Galatians 2:15-16 – Part 2 of a verse by verse devotional commentary

Main Reading: Galatians 2:15-16

“We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 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”

In the last article, I focused on this little word: “justification.” It’s primarily a legal word. A verdict. A declaration God has pronounced over you.

It’s not about becoming “good.” It’s not trying to be good. It’s not improving until you get there…According to Paul, in Galatians, if you are justified by faith in Christ, you are right with God. The Judge has dropped His gavel and said, “Not guilty. Righteous. Free to go.” And we talked about how this happens…Not by working your tail off. Not by cleaning yourself up. It happens by faith—by trusting Jesus, who has already done it all.

Now I hope this seems basic to you. It should be. But the topic definitely deserves a second look, especially because not everyone believes this…Not everyone in broader Christianity, today, agrees with the Bible and Church history on this…In fact, some of the most influential religious voices today are saying something very different.

And, in our study of Galatians, this had to happen at some point; we’d have to look at the difference between Rome (Catholicism) and the East (Orthodoxy) and the rest of Christianity. The issues in this book are central to the reasons that drove these groups apart. When a monk living in a small, German town heard that the Pope was teaching people could buy salvation—purchase forgiveness—for themselves and their relatives, that’s when he nailed a list of 95 arguments to the door of his church, and the rest is history.

So, it’s only fitting that we examine what Robert Barron, a Roman Catholic Bishop, says about justification in an interview with Ben Shapiro, a Jewish political commentator.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EevRrWyBllY

According to the Bishop, how does someone make it into Heaven? Well, ideally with the help of Jesus…But there are other ways: If you don’t believe in Jesus, that's alright, as long as you follow your conscience sincerely...Or as long as you follow the commandments of the Law sincerely, you can be saved! You don’t even have to believe in God at all, as long as you have a “good will,” you’ll be saved! Because, apparently—as the Bishop says, your internal will and conscience is Christ? “As long as you’re sincere, you are obeying Jesus whether you know it or not!” he says. Ironically, as of this month, many Catholics online are saying that the god of Islam is the same as theirs…

So, according to Rome, is salvation about faith…or acts and works? The Bishop says it’s about “love.” God loves you, so now, you must obey the Law to love God and love others. After all, Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God with everything you’ve got and to love the people around you with the same energy you give to yourself! Bishop Barron seems to think that as long as you’re sincerely trying to do these things, you’ll be fine. But there's nothing in the Bible that says God grades our performance on a curve…

When Jesus commanded us to love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind & strength, it wasn’t a suggestion or a goal for us to shoot for…it's the legitimate standard that we've failed to meet. And the way to make up for your failed attempts to love God & your neighbor perfectly is not to buckle down and make more failed attempts at this…Yes, you should daily try to love God and the people around you, but you will never do it well enough to save yourself!

Now listen—I’m not just arguing against stuff that’s floating around out there on YouTube….You know people—I know people—who are influenced by this way of thinking: That salvation is somehow about you. That God looked at your heart and saw something special. That maybe, deep down, you kinda deserved it. That God scoured the earth looking for people who were trying their best, and He landed on them. That some of us already had something righteous about us and it made God want us instead of other people. That may sound nice, and it speaks to that little self-righteous person inside each of us, but that’s not our message…there’s no room for God’s grace in that picture.

So, that’s one way people fall into error—by flat-out adding things to justification. But, in the past couple of decades, there’s been a new way of interpreting what Paul wrote…Even though the Bible is clear that God accepts us based on trust in Christ rather than how sincerely we try, some people have found a “new perspective” on Paul’s writings…They say: “When Paul says we aren’t justified by ‘works of the Law,’ he only meant things like circumcision, Jewish dietary restrictions, & other cultural expectations.”

Now, of course, this whole conversation was sparked by a disagreement on circumcision and who you’re allowed to sit at the table with…but if you limit Paul’s arguments to just that, you'll run into a crazy amount of problems with interpreting the rest of Galatians, the rest of the New Testament, and even understanding your day-to-day life. So, I want to give you 12 reasons why ‘works of the Law’ can’t just mean cultural customs…

• Romans 3:20 uses the phrase “works of the law” in connection to the general sin and disobedience of the whole world (see 3:9-18, 23).

• Paul uses “coveting” (Rom. 7:7) and “love” (Rom. 13:8) as examples from the Law—these aren’t just Jewish cultural customs, they’re moral issues from the 10 Commandments.

• Gentiles can instinctively do what the Law requires, proving that “works of the law” is moral and universal. Gentiles, who never even knew about circumcision are guilty of breaking the Law, and from time to time, they happen to obey it (Rom. 2:14). This couldn’t be something like diet or circumcision because you can’t obey or disobey those commands unknowingly.

• If general obedience factors into justification, how good is good enough? If any amount or kind of of law-keeping contributes to being right with God, you’ll never know where you stand.

• If the Law could save, Christ died for nothing (Galatians 2:21). No one will be saved apart from the cross, but any version of justification that adds human effort makes the cross unnecessary. Jesus asked “if there be any other way” (Mt. 26:39), which would include sinners pulling this thing off on their own…however, He died for us instead.

• Paul says in the next chapter that “all who rely on the works of the Law are under a curse” (3:10). Then, he quotes from Deuteronomy 27:26, which directly references violations of the moral law, such as sexual sin and oppressing the poor.

• After that, Paul will bring up Mount Sinai (Gal. 4:24–25)—where the 10 Commandments were given but circumcision is not mentioned…

• Other passages eliminate general works from justification—“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works , so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness , but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:4-5).

• The Galatians were guilty of breaking the Law according to Galatians 5:14-15. They'd obviously kept the ceremonial laws by wrongly embracing circumcision…if not, they wouldn’t have received this letter…They had failed to do the moral “works of the law.”

• Jews didn’t just avoid Gentiles simply because they were uncircumcised…they avoided them because Gentiles were seen as morally unclean & unrighteous. Circumcision, food laws, & other boundary markers weren’t just cultural badges—they were viewed as signs of moral & spiritual superiority. So the Jewish confidence wasn’t in ethnicity alone, but in law-keeping as a path to righteousness. That’s why Paul doesn’t treat Peter’s withdrawal from Gentile fellowship as a mere social blunder—it was a functional denial of the gospel, a return to justification by works.

• Romans 4:2 says “ If Abraham was justified by works, he would have something to boast about , but not before God.” The ceremonial laws did not even exist until well after Abraham.

• If Paul was only addressing cultural customs from the Torah, he could’ve easily said “no one will be justified by circumcision” but he didn’t…

• And we're about to get into this, but if "the Law" in the context of Romans was about mere ceremonies and Jewish customs, why does Paul say the Law brings about knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20)? How exactly are the Jewish rituals going to convict anyone in the world of their sin when they were never told to participate?

So, no, Paul isn’t saying: “Jews & Gentiles can get along now, as long as they don’t make a big deal about bacon & foreskins.” He's not saying: “Gentiles are welcome to follow parts of Law—except for diet & circumcision—in order to be right with God.” It’s way deeper than that…There are no more boundaries—not moral, not ceremonial, not ethnic—between those who are in Christ. Because the cross really is enough.

So why do we always try to add the Law back into the equation? Why are we tempted to act like Jesus got us in the door, but now we’ve got to keep ourselves in with performance? Do we not trust that the blood of Christ is powerful enough? Do we secretly believe people still need to conform to our standards before God will smile on them?

Here’s what I want you to hear: If someone is justified by faith in Christ, that’s it. They’re forgiven the same way you are. They’re clean the same way you are. Sinners can indeed belong to God—not because they check themselves into religious rehab, but because Jesus died for them, just like He died for you!

So what is the Law for, if it’s not a ladder to climb into heaven? The Law shows us sin & defines what it is. “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight , since through the law comes knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). “For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression” (Romans 4:15). “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,” (Romans 5:20).

The Law is meant to confront sin, not justify sinners. “Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers,” (1 Timothy 1:8-9).

The Law shows you your sin, but the Gospel shows you salvation through the Savior. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16).

Jesus said: “I came to give Good News to the spiritually poor, to set sinners free from condemnation, to give freedom to the religiously oppressed” (Luke 4:18-19)

I’m pointing all this out in order to pull you away from the notion that Christianity is just another form of moralism. Our message is not: “Be good, don’t be bad, and God will be pleased with you” What we believe is that you aren’t good, you are bad, but Jesus—the only good one—experienced all the bad, so that God could freely give you everything that’s good.

So, let’s finish up where we started: the courtroom. You are guilty of lying, lusting, stealing, etc. But Jesus has burst through the doors of the courtroom, paid all your fines, and transferred enough money into your account to last all eternity. Now, just think on that—what attorney ever paid for his clients’ fines, fees, and expenses?! Typically, the defendant goes broke paying their lawyer, especially if they win the case. But this is exactly what Jesus does; He wins our case by paying for everything Himself.