Encounter the Truth

Jonathan Griffiths: Paul discovered for himself and learned that no one is going to be justified by observing the law. It's simply that we ourselves can never meet the perfect standards of a holy God. We can never be perfectly holy, perfectly obedient, perfectly good.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Encounter the Truth with Jathan Griffiths and today we continue our series Jesus plus nothing. And so as Paul discovered, he couldn't be perfectly holy, obedient and good, neither can any of us. So if that is our condition before a God whose standard is perfection, what hope is there for us, Jonathan?

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, there's a great deal of hope for us and I'm so thrilled that we're in this passage today because where we're landing here in Galatians, Paul opens up this glorious and this truly thrilling message that salvation comes not through the things that we do, but through what Jesus did at the cross and through faith in him. And there's this wonderful statement that we're going to look at, Galatians 2 and verse 16. We know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. And that is the very best news in all the world.

Steve Hiller: And so when we begin to understand that truth, what difference should that make in our lives?

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, it's liberating because suddenly our walk with the Lord and our service of God is is not all about trying to gain his favor. No, not at all. Jesus has done that for us and we receive it by faith. Now we're serving him out of a joyful response to who Jesus is and what Jesus has done and and out of the the sheer power of what Jesus is doing in our lives as saved people by his spirit. And it's a totally different experience.

Steve Hiller: Well, we're going to look at that today from the book of Galatians. We're in chapter two, so grab a Bible and join us there as we begin a message called in Christ alone. Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: I don't know if you are at all like this, but I tend at any given time to have a very long list of books that I would like to read, but I'm pretty sure I'm never going to get around to buying and then reading. It's a kind of frustrating way to live, but there it is. I added another book to that list just recently when I read a review of a book called The Internationalists by two law professors at Yale University. The book's main focus is international the international order that emerged from the wreckage of the First World War and then the Second World War and that has kind of defined the post-war era.

That international order has kept aggressive states in check. It has refused to reward warmongerers and has meant that we've enjoyed 70 years without a full-scale world war. And the point of the book, the burden of the book is simply to remind us of where we've come from and how we've got to where we now are. And the plea of the book is not to abandon that world order as it seems we so easily could. Sometimes the best protection against folly in the present is to be reminded of where we've come from and how we've got here.

I only mention that because Paul's program and Paul's interest in our present passage in Galatians 2, it follows a similar line. Here in these verses, the Apostle Paul records a conversation that he had with the Apostle Peter. And he records it here for the Galatian Christians to hear it and to understand it. If you were with us last week, you'll remember that Peter seemed to be losing sight of the gospel. He wasn't living it out or modeling it consistently, even if he was teaching it faithfully. Although he believed and although he taught that people were justified by faith alone in Christ alone, he was behaving as though folk needed to submit to religious rite and ritual to be safe before God on the final day of judgment.

And so although his teaching was faithful, his behavior and his attitudes were actually undermining the gospel. The Galatian Christians are actually facing some of the same issues. They're facing a a distorted kind of teaching. And so Paul records the exchange with Peter as a kind of safeguard for them. And And what Paul is doing here is essentially this. He's reminding Peter of where they've come from and where through the gospel they have got to now. He's reminding them of this journey that they've already made so that Peter won't lose sight of the gospel in the present, so that he won't lose his grip on the apostolic gospel.

He reminds Peter of that journey they've made from legalism and religion to freedom and life. And of course, Paul has taken the trouble here in Galatians two to record that conversation because the Galatian Christians desperately need to hear it. They had made their own gospel journey, of course, from legalism perhaps, self-justification anyway, to freedom and to life. But now they're in danger of backtracking. Now they're in danger of losing their grip on the gospel. But none of this is for us a simple history lesson of what was going on in Jerusalem or what was going on in Galatia 2,000 years ago.

No, this is something that you and I urgently need to hear as well. This fundamental journey from religion and from legalism, from self-justification to freedom and to life. Well, it is a journey that each one of us here needs to make. It is a vital journey. Most of us in this room wonderfully have made that journey already. Most of us have trusted in Christ. But perhaps this morning, like Peter, we need to be reminded of where we've come from. We need to be reminded of the journey that we've made. And of course, others here may not have made that journey yet, but you're here perhaps because you'd like to make it and you want to know the steps involved.

That's our focus then this morning, the journey to freedom and to life. Paul highlights for us three elements to that journey, three key discoveries that he needed to make himself. And first of all, he needed to see and he needed to understand that he had been traveling down a dead end road, a dead end road verse 15. We who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law because by observing the law no one will be justified.

For Canada's 150th anniversary, there's a special event and it carries particular symbolic significance for the nation. The opening of the Mackenzie Valley Highway in the Northwest Territories will for the very first time in Canada's history open up permanent year-round road access to the Arctic Ocean, meaning now that Canada's road system will be connected from sea to sea to sea for the very first time. This Mackenzie Valley Highway, when it opens in a few weeks time, will be one of the more dramatic dead end roads in the world. If you make that long journey all the way up there, once you dip your toe in the Arctic Ocean, you literally have no other option unless you want to settle up there, but to turn around and come on back down south.

There is really nowhere else to go. When Paul or Saul, as he then was, encountered the Lord Jesus, the risen Jesus on the Damascus Road, one of the things that he came to see more or less right away was that he had been traveling down a dead end road, not in geographical terms. No, the Damascus Road would have got him to Damascus eventually. His problem was that he'd been traveling down a dead end road in spiritual terms. He had imagined that his record of religious observance, of zeal in persecuting the church, his record of legalism, of moralism, he imagined that all those things would have ultimately secured him a not guilty verdict before God the judge on that final day.

But suddenly he came to see end of verse 16 that by observing the law no one will be justified. It was a road heading nowhere. You remember that the situation in Galatia was something like this. Paul had taken the gospel to this non-Jewish, to this Gentile area and he told the people there that all they needed to do in order to be saved, in order to be right with God was to put their trust in Jesus who had done everything necessary to secure their salvation. A number of folk believed that message, were converted to Christ and a church was established.

But a little while after Paul went on his way, some other missionaries came to town with a slightly different message. You get right with God by believing in Jesus, the Messiah. Yes, that's that 's true, but you also need to observe certain key religious rights, particularly the right of circumcision. You You needed to observe the biblical law, the Old Testament law in order ultimately to be saved. It wasn't only an issue in Galatia. Even the great Apostle Peter had come under pressure to backtrack on the gospel, to backtrack from the true nature of the authentic apostolic gospel.

The message that anyone, no matter what their background, can be made right with God by believing in Jesus and nothing else, that message of course would suit the Gentiles very well, but it would be a little bit tougher for the Jews to accept. It ran so counter to everything that they had believed and understood and lived out from the Old Testament. And so Paul goes out of his way here in verse 15 to remind Peter initially and the Galatians by extension to remind him that he is actually a Jew by birth. He's not one of those Gentiles, not one of those folk a Jew might call a sinner.

But despite the fact that Paul comes from an Israelite background, that he is a Jew by birth, he has come to know the apostolic gospel, the truth of the authentic gospel. He has come to understand that a person is not justified by observing the Jewish law, but rather by faith in Jesus who is the fulfillment of that law. The word justify is of course legal language. It belongs to the world of the courtroom and it means to declare someone righteous, to declare someone not guilty before the judge. And both Paul and Peter have come to understand that when the day of judgment comes, God will not declare anyone not guilty on the basis of their religious observance or moral goodness.

It's never going to happen. And so Paul reminds Peter, we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Encounter the Truth with Jathan Griffiths and a message called in Christ alone, part of our series Jesus plus nothing. And if you joined us late or have to leave early, you can always come and listen online. Our website is encounterthetruth.org and you can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. Again, that's at encounterthetruth.org. If you did join us a little bit late, we're in the book of Galatians chapter two, so grab a Bible and meet us there as we get back to the message. Again, here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: It's painful to give up on a project that you've invested heavily in. You may have heard that one of the test models of the Avro Arrow fighter jet has been recovered from the or at least discovered on the bottom of Lake Ontario. The Avro project was a high-profile Canadian government defense initiative to produce a homegrown supersonic jet to counter the Soviet threat in the mid 1950s. As the project neared completion, it was abruptly canceled by the Diefenbaker government amidst much controversy. Thousands of people lost their jobs. Millions and millions of dollars of investment was thrown away.

The planes and all the equipment were destroyed unless they fall into enemy hands. And all that remained of the project were a few scale models that had been dumped in Lake Ontario at an earlier stage. Paul was heavily invested in Jewish religious practice. And clearly from the way he now speaks in retrospect, he once thought that this religious practice, this project of legalism would stand him in good stead before God. Paul had given his life to practicing the law in faithfulness and to teaching others to do the same. Remember what he told us in chapter one, back in chapter one in verse 14.

He said I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. That's where he'd come from. That was his background. That's what he had achieved in religious terms. But now having encountered Jesus on the Damascus Road, having seen him for who he is, God's all-sufficient savior, Paul realizes that any project to self-justify before God, it's a futile project. It's an empty effort, a hopeless endeavor. And the investment, well, it just needs to be written off entirely. Most of us weren't have been religious zealots like Paul before our conversion to Christ.

But for each one of us here, the step that Paul took is really quite a hard step to take. It's hard because each one of us is naturally inclined in our sinful hearts to believe that we can be made right with God through what we do, through religious observance and through moral goodness. That's our natural inclination. That is the default mode of the human heart. The works of the law that concern us may not be specifically Jewish rights and rituals. Clearly here in Galatians, the particular issue is circumcision, but for us today, the things that concern us may be more general observances of moral goodness, filling out our tax return honestly, speaking the truth to our colleagues, being faithful to our spouse, helping the old lady across the street, whatever it may be.

But our natural inclination will always be to think that if our moral record is impressive enough, if we are outstandingly good or at very least not outstandingly bad, that will be enough to satisfy God the judge. That's the default assumption of the human heart. That 's the central underlying doctrine of religions around the world. But Paul discovered for himself and learned end of verse 16 that no one is going to be justified by observing the law. It's important to be moral. It's important to be upright, but it 's not going to save you. It 's not that the law is heading in the wrong direction.

It's not that God's Old Testament law is deficient or bad. It's simply that we ourselves can never meet the perfect standards of a holy God. We can never be perfectly holy, perfectly obedient, perfectly good. None of us can manage it. Remember that the word justified means to declare righteous, to declare innocent. And of course, a holy God and a just God could never declare innocent anyone who has ever done wrong. And that's all of us. We may not be as bad as some, but none of us is totally innocent before a holy God. And so if God sought to declare us righteous, to declare us not guilty on the basis of what we do, he would be making a false declaration and a holy God could never do such a thing.

By observing the law, says Paul, no one will be justified. No one will be declared not guilty by that route. Now I think there are basically two reasons why this message comes as a challenge to us and it is a challenge to us. It's not altogether easy to accept. Two reasons why it can be so hard to accept. For some, perhaps for a number here even this morning, it's hard to accept simply because the message sounds too good to be true. And it does sound too good to be true, doesn't it? For as long as you can remember, you've been laboring under an assumption that you need to meet God's standards in some way in order to be right with him.

And frankly, that assumption, that belief, it has been a burden to you and it is a burden to you. You've seen the great gap between the perfect standards of a holy God and the failures of your very imperfect life. You see the lapses in honesty, the shortness of temper, the lustful thoughts, the envy and the bitterness, all the things that all of us would prefer to ignore in our own hearts and our own lives. But you see those things, you're honest about them. And if you believe that you're standing before God depends on your moral goodness, you're cast into despair.

You feel the weight of that. And of course, we would. And so for you, perhaps the prospects of the judgment of God, the reality of that day yet to come, it is a burden for you. And you know you would never pass the test. One of France's most celebrated chefs has made history recently by asking to have his three Michelin stars revoked and removed from the famous Michelin guide. Sebastian Bra is one of only 27 chefs in the whole of France to have won three Michelin stars. But he has become the first chef ever to ask to have those three stars taken away.

His explanation for the move is simple. He says this, you're inspected two or three times a year. You never know when. Every meal that goes out could be inspected. That means that every day one of the 500 meals that leaves the kitchen could be judged. Despite his great success and his fame, Bra couldn't bear the burden of having to labor over every dish every day to merit those stars, to please the judges. The weight of constant evaluation, the fear of judgment, a judgment that could fall at any moment, it was all too much. And so he has officially requested freedom.

Some here will labor under a burden of thinking that it will be possible perhaps to please God if you try hard enough to win his favor. If you put in the effort, if you live well enough, if you're good enough, if you try hard enough. And if that's you, you need today to make the discovery that the Apostle Paul made all those years ago when he encountered the savior on the Damascus Road. God has provided another means of being right with him. None of us can do enough. None of us can be enough to satisfy the requirements of his perfect law.

But Jesus has. Jesus has done enough and Jesus has been enough and he has satisfied fully the requirements of a holy God. And now the gospel tells us God will declare us right, will declare us not guilty on the basis of what Jesus has done as we have faith in him. You see the verdict of the coming day of judgment has been given already for the people belonging to Jesus. It's been given already at the cross. Sin has been punished. The debt has been paid and for all who trust in Christ, the verdict now is not guilty.

That's God's official verdict for all who trust in Jesus. And it seems too good to be true, doesn't it? It seems too good to be true, but that's the gospel. That's the good news and it is the very best news in all the world. That's the problem for some. That's perhaps what's holding you back from accepting the message of the gospel. It seems too good to be true, but for others, I guess the problem is not so much that the message seems too good to be true. The challenge and the difficulty is that you've made such an investment in your own moral record, your religious works, your own personal goodness.

Your investment in those things has simply been too great and to write them off is simply too painful. To write those things off, to accept that they won't make you right with God in the final day, to accept the idea that God is actually not impressed by those things and he isn't. It it's actually a bit too painful and a bit too humbling to contemplate. Making that Diefenbaker move to cancel the project, it's just more than you could manage personally. Well, if that's where you are, then you're probably a bit more like the Apostle Paul than you realize.

You see, he had invested hugely in his religious records. According to the standards of his religious peers in his day, he was outstanding in every way. That's what he told us back in chapter one. And yet he set it all aside. And he was willing to do so and he was able to do so because he came to the simple realization of verse 16. No one will be justified before God by observing the law. It cannot happen. It will not happen. It is an impossibility. It is a dead end road. And so Paul, the outstanding law keeper, has put his faith in Jesus Christ in order to be justified by faith.

Steve Hiller: Well, we have to pass the teaching right there, but we're going to continue this message in Christ alone next time here on Encounter the Truth with Jathan Griffiths. Really a helpful look today at Galatians chapter two verses 11 to 21 and taking a look at the journey that can be ours from freedom and to life. If you've got questions about how you can begin that relationship with Jesus and experience the freedom and the joy and the life that only he offers, I hope you'll contact us here at Encounter the Truth. You can do that by coming to our website.

It's encounterthetruth.org. Well, Encounter the Truth is able to bring you Jathan's teaching because of your generosity, whether you listen to us online, on the radio or through the app. It is your financial support that makes it possible. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to say thank you by sending you a book that you've picked out, Jonathan, called How Christmas can change your life. And why did you pick this book?

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, I think it's an intriguing title and it's got an intriguing series of questions that it addresses head-on within it. And you know, I I think we can all assume that we know what Christmas is all about and and why we celebrate it and what's happening this time of year. But I actually think we're often not very reflective about the true meaning and the true significance of Christmas. And I want to get beneath the surface and ask what Christmas is really about. And Josh's book helps us to do that. I think it's helpful for the believer who's familiar with the Christmas story.

And I think it's helpful for the one who's not yet a committed follower of Jesus who might have some real questions. And I think within this book, there will be some real answers.

Steve Hiller: Well, we'd love to send you a copy of how Christmas can change your life is our way of saying thank you for your financial support this month. You can give at our website encounterthetruth.org or when you call 1 833 998 7884. It might be easier to remember is 833 99 Truth. Or again, the website is encounterthetruth.org. You can also write us at Encounter the Truth PO Box 5513 Ottawa, Ontario K2C 3M1. Or in the US at Encounter the Truth 215 North Arlington Heights Road, Suite 102 Arlington Heights, Illinois 60004. For Jathan Griffiths and our producer Mark Bretta, I'm Steve Hiller.

Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us next time.