This blog series has explored how Evangelical Christians have long misunderstood the book of Galatians & Paul’s doctrine of “justification by faith.” In short, evangelicals have constructed a false dichotomy between “faith” & “works.” Faith has been defined purely as passive belief in Jesus. Works is used as a generic term for any human behavior or conduct. If we are to be justified (declared “righteous”) in God’s eyes, we must rely solely upon Jesus’ finished work on the cross. We must never trust in our good behavior because our paltry efforts will never be enough to satisfy a holy God. This framework has been loved & taught by generations of Christians. But it’s simply not consistent with the scriptures.
If we are to rightly understand Galatians, it’s imperative to recognize that the problem in Antioch (and by extension, in Galatia) wasn’t that Peter & his fellow Jewish Christians were attempting to “earn” their salvation through meritorious behavior. Rather, the main point of contention was that Peter was excluding Gentile Christians from table fellowship. Paul was in anguish because Peter was created division among the people of God. By drawing back & refusing to eat with the Gentiles, Peter was effectively denying them full membership in the church.
The doctrine of “justification by faith” is Paul’s response to this ugly incident. Most evangelicals regard justification by faith as a contrast between “passive trust in Jesus” versus “our own efforts.” In reality, justification by faith is Paul’s answer to the question: are the Gentiles welcome in the new covenant people of God?
For all the attention it receives, there are only two places (Galatians 2 & Romans 3) where Paul elaborates on justification by faith. And tellingly, the clear context of both passages is the inclusion of all nations into God’s new covenant people.
It cannot be repeated too often: “works” is not a generic reference to any moral or ethical behavior. Rather, Paul is referring to “works of the law” (ergon nomou). Paul was a Pharisee, steeped in the Old Testament scriptures. When he speaks about “the law,” he’s always referring to the Torah – the law given exclusively to the people of Israel.
But God’s purposes were never limited to Israel alone. The God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob is the creator of all things & all peoples. He’s utterly determined to rescue his whole creation. If justification came through the Torah, then only Jews stood to benefit. The Gentiles would be excluded! The main point of “justification by faith” is that right-standing before God is available to everyone, not just ethnic Jews.
This doesn’t mean that morality or behavior is irrelevant to “justification by faith.” Under the Torah, the people of Israel were called to worship the one true God & obey his commands. In this way, Israel would fulfill the purpose for which humans had been created in the first place: they would be God’s image-bearers, governing the world according to the divine wisdom & allowing the creation to flourish under God’s blessing.
God had promised to rescue the world, and to accomplish this rescue through Israel. Although Israel had heretofore failed in her task, God’s good purposes could not be thwarted. The task of Israel ultimately fell upon her Messiah. Jesus was the faithful Israelite, offering God his Father a life of total obedience, even unto death. He was the genuine human being, perfectly reflecting God’s image.
Most evangelicals have been taught that we can’t possibly become righteous. We must instead passively trust in Jesus, whom righteousness is then “credited” to us. But Paul gives us a very different perspective:
“For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with the Messiah and I no longer live, but the Messiah lives in me.” (Galatians 2:19-20a)
The key principle here is that Jesus is the Messiah, the long awaited king of Israel. Precisely as the king, Jesus represents all those who (like Paul) have given their allegiance to him. A thousand years before, David represented all of Israel when he stepped forward to fight on their behalf against Goliath. In the same way, Jesus (the son of David) took upon himself the sin of Israel & the curse of the law. Because of her unfaithfulness, Israel had suffered the covenant curses (Deuteronomy 28:15-68). By taking upon himself the just punishment that their rebellion deserved, the Messiah opened up a way for Israel to be restored to blessing and life.
All people who submit themselves in loyalty to the Messiah share in his identity. What is true of him becomes true of them. Just as the Messiah had been crucified, so had his people. That is how Paul can say “through the law I died to the law” and “I have been crucified with the Messiah.”
In the same way, when the Messiah was raised from the dead, his people were were raised up as well. But this new life is radically different. Our old corrupt selves have been left behind in the grave. We’re now indwelt with the Spirit of the Messiah himself: “I no longer live but the Messiah lives in me.”
Paul doesn’t at this moment explicitly mention the Holy Spirit. Yet he clearly has this in mind. (Note how the theme of the Spirit dominates much of Galatians.) By pouring out the Holy Spirit, Jesus has given his people the power to live in a whole new way. Our old, fleshly, rebellious nature was “crucified with the Messiah” so that we might now “live for God.”
Evangelicals love to emphasize that Jesus’ sacrificial death secured the forgiveness of our sins. But they fail to recognize the full scope of Jesus’ victory. Through Jesus’ death on the cross, the power of sin was decisively broken. The people of the Messiah are no longer enslaved to sin. We’ve been set free so that we might live righteous lives in obedience to God.
In other words, we’ve not merely been given a status of righteousness. Rather, God is working to make us genuinely righteous! He’s conforming us to the image of his son so that we might be fit to share in the Messiah’s reign over the renewed creation.
This brings us to Galatians 2:20b: “The life I live in the body, I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God (en pistei zo te tou Huiou tou Theou), who loved me and gave himself for me.” This verse has been plagued by unfortunate translations (NIV or ESV) which read, “…I live by faith in the Son of God…” The text is then erroneously taken to mean that our new lives are characterized by “faith” – passive trust in Jesus rather than any effort on our part.
This blog has repeatedly noted that the Greek noun (pistis) often translated as “faith” also refers to faithfulness, loyalty or allegiance. This simple fact has tremendous ramifications. The gospel is the announcement that Jesus is the Messiah, God’s anointed king. He has been enthroned as the sovereign Lord over all creation. The only appropriate response to the gospel is to submit to King Jesus in loyal obedience. Tragically, generations of Christians have been misled into thinking that pistis must be limited to passive belief or trust.
Of course, belief or trust is part of being a Christian. We acknowledge that Jesus died for our sins & was raised on the third day. But we can never forget that true pistis requires much more than agreeing that certain things are true. It requires giving our full loyalty to King Jesus. Pistis is a whole-person response which requires, not just our beliefs, but our actions as well.
Knowing this, we might translate Galatians 2:20 in the following way: “The life I live in the body, I live by loyalty to the Son of God…” This would be much closer to Paul’s meaning. The entire thrust of Galatians 2:19-20 is manifestly not about passive belief but active loyalty. Note how Paul repeatedly uses the terms life and live. The Messiah lives in us so that we might live for God. This dynamic language emphasizes faithful obedience.
However, the best rendering of Galatians 2:20b is the one I offered above: “…the life I now live in the body, I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God…” At this moment, Paul is drawing attention to Jesus’ own faithfulness as the basis for our faithfulness. In other words, all people who give their complete allegiance to King Jesus do so through the power of the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of Jesus himself. The Spirit enables us to live in faithful obedience to our King.
The ultimate basis for our justification, then, is the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah. He is the righteous one, whose righteousness comes to his loyal people through his Spirit who now dwells in us.
