The Unchanging Truth

Guest (Male): Welcome to the unchanging truth, the verse by verse Bible teaching ministry of Dr. Jared Gilcher, lead pastor of Christ Community Bible Church in Arlington, Texas. Through the living and active word of God, the unchanging truth exists to encourage your soul, transform your life, and help you trust and treasure Christ as redeemer, savior, and king. Now, opening the scriptures and proclaiming the truth that never changes, here is Dr. Jared Gilcher.

Dr. Jerod Gilcher: See, in in Paul's day, many Jews believed that faith alone was foreign to the Bible. That works had to play a part in earning salvation and getting someone saved. And and here's the thing. Paul also knows knows that for the church, for us, faith can feel a little ambiguous, right? And that the human heart is always bent towards pride and that we somehow think that we can earn or merit salvation. In other words, we are all born every single one of us legalists, and therefore Paul puts that conversation here to clarify the gospel. Because at the heart of the gospel is faith alone.

And so six six urgent questions in light of justification by faith. Question one, verse 27. Where therefore is boasting? Who could boast? Who could brag? I mean, if we if we really understood what sin is, who we were, where we were headed, and all that God has done in Christ to save us from destruction, who could boast? Do you see? Think about it. Name one. Name one aspect of your salvation that you have a right to say, I did that. I accomplished that. I achieved that, and therefore God, even at some infinitesimal level, owed me salvation.

Can you think of any? That's Paul's point. Who can boast? I mean, you have to understand, even the very faith with which we placed in Christ to get saved, even that faith was a gift of sovereign grace itself. Every part of our salvation is owing entirely to God's sovereign initiative and choice. We were chosen before time. We were purchased by Christ. We were awakened by grace. We persevere by his power. Therefore, in answer to the question, who can boast? What is Paul's answer? It is excluded. It is ruled out. It's impossible. It's unthinkable. It's irrational.

It doesn't make sense. And we know this. We believe this that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone. The question is why, which leads to questions two and three, verse 27. Boasting is excluded. How? Through what kind of law? A law of works? No, but by a law of faith. And and there are the questions. And and you see the logic of the text, right? If boasting in ourselves is impossible, and it is, then the question is how? What kind of law? What kind of system, salvation system obliterates boasting and shows it to be ridiculous?

In other words, hang with me. What is a way that people could be saved that would rule out the possibility of boasting? That's question number two. Through what sort of law? But then question three. Through a law of works. Will that do it? Meaning in some hypothetical world, would a if sinners could somehow be saved by their works, would that rule out boasting and pride? Or would a law of works create boasting and pride? And that is exactly what it would do. A system of works doesn't lead to humble sinners exalting God alone, but instead to boasting and pride and glory in the self.

Do you know why? Because at the end of the day, no matter how you cut it, salvation by works means you get partial credit that you were good enough, that you were better than others, that you did what others could not. And even worse than that, that God was willing to take a bribe and share his glory with another, which is why Paul says in verse 27, no. No, that doesn't work. A system of works always leads to pride. A system of works always robs God's glory. A system of works only leads to hell forever.

That's why it has to be by faith. Faith alone. And and I I just want you to know, and I and I know you know this, that that we are in the minority here. What I mean is every other faith or system in the world always adds works to faith. Islam, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Roman Catholicism, even Buddhism. All of it built on a system of merit where you earn eternal life, and it doesn't work. And there are five reasons why why salvation by works is utterly impossible. They're in your notes. Five reasons why. Number one, number one.

The sin stained works of human effort are powerless to make you right with God. Works before we're saved don't have the leverage. They they don't have the buying power to to redeem your soul or appease God's wrath. I said it before, even the best deeds done by an unbeliever are still so polluted by sin that they are acts of rebellion worthy of judgment. And therefore therefore salvation by works is impossible. The conversation's over. And yet, number two, number two, get this. Should God allow himself to be bribed by the sinful works of evil men, he would profane his glory.

He would. You know why? Because he would show how cheaply he could be bought. Really? A few good works that repairs the damage done to the glory of God. A few good deeds. Those are enough to satisfy the righteousness of God. By no means. The payment for sin is an infinite payment. And therefore God alone could pay the fee. Number three. Salvation by works actually puts God in debt to the sinner. It puts sinful man in the place of power even over God himself, which Job 41 and Romans 11 says is absolutely out of the question.

God is under obligation to save no one, which is what grace is, which leads to number four. Salvation by works completely destroys the grace of God. It does. It obliterates grace. It nullifies grace. It cancels grace. Put it like this. One single work added to the pile of grace makes grace no longer grace. Romans 11 verse six. And number five, here it is. Salvation by works gives sinful men the opportunity to boast in themselves. And thus God must share his glory with another, which Isaiah 42 8 and 48 11 says is never going to happen.

And so you see what's at stake, don't you? If sinners are saved by or attempt to be saved by anything other than faith and faith alone, God ceases to be glorious. He ceases to be God, and every soul goes to hell forever. That's what's at stake. It's got to be by faith. And my question for you this morning is is that what you also believe? To to which to which law do you submit, beloved? A law of works where you trust in your merit, or a law of faith where you trust in Christ alone? Let me ask you this.

Did you ever come did you ever come to the point in your life where you saw that the only contribution you could make to your own salvation were the sins that needed to be forgiven? Or do you still hold at some possible level that you are saved in part by your works because you need to know that if you try to add works to your faith, you endanger your soul forever. The entire reason why the the letter to the Galatians exists is to prevent people from doing that very thing. Which is why Paul says what he does in verse 28.

For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. There it is again, justification by faith counted righteous in Christ. The righteous, perfect, flawless, faultless record of the son imputed to us. Counted righteous in the son. You understand there's there's no such thing as a hybrid justification. There's no such thing as a salvation participation award, which I hate by the way. Participation awards, really? You ever get one of those? I basically got that in high school when I got, you know, voted a hardest worker on the baseball team, which means you're not any good, but at least you work hard.

So thanks for showing up. Know what that means. I threw that trophy away, by the way. But but here's the thing. Are we that soft nowadays that we have to have participation awards? You get a medal because you showed up. No matter how bad or good you did, you get an award and a medal and a prize. That's crazy. And when it comes to justification, there is no participation award. Heck, we don't even get the credit for showing up. Even the very faith with which we placed in Christ even that was a gift of sovereign grace.

Ephesians 2 8 9, you know it well. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this, even your faith, it is a gift of God, not from works that no one may boast. And so you see it, don't you? Faith protects the grace and the glory of God. Faith puts God in his rightful place as the all sufficient giver of grace, and it puts us in our rightful place as the needy beneficiaries of that grace. Which leads to questions four and five. The verses 29 and 30 raises other questions, other objections from this hypothetical opponent.

Or or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not also the God of Gentiles? Yes, of Gentiles also. Since indeed God who will justify justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that faith is one. And and again, what what helps us wrap our head around what Paul's saying here is that Jews in Paul's day really thought that faith alone was foreign to the Bible, right? That that works had to play a part in earning salvation. They really believed that the law You know what the law is? It's the Ten Commandments and beyond.

They believed that the law was a punch card system to earn your way to God, which is crazy because number one, that wasn't even the point of the law anyway. And number two, if being saved was obtained through the law, then get this. God becomes divided and schizophrenic. Which is why Paul says what he does. Notice. Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not also the God of the Gentiles? And the answer is of course Well, yeah. I mean, of course. I mean, that that that's that's obvious. That goes without saying. Paul, what do you what do you mean by this?

And I think the point is this. Listen very carefully. This is technical. Hang with me. The law was given to Jews alone. You knew that, right? Just to Jews. It was not given to the nations. It was a covenant with Israel that could only be fulfilled by those people in the specific land of Israel. It wasn't for the nations. It literally doesn't work anywhere else in the world. And yet, listen carefully. If justification is by the works of the law in some theoretical universe, then you have just excluded 99.8% of the world's population who aren't Jews.

Do you see? Which means logically Hang with me. God would have to create two ways of salvation. One for Israel, one for the nations. The law for the Jews, faith for Gentiles. And that doesn't work. It doesn't work because the nature of sin and the nature of grace demands that justification has to be by faith, and the works of the law are never going to cut it. Which is why Paul says in verse 30, since indeed the God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that faith is one. There it is.

One God over all, one way of salvation for all, namely sola fide faith alone. So you so you see it, right? Faith alone isn't just God's preference. It's rooted in his very nature as God. That's why we utterly reject Catholicism. Not because we have an axe to grind with Catholics, but because the official teaching of the Catholic Church opposes this very passage and countless others. For instance, this is from the Council of Trent. Official Catholic Church teaching, it says this. Very interesting. If anyone says that the sinner is justified by faith alone If anyone says that meaning that nothing else is required to cooperate in order to obtain the grace of justification, let him be condemned.

do Do you hear what they said? If you believe justification by faith and not a single work of merit added to the pile, you are in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church condemned. Which is exactly what verse 28 says. We're not better than Catholics, but we must pray for them because they do not know the freedom and glory of justification by faith alone in Christ alone for the glory of God alone. But let's say let's say you're a Jew. And you're you're hearing Paul preach on this about the law and grace and faith. Honestly, I think that if we were Jews hearing Paul preach, I think we would feel kind of defensive about this.

Right? Because because after all, the law It Like Paul speaks about the law as if it's a bad thing, as if it's wrong, as if it's meaningless, as if it's worthless. And the problem with that is well, the law has has It is God's word, and it has been the center of our lives for a thousand years, two thousand years. And and Paul seems to think that it's a bad thing, which is why Paul says this in question six, verse 31, what he says. He says, are we therefore abolishing the law through faith or with faith?

On the contrary, we are establishing the law. Do you kind of see what he's after there? He he's he's posing the question. Does does does faith make the law meaningless? Now that there is a a a savior to believe in, does believing in him make the law meaningless, worthless, wrong, bad? I mean, and well, let's just be honest. I mean, faith and the law are incompatible in a sense. I mean, the law does not merit your salvation, but that doesn't mean faith makes the law meaningless. Rather, faith isn't contrary to the law. It is complementary to the law.

In other words, put it like this. When we exercise faith in Christ Get this. We fulfill what the law was intended to do. Namely, push us to the brink of despair so that we see we have no choice left but to trust in grace alone. Do you see? That's his point. And the same is with us today. The same is with us today as believers on this side of the cross. You see, if you're in Christ this morning, if you're a Christian, you should obey. You ought to be holy. You should fight sin. You should strive for a life of unimpeachable, blameless conformity to the word of God and all that God commands.

And don't let anyone tell you that obedience is optional. And don't let anyone tell you that obedience is legalism. It's not. All that God commands in his word is not contrary to grace and faith. It drives us to grace and faith. Do you hear the difference? In other words, all that God commands in his word pushes us to trust the grace to do what God commands. That's the issue. Put it like this. The same empty hands of faith that got us salvation are the same empty hands of faith that lead to our sanctification. That's the issue.

Which brings us into part two. Part two. The illustration of justification. The illustration of justification which is the faith of Abraham. The faith of Abraham because Paul really needs to know that we get this. Because You understand, there is no margin for error on this. We got to be convinced. We got to get justification by faith alone. And so Paul, being the master teacher that he is, provides an illustration. In the illustration is Abraham. Get this. All of chapter four is all about Abraham. Question is why. Why him and not somebody else? I mean, what what does what does Abraham have to do with justification by faith?

Only this. Get this. That the very first mention in the Bible of justification, which we assume is only a New Testament doctrine, is found in the very first book of the Bible in the life of Abraham. Which means Abraham is our sola fide exemplar, our example of faith alone. Look at verses one through three of chapter four. What therefore shall we say Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not with God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God.

And it was counted to him as righteousness. That is incredible. And you see the logic of the text, right? What therefore shall we say? Verse one. Do you see that? Which means what he says here in chapter four proves what he just said in chapter three, and what he just said in chapter three is that faith destroys boasting, right? That the empty hands of faith obliterate boasting and pride and glory in the self. Oh yeah, Paul, prove it. Prove to me that faith alone obliterates boasting gladly. Abraham, our father according to the flesh. That's the proof.

That's the proof. He had nothing to boast about. He was counted as righteous by God. And yet, there in lies another problem. Is that the Jews in Paul's day really believed that Abraham was saved by his works? That's what they believed. In fact, multiple ancient Jewish sources I I looked them all up. Looked up every intertestamental text between the Old Testament and the New Testament, about seven or eight places in rabbinical writings that talk about that that Abraham was saved by his works. In fact, one source even said this. Abraham was perfect in all of his deeds and well pleasing in righteousness all of his life.

Well, now we've got a problem. Did you say one thing, Paul says another. Who's right?

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us for the unchanging truth, the verse by verse Bible teaching ministry of Dr. Jared Gilcher and Christ Community Bible Church in Arlington, Texas. At Christ Community Bible Church, we exist to prize, portray, and proclaim the supremacy of Christ as we trust in his word and wait for his return. We hope today's teaching has encouraged your soul and helped you trust and treasure Christ as your redeemer, savior, and king. If you're in the DFW area and looking for a church home, join us for worship Sunday mornings at 10:30. To learn more about the mission of the church, meet the pastoral staff or plan a visit, go to ccbiblechurch.com.

You'll find ministry services and additional teachings there as well. Just click on the resources tab to get started. That's ccbiblechurch.com. Join us again next time as we open the scriptures together and proclaim the truth that never changes. This has been the unchanging truth.