Subject 15 : The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the GALATIANS
[Chapter 2-5] We Are Justified Only by Pure Faith (Galatians 2:11-21)
(Galatians 2:11-21)
“Now
when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he
was to be blamed; for before certain men came from James, he would eat
with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated
himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the
Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was
carried away with their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not
straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before
them all, ‘If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not
as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? We who are Jews
by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not
justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we
have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in
Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no
flesh shall be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by
Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a
minister of sin? Certainly not! For if I build again those things which I
destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to
the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it
is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I
now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me
and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if
righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.’”
Before
I begin my sermon on this passage, let us together read Galatians
5:2-3: “Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised,
Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who
becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law.” I asked
you here to read Galatians 5:2-3 so that we can first examine the
background and the reason why the Apostle Paul wrote Galatians, and then
I can proceed with my sermon on chapter 2.
What
was the problem that the churches of Galatia faced? Unlike the
Corinthian church, the problem for the churches of Galatia was over the
issue of circumcision. In the Galatian churches, there were many who
were circumcised, and many who also insisted on physical circumcision.
In other words, in the churches of Galatia there were those who insisted
on circumcision, arguing that anyone who comes into their churches must
be circumcised. This obviously raised a great deal of the Apostle
Paul’s concern.
The
people of Israel believed that to be circumcised was a sign of being
Abraham’s descendants, that is, God’s people. But the problem was that
in these churches of Galatia, there were both Jews and Gentiles mixed
together. So, when some insisted on circumcision, many were in fact
circumcised. Seeing what was happening in the Galatian churches, the
Apostle Paul deemed that this would become a great problem if it were
left alone as it was. This is why he had to admonish the Galatian
believers with this epistle. As we just read, Paul said, “If you become
circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.” By this passage, Paul was
saying, “If you become circumcised, what profit would Christ bring to
you? Did you become God’s people by being circumcised? If so, then what
has Jesus Christ done for you?”
Actually,
circumcision brings no benefit. Quite on the contrary, it would render
one cut off from the grace of God. Paul was saying, “Those who insist on
the circumcision of the flesh and those who seek to be physically
circumcised have the duty to follow the entire Law of God. This then
means that you must keep the whole Law, but can you really do this?” So
the Apostle Paul, in other words, was writing a letter of nourishment to
the circumcisionists in the churches of Galatia. The Pauline Epistles
addressed spiritual problems that each church had, and as far as the
churches in Galatia were concerned, Paul came to write this epistle to
Galatians because of those who claimed that they could become God’s
people by being circumcised in the flesh.
When
we examine today’s Scripture passage with this understanding of the
background, we can grasp more clearly what the passage is trying to tell
us.
Let
us read Galatians 2:11-13 again: “Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I
withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; for before
certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when
they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of
the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite
with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.”
Paul
said here that when Peter had come to Antioch, he withstood him to his
face, because Peter was to be blamed. Why did Paul reproach Peter? It
was because Peter had been hypocritical. What hypocrisy, then, did Peter
commit? This happened when Peter was eating with the Gentiles. Certain
men from James came to Peter, and these men were circumcisionists. The
circumcisionists were those who, while believing in Jesus, insisted that
the believers had to be circumcised. So when the circumcisionists came,
fearing them, Peter stopped eating with the Gentiles and ran away in
haste. This was why Paul, seeing this, reproached Peter. When we examine
today’s Scripture passage, we can find that Peter was so fearful of the
circumcisionists that when they came while he was eating and having
fellowship with the Gentiles, he even ran away from them in hurry.
The
circumcisionists, whom even Peter feared, continued to argue that even
the saints must be circumcised to become God’s people. And claiming that
the uncircumcised were not qualified to be God’s people, they urged
them to be physically circumcised just as Abraham was. What was the
basis of such an argument? It was the notion that only the circumcised
were approved as God’s people. It was because Peter was mindful of these
circumcisionists that he withdrew himself.
This
shows that the circumcisionists had that much influence in the Church.
It so happened, then, that many believers in the churches of Galatia
came to be circumcised. The Apostle Paul was incensed. He was
exasperated because the circumcisionists were so influential that there
seemed to be no way to stop them. Even Peter had run away here. The
circumcisionists insisted that while people had to believe in Jesus, all
males also had to be circumcised without fail, and they gave no
recognition to the uncircumcised, even if they were saints. They exalted
only the circumcised.
Let’s
turn to Galatians 2:14-16 here: “But when I saw that they were not
straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before
them all, ‘If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not
as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? We who are Jews
by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not
justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we
have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in
Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no
flesh shall be justified.’”
The
Apostle Paul here reproached Peter for his hypocrisy, saying, “If you,
being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, how can
you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?” And Paul said that a man could
not be justified by the works of the Law. In saying these things, Paul
sought to correct the fallacy of circumcisionists with his faith in
Jesus Christ. As the circumcisionists were becoming influential, Paul
wanted to challenge them and correct their mistakes, and here such an
opportunity presented itself. The Apostle Paul began by rebuking Peter
at first, but soon he expanded his speech to criticize the fallacies and
mistakes of circumcisionists.
He
declared first, “A man is not justified by the works of the law.” Here,
Paul made “the works of the Law” an object of his criticism because he
wanted to underscore the point that one does not become righteous by
being circumcised. The Law itself is very wide and extensive in its
contents. In the churches of Galatia, there were Jews, and among these
Jews there were circumcisionists who argued that the saints could become
God’s people if they were physically circumcised. This is why Paul was
telling them here, “It is not by the works of the Law that people become
sinless and are turned into God’s own people, but it is only by
believing in Jesus Christ that they are justified.” Were this not the
case, there is no flesh that can be called as sinless by God. In other
words, Paul was rebuking the circumcisionists, making it clear that it
is by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we are
justified.
In
the days of the Early Church, there were always those who advocated
circumcision even in God’s Church. They continued to claim that
believers could become God’s people only when they were circumcised.
Here, what we need to consider is what the implication of this incidence
is. Then, in this age and time, where can we then apply this
circumcision case? We can apply it to the faith of those who believe
that their sins are blotted out when they offer their prayers of
repentance. Today’s advocates of prayers of repentance claim that when a
man commits a sin after believing in Jesus, this sin can be blotted out
just by offering prayers of repentance.
Then,
are our sins really blotted out through prayers of repentance? Paul
said here that a man is not justified with the works of the Law, then,
can one’s sins really be blotted out if he offers prayers of repentance?
No, he may feel comfortable for a short while after praying, but his
sins can never be blotted out cleanly and forever by such prayers of
repentance. This is why Paul said, “A man is not justified by the works
of the Law.” We must realize that this is achieved only by believing in
Jesus Christ through the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. So,
Paul said, “Even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be
justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law” (Galatians
2:16).
I
keep raising this issue repeatedly here because so many Christians
throughout the whole world believe that their sins are blotted out when
they offer their prayers of repentance. Such insistence does not conform
to the Word of God, and yet despite this, prayers of repentance have
become pervasive throughout the churches on this earth. None other than
this is the same faith of the legalistic circumcisionists, and they are
today’s adherents of prayers of repentance. These people are hypocrites,
and to try to wash away their sins through their prayers of repentance
is clearly wrong before God. However, many Christians throughout the
whole world, and even some believers in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, are still unaware of this.
To
claim that a man is justified through his prayers of repentance or
through incremental sanctification is the same fallacy of the
circumcisionists in today’s Scripture passage who were holding onto
physical circumcision to become God’s people. Therefore, it is a
complete nonsense to assert that one should first believe in Jesus’
blood of the Cross, and then the sins committed afterwards would be
blotted out just by offering prayers of repentance. The Bible clearly
states, “A man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in
Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16). In other words, we are justified only
because we believe that Jesus Christ has blotted out our sins through
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and it is not by offering
prayers of repentance or being circumcised in the flesh that we become
sinless. That is never the case. This is what the Apostle Paul is saying
here.
Of
a billion or so Christians in this world, how many do you think
actually know that their sins are not blotted out through their prayers
of repentance? It is not prayers of repentance that the righteous must
give, but it is their true confession and true repentance that must be
made. Today’s prayers of repentance are recognized as a ritual to go
through to believe in the Lord and follow Him. Just as Catholics believe
that they can somehow be washed from their sins through the sacrament
of confession, many Protestants mistakenly believe that their sins are
washed away through their prayers of repentance. Because virtually all
Christians in the whole wide world are like this, they have no idea just
how wrong this belief is. Some of them may have some knowledge, but
they are unable to pinpoint it clearly in a biblically sound basis and
terms.
It
is not by offering prayers of repentance that one becomes sinless, but
it is by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that his
sins are blotted out as white as snow. Yet who among today’s Christians
can say that trusting in prayers of repentance is a mistaken belief? It
is wrong to try to wash away sin through prayers of repentance, but who
can dare to point this out? Since prayers of repentance have now been
officially sanctioned in today’s Christianity as a process of washing
away one’s sins, to point out its fallacy is to trigger a reformation of
faith that is even more significant than what Luther began when he
spoke against the Papacy and ushered in the Reformation. People believe
that to wash away the sins they have committed after believing in the
blood of the Cross, there is no other way but to give prayers of
repentance, but Paul is telling us here just how erroneous this is.
Every Christians in the world must understand what the Apostle Paul said
to Galatian churches: “If you become circumcised, Christ will profit
you nothing” (Galatians 5:2).
Christians
throughout the world are trying to receive the remission of their sins
through prayers of repentance. Just how wrong is this? Regardless of
whether you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, if you
profess to believe in Jesus as your Savior, then you must realize that
the belief that you can be remitted from your sins through your prayers
of repentance is to be cut off from Christ—in fact, you are already
removed from Christ.
Among
the Jews, males were approved as God’s people if they were circumcised.
As soon as Jewish males were physically circumcised, they were
immediately recognized as God’s people. What about the uncircumcised
Jews then? They were not treated as Jews. For the Jewish people,
circumcision was the sign of God’s people. Indeed, God had promised in
the Old Testament, “I will be your God and the God of your descendants,
but you and your descendants must be circumcised.” So it is said in the
Old Testament that circumcision is the sign of God’s people.
In
the age of the New Testament, then, what did the Apostle Paul say in
Romans 2? He said, “Circumcision is that of the heart” (Romans 2:29). He
said that it was not in the flesh that one should be circumcised, but
in the heart. By believing that Jesus Christ has blotted out our sins
through His baptism and bloodshed, we must be spiritually circumcised in
our hearts by our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. In
other words, we must receive our true salvation by believing with the
heart that Jesus took upon all our sins by being baptized by John the
Baptist, died on the Cross, and has thereby saved us from all the sins
of the world.
It
is because Jesus Christ came to this earth and has saved us from the
sins of the world through the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we
are saved by believing in this Truth; it is not through our own prayers
of repentance that our sins are washed away. Because He has saved us
perfectly through His righteous acts, we have come to be saved through
our faith in this perfect gospel, become God’s people, without sin and
one with Christ, and are justified. There is no other way to become His
people other than this. No saint can blot out any of his sins through
prayers of repentance, and they can never become God’s people by being
circumcised in the flesh. To believe otherwise is a complete nonsense.
Your
spiritual circumcision comes from your faith in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, not from any other works of your own. When you believe
in Jesus Christ as your Savior, and when you believe that Jesus has
saved you by being baptized, dying on the Cross, and rising from the
dead again, then you can receive the remission of your sins once for
all. There is no other way to receive the remission of our sins but only
by believing that Jesus Christ has blotted out our sins. God has never
given us any other such means.
No
matter how some Christians might have been filled with inspiration, no
matter how they might have seen visions, and no matter how they might
have heard the voice of the Lord in their dreams or even while awake,
these are all useless. Regardless of how diligently anyone might offer
prayers of repentance to Jesus, how faithfully he might attend morning
prayer meetings, and how lawfully he might be circumcised, these things
have nothing to do with his salvation. Faithfully keeping the Sabbath or
any other festivities of the Old Testament is also completely
irrelevant to one’s salvation.
It
is completely and only through faith in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit that our salvation comes by. Only by believing in Jesus Christ
as our Savior who came through the water and the Spirit, can we be truly
saved. Our true salvation is received only through our faith in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit, containing no effort of our own at
all, not even 0.1%. The supposition that we are washed from our sins
because we have offered prayers of repentance, or that we become God’s
people because we were circumcised—any such supposition that contains
our own works even by 0.1% ruins the Lord’s salvation. If our own works
are needed even by 0.1% to attain our salvation, this can only mean that
Jesus Christ failed to save us perfectly through the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. Yet Jesus Christ has indeed saved us perfectly
from all our sins.
Therefore,
if only we believe in Him and what He has done for us, we can be saved
from all our sins. There is nothing for us to do. There is nothing else
and no other way but to believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit with our hearts. Yet in spite of this, if anyone still seeks to
be circumcised in the flesh or to give prayers of repentance, he is
asking to fall away from the grace of God. He is someone who is
determined to fall away from the grace of God, from the salvation that
God has given us.
As
such, everyone throughout the world must know the gospel Truth of the
water and the Spirit, and everyone must stop trying to attain his
salvation through his own efforts. Among those of you who are now in
this Church, and all the Christians throughout the world as well, those
who might have believed that their sins were blotted out because they
gave prayers of repentance must realize that they have committed a great
sin against God. They must now lay down their carnal faith and instead
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And they must realize
clearly just how fallacious such beliefs are.
Offering
prayers of repentance may seem like a highly virtuous and good thing to
do, but nothing is more wicked than that. It is not prayers of
repentance that should be given, but we should repent first. For us to
repent is to actually turn around from our evil deeds. We must first
repent before God, and if we really want to confess our sins, then we
should say prayers of confession. We should confess before God and pray
to Him like this, “I’ve committed these sins. Yet You have already saved
me from these sins also. I am sure You have already blotted out even
these sins through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Please, hold
me not to be tempted by such iniquities again.” This is the right prayer
of confession when we recognize our sins. We can never be blotted out
from our personal sins by offering prayers of repentance.
If
you had been going in a certain direction, and you realize that this
was wrong, then you must turn around and try to find the correct way. As
such people have to turn around from the wrong ways of their faith and
find the right way to believe in Him properly. Prayers of repentance,
where people say only with their words, “I’ve done wrong. Please forgive
me, then I’ll never do such things again. I believe,” are fallacious.
Yet
in Christianity today, there are those who still claim that they can
wash away their sins through their prayers of repentance, and these
people are turning themselves into great enemies of God. It is
completely fallacious to believe that one can wash away his sins through
his prayers of repentance. Just because a man, having committed sin,
says, “Lord, I’m sorry. Please forgive me,” it does not mean that his
sins are blotted out. This remains the case no matter how he might rely
on the Lord’s blood on the Cross. That is because he is ignoring the
merits of the Lord contained in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Trying to wash away one’s sins through his own prayers of repentance is
to trample on the love of God. And it is to remove the righteousness of
God and front one’s own righteousness, and therefore extremely flawed.
The
reason why Christianity throughout the world is in so much trouble is
because of the doctrine of repentance. So even if one knows and believes
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, if he is swept away by such a
current, his faith is over.
Now
then, what is the difference between someone who believes in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit and someone who believes that his sins are
washed away through his own prayers of repentance? We have to know this
clearly. Only when we know this difference can we realize what is so
wrong with prayers of repentance and end this practice. And only then
can we preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to those who are
diligently but uselessly offering their prayers of repentance. If we
want to say to them that they are wrong to rely on prayers of
repentance, we must first have a clear understanding of the issues at
hand; without such a clear understanding, we can’t tell them to receive
the remission of sins by believing in the true gospel. If we don’t
realize ourselves what’s wrong with prayers of repentance, then we
obviously can’t tell others about that.
Sun
Tzu, an ancient Chinese strategist, said in his Art of War, “Know
yourself and your opponents, and you will never lose.” Likewise, only
when we first point out and explain in detail what is wrong with their
faith and then preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit, would they
agree with us. What we must realize first is that if someone believes
that he can wash away his sins through his prayers of repentance,
ultimately we cannot preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to
him. Most Christians throughout the whole world are trying to receive
the remission of their sins by offering prayers of repentance. This is
why we must first have a clear understanding of the fallacies of this
doctrine of prayers of repentance. So this point cannot be
overemphasized.
It
is no exaggeration to say that those who claim that they are washed
from their sins by giving prayers of repentance do not believe in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit given by Jesus Christ. Therefore, to
anyone who has this kind of faith, we must clearly preach this gospel of
the water and the Spirit. Such people whose faith is placed in their
own prayers of repentance for their salvation are utterly mistaken, and
so they must throw out such a lawless belief first. Then, they must
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, for only by believing
in this true gospel can they be saved. To preach this Truth to others,
you must first confirm in your hearts that you have been saved from all
your sins by believing in the Jesus Christ who came to this earth
through the water and the Spirit. If you yourselves are not clear about
this, then you cannot preach the gospel to those Christians who believe
that they are remitted from their sins through their own prayers of
repentance.
“But
if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are
found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! For
if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a
transgressor” (Galatians 2:17-18).
If,
while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are also found
sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Paul said this is
certainly not the case. What the Apostle Paul is saying here is that the
believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit can never become
sinners again, if they believe in Jesus properly realizing that the
circumcision of the flesh has no effect. In other words, if only one
casts aside the faith of his own works and believes in Jesus Christ as
his Savior who came by the water and the Spirit, then he is a righteous
man, and can never be a sinner.
Paul
the Apostle continued to say, “For if I build again those things which I
destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.” He meant the Law, especially
the physical circumcision, by “those things which I destroyed.”
Therefore, here in this passage, the phrase, “if I build again those
things which I destroyed,” refers to the attempt to become God’s people
by being circumcised in the flesh. Since this is trying to receive the
remission of sins by keeping and practicing the Law, Paul says that it
would turn anyone who does so into a transgressor who sins against God.
Paul makes the same assertion again in Galatians 3 and in Romans 4. When
did Abraham become a righteous man? Since Abraham already believed in
the Word of God, his faith was accounted for righteousness long before
he was circumcised. This tells us that Abraham was already approved by
God for his faith in God’s Word back then and had become a righteous
man. It is only when one believes in the Word of God that he becomes
righteous.
What,
then, comes first? Is it being circumcised in the flesh, or is it
having faith in the Word of blessings that God promised Abraham? Abraham
believed in God’s Word of promise that He would make his descendants as
many as the stars in the sky. This is how Abraham’s faith was approved.
Long before Abraham was circumcised in the flesh, God gave His Word of
blessings to Abraham and he believed in this promise. It was because
Abraham believed in God’s Word of promise before being circumcised that
God accounted him for righteousness owing to his faith, and then
promising him that He would become the God of his descendants, He told
Abraham to be circumcised in the flesh as a sign of this promise. God
said that the physical circumcision is the sign of the spiritual
circumcision that he received through his faith in God’s Word.
Therefore,
now this means that God is still saying to our hearts that you and I
can become His children just by believing in the gospel Word, thanks to
Jesus Christ who came through the water and the Spirit. It is by our
faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we receive the
remission of our sins and become righteous all at once. “If I build
again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor”
(Galatians 2:18). If, having already been saved by believing in Jesus
Christ who came through the water and the Spirit in our hearts, we have
to be circumcised once again, what would this entails? It would nullify
the merits of Jesus Christ, which satisfied all the just requirements of
the Law.
We
can never become sinless by being physically circumcised. Just as
Abraham’s faith was approved when he believed in God’s Word, it is not
by being circumcised in the flesh or offering prayers of repentance that
our sins are blotted out. Rather, we are washed from our sins once for
all and become righteous by believing with our hearts in Jesus Christ
who came through the gospel of the water and the Spirit as our Savior.
Do you believe this? None other than this is to be justified by faith.
We can become righteous only by faith. It is by faith that we are
approved by God, and it is by faith that we are saved and justified.
When we have been justified only by believing with our hearts in the
God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit, in what He has done for
us, how could we revert back to religious practices that belong to
works, not to faith? This is why we say that our justification comes by
faith. Justification by faith means that we attain the righteousness of
God by believing in His Word.
The
Apostle Paul made it clear that one is not saved by being physically
circumcised. Receiving physical circumcision cannot save us; rather, it
is by receiving spiritual circumcision that we can attain our
salvation—that is, by believing in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. Spiritual circumcision means receiving the remission of sin into
the heart by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. By
this spiritual circumcision, we can cut off all our sins from our
hearts, as Abraham cut off his foreskin with a flint knife. This is what
the Apostle Paul was talking about.
Let’s
turn to Galatians 2:19. “For I through the law died to the law that I
might live to God.” The Apostle Paul declared that he died to the Law.
He didn’t say that he was trying to practice the Law. Why? If one stands
before the Law, only his sins are revealed, because the Law is
absolutely holy, just, and good (Romans 7:12). So, the Bible says,
“Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His
sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). In other
words, through the Law only Paul’s sins were revealed, and he realized
that he was to be destroyed.
This
is why the Apostle Paul, far from defending the Law, said that through
the Law he died to the Law. He said that he was put to death, so that he
would live to God. This meant that the Apostle Paul acknowledged the
Word of God. He acknowledged the majestic Word of God, the Word of
Truth. The Law cannot be kept no matter how hard one might try. This is
because the requirements of the Law are so absolutely demanding, if one
were to be accounted as righteous by keeping the Law, he must not only
be circumcised, but also keep all the festivities and obey all the 613
statutes that specify what he must and must not do in his life.
Therefore,
Paul could not avoid but admit that he was simply incapable of keeping
the Law, and confessed that whereas the Law of God was so perfect and
just, he was too filthy, unclean, and inevitably bound to be destroyed.
This is why he came to confess that far from keeping the Law, he died to
the Law. When he realized the real entity of the Law, he did not try to
practice the Law any more, rather, he confessed that he was to die
because of the perfect requirements of the Law of God, and he believed
so accordingly. This was for him to live toward God by faith. Put
differently, Paul realized that he could never be saved from his sins
except by God, and he could not but believe in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit so that God may save him. He said that he died to the
Law, so that he might meet his Savior and receive the salvation given by
Him. And through Jesus Christ, he came to receive new life by the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. Such beliefs of Paul were the very
beliefs that made it possible for him to attain justification, the right
faith.
My
fellow believers, if you don’t understand Galatians correctly, you
can’t even come near the Truth. You may think, “So there were
circumcisionists in the old days. I suppose they were all bothering Paul
with the issue of circumcision. Even Peter was playing hypocrisy, and
he was reproached before others by Paul, a man junior to him in faith. I
guess that’s all there is to it. It’s no big deal.”
However,
you must realize that this passage written in the Bible is to teach us
some lessons today, and you must understand this Epistle clearly. Were
it not for the Book of Galatians, we would not be able to explain, to
those who believe that the remission of their sins is received through
their own prayers of repentance, just how wrong their faith is in full
detail. It is also a mistake to insist blindly, “You are just wrong!”
This is only an ‘all or nothing’ perspective, which says, “I am right,
and therefore, you are wrong. No reason to give here; that’s just how it
is.” But this is all completely unreasonable, as unreasonable as what
Hitler claimed when he argued that the German race was superior to all
the rest. The right thing to do is to explain, with reason, why, how,
and what is wrong with the circumcisionists. Here in today’s Scripture
passage, Paul is pointing out plainly just how wrong and hypocritical it
was to insist on circumcision. Through these passages of Galatians,
today’s Christians can now realize how wrong it is to rely on prayers of
repentance and root out their mistaken beliefs.
Let’s
read Galatians 2:20. “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no
longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live
in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
Himself for me.”
This
shows the gist of Paul’s faith. He believed in Jesus Christ completely:
He didn’t show off his own works, but he believed in Christ’s works
with all his heart; and he believed that Jesus Christ came to this
earth, took upon his sins through His baptism, was crucified and died
for him, rose from the dead again, and thereby brought him to life
again. Put differently, Paul believed how Jesus Christ became his
perfect Savior in detail.
This
is how he came to declare, “I have been crucified with Christ”
(Galatians 2:20). This was the confession of his faith that wholly
believed in Jesus as his Savior. It was the confession of faith
wholeheartedly believing that Jesus took upon the sins of the world by
being baptized by John the Baptist, died on the Cross, rose from the
dead again, and has thereby delivered him from all his sins perfectly.
It speaks of one’s pure faith. The Apostle Paul said that it was through
this faith that he had died with Christ and was brought to life again
with Christ. Such was the faith of the Apostle Paul.
My
fellow believers, did the Apostle Paul say that your sins are washed
away or you can be sanctified through your own prayers of repentance? At
that time, when the circumcisionists were insisting that Christians had
to be circumcised, the Apostle Paul declared, “For in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith
working through love” (Galatians 5:6). Our salvation, in other words, is
reached only by faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit for
100%. So when it comes to our salvation from sin, no work of our own
whatsoever must be counted in. There must be not even a penny’s worth of
our own works, not even a wit of our own righteousness.
Imagine
here that one of our sisters has been losing her hair, and while she
was making some soup for us, some of her hair went into the soup.
Wouldn’t this be a problem when we are about to eat the soup? If we see a
bunch of hair floating in the soup, would any of us be able to eat it?
Of course not. Like this, our faith must also be pure. We need the kind
of faith that believes purely in Jesus Christ and what He has done for
us, neither adding nor subtracting anything at all. If we believe in the
God-given gospel of the water and the Spirit as it is, we are all saved
exactly according to our faith. It is indispensable to have this faith
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that believes exactly as it
is.
The
Apostle Paul’s faith led him to say, “I have been crucified with
Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians
2:20). Did Paul say here that he actually did something? No, not a word
was said on how he believed only in the blood of the Cross and offered
prayers of repentance, how he was circumcised, how he faithfully kept
all the festivities, or how he practiced the Law diligently. There was,
in other words, absolutely no work of his own to be counted in. All that
he had to do was just believe in God and confess, “I have been
crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in
me.”
The
Apostle Paul got saved just by believing in Jesus and what He had done
for him. How pure is his faith? He simply believed. He didn’t say, “But I
still did this, and I did that.” He just believed with his heart that
Jesus Christ came to this earth as our Savior, was baptized by John the
Baptist to save everyone in this world, carried these sins to the Cross
and was crucified, and after shedding His blood and dying, rose from the
dead again, thereby becoming our Savior. “I have been crucified with
Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians
2:20). Do you also believe like this? In the Apostle Paul’s faith, there
was no work of his own whatsoever, and he was saved perfectly only by
his faith. He was saved by believing in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit exactly as it is. There is no other way to be saved but only by
believing.
Paul
continued to confess, saying, “The life which I now live in the flesh I
live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me”
(Galatians 2:20).
Paul
was saved just by believing in Jesus, and his salvation had nothing to
do with his work. He did not assert his good deeds before God, nor did
he front his faithful prayers, but he only brought his faith alone
before God. This is the same faith that Abel had when he offered up his
sacrifice with the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. He believed
in Jesus Christ, ‘the firstborn of his flock,’ with his pure heart. God
was pleased to accept his sacrifice of pure faith, while He did not
respect Cain and his offering. Why did God hate to receive Cain’s
offering? It was because he offered an offering of the fruit of the
ground, the works of his flesh, to the Lord God (Genesis 4:1-5).
The
Apostle Paul also believed in Jesus as his perfect Savior, and he
believed that while he had no choice but to die and perish before
Christ, He loved him so much that He saved Paul by being baptized, dying
on the Cross, and rising from the dead again. Like a child, the Apostle
Paul thus accepted this Truth as it was and believed in it, and this is
how he was saved. You and I must also have this kind of faith. Every
Christian in the world must also have this faith.
When
we give something eatable to babies, don’t they open their mouths? They
open their mouths like chicks. Even when we pull a piece of candy out
of our mouths and say, “Ah,” then they reflexively open their mouths.
You don’t even have to show anything to them; when you just say to them
time to eat, they just open their mouths. That’s because this phrase
means that we are about to feed them. To say, “Ah” may sound like a
vocal lesson, but to babies, it just means that someone is about to give
them something to eat.
We
need to have this child-like faith. When God says, “I have saved you. I
sent My Son to this earth, and by making Him be baptized, die on the
Cross, and rise from the dead again, I had Him bear all the condemnation
of sin and wash away your sins completely. And My Son suffered your
death in your place, and to bring you back to new life, My Son was
resurrected. So My Son has now saved you. Believe in this,” we just have
to say, “Yes,” and believe accordingly. As Paul said, “I have been
crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in
me,” we are saved purely by believing in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, not through the Law, nor through our own acts. It was by pure
faith that Paul was saved.
Many
people may have many different interpretations of today’s Scripture
passage, but this passage makes it clear that through the works of the
Law, prayers of repentance, circumcision, or any such things, no man can
be saved from his sins. Paul was not saved by believing in Jesus and
then adding something else on top of this, but he was saved purely by
believing and accepting into his heart that Jesus Christ saved him
through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, adding nothing to this.
This is what Paul is saying in today’s Scripture passage. After the
Apostle Paul was saved, did he live by faith in the Son of God or not?
Of course he did. This is why he preached the gospel of the water and
the Spirit.
Let’s
turn to Galatians 2:21 here: “I do not set aside the grace of God; for
if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
Paul
said here that he does not set aside the grace of God. This was the
faith he now had. He made it clear that his salvation was reached only
by faith in God’s grace. This is why he said that if righteousness came
through the works of the Law, then Christ had died in vain. If our own
works are even slightly added to our becoming sinless, then this can
only mean that Jesus died in vain. If such acts as good deeds, offering
prayers of repentance, or living virtuously are slightly added even just
a little, Christ then died in vain. In other words, all the things that
Jesus had done for us while He was on this earth, such as being
baptized and dying on the Cross, are rendered completely useless—if,
that is, our own works are added to His salvation ever so slightly. We
must not set aside the grace of God. We must accept it in thankfulness.
We must receive it in thankfulness, give glory in thankfulness, and
become united with the Lord in thankfulness. Since we “have been
crucified with Christ,” our hearts have joined with Christ.
You
and I must be justified by faith, and we must become sinless by faith.
By believing that Jesus Christ has saved us, we must become sinless
people. Those who believe that God has blotted out their sins through
the gospel of the water and the Spirit are sinless people. It is this
kind of people that we must all become.
“If
righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain”
(Galatians 2:21). If we can be washed from our sins through our prayers
of repentance, then Jesus Christ came to this earth in vain, He was
baptized in vain, and He died on the Cross all in vain. Isn’t this the
case?
We
need to realize here how these churches of Galatia all perished away.
After the Apostle Paul’s death, the churches of Galatia disappeared
without a trace. This shows us just how dangerous it is to assert our
own works, and to add our works of the Law to our salvation. It is
absolutely indispensable for us to realize clearly just how wicked it is
to front our own works.
You
may think, “But are all works really bad? Isn’t there anything good
among our deeds? I am sure there is something good even in our works.”
However, to think like this is also extremely dangerous. “Since our
fathers of faith were circumcised, what’s wrong for us to be also
circumcised? What’s wrong for us to believe in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, and also be circumcised? Let the good traditions be
carried forth”—do some of you think like this? But this is utterly
wrong. It is nothing more than hypocrisy itself, teaching others to
practice hypocrisy also; it is because of this that the gospel of the
water and the Spirit is perverted; and it is because of this that
countless people perish away. What we had considered to be good before
we were born again, what we had considered to be virtuous deeds and
decent hearts, they are all wicked in fact. This is why Paul said that
about what things had been gain to him, he counted them as loss and even
as rubbish for Christ (Philippians 3:7-8).
Didn’t
some of you use to hold a seminar called “inner healing”? It’s a very
wicked seminar. This is what sets aside the grace of Jesus Christ and
rejects it. It’s a bandage solution that tricks us to think, “I’m hurt,
but when I think about Jesus Christ, didn’t He suffer far greater
injuries for me? My parents hurt me, but weren’t they hurt also?” To be
comforted by Jesus Christ for one’s injury and to say that this person
also forgives his father is to forgive someone on his own. The subject
of forgiveness is oneself. It is oneself that heals his own injury using
Jesus Christ, and it is he who forgives others. A while ago I heard a
tape of such a seminar, and while it may seem good and decent, it is
actually very wicked.
We
the Christians throughout the whole world must realize just how
fallacious it is to rely on our own works. Whereas anyone can be saved
if only he truthfully and purely believes in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit, if his own works, good or bad, are added even slightly,
then he cannot be saved. This is why you must cast them aside. If you
just accept into your hearts, like a child, what Jesus Christ has done
for you, then you will be saved and become God’s children. And if you
spread this as it is, others will also be saved. So, it is written,
“Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust
in Him” (Proverbs 30:5). His Word is so pure. I give thanks upon thanks
to God.
When
we read the Book of Galatians, we can realize clearly that our own good
or bad works must never be connected in anyway to our salvation. We can
grasp just how wrong it is to associate these things to the salvation
that God has given to us; we can find out that Peter’s hypocrisy was
misleading others; and we can understand where Paul’s heart laid when he
rebuked Peter for this. Moreover, our hearts are convicted that when we
preach the gospel, we must preach it purely. Regardless of whether or
not others believe, all that we have to do is just preach the gospel of
the water and the Spirit with pure faith in it. If we bring something
else into the picture, those hearing us are just confused more, making
it even more difficult for them to be saved.
My
fellow believers, we must preach the Word of God purely as it is. Now
as before, 10 years ago or 20 years ago, the Truth still lies in the
gospel of the water and the Spirit. This is why everyday we speak about
the gospel of the water and the Spirit and preach it. Because it is the
Truth, it cannot be overdone no matter how repeatedly it is preached.
Ten years down the road, should I preach something else just because
people are tired of hearing the same gospel? The very moment that I
preach something else, we will disappear like the churches of Galatia.
We
must believe in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit purely. You
must believe in God’s love purely, and you must believe in the
salvation that God has given you as it is. If you do, then you are God’s
people. Of course, our shortcomings are always there. But we are still
God’s people by faith. When you become God’s people by faith, His Word
will remove the impurities of your hearts and nurture you to grow in
faith.
Those
who, even after receiving the remission of sins, still follow the Lord
with their own thoughts and acts are exactly the same as those who
advocated circumcision. Such people think that they are doing their
best, but it will only bring horrendous results. They are utterly
mistaken. As such, we have to believe in God purely, unite with Him
purely, follow Him purely, and preach the gospel Truth purely. Knowing
this and believing it, let us then preach the gospel of the water and
the Spirit, and let us live by faith.
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