Galatians 2:16

‘Yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but only through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed on Christ Jesus in order that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law. For by the works of the Law shall no man living be justified.'

And here was the crunch of the matter. Peter had summed up the Gospel as, ‘we believe that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, even as they' (Acts 15:12), thus agreeing that both must be saved in the same way without distinction, and had further declared that ‘through His name everyone who believes on Him will receive remission of sins' (Acts 10:43). Thus he knew that Christians were the people who ‘believed' (Acts 2:44; Acts 4:4; Acts 4:32; Acts 5:14; Acts 8:12; etc.). So Paul is here summarising in line with Peter's actual teaching.

‘Yet knowing --.' Although Jews by nature, and therefore not such gross sinners as Gentiles, they also knew in fact that they could only be justified (counted as righteous before God) by faith in Jesus Christ, as could the Gentiles. So their superior ‘state' did not actually put them in any better position at all. For what finally mattered was being seen as ‘in the right' by God, and this could only come as a result of their response of faith to Jesus Christ.

‘Justified.' The word is a legal one and means to ‘be declared righteous, to be accounted as righteous'. It speaks of a legal decision made on the basis of the facts and the law, and is the opposite of ‘to be condemned' (Romans 8:1; Romans 8:33). This is evidenced by its o-o ending, dikao-o, which means ‘to account as righteous' and not ‘to make righteous'. It does not speak of a man's inward condition, but of the status that he has in the eyes of the judge.

‘A man is not justified by works of the Law --- for by the works of the Law can no man living be justified.' The Law, Paul says, was powerless to justify, because no one could ever succeed in obeying it fully. That was definitely something that no one could achieve, even if they were not ‘sinners by nature'. And Paul knew from personal experience how true this was (see Romans 7:7). He had struggled more than all to try to keep it and had failed, and so had his fellow Pharisees. The more they had tried, the more they had failed. And this also applied to all people, whether ‘good' or ‘bad'. It was true of both ritual and moral aspects of the Law (although they would not have differentiated, for they saw all as the Law). They had failed on all counts.

The Law laid down a standard. It said this is how you must live, and it went into detail laying down individual laws. To be justified by the Law therefore it was necessary to live exactly in accordance with its requirements, without failing at any point. This is true of all law. It is not sufficient to keep most of it. The law is total in its demands (Galatians 3:10; compare James 2:10). It demands fulfilment of every part. To break one law is to be a lawbreaker, especially when that law has been laid down by God. And therefore there is no man who has not sinned before God. ‘All have sinned and come short of the glory of God' (Romans 3:23). ‘There is none righteous, no, not one' (Romans 3:10).

‘But only through faith in Christ.' (Or ‘except through faith in Christ'). This could mean either that in contrast with the Law faith in Christ justifies, or that a man can be justified by the law through faith in Christ. They really come down to the same thing. Faith in Christ ‘justifies', as we are told elsewhere, because by it His righteousness is put to our account. ‘For He has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made (or ‘might become') the righteousness of God in Him' (2 Corinthians 5:21). It is thus the result of ‘a righteousness of God by faith' given to faith, that is, to those who believe (Romans 1:17; Romans 3:21; Romans 3:25). Clothed thus in the righteousness of Christ Who kept the whole Law we can then be justified by the Law, because we will be judged not by our failure, but by His success. We will be ‘clothed' with Christ, and God will look on us as we are ‘in Him'. If we are in Christ, then the Judge will not look at us, He will look at His righteousness as it covers us and will say ‘not guilty'. So ‘to him who does not work but believes on Him Who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness' (Romans 4:5).

‘We have believed on Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law'. And because that is what we have done when we become Christians and believe on Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Redeemer, we are thereby ‘counted as righteous', not because of what we have done as we tried to obey the Law (the works of the law), but because we have believed in Jesus Christ as the One Who bore our sin in our place. Here ‘justification', being looked on as though we had never sinned, is specifically said to be ‘not by the works of the Law', which again supports the translation ‘only through'. We are being told that the one who believes on Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Him basically renounces his wish to be judged by the Law, which is very wise as the Law can justify no one except the totally righteous, and ‘there is none righteous, not, not one' (Romans 3:10). A believer rather puts all his trust in what Jesus Christ has suffered for him, the righteous for the unrighteous, so that He might bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18).

Notice the switch here from ‘Jesus Christ' to ‘Christ Jesus' to ‘Christ'. The names are synonymous, but the increasing emphasis is on ‘Christ', the anointed One, the One sent from God, the Saviour of the world.

So the main grounds for Paul's stand is that ‘a man is not put in the right with God by observing the Law but by putting his faith in Jesus Christ'. This is the crux of his argument, and of this letter. The moral Law can only condemn, he tells us. It cannot aid salvation. However much we try to keep it we will always fail. There will always be some point at which we will become unstuck. Like the rich young ruler we may be able to tick them off and say, ‘all these things have I observed from my youth up'. And then God steps in and says, ‘yes, but what about this?' With the rich young ruler it was his love of riches. With Paul it had been covetousness. But all of us have some lack. None of us have loved God with our heart, soul, mind and strength. None of us have truly loved our neighbour as ourselves in all aspects of our lives. And the Judge puts His finger on where we have failed, and cries ‘Guilty'. For he who fails on one point is guilty of all. He is a lawbreaker (James 2:10). And that is why none of the rituals are necessary any longer, because the sacrificial death of Christ has replaced them. They cannot even contribute to our salvation, because Christ has done all that is necessary in dying for us. That is why it is faith in Christ that must be central.

It should be noted that this emphasis that a man is justified (counted as righteous) by faith in Christ was central to the teaching of Jesus Himself, for His constant message was that men must respond to Him and believe on Him, and that thereby they would be saved and receive eternal life (John 1:12; John 3:15; John 5:24 compare Matthew 18:6; Mark 5:34; Mark 10:52).