Galatians 2:16,17

Excursus on justification.

The doctrine of justification by faith is one of the fundamental doctrines of Paul, and is set forth most fully in this Epistle and in that to the Romans. How shall a sinner be justified before a holy God? This was a vital question in the Apostolic age, and came very near splitting the Church. It shook Western Christendom again in the sixteenth century, and divided it into two camps. It is no idle scholastic dispute, but involves the peace of conscience and affects man's whole conduct. It is nearly equivalent to the question: ‘What shall I do to be saved?'

To this question there were two answers. The Pharisaical Jews and Christian Judaizers said: ‘Man is justified by works of the law.' Paul said just as emphatically: ‘Man is justified by faith in Christ.' The Judaizers would not deny the importance and necessity of faith in Christ, but practically they laid the main stress upon works, and hence they demanded circumcision as a term of church membership, and a sign and pledge for the observance of the whole Mosaic law. Paul reasons in this chapter that to return to the law for justification is virtually to abandon Christ, and to declare his death needless and fruitless.

The following are the chief points to be considered here:

1. The verb to justify (δικαιω) may be used both in an efficient and in a judicial sense, i.e., (1.) to make just, to transform a sinner into a saint; (2.) to declare just, to acquit. In Hellenistic Greek, and especially in Paul's Epistles, it has the judicial or forensic meaning. This appears

(a.) From the equivalent terms ‘to reckon,' or ‘to account for righteousness.' Galatians 3:6; Romans 4:3; Romans 4:5; Romans 4:9; Romans 4:23-24; James 2:23.

(b.) From the phrase to be justified ‘before God,' or ‘in the sight of God,' i.e., before His tribunal. Galatians 3:11; Romans 3:20.

(c.) From such passages where God or Christ is said to be justified. God is just and cannot be made just but He may be accounted or declared just by man. Romans 3:4 (from Psalms 51:4); 1 Timothy 1:16; comp. Matthew 11:19; Luke 6:29; Luke 6:35.

(d.) From the opposite phrase to condemn. Matthew 12:37: ‘By thy words shalt thou be justified, and by thy words shalt thou be condemned;' Deuteronomy 25:1: ‘The judges shall justify the righteous and condemn the wicked;' Proverbs 17:15.

2. Consequently ‘justification' (δικαιωσις , Romans 4:25; Romans 5:18) is a judicial act of acquittal, in opposition to condemnation.

Now there may be two kinds of justification, legal and evangelical. The former would be a reward of merit, the latter is a free gift of grace. We may be justified and accepted by God on the ground of our good works, the observance of His law, that is, because we are really righteous and deserving of acceptance; or we may be justified gratuitously on the ground of the merits of Christ the righteous, as apprehended by a living faith.

But justification by works is impossible, because we are all sinners by nature and practice, and justly exposed to the wrath of God. We cannot in our own strength observe the divine law; if we could, there would have been no need of a Saviour and his death to atone for our sins. The more we try to keep the law, the more are we driven to a conviction of sin and guilt and to a painful sense of the need of redemption. This is the pedagogic or educational mission of the law. It is in itself ‘holy, just, and good,' but it is opposed and defeated by the power of sin in the flesh, or the corrupt nature of man, which it cannot overcome. It is therefore no ‘Quickening spirit,' but a ‘killing letter.' The best it can do is to bring the moral decease to a crisis by revealing sin in its true nature, and thus to prepare the way for the cure. [1]

[1] Milton has a striking passage (Parad. Lost, xii. 285) in illustration of Paul's doctrine:

‘And therefore Law was given them to evince

Their natural pravity stirring up

Sin against Law to fight; that when they see

Law can discover sin, but not remove,

Save by those shadowy expiations weak,

The blood of bulls and goats, they may conclude

Some blood more precious must be paid for man.'

3. Hence we are shut up to gratuitous justification by the free grace of God through faith in Christ who came into the world for the very purpose of redeeming us from the curse of the law and the guilt and power of sin. God is the judge; we stand charged before His tribunal with violation of his holy law; Christ steps in with his merits as our surety; we accept Him as our Saviour, in sincere repentance and faith; God pronounces us just for His son's sake, pardons our sins and adopts us as His children. This is justification as taught by Paul. The atoning death of Christ is the meritorious ground of our justification; a living faith in Him is the condition on our part; a holy obedience is the evidence or necessary consequence.

4. For it is impossible truly to believe in Christ without following his example. We are not justified outside of Christ, but in Christ, standing in Him, united with Him, identified with Him, consecrated to Him. Faith without works is dead. Paul demands a faith which is ‘operative by love' (Galatians 5:16). He insists on good works fully as much as his Judaizing opponents, but as a result of justification, not as a condition of it. The truly good works are works of faith and manifestations of gratitude to God for his redeeming love in Christ Paul only carried out the teaching of Christ who attributes saving power not to love or hope or works of men, but to faith. ‘Thy faith hath saved thee;' ‘He that believeth in Me hath (already here and now) eternal life.' In all these cases faith is not merely a theoretical belief, but trust of the heart, repose of the will in Christ, an outgoing of the whole inner man towards Him as our Saviour. Faith is the bond of a vital union with Christ and appropriates his righteousness and all his benefits. ‘It is a living, busy, active, mighty power, and cannot possibly cease from working good.' The same grace of God which justifies, does also regenerate and sanctify. Faith and love, justification and sanctification are as inseparable in the life of the true Christian as light and heat in the rays of the sun.

Paul's doctrine of justification then differs as widely from antinomianism which denies the necessity of good works, as it differs from Jewish legalism, and all its kindred errors which make good works an antecedent condition of justification and virtually teach that man is his own Saviour.

5. Paul's doctrine of justification is a source of unspeakable comfort and peace. It humbles our pride, it gives us a full assurance of pardon, it fills us with a deep sense of the boundless love of God, and the all-sufficient salvation of Christ. It acts as the strongest stimulus of gratitude and entire consecration to the service of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.