Saved By Faith Not Works

It is hard to let go of old habits and old ways. For example, I still have a land phone line in my house. I don’t need it! It serves no purpose other than to make us feel comfortable that in the event everything else fails around us, we can still call somebody. I keep it, because I grew up in an age where practically everyone had a land phone line in their house and we had land line pay phones accessible on many streets in case you were away from home. But, now we live in an age where the overwhelming majority of us have our own personal communication devices (cell phones) that we carry around everywhere with us. Today, it is unnecessary to have home land lines or street pay phones, and most people (particularly of a certain age) have abandoned them, relying solely on cell phones. Additionally, cell phones have so many superior features to land lines (camera, internet, text message) that it is nonsensical for anyone to give up their cell phone to go back to a land line. In this week’s scripture (Galatians 2:11-21), Paul points out that as Christians, we are saved by grace through faith in Christ. The Law can not save us. To try to live according to the Law for our salvation means abandoning our salvation through faith in Christ. You have to choose one or the other, you can’t have both. And,**spoiler alert**…. only faith in Christ will save you! Paul reminded Christians, through his letter to the Galatian church, not to try to go backwards. They had a superior way to salvation through Christ and it was nonsensical for them to require anyone to go back to trying to achieve salvation under the Law. My prayer this week is that you understand the power of God’s precious grace towards us. We were truly lost under the law, but we are saved by grace through our faith in Jesus. To that we shout….Hallelujah!

When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. 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?  (Galatians 2:11-14) Paul had confronted Peter about his hypocrisy concerning the gentile Christians in Antioch.  Peter ate and fellowshipped with the Christian gentiles while in Antioch and had no problem with their religious practices.  In Antioch, Peter lived among the gentile Christians, but did not impose Jewish practices upon them. But when some Judaizers came to visit from Jerusalem, Peter succumbed to pressure from them to place unnecessary requirements of the Law (circumcision, diet, etc.) upon those same gentiles in order that they might be fully recognized as Christian.  Peter in turn, stopped fellowshipping with the gentile Christians there. The issue regarding requirements for full Christian fellowship and salvation would later be settled at a council meeting in Jerusalem (see Acts 15:1-2).  The decision from the Christian leadership at that council meeting would align with Paul’s understanding and position, that no gentile Christian should be required to adhere to Jewish customs and practices in order to be considered a member of the faith and receive salvation. 

“We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know 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.  (Galatians 2:15-16) Those who were born Jews and had tried and failed to live according to the Law, knew better than anyone that they couldn’t be justified by the Law.  They came to understand that only through faith in Jesus were they justified, something that they could never achieve under the Law. 

“But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker. “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”  (Galatians 2:17-21)  Paul explained that he (and likewise we) “died to the Law” which released him (us) from the impossible burden of trying to live perfectly according to the Law.  While he “died” to the Law, he received new life through his faith in Jesus.  Jesus gave himself to be crucified and He died for us.  We were crucified and died with Christ. Now we are raised up in Him and saved by Gods grace, through our faith in Jesus.  Paul’s message to Christians (both those of Jewish heritage and those who were gentiles) was that to force the requirements of the Law upon one another was tantamount to setting aside God’s grace and going back to trying to achieve righteousness under the Law.  Paul’s point is that It is only God’s grace that can make us righteous. If the Law could save us, then Christ died for nothing. In conclusion, Paul demonstrated that Peter was wrong to feed into the misguided thinking of the Judaizers who sought to require gentile Christians to adhere to Jewish customs and practices for their salvation.

Peter temporarily forgot a lesson that he had learned about God’s grace and salvation not coming through the Law but through faith in Jesus. He had a vision from God that led him to the home of Cornelius, a gentile. There he offered the gospel message and Cornelius and his whole house were saved and received the Holy Spirit. Paul confronted Peter about the hypocrisy of his actions towards gentile Christians at Antioch. Later, at the council meeting in Jerusalem, Peter would support Paul’s assertion that salvation was not dependent on adhering to the customs of the Jewish religion based on the Law. Salvation is purely of God’s grace based on our faith that Jesus died for our sins and in Him we are justified before God. Like Peter, we sometimes forget that simple fact about salvation. We look upon people who don’t worship like us or dress up to our religious standards or have the same Christian practices as us as though they are less than and not worthy of salvation until they conform to our sense of Christianity. Faith in Jesus activates God’s grace toward us and is superior to the Law, because it is the only means to our salvation. So, let us always be mindful of how we received our salvation and never be the ones who burden others with works before we will acknowledge their salvation.

Blessings, Rev. Glenn