Simul Justus Et Peccator

  • David Fairchild
  • Aug 13, 2006
  • Series: Galatians

 

INTRODUCTION

 

We've been looking at this great and historic controversy between Paul and Peter, two of the most famous and important leaders in the church.  This controversy is a controversy because it touches on the heart of the Gospel, which is the central core of Christianity.  As I said last week, the Gospel is what makes Christianity what it is.  It isn't merely a description of our faith; it is the very lifeblood of our faith.  The Gospel is the line that determines who is or is not a true Christian. 

 

Now, last week we picked up in verse 14 and worked through to 21.  The passage is so rich that it is like a holiday meal.  After such a meal we get leftovers, and if the meal is good, we don't mind feeding on the leftovers for a few days.  There are a couple things that I want to look at that we didn't have time to cover last week. 

 

One thing that we must understand is that this controversy was neither new to God and His people, nor to Paul.  Paul came from a background that did not altogether deny God's favor with man, but since God's grace was so obscured behind human works through the keeping of the law, grace was a concept that seemed like a given secondary issue. 

 

This controversy continued in the early church with Augustine and Pelagius squaring off on one another from 411-430 AD.  The debate that ensued was over the issue of man's desire to justify himself through his own will and merit and that of purely free unmerited grace.  It was an issue of synergism vs. monergism.  Synergism would teach that it is God's grace working with man's works that ultimately save a man (though one could have no confidence they could be saved since they don't know if they've done enough good works).  Monergism teaches that it is purely by God's grace and that alone that man is brought into relationship with his heavenly Father.  Man is unable to cooperate to save himself much as a dead man is unable to bring himself back to life. 

 

Pelagius' view of grace plus works was condemned as heresy by the early church along with semi-pelagianism which was also condemned at the Council of Orange in 529 AD.  Semi-pelagianism believed that grace was necessary and that man was fallen, but that there is an island of righteousness which allows him to cooperate with God's grace.  Grace is necessary but is dependent upon the sinner's cooperation with it to secure him. 

 

Years later, Luther and Erasmus, the humanist, begin an open written debate on the issue of the human will.  Ultimately this issue is one of man's ability or inability.  Erasmus argued that man's will is fallen but left with an ability to freely will towards the good without the need of God's grace preceding.  His view of man was again a semi-Pelagian view.  Luther masterfully dismantled his argument and demonstrated that man is fallen all the way and that he is unable, without grace, to will himself to cooperate with God. 

 

Calvin and Arminius, though they did not debate one another, held differing views on how the fall affected man, as well.  Calvin held to the Augustinian view against the Pelagian view, and Arminius would have held to a semi-Pelagian view in viewing man as fallen but not unable to will himself to goodness.  This view led to a continued reintroduction of synergism which ultimately rests our salvation upon grace plus our will and works.  It might be called grace, but it is not the same idea of man's state and God's rescue as Paul, Augustine, Luther, Calvin and the reformers viewed.  Man is constantly looking to reestablish himself as a semi-savior, which is ultimately an attempt to avoid Jesus by helping Jesus secure our salvation. 

 

This is strikingly similar to the Judaizers in Paul's day who checked all the right theological boxes, but totally missed the Gospel, which means they misunderstood grace and sin.  Man can not be justified by good works, or in Paul's language, by keeping the law.  This is the point of his contention with Peter; this is the basis for his argument in this text against anyone (including Peter or the Judaizers) who forget the Gospel.

 

The behavior of Peter, and our behavior, always comes back to the Gospel and our belief and understanding of it.  Our dilemma isn't answered by hand slaps and more law, it is answered by the Gospel, which reminds us of who we are in Christ.  Paul gives this rebuke to Peter as a loving way to remind Him of the Gospel, which is nothing more than reminding him of who Christ is, what Christ has done, and his standing with Father because of it!

 

STUDY

 

Galatians 2:16-21 

 

Verse 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."

 

Romans 3:20-31 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.  21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it-- 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom 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. 26 It 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. 27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.  28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one. He will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

 

What are ways in which we attempt to justify ourselves?

 

 

Verse 17-18 "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."

 

There are some important words in the text we are looking at today.  Here we are talking about being justified in Christ, faith, righteousness, and the law.  These are not simple concepts to our modern thinking because often the definitions we associate with these words are not as full or clear as perhaps they were when originally written.  I spoke last week about the difficulty for you and me to read the word, "righteousness" without assuming that it means to be good or moral, which is not the biblical concept but a modern English concept. 

 

Justified or justification, on the other hand, is helped by our translation in English because it really does mean what it sounds like.  To be justified is not to change a thing but to change our view of a thing.  In other words, for someone to be justified, they are not different than what they were before, but they are counted or viewed differently.  A few years ago a young man in high school was walking down the hall with a principal close by when the young man hauled off and punched another student in the face and knocked him out cold.  The principal grabbed the student and was about to take him to be expelled when the one who punched the student shouted out to him, "look, he has a gun and is about to shoot someone." Sure enough, the student who was knocked out had a gun in his pocket and his hand on the gun.  Does the fact change that one student punched another and knocked him out?  No, what changed was the view of what that student did.  He was justified and viewed differently.  Though a poor analogy, this really is what it means to be justified.  That we don't become righteous, we are counted and declared righteous.  Our sin was still committed in history, and we can't change the facts of what we have done, we are now considered innocent.  To be justified doesn't mean that our behavior is changed, it means that we are treated differently based upon a new view of who we are and how we are treated.  A proper understanding of this new view is what will ultimately change our behavior because we are no longer considered enemies of God, but friends.  We are no longer considered orphans, but children.  Since we are justified by faith, we can now live in freedom from trying to build our own righteousness and stop struggling for acceptance from God, self, and others. 

 

At the essence of being a Christian is this word "justification."  Most people assume that what it means to be a Christian is that we promise to be good or commit to try hard to follow Jesus or ask for his power in our lives.   All of those things are involved, but is this the essence of Christianity?  No.  To become a Christian is not to become good.  Becoming good is the result of becoming a Christian, it's not the essence.  When you become a Christian you are justified.  It doesn't mean you no longer sin and suddenly become perfect and sinless, it means you're no longer viewed by God in the same way.  It means that though you may still sin, your sins can no longer bring you into condemnation.  It means that you are accepted, that you are righteous in God's sight. 

 

What is Paul saying in, "if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ we too were found to be sinners?"  Paul is taking into consideration the objection of the Judaizers, who assume that Paul is completely disregarding the law and therefore by his preaching about justification, making sinners of those who follow Jesus because they won't keep the law, and ultimately making Jesus a minister of sin since to follow Jesus would now mean, in their view, to disregard the law altogether and become a sinner all over.

 

This might seem to be blatant foolishness, but it is much more subtle than what it first appears. 

 

Two common errors that have occurred through history and occur in our own time and church are right in line with the errors of the Judaizers.  The Judaizers don't really understand sin, because they don't really see themselves as sinners.  They assume they are keeping the law, but in truth they don't understand the full weight of the law.  They think they can be without sin by keeping the law.  This problem is very common in Christian circles because it lightens the weight of the law to something that we can carry and keep in our effort.  Religious people often say they are sinners, but they don't really believe it because they think they are doing a pretty good job obeying God and his word.  This is another way of keeping the law.  If they really understood God's word, they would never say such a thing.  They would fall on their face and confess the depth of their sin.  They are attempting to justify themselves before men and God by following Christ and keeping His word.  Following Christ and keeping His word is not inherently evil, neither is the law, but it is when it becomes the thing upon which we base our relationship with God. 

 

The other error is that we say that everyone is accepted already without worrying about our sin and the law.  These individuals assume that to be right with God means accepting yourself as you are.  They don't understand themselves or sin, and they certainly don't understand God's holiness.  They think that they are already acceptable to God without the need of Christ's righteousness. 

 

The Gospel is not the middle ground between two errors, but something entirely different.  Every other world religions says that you are a failure and must work yourself to God, or they say you are honored and don't need to worry about your failures.  The Gospel teaches us that we are honored failures.  

 

An honored failure-that is what we are!  We are righteous sinners.  We are justified sinners.  Jonathan Edwards preached on this in the 1700's through Romans 4:5 and revival broke out and 2/3's of the entire town eventually came to faith in Christ. 

 

Romans 4:5 "And to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness"

 

When we trust in Christ we are justified, yet ungodly.  We are righteous sinners and an honored failure.  To the degree that we see ourselves in truth and as failures, to that same degree, if we are trusting in Christ, the cross becomes more electric and magnificent to us. 

 

Martin Luther wrapped it up perfectly in the Latin by coining the phrase: simul justus et peccato, which means: simultaneously just and a sinner.  At the same time justified and a sinner.  Do you see the radical dynamic that this causes if we really believed this?

 

To understand this is to understand what it means to be a Christian.  This makes you utterly different. 

 

If we really believed this, we wouldn't falter in faith when we fail to keep God's word; we would trust more fully and cling more tightly to the cross.  We can see ourselves in truth and admit our sins more easily before God and man because we know we are already justified and don't need to struggle for righteousness.

 

This would also cause us to treat others differently because we would no longer hide behind our own righteousness and self-confidence.  No longer would we need to justify ourselves with others or struggle for our reputation or struggle to maintain appearance or struggle for attainment, because Christ is the end of our struggle!

 

A good question may be raised when reading this passage:

 

Question:  If I am forgiven of all my sins and declared righteous before God, what incentive do I have to live for God? 

 

Answer:  If all your fear of being rejected by God is taken away, and you are left without any motivation to live for God, then the only true motivation you had was fear and not love. 

 

The Two "Thieves" of the Gospel - Legalism and Liberalism


Tertullian said, "Just as Christ was crucified between two thieves, so this doctrine of justification is ever crucified between two opposite errors." These errors continue to "steal" the Gospel from us. They are "legalism" and "liberalism". On the one hand, "legalists" have a truth without grace, for they say or imply that we must obey the truth in order to be saved. On the other hand, "liberals" have a grace without truth, for they say or imply that we are all accepted by God regardless of what we decide is true for us. But those with truth and not grace do not really have the truth, and those with grace and not truth, do not really have grace. In Jesus we behold the glory of the one "full of grace and truth." De-emphasize or lose one or the other of these truths, and you fall somewhat into legalism or somewhat into license and you eliminate the joy and the "release" of the Gospel. Without a knowledge of our extreme sin, the payment of the Gospel seems trivial and does not electrify or transform. But without a knowledge of Christ's completely satisfying life and death, the knowledge of sin would crush us or move us to deny and repress it. Take away either the knowledge of sin or the knowledge of grace, and people's lives are not changed. They will be crushed by the moral law or run from it screaming and angry.

As Luther put it, the Christian is simul justus et peccator (simultaneously accepted, yet a sinner). We are more sinful than we ever dared believe, but through Christ we are more accepted than we ever dared hope. When the Gospel dawns on the soul, it becomes a transforming power (Romans 1:17). Instead of seeing the law of God as an abstract moral code, Christians see it as a way to know, serve, and resemble their Master. Instead of obeying to make God indebted to them, they obey because they are indebted to him. Instead of being driven by an anxious sense of being unacceptable, they are empowered by grateful joy. The difference between these two ways of morality could not be greater. Their spirits, goals, motivations, and results are entirely different.

 

Verse 19 "For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God."

 

Paul didn't say the law died, he said the he died to the law.  This is a remarkable thing, considering Paul's background as a Pharisee of Pharisees.  He used to live for the law, which is really living for himself as a good religious Jew to impress God with his tremendous righteousness.  Now, Paul sees that he is dead to the law, and that he is no longer under its power.  He is freed from its dominion so that we put no confidence in it for favor with God. 

 

What does it mean to be dead to the law?  How does this affect how I see my relationship with God and with others?  To be alive to the law is to be dead to God and to be judgmental and racist to others.  This was Peter's problem.

 

So many of us are trying to be good religious Christians and gain favor with God by acts we perform.  We see ourselves as the remaining few that are serious about our faith.  This is a total misunderstanding of the Gospel, of the Law, of God's holiness, our sinfulness, and it is nothing more than being under the law like the Judaizers. 

 

Verse 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."

 

Paul's claim that he was crucified with Christ is a claim upon every Christian.  This is not unique to Paul but is a reality for everyone who has trusted in Jesus Christ by faith.  The problem is man's inability to solve his most dire problem, God's judgment against him.  Jesus has stepped in and taken our place in order that God might be seen as just and the justifier.  Christ's death upon a Roman cross is personally significant in more ways than one.  The cross of is a powerful reminder of what God has done.  On it, four things were nailed:

 

1- Christ Himself, who bore our sin, punishment, shame and disfavor with the Father.

 

2- A public announcement that read: "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews" (John 19:19).

 

3- All our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands (Col. 2:13-14).  This record of debt was the law of God, which condemns us by listing all our sins.

 

4- This may be surprising to many of you: if you have trusted in Christ to save you, then you were nailed to the cross too!  It is the story of Christ in human history and it is also a part of every Christian's personal story.  It is as if our arms were stretched out, our hands and feet were pierced and fastened to the very cross of Calvary.  It is our whole life, our whole person, and our whole history, which has now been consumed in the cross and resurrection of Christ.  Not that we could make atonement for our sin, but we are counted as though we lived the perfect life, and died the sinners' death, and resurrected from the dead as did God's only Son.  He was treated as we deserved, and we are now credited with His life and death and resurrection before the Father. 

 

This passage shows our union with Christ.  We are dead to the law, our record has been nailed to the cross, we have been crucified with Christ, and we no longer live as we once did, but by our union with Jesus, we now live in Christ who lives in us. 

 

We no longer live our own lives but are propelled and motivated by a secret and invisible power, the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us, and we are living and growing in Him daily.  This is so significant because it deals with our new and true identity.  We will never find our true selves until we find ourselves in Christ.  Our identity is established by our union with Jesus.  Our self is found in him.  To have a healthy self-image is to see ourselves in truth as we are now in Christ. 

 

The same God who loved the world and made it loves me, specifically and individually.  He not only loves me, but also gave Himself for me when He died for my sins on the cross.  He volunteered to be my savior because He loved the Father and loved me. 

 

There is a story of a wealthy Roman who had a son who broke his heart, and a slave who commanded his admiration.  The Roman decided on his deathbed to disinherit his son and leave all he owned to this slave.  He drew up the papers and called in his son to tell him his decision.  "I have deeded everything to the slave Marcellus," he said.  "However, you may choose one item from my estate for yourself."  The son's reply was, "I'll take Marcellus!" 

 

When we take Christ, we get everything!  All things are ours (1 Cor. 3:21) because they are Christ's.  To be in Christ is to be given all that belongs to Christ, including His righteousness. 

 

We have not only been given a clean record and slate because of Christ, we are given a beautiful slate.  The judge has not only forgiven us and wiped our slate clean, He as given us the righteousness of Jesus.  He erased the record of our sin and in its place He has put the righteousness of Christ.  He has not only cleaned our slate, He has credited it with the righteousness of Christ.  His righteousness is painted on it, sealed with a protective glaze, and super heated so that nothing in heaven or earth can take it away.  This is all a free gift received by faith. 

 

Verse 21 "I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose."

 

Do you see what Paul is saying?  Justification, our new relationship in being considered innocent and rightly related to God, does not come through the law, but rather through grace.  Christ's righteousness is transferred to me; my sins are transferred to Him.

 

It is a passive righteousness, not active.  We don't produce righteousness but receive it.  It is passive.  We can't develop it; it comes to us since it was developed by the Son and given to us as a gift.  Man has sinned, but God has suffered in our place!

 

Question:  If I am forgiven of all my sins and declared righteous before God, what incentive do I have to live for God? 

 

Answer:  If all your fear of being rejected by God is taken away, and you are left without any motivation to live for God, then the only true motivation you had was fear and not love. 

 

What does in mean to nullify the grace of God?  It means that we attempt to add something to it.

 

Luther said that it was "an intolerable and horrible blasphemy to think up some work by which you presume to placate God, when you see that He cannot be placated except by this immense, infinite price, the death and blood of the Son of God, one drop of which is more precious than all creation." 

 

If we attempt to add works to faith, we are treating Jesus no differently than the way His enemies treated Him when He was dying upon the cross.  Timothy George writes that "if we add works of the law to the sacrifice of the cross, then indeed we make a mockery of Jesus' death just as the soldiers who spat upon him, the thieves who hurled insults at him, and the rabble who shouted, ‘Come down from the cross!'"

 

This is exactly what the Judaizers were doing and this is what we do when we attempt to add to Christ's finished work.  By doing this we are essentially nullifying God's grace by saying that it was either for nothing, or that it was not sufficient.  It is to deny the saving power of the cross. 

 

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