The Foundation of Our Liberty, Part 2A

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, June 13. Let's return to the book of Galatians. Chapter two gives you solid assurance. For believers in Christ, God's acceptance of us can never be altered. If you'll turn to Galatians chapter two and the second chapter of Galatians, we're dealing with the subject here, the foundation of our liberty in Christ Jesus. And most of us grew up believing that if we wanted God's acceptance, we had to live up to certain ideals. If we wanted his acceptance and his approval, we had to live up to his expectation that oftentimes in our life, God was disappointed with us. And so we had to try to get better in order not to disappoint God. But we've seen as we've begun to study Galatians that first of all, you can't disappoint somebody who has no expectation of you. So we've given up all worry about disappointing God. Secondly, that there's no way to find his approval when you already have his approval. If he's already approved you in the first place, why do you have to work to get his approval and therefore we're on our way to having God liberate us and free us in our experience.

Now from his point of view, he's already done it. But from our point of view, many people are still trying to get liberated from legalism, from all kinds of attitudes and hang ups and bondage. Most of God's people are in bondage to laws and principles and rules that God has never given us. So in the second chapter, just to refresh your memory for a second, Paul and Peter had a little conversation and Paul had stood Peter down because of his error in siding up with the Judaizers who'd come up to Antioch who said if you're going to be a Christian, you not only must trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, but you also must keep the law. And Paul's answer to that is found in the sixteenth verse of the second chapter primarily when he says this is the foundational truth of the freedom and liberty that you and I have in Jesus Christ.

And he puts it this way. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ even, we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Now let me define what we are talking about when we talk about justification. That is when you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, Almighty God makes a declaration. He makes a declaration not based on what you did. He makes a declaration not based on what you are, what you have been or what you hope to be or what you promise to be. The moment you receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, Almighty God declares you not guilty. He declares you approved.

He declares you accepted in Him. And once He has accepted us, once He has approved of us, once you are able to grasp God's divine approval of us, His divine acceptance of us, His divine love for us, we don't have to spend the rest of our life trying to be accepted or trying to be approved of Him. Now we are talking about the foundation of that liberty which is justification by faith and you recall just the refresher memory here in these verses. We said first of all that the law which was given was never intended, never intended to save us.

It was only intended to bring us to the realization of our helplessness before God, that the idea that many denominations and many people who've been saved a long time, the idea that many people have is that if I have been saved and ought to try to get better and better because to get better and better is to please God. And our idea is if we really believe that, we will become more virtuous in our life and we will get better trying to be better but all of us who know the truth know there's no way to get any better because it is His life and not our life. Not one verse of scripture in all the Bible where He says He will improve you. He's not going to improve your flesh. He's not going to improve yourself. He's not going to improve anything about you.

The truth is He wants to replace you with Himself. Christ Jesus living His life in and through us not trying to improve our old self. And you recall we said that instead of it improving us, it works in the reverse. You try and try and try and try to be better reading your Bible once in a while, praying in an emergency, giving a little money every once in a while to pacify God, and then every once in a while doing a little religious work, a little church work.

And all you know about the Christian life is some things that you're going to do. It's not going to work. It won't work when you're tempted. It won't work when you're tried.

It won't work when you're suffering. But the way to live the normal Christian life according to the New Testament is the way Jesus Christ has provided it. Not walking around hung up on trying to fulfill laws and trying to get God's approval, but freed and unshackled from all of that, which we find in the Scriptures here in Galatians. Then you recall we also mentioned the fact that if a man could keep the law and be accepted by being good, Jesus Christ would never have come. And He says in this same chapter here in the last verse, He says, I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. And you recall the last thing we said in that particular passage was that if a man could be righteous enough to be made acceptable before God, it would hush all the angelic hosts in heaven.

They wouldn't have anything to sing about or they'd be singing about us when the Scripture says that all of their praise and glory and honor goes to the person of Jesus Christ. Now, if to be declared righteous, that means that our state, once before we were unrighteous and ungodly in the eyes of God, He said that He made a declaration based on what Christ did and our response to what He did at the cross. And His declaration is standing before the judge of all mankind. That judge declares the guilty sinner no longer guilty, vindicated, freed, accepted and liberated in Him.

And the question you recall that we brought up was this. How can a righteous, holy, perfect God declare a man who is guilty, knows he's guilty, God knows he's guilty, everybody around him knows he's guilty, his actions and his lifestyle shout guilt? How can a righteous, holy God pronounce and declare no longer guilty, free to the penalty when he is guilty? And you'll recall we mentioned in Romans chapter three as he discusses that and he says, how can he, that is, how can God be just, that is righteous, and at the same time justified, declare righteous, a man who's guilty. And the only way he could do that was for God himself to come in his own flesh in the cross, lay down his life on the cross, and then God can say to every guilty sinner, every one of us, I have taken your guilt, I've placed it upon him, he died in your stead, you're free because he was willing to pay the penalty. That is the only way anybody has ever gotten to heaven. Every goat, every bull, every lamb that had shed blood in the Old Testament was a foreshadowing, he says in the book of Hebrews, of that one which was to come, Jesus Christ, the lasting sacrifice, the lamb of God, which makes it possible for almighty God who gave his decrees about sin to say to an ungodly man, you have been declared righteous because of your relationship to my son, he took your penalty, and therefore you have his freedom and his liberty. Now the question is, how does that operate in your life in my life?

How is a person declared not guilty? All right, if you will look in this chapter, there are three primary things I want you to see. And I want you to turn back, if you will, for a moment to Romans chapter three, and look, if you will, in verse 24.

He says there are three essentials. If God is going to declare us not guilty, righteous before him. If you look in verse 24 of Romans chapter three, listen.

Well, let's go back up to verse 20. Therefore, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. That is, there isn't anything that you can do in any way to merit God's approval or his acceptance.

He says there's nothing you and I can do. Therefore, by the deeds of the law that is trying to keep the law with us, the Ten Commandments or anything else, we don't get God's approval by doing that. Shall no flesh be declared righteous or holy in his sight? For by the law is the knowledge of sin.

That is, the reason God gave the law is to show us how helpless we are and how sinful we are. But now the righteousness of God without the law has been revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith through Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe that there is no difference. That is, when he declares us not guilty, you and I receive the gift of the righteousness of God. Listen, if we being sinners are going to fellowship with a righteous holy God, how can a sinner fellowship with that which is absolutely sinless? The only way we can do that is to be clothed in the righteousness of God. And that righteousness comes through Jesus Christ. So he says in verse 23, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified, declared not guilty, declared approved of God, declared free from the penalty and the guilt, being justified freely by what? By his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Let me ask you something. Think about this. On what basis does God declare a guilty sinner freed of the penalty of his sin? What is it that you and I can do? He says in all these chapters in Romans and Galatians, there isn't anything you and I do. The declaration of your righteousness, the gift of your righteousness that makes it possible for you to fellowship with Almighty God. That comes as a gift of God's grace.

He says, if you'll notice, being justified freely by what? Not by keeping the law, not by making any promises, not by being any better, not by doing better, not achieving anything, but by grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That is Almighty God has provided for you to be freed and liberated in your Christian experience. And he says, God's capacity to declare you not guilty is based on what his son did.

It all originates in God. Therefore it is all of grace and not of man. The only way you and I can be freed from the penalty of the law, which is death is by the grace of God. So it goes all the way back to what Paul is saying all the way through has nothing to do with anything we do. It is all of God and none of us.

All right. If you'll go back to Galatians two and for a moment and look again to see what he says here in the 16th verse, knowing that a man is justified, not by the works of the law, but by the faith in Jesus Christ, even as we have believed in Jesus, that we might be declared righteous by the faith of Christ or in him, not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Now, if you'll read that verse, you'll see how many times he's talking about faith and works and law, not what we do, but what he does now. Secondly, he says, not only is this gift of righteousness coming to us by grace, but he says in Romans five, much more than being, let's go back to verse eight, but God commended his love toward us. He showed his love, proved his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

That is in this passage, we're ungodly, we're sinners, we're helpless and we're enemies. But in spite of that, he says in verse nine, much more than being now justified, declared righteous by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath. So how is it that God can declare us righteous? It all goes back to Jesus. Everything he does in our life goes back to him. It is by the grace that comes through him, for by grace you say through faith that not of yourselves, the gift of God, not of works, lest the man should boast. It is all originating from God's love. He says it is by his blood, that is the atoning death of Jesus Christ is the only way he says in Romans three, that God himself could still remain a just God and look at a sinner and declare him righteous. So those are two things, both that God does by his grace and by his blood. All right, then what is the responsibility you and I have to make it possible for almighty God to declare us free, liberated from trying to live up to anything to be made acceptable for God. Man has one primary responsibility. Look in the 16th verse of Galatians two and then we go into Romans.

What does he say? Knowing that a man is not declared righteous, not justified, not made acceptable or approved by good things that he does, but by faith in Jesus Christ. And all through this verse we see the same thing over and over and over again. I want you to turn to Romans chapter three and there's several verses here I want you to notice if you will. Beginning in verse 28, he says, therefore, we conclude that is on the basis of the discussion he's had in the third chapter, therefore, we conclude that a man is declared. That is, listen, not declared by the preacher, not declared by his brother, but declared by God, the God who decreed in the garden of Eden, the soul that sinneth, it shall die.

The wages of sin is death. He decreed that upon all mankind, all of us have sinned and listen, we are not sinners because we've sinned, we sinned because we are sinners by nature until Jesus Christ changes our life. He says the only way you and I are made acceptable before God, now listen, there are two things that we must grasp. One of them is that God's law toward us is unconditional and knows no conditions whatsoever. Secondly, we must be able to accept that forgiveness. If we can't accept God's forgiveness, everything else he tries to give us or teach us is wobbly. It never sinks in, it never gets rooted into our life.

Now, the third thing that I think that has to be a part of that is this. If you'll notice what he says in this verse, look, if you will, in verse 28, therefore, we conclude on the basis of a long argument that a man is declared righteous, accepted, approved, saved, redeemed, a man is declared righteous by faith, listen, by faith without anything he can add to his faith. He says we are justified by faith, listen, by faith without any deeds, works, good behavior, any actions or attitudes that would merit anything from God.

Now, let me ask you a question. A man can't merit God's approval before he's saved, amen? He cannot merit God's approval. After he's saved, listen, now watch this, after he's saved, is there any way for man to merit God's approval within himself? No way because, listen, everything that he has within him that is good comes from whom? It comes from God. And what is it within us that is good? It is the righteousness of God given to us through Jesus Christ.

Now, what I want you to see here is this. You either have to believe the Word of God or you've got to go on your feelings. You say, I don't feel righteous. I don't feel justified. I don't feel all this stuff you're talking about.

You see, I've not even mentioned feeling. He says, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. The just shall live by faith, justified through faith, the gift of grace, the blood of Jesus Christ, everything comes to us, listen, by faith.

Now, here's what I want you to see. How are you saved? You believed him.

How are we justified? We believed him. How does God work in our life? Through faith, we just believe him.

When he was crucified, I was crucified. How do I know that? I just believe him. When he says he took my old life and gave me his new life, how do I know that? I just believe him. I want you to come to the place in your life where you can look at the Word of God and God says, here's what I provided to you by faith and you say, accept it. That's all you've got to say.

That's all you've got to believe. You've got to believe that what he promised as yours is yours. God has a whole liberated life for you and me. It's only going to come when you and I are willing to accept the liberty that comes in knowing Jesus Christ, not seeking approval, not living up to laws, not trying to keep the commandments, but living by faith in Jesus Christ, then the power within us to obey him as an overflow of the presence of Christ in our life. You see, here's the offer. Every single thing God offers you and me, all he wants us to do is to say, I believe, before I accept, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and what? Righteousness. Thank you for listening to the Foundation of Our Liberty. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.