Galatians 5:6No. 2 in the Five Solas Series

Faith Alone – The Doctrine of Justification

A sermon by Dr. Bob Borger

Assistant Pastor, Highlands Presbyterian Church

Preached at:

Highlands Presbyterian Church, LaFayette, GA

July 16, 2017 AM Service

Word count: 3732

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Introduction:

Pastor Tom is out of town this morning, baptizing a grandchild. So in his absence, I’ll be continuing a series I began three weeks ago on the Five Solas. Let’s renew what we learned last time.

This year (2017) is the 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church in Germany. We learned last time that there were five doctrines which the Reformers taught and that they taught these truths because the Bible teaches the same. Those 5 doctrines are:

Sola Scriptura = Scripture Alone

Sola Gratia = Grace Alone

Sola Fide = Faith Alone

Solus Christus = Christ Alone

Soli Deo Gloria = Glory to God Alone

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Our text for understanding what the Reformers meant by FAITH ALONE is found in Galatians 5:6. Paul tells us there that the only thing that counts is faith. We’ll unpack this text in just a moment.

But first, let’s review what we learned from Mark 2:1-12 three weeks ago when we focused upon CHRIST ALONE. Remember from that text, we learned about Jesus healing a paralyzed man who was plopped down before him after a hole was cut in the roof. Yet the surprising thing from that story was that the healing only came after Jesus announced that the man’s sins had also been forgiven. Only God – the scribes insisted rightly, could forgive sins, but Jesus proved He was God by using His power to heal the man.

We learned then that Jesus is the God-man. That is to say, Jesus is God the Son, the second person of the Trinity. But this Almighty God later became man, being born through a virgin’s womb, for the deliberate purpose of dying on a cross.

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Jesus died so that we could live. Jesus bore the punishment that we deserved when he died upon that cross.

And that is how God solved the great moral problem of our sin. The problem was that God – because He is holy – has to punish our sin. If He didn’t punish it, he wouldn’t be just. But God also desired a way to rescue those who could not save themselves. So God sent Jesus as the God-man to suffer the punishment that men deserved. That allowed God to justify – or declare righteous – those who have faith in Jesus.

As Paul put it in Romans 3:25-26…

Romans 3:25–26 (ESV)

25whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

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26It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be JUST and the JUSTIFIER of the one who has faith in Jesus.

The Galatian’s Problem:

Now this brief review leads us right back to Paul’s letter to the Galatians and our text for today. That’s because the Galatians, having been once taught the truth, were in danger of being tricked by a false gospel. That same “bait and switch” trick of the devil can likewise cause people today to believe in the wrong thing.

This morning, I want to simplify for you the central question of how does one become right with God. Or to use theological language: How does one become justified – declared righteous before God? This was the central question 500 years ago during the Reformation and it remains just as relevant for us today.

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So let me read our text in Galatians 5:6. For context, I’ll begin at vs. 2.

Galatians 5:2–6 (ESV)

2Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.

3I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.

4You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

5For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

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This language about the only thing that counts is found in three places in Paul’s letters. Let’s put them all up on the screen.

Galatians 5:6 (ESV)

6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

Galatians 6:15 (ESV)

15For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.

1 Corinthians 7:19 (ESV)

19For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God.

So, what is the only thing that counts? Is it one thing or are there three? We don’t need to be confused because the apostle is not contradicting himself. Rather,

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he is making the same point in three different ways; it’s like looking at the different facets of one diamond to see its beauty from different angles.

Paul is saying that the only thing that matters is your belief that Christ alone is your hope of righteousness. Those who have faith in Christ have become new creatures and new creatures know that keeping the commandments of God is not a burden but a joy.

Let me see if I can illustrate the importance of faith with a story:

Did you hear about the man dangling helplessly over the edge of a cliff? “Help!” he cried, “Can anyone up there help me?”

“Yes,” answered a voice from heaven. “I will help you, but first you must let go.”

“Let go?” gasped the man, “but I will fall.”

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“I know,” replied the voice, “but I will catch you.”

There was a long pause, then the man cried out once again: “Can anyone ELSE up there help me?”

Friends, that’s our problem, isn’t it? The gospel is pretty simple. In fact, it’s way too simple we say to ourselves. There MUST be more to it than that. Yet, throughout his letter to the Galatians, Paul has been arguing that if we want Christ to save us, we must let go of the idea that we can save ourselves…even just a little bit.

Throughout this letter to the Galatians (which I encourage you to read all the way through), Paul has been passionately arguing for justification by faith alone through Christ alone. Paul ruthlessly demonstrates throughout the book, the futility of trying to obtain our own righteousness by keeping the law – by trying to be good. So now, the Galatians

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have come to a fork in the road. They must decide between law vs. grace – they can’t have it both ways. There is where the rubber hits the road in the message Paul writes to the Galatian Church.

Neither Circumcision nor Uncircumcision:

In each of the three texts that I read a moment ago, there is a contrast set up between circumcision and uncircumcision. But perhaps those categories went in one ear and out the other, for I would wager that absolutely no guy in this room lost any sleep last night fretting over whether you were circumcised or not. So what’s the big to-do about circumcision?

Well, if you read the Old Testament, you know that circumcision was given to Abraham as a sign and seal of the covenant which Abraham entered into through faith. Circumcision was given as a sign of man’s helplessness and his need to rely on God,

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but in later years, the Jews turned it into a symbol of their pride and their adherence to works righteousness.

Paul refuted that viewpoint in his letter to the Galatians. He reminded his readers that if you rely on keeping the works of the law out of your own strength, then you are under a curse, because no one can keep the law perfectly (cf. Gal. 3:10). For many proud Jews, circumcision became the ultimate status symbol that they had “arrived”.

That’s why I don’t think it is at all inaccurate to paraphrase this debate about whether one is circumcised with different words for our modern context. The question is really whether you consider yourself to be a SUCCESS or FAILURE. Do you consider yourself a success? I know some of you do. Do you consider yourself a failure? I know some of you think that way as well.

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But whether you are a success or a failure – that is not what counts, says Paul. To paraphrase Gal. 5:6…

“For in Christ Jesus neither being a success or a failure counts for anything, but only faith working through love.”

So again, I ask you to consider, do you generally think of yourself as a success or a failure? Either way, it really doesn’t matter. Let me illustrate with a story from my youth.

I remember a particularly happy time in my life when I was in the third grade. It was recess and my public school had these great teeter-totters out in the playground.

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My best friend and I were on that teeter-totter and I was having a wonderful time: up and down and up and down. Life was great, and I can still remember the feeling of being UP in the air on that tetter-totter, looking over my school, and my friends and feeling a gentle breeze on my face. Life was GREAT – it couldn’t get much better than this.

And then the bell rang indicating recess was over. My friend jumped off the teeter-totter and made a mad dash for the school to be the first one in line. The trouble was, however, that I was still up in the air on that teeter-totter and when my friend jumped off – I came crashing down. There I lay on the ground with the wind knocked out of me. Life no longer felt good at all.

What is your situation this morning? Are you up or down on the teeter-totter of your life? The Apostle Paul says in Galatians 5:6, that neither category amounts to a hill

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of beans. The only things that counts is whether you have faith in Christ Jesus.

Two Questions:

This brings me to ask two important questions. Here’s the first question:

1. Does it have to be faith ALONE? Or can it be faith plus something?

That was the cry of men like Martin Luther during the Reformation. Sola fide! We are saved by faith alone!

But historically, that is not how everyone sees it. The Roman Catholic Council of Trent meeting in the mid-1500’s declared:

CANON 9: "If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the

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movement of his own will; let him be anathema."

Anathema means cursed or damned. Roman Catholics pronounce a curse on those who claim that we can be justified by faith alone WITHOUT the sacraments.

Roman Catholics believe that justification is a process instead of just being an event. Catholics see justification and sanctification as two different ways of describing the same reality; whereas for Protestants they are inseparable, yet still distinguishable from one another.

For Catholics merit still plays a role in their salvation – merit which is dispensed through the 7 sacraments of the Catholic Church – even though Catholics do acknowledge that this merit comes from the grace of God.1

1 Catholics are not the only ones who misunderstand the doctrine of justification. I do not have time in this sermon to deal with Anglican scholar, N.T. Wright’s view that what Paul means by justification is not so much “how you become a Christian” as much as “how you can tell who is a member of

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The central question for our faith therefore is this: Are we trusting in Jesus plus nothing, or is our trust in Jesus plus something. If Jesus is just your co-pilot, as the license plate advertises, then your belief about who the real pilot is, is something different. No, Jesus isn’t your co-pilot. He is your Savior. We are saved by Christ ALONE, through Faith Alone, because of Grace ALONE.

Here is our second question:

2. What is the relationship between faith and good works?

The Reformers had a slogan which tried to answer this question. “We are saved by faith alone, but the faith which saves is never alone.”

This is what the Apostle Paul is teaching us in the last half of Galatians 5:6…

the covenant family.” Wright puts (wrongly) the priority on ecclesiology not soteriology.

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Galatians 5:6 (ESV)

6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

Faith expresses itself through love. Think of it this way. Can you see whether I have true faith in Jesus right now? Can I see into your heart to discover the same? No, faith is invisible in and of itself.

But the way faith expresses itself. The way faith works itself out in practice is through LOVE.

Some of you may remember a science-fiction novel by H.G. Wells called The Invisible Man. But the problem with an invisible man is that you can’t see him. But there is a way to know he is there. Look!

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When the invisible man puts on clothes, we can know he is there. And likewise, when faith is clothed in love, we can see that which is invisible in the heart made visible to a watching world. The clothes aren’t the man, but they show us the man. Love is not what makes one right with God. Faith in Christ does that. But

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love shows that faith is active and expressing itself.

This brings us back to the issue of whether there are three things that count or just one. Remember those three verses that all talk about neither circumcision nor uncircumcision being what counts?

Galatians 6:15 isn’t hard to explain.

Galatians 6:15 (ESV)

15For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.

Faith is how we become a new creation. Without faith no one can be born again to become a Christian.

So what about 1 Cor. 7:19? Is this saying that obedience not faith, is the central requirement of salvation?

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1 Corinthians 7:19 (ESV)

19For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God.

No! The context of 1 Corinthians 7 is what is your calling? Are you circumcised or uncircumcised – which not something you can change. Or are you slave or free – which might be something you can change. What should you do if you can’t change your circumstances or maybe you can change them?

The answer, according to Paul in 1 Cor. 7, is that you need to keep on obeying the commandments of God which are to love God and love your neighbor. So your road map for what to do in different circumstances is the same no matter whether you can change your circumstances or not. Don’t think of keeping the commandments of God as a different plan than following Christ alone

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through faith alone. It’s not a different plan because if you love Jesus, you will obey Jesus. (cf. John 14:15)

That means if we put all these verses together, faith is the only thing you have to focus on – holding on to Jesus plus nothing. And new creatures who are holding on to Jesus will consistently express that faith by loving God and loving their neighbor.

What is Faith?I’d like to ask one more question:

What is faith?

People have offered different answers to that question.

1. Some say faith is sincerity. Faith is faith in itself. But think about the radical Islamic terrorist who blows himself up. Obviously, to take such a radical action you must be sincere. But what if those 70 virgins aren’t waiting for him on the other side? In that case, being sincere just got you in a lot of trouble. So while

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it’s necessary to be sincere, sincerity is not the essence of faith.

2. Others say the important think about faith is mental assent. Faith certainly involves mental assent. Faith includes intellectual assent to certain teachings or doctrines. If such intellectual assent is lacking, faith isn’t present.

Understanding truth is imperative for saving faith, for “faith comes from hearing” as Romans 10:17 says, and what must be heard is the gospel of Christ. So, faith is never less than mental assent.

But in the Book of James we are told that the demons are orthodox in their intellectual assent.

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James 2:19 (ESV)

19You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

3. But the testimony of Scripture is that faith consistently -- not perfectly or constantly – but always regularly expresses itself by love.

The Book of James says that if faith doesn’t express itself through the fruit of love, such faith is actually no faith. Listen to how James puts it…

James 2:14–26 (ESV)

14What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

15If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,

16and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without

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giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?

17So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

18But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

19You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

20Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?

21Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?

22You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;

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23and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.

24You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

25And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?

26For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

James is NOT disagreeing with the Apostle Paul or the Reformers that we are saved by faith ALONE by what he states in vs. 24.

The context makes clear that James is referring to a faith that is a mere intellectual assent. It’s like saying, “Yeah, I really don’t want you to go hungry, but I’m

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not willing to open up my wallet to help you.”

James is saying, real faith makes itself visible through what it does, not just what it says. Real faith walks the talk.

Dear friend, do you have real faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior this morning? Let me show you an illustration which demonstrates how this should work in your life.

Have you ever been water skiing? I have when I was a kid and it was a lot of fun. Now let’s look at our picture…

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Three things are necessary here:

1. The speedboat represents Jesus.2. The rope of faith is the instrument

that connects you to Jesus.3. And your part is to hold onto the

rope as you trust that the boat has enough power to pull you.

Trusting in the rope won’t do you any good if your faith is simply in faith itself. The rope must be attached to something and that something is Jesus. It is Jesus that powers you into salvation, the rope

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only has purpose because it is the instrument that joins you to Jesus.

The skier has no power in himself to go wizzing around the lake. Rather, God in His grace sent the boat named Jesus to save you. God even provided as a gift of His grace called the strong rope of faith. God gives the gift of faith. God even gives you the rope. Your responsibility is to hold on to Jesus and you do that by holding on to faith.

Some of the skiers in this life are big ones, little ones, fat ones, skinny ones. Some look pretty good in their bathing suit and others look pretty lousy. Some are quite successful when waves hit them and others appear to be just barely hanging on.

If truth be told, I was a pretty pathetic skier as a teen-ager. Sometimes, I’ve felt like a pretty pathetic

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Christian even as an adult. But this I know.2

Despite all the failures in my own life and in the lives of Christians I’ve known. God by his grace has changed me and made me a new person. I have new affections and have lived a totally different life than I would have lived apart from Christ and the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. Yet I still struggle with pride, bitterness, resentment, lust, and so on. The fight with sin is not over, and I have had far too many defeats. Still, “by God’s grace I am what I am” (as Paul said in 1 Cor. 15:10). But my confidence on the last day will not rest on my transformation. I have too far to go to put any confidence in what I have accomplished. Instead, I rest on Jesus Christ. He is my righteousness. He is the guarantor of my salvation (Heb. 7:22). I am

2 This italicized quote from Dr. Schreiner comes from p. 264 in Thomas Schreiner’s Faith Alone: The Doctrine of Justification.

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justified by faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.

And all God’s people said: “Amen.”

Let’s pray.

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Benediction:

Jude 24–25 (ESV)

24Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,

25to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

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