Justified By Faith - Galatians 2:15-21

Justified By Faith

My wife will tell anyone that I am a rule follower. She says that my son takes after me in this regard. I do try to do the right thing and follow the law as we are instructed, but this does not make me righteous in God’s eyes. Adam was created in the image of God, but he was still human, and as a human, he stumbled and allowed sin into the world. Therefore, we need justification from God so that we can be seen as blameless. 

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Galatians 2:15-21
¹⁵ We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; ¹⁶ yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
¹⁷ But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! ¹⁸ For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. ¹⁹ For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. ²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹ I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
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Paul closes out the chapter after squashing any acts of hypocrisy as a Christian. Paul points out that Gentiles were sinners, according to Jewish law, because the Gentiles did not follow the Old Testament laws. If they did not follow the law, they could not live up to Jewish standards. Therefore, Paul's points out that it is by faith in Jesus Christ that all are justified. Even if we try to live a good life and follow the rules and help the poor, sin still prevents us from salvation and living in eternity with God.
 
Justified - I know we have all heard the phrase that being justified in Christ is ‘just as if I’d’ never sinned. The referenced word (dikaioō) in this setting means ‘to render righteous’, ‘innocent’, or ‘free’. We are innocent and blameless and are free from death. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are found by God to be acceptable, and He approves of us. The verdict is in, and we have been found justified in God’s eyes. It only takes believing in Christ. That’s it. Nothing else is required or needs to be added.

Now that we are justified by faith, it doesn’t mean that we aren’t continual sinners. Our human nature continually falls short of God’s glory.  Paul says that even though we sin after being justified in faith, Christ still doesn’t approve of our sin. So, Paul tells us that we have been crucified with Christ. Christ took our place on that cross so that we could have a new life in Him. If Christ took our place on that cross by letting Him take His place in our hearts, then Christ lives in and through us. The Holy Spirit directs our actions, our thoughts, our words when we give full control.
 
Romans 5:1-2
¹ Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ² Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 

God grants us access to His presence because of the grace he bestowed upon us. However, being justified and considered righteous does not mean we aren’t sinners. We need to continually humble ourselves and put our pride aside and seek forgiveness from God. So, let us rejoice in the hope that we have through Christ. Let Christ work through us and submit to His will in our lives. By seeking the will of God and aligning our hearts with His, our desires will start aligning with God’s desires for us. Faith justifies the ‘not-guilty’ verdict on our lives because we are declared righteous through faith alone.