus Christ, even we believe into Christ Jesus in order that we might be justified out of faith of Christ and not out of works of law, because all flesh will not be justified out of works of law.

In my last blog, I thought hard about this matter of justification. And it is a very important matter to think hard about. It has to be dealt with. My condemnation is very real. My heart knows it’s real. Somehow the guilt cannot go on. My heart knows it. And, as I discussed in that last blog, the matter is quite hopeless. I cannot undo my did. And I continue didding. What God offers us in Christ – a substitutionary atonement – is the only possible answer. And thank God for it! Fallen angels have no such offer. And Jesus didn’t die for raccoons. He died for people … and I just happen to be a people.

We might simply say that is why Sola Fide, why we can only be justified by faith – because we simply cannot be justified by Law. But, I think there is a much, much bigger picture that should be addressed. Here’s what I’m thinking: All of this talk of justification really leaves us specifically discussing our relationship to the Law. It is the Law that condemns us and we need a means of delivering us from that Law. Justification by faith allows us to be reconciled though we ourselves remain guilty.

That is all well and good.

But it is a cold, icy, judicial discussion. Very, very important, but cold and icy.

Here is another way of looking at it: Instead of focusing on our relationship to the Law, Sola Fide means we can (or should?) view the matter in relationship to God Himself.

What do I mean? I’m thinking that what we are dealing with is actually a question of how can we be in a good relationship with God? What the Judaizers are telling the Galatians is that the way to be in a good relationship with God is basically to “keep His rules.” “Here are the rules,” they tell the Galatians. “If you keep them, God will like you.” This is more and the same of the mistaken understanding the Jews had from the very beginning. Moses read them God’s Law and they replied, “All that the Lord commands us, we will do.” Do you see that, from the very beginning, they thought of God as their Judge? He gives His Law and you follow it. That’s how you have a relationship with Him. How well did they do? The words had barely left their mouth and they were worshipping a golden calf. It didn’t work. Their attempt to have a cold, icy, judicial relationship with God was a complete failure. And what was their answer? To do better. And what does God have to say about it? “Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness” (Romans 10:3).

They missed the whole point of the whole thing. Just like legalism does today and always will. What they should have said was “Woe is me! I am undone! I am a man of unclean lipss, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips! Woe is me! This Law is good. It is what I should do. But the good that I would do, I do not! What it tells me is that I already stand condemned! And to live longer will only add to my guilt! My sins are innumerable, like the hairs on my head! Who shall deliver me from this body of death???” They should have fallen on their faces and cried out to God, “Be merciful to me, a sinner!” they should have cast themselves on the mercy of God and begged Him in His love to come up with some solution … some solution other than “do better.” But they did not. And 1445 years later when Jesus came, they had not seen the failure of their plan, but rather had codified it into an elaborate system of works-righteousness. And what did that produce? Pharisees. Cold, cruel, self-righteous, judgmental, greedy, immoral, murderous Pharisees. And that approach is still producing the same Pharisees today. God has no interest in a legal relationship with people. Only the Law itself induces a legal relationship.

Had the Israeiltes realized the abject poverty of their souls, had they faced the reality that they could not keep the Law, they’d have had no choice but to throw themselves on the mercy of God. But does anyone else see what happens in that moment?? In that moment, what is a person doing??? In that moment of total spiritual poverty, they are ceasing to seek a relationship with the Law, a relationship with God through the Law, and suddenly they are dealing directly and personally with Him. Suddenly they must deal directly with Him. Suddenly they can no longer just glance at their “do and don’t” list and think that makes them “okay” with God. They need Him. Does that make sense?? I think this is stratospherically important. If we can be justified by the works of the Law, then we don’t really need a personal relationship with God, we just need His checklist, His rules. “There you go. Do this and live.” That doesn’t require any personal relationship and frankly doesn’t even invite it.

I would suggest this is an enormously important answer to “Why Sola Fide?” There is an alternative to the cold, icy impersonal relationship born of Law. It is THE alternative. It is what God actually wanted for Israel from the very beginning. It’s what He wants for all of us. How can we be in a good relationship with God? Amazingly, it is to have a relationship with Him. With Him. Not with His Law. With Him. Yes, His Law condemns us. But that’s not His fault. And it’s not because He wants it that way. The problem is our fault. His Law condemns us because we sinned. We’re the ones who destroyed the relationship. But this is the very wonder of grace – He’s still offering us a relationship! But there cannot be a relationship as long as we’re under Law. Law has already condemned us. More Law will only condemn us more. That is exactly why, “…now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known” (Romans 3:21). It is righeousness from God, from His hand, from His love, from the warmth of His open arms and affectionate embrace, from a personal relationship with Him! Sola Fide cuts off all other approaches to God and forces us into the only way – a personal relationship. It forces us to go directly to Him.

And that was the whole point from the whole beginning. God created us to know Him. He created Adam and then came to walk with him in the cool of the day! Sin made Adam and Eve “hide from the Lord God among the trees of the Garden.” When the Lord didn’t find them there, it was Him who called to them, “Where are you?” He was still seeking a personal relationship. And He still is today.

I believe that is one of the big “Why?’s” for Sola Fide, for why we can only be justified by faith in Christ. Justification by works invokes only an impersonal legal relationship with God through His Law. It misses the point. It misses Him. If it is Sola Fide, then I must appear at His feet, beg His mercy, and when a soul does throw itself at His feet, it finds Him for who He is – a warm, embracing, loving God, who did in fact make a way. He made a way that I could be justified apart from the works of the Law, which doesn’t work anyway. He made a way, the only way, a way that cost Him His own Son, that required the horrible death of Jesus on the Cross, a way born of love. And that is the whole point of the whole matter – the great God and His child wrapped in each others’ arms!

I hope all of this makes sense to someone else. The ultimate horror of legalism is not just that it doesn’t work, but that its pursuit hides from our eyes the whole point of all – to know Him, to love Him. Sola Fide draws us to God in a relationship that begins, grows, and ends in love.

I believe this is exactly why legalism breeds people who are judgmental, critical, and unloving while Sola Fide (truly embraced) breeds people like Jesus – people who humbly, kindly, generously love. When I know the kind, generous love of a personal Savior and know it more and more, how can it do less, as the years go by, than make me a kind, generous, loving person?

Thank God for Sola Fide. Not just because it’s the only way that works, but because it is born of love and breeds love.

What if everybody did?

Galatians 2:15,16 – Sola Fide

As usual, here is my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁵We [being] Jews by nature and not out of sinners of Gentiles, ¹⁶knowing that a man is not being justified out of works of law but rather through faith of Jesus Christ, even we believe into Christ Jesus in order that we might be justified out of faith of Christ and not out of works of law, because all flesh will not be justified out of works of law.

Here we go. Here’s where Galatians joins Romans as cornerstones of the Protestant Reformation. Sola Fide. “By faith only.” This doctrine is so monumentally important, I feel like I should take off my shoes just to type about the truth of these two little verses.

Barnes does a really good job summing it all up and is worth a read on this passage.

What does it mean to be “justified?” Of course it means to be “declared right.” Anytime a person is accused of some fault or crime, there are only two ways he can be justified. He either must prove that, in fact, he is not guilty of that which he is accused, or he must demonstrate that somehow his actions were excusable. Either exonerating evidence is produced and all involved agree he did not commit the act – hence we have “justified” him – or we all say, “Yeah, normally that would be really bad, but under the circumstances …” Adam and Eve clearly could not deny their guilt so they sought to justify their sin by implicating someone else: “The woman you gave me, she …” and “The serpent deceived me …” Of course those defenses were just excuses and they yet remained accused before God’s tribunal that day.

So it is with us. We stand accused before the Law of God. “…for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Even without God’s Law, our very consciences accuse us, not to mention other people, civil law, not to be outdone by the merciless specter of regret that cruelly parades endlessly through our minds.

“Guilty!” the icy finger and cold hard eyes point at me. And what shall I answer? Not guilty? That would be laughable. Excused? Try that one all day every day but it doesn’t seem to work.

Promise to do better? Ah, now that one has captured the approving minds of the human race. It makes sense to us. We’ve come up with a “third” means of justification – I’ll do enough “good” to somehow “outweigh the bad” and then I’ll be okay. I’ll be justified.

Really? Under inspection, it isn’t even logical. How does doing anything change the fact of my guilt?

Did you do it?

Yes.

Then you are guilty.

But you don’t understand the circumstances.

Did you do it?

Yes.

Then you are guilty. Your excuses won’t work. You are guilty.

But I promise I’ll do better.

That is nice but it doesn’t change the fact of your guilt.

But I promise I’ll do a LOT better.

That’s nice but it doesn’t change the fact of your guilt.

Then what must I do to be justified?

Hopeless fool. There is nothing you can do to be justified. You.Are.Guilty. To the gallows you go.

And so it is with us. Though we run, hide, make excuses, contrive complicated defenses, sew fig leaves, feign righteousness, pretend that somehow time will erase our guilt, anaesthetize and medicate our consciousness, distract ourselves with pastimes, immerse ourselves in “church,” and more – yet that icy finger still points. Like the troubled sea which cannot rest, casting up mire and dirt -- There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. “For by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified.”

It is the Law which condemns us. How could it ever justify us? Yet that is exactly the game-plan presented to the Galatians by the Judaizers. “Here is what you must do to be justified.” Do? I already did. That is exactly the problem. Doing now doesn’t undo my did.

Guilty.

If I travel north, eventually I’ll be going south. But how far east must I travel to begin going west? It will never happen. It is logically impossible. A hopelessly endless quest born of stupidity. So how much must I do to undo my did? It will never happen. It is logically impossible. A hopelessly endless …

Guilty.

For by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified.

Finally, the accused soul falls to the floor sobbing uncontrollably, “Lost! I am lost forever. Judgment and hell stand ready to swallow me and my guilt forever!”

But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been made known, … This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. …God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this…so as to be just and the One who justifies those who have faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:21-26).

Someone else did my time. Someone else hanged in my stead. He took my place.

What?? How can this be??

Believe it. Simply believe it.

Sola Fide.

“… knowing that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.”

There is no other way. There can be no other way. “I am the Way,” says Jesus. “Have I been with you so long and still you don’t know Me?”

“Peace, peace, and I will heal them,” saith the Lord.

Sola Fide.

Galatians 2:11-14 – More Coddling of Legalists?

As usual, here is my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹¹But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to [his] face, because he was to be blamed, ¹²for before certain ones came from James, he ate with the Gentiles, but he was withdrawing and separating himself, fearing those out of circumcision, ¹³and the rest of the Jews pretended with him so that even Barnabas was led away together with them in hypocrisy. ¹⁴But when I saw that they were not walking in a straight course toward the truth of the Gospel, [I was] saying to Cephas before all, “If you being Jewish [act] like a Gentile and do not live like a Jew, how are the Gentiles being compelled to act Jewish?”

I’m sorry to say this passage only adds to my confusion. Here comes the same group, the Legalists, the Judaizers, the rule-keepers, the church’s first century “Hate-Brigade.” “We have a rule!” they exclaim, “and all who don’t scrupulously observe it stand condemned!” The “circumcision group.” This is the same group that accosted Peter after he went to the house of Cornelius: “So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him and said, ‘You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them’” (Acts 11:2,3). It is the same group that caused the Acts 15 problem: “Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers, ‘Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved’” (v.1). It is the same group of whom Paul tells Titus, “For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach …” (1:10,11). This is the same group that is causing the same problem in the churches of Galatia, necessitating this very letter itself. Paul says of them, “Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be anathema!” (1:7,8). He goes on to add, “As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!” (5:12).

I think it all too clear what a blight these people were to the early church. Yet, once again, I see that the proclamation of Acts 15 was delivered to the “Gentile believers,” and not clearly established for Jew and Gentile alike. And then, again, in Acts 21:20, when Paul returned to Jerusalem, the Apostles and elders told him, “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the Law.” Instead of confronting the problem, it looks like the apostles are just coddling them. Then we find even Peter caving in to their judgmental gaze. This is the Peter who three times saw the vision of the sheet, who defended himself against them, and who defended the Gentiles in the Jerusalem Council. Yet here we find him “fearing those out of circumcision.”  Fearing the hate-brigade. When it would seem to me he should have confronted them. Instead Paul has to confront him. But then why didn’t Paul (and Peter) go ahead and confront the legalists? Why were they tolerated? Why didn’t the apostles make it crystal clear that Jew and Gentile alike were no longer bound by the Law? Obviously the Jewish people were free to continue with their traditions, which would be totally understandable as their entire culture was built on those traditions. But it seems to me the apostles in Jerusalem should have been just as clear to the Jews as Paul was to the Gentiles about the relationship of all NT believers to the Law.

It seems to me that the perpetual presence and influence of the Legalists was at least in part owing to the apostles’ very reticence to openly and clearly state the case. These men “came from James.” Why had James even allowed them to persist in such thoughts? What they told the Gentiles should not have been said even in the church at Jerusalem. And may I add, Jesus certainly had no problem meeting these guys head on; “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in … you outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness … Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?” (Matthew 23:13-33).

I don’t know. I strongly suspect I am missing something here. I still suspect it is me, not the apostles who are wrong.  Hmmmmmmmm. Well, I think I’ve stated my case clearly. Now I will go on studying and hope to find something that clearly corrects me.

Once again, for whatever it’s worth, I don’t think these are idle curiosities. I think I see the same dynamic still going on today. People come up with their “rules” and then despise everyone who doesn’t conform. Probably a glaring example is the King James Only bunch. But it goes on to some militant homeschoolers and peoples’ music preferences, dress “standards,” and a whole multitude of personal choices about which the Bible says nothing. It becomes convenient when an entire church group gathers around such “rules.” Then they can all agree with each other, preach it from the pulpit, and all go on smugly, comfortably (and arrogantly) in their bald-faced legalism.  Then they too can travel over land and sea to make one disciple, and when they’ve done it, make him two times more the son of hell than they are. To me, their presence in the church is what gives all of us that ugly, critical, unkind, judgmental stereotype. It’s still the Pharisees vs. Jesus. Still. I don't want to live in the Pharisees' camp. I want to be like Jesus. He was clearly NOT one of them. They shut up the kingdom of Heaven, while He threw the doors wide open.

I don’t know. Again, I want to be open to the Lord’s correction. All that matters in the end is that we “take every thought captive unto the obedience of Christ,” that we “be not conformed to this world but rather be transformed by the renewing of our minds.”

So, once again, I’ll keep studying and “stand at my post and see what He will say to me.”

Galatians 2:6-10 – The Right Loaves and Fishes

As usual, here is my fairly literal translation of these verses:

⁶But from ones seeming to be something -- what they were makes no difference to me; God is not receiving a face of man – for the ones seeming [important]added nothing to me ⁷but, on the contrary, seeing I had been entrusted [with] the Gospel of uncircumcision just as Peter of the circumcision, ⁸(for the One energizing Peter into apostleship of the circumcision also energizes me into the Gentiles), ⁹and knowing the grace which was given to me, James and Cephas and John, the ones seeming to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas a right hand of fellowship that we [might go] to the Gentiles but they to the circumcision; ¹⁰only [asking] that we might [continually] remember the [very] poor ones, which was also the very thing I was eager to do.

A couple thoughts. First, this passage doesn’t help me much with my question from the last post. If anything, it’s worse. Clearly, Paul and the Apostles did in fact make a major distinction between the Jewish and Gentile Christians. Once again that doesn’t make sense to me theologically. I understand that it would be difficult for the Jewish people to completely embrace the reality that all of their national customs were no longer essential. And once again, one can make the argument that, out of love for them, one should not push hard for those changes. BUT, still, the very fact that the distinction was allowed to continue certainly left the door wide open for the legalists. I don’t know. I still just don’t understand.

There is also something interesting to note in this section of Scripture. Paul’s grammar is usually pretty logical and fairly easy to diagram grammatically. Not in this section. In the Greek text it is obvious that he is throwing down thoughts on paper actually faster than he can think them. Eadie notes, “The anakolouthon is the result of mental hurry, the main thought and subordinate ideas struggling for all but simultaneous utterance …” Paul is definitely very passionate about what he is saying. Which leads to my next thought.

As I have mentioned before, I think it very important to note that, at the heart of all Paul’s arguments here is the monumentally important issue of Truth. The legalists’ question of whether or not Paul was really, fully an apostle is not an assault on him, but on the very office of apostleship, which then bears directly on the whole matter of Truth.

Calvin notes that some “accuse the holy man of pride, because he claims so much for himself that he cannot endure to learn anything from others; because he boasts of having become a teacher without any instruction or assistance, and because he labors so hard not to appear in an inferior character.” I have, in fact, known exactly such people in my life – men who loved to assert that they learned from no one but the Lord. They were full of pride. But Paul was not.

Paul’s defense is extremely important – that his was apostolic truth – truth he did not “learn” but received directly from the Lord Himself. What is at issue is truth itself. Biblical truth must come directly from God. It must be true that “holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” It must be strictly and purely true, “Thus saith the Lord.” The Bible is and must be the very fountain of truth, not a stream thereof. Since the prophets and apostles, every teacher and preacher goes to the fountain, attempts to learn and understand what was written, then to pass on to others the truth he has understood. However, his understanding is innately formative and subject to error, his transmission of it is subject to error, and people’s reception and understanding of his teaching is subject to error, not to mention the liability of their (often poor) memories. Were one generation to orally pass the teaching on to the next, the truth itself would be inevitably and hopelessly lost. However, in the Bible we may always return to The Fountain itself. The noble Bereans listened carefully then went back “and searched the Scriptures to see if these things were so.” The Bible itself is and must be absolute truth; not truth as someone has understood it. It must have come undiluted from the mind and mouth of God Himself. Prophetic and Apostolic teaching differed in this way from all subsequent teaching. And this explains why Paul is going to such great lengths to assert that he absolutely did not receive his teaching even from the apostles themselves. It is why he even seems diminutive or disparaging toward them. It is essential to understand that when he spoke and when he wrote, he did so as an apostle himself – as one whose’ teaching is directly from The Fountain, directly from the Lord. What he spoke and wrote was not just truth but original, undiluted, inerrant, absolute truth.

If I may inject here: I am a scientist, an engineer. The very heart of my profession is truth, scientific “facts.” We study physics and chemistry and microbiology and try to unlock the “laws” of the universe. When we think we’ve grasped them, we call it “empirical” truth and we then set out to design things based on those laws, those truths. However, any honest scientist or engineer will admit that everything we do is subject to improvement. Our “truth” is never quite settled. It’s empirical. It’s based on observations and even our most fundamental “laws” we hold loosely. What is unfortunate in our world is that people see no difference between scientific “truth” and spiritual Truth. If my scientific “truth” is not quite correct it may or may not make any difference at all. To err in spiritual truth will, at minimum, make me mildly dysfunctional; at worst it may cost me my soul for all eternity.

All of this explains why Paul is almost frantic in the defense of his apostleship and of his gospel. The Galatians think that just because someone comes along and teaches something more appealing, they can just disregard Paul’s teaching and embrace the new. They (not Paul) are missing the whole point. You can hang your soul on Paul’s teaching because it came from The Fountain. Now if someone differs from him, it is them, not him, who is in error – and the worst kind of error: spiritual error.

Pilate’s question: “What is truth?” was far more profound than he could have known. It is THE question. Our world is crumbling around us, families are crumbling, businesses are crumbling, the government is crumbling, religion is crumbling in our modern day famine of truth. Not because it isn’t there, but because few care. Lord help us to care. Help us build our lives on Your absolute truth. I can’t change the world, but I can change me. And I can be a vessel that tries to live truth and offer it in love to others. May the Lord see fit to bless our few loaves and fishes, break them, and multiply them to the blessing of our generation. Lord help us.