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Justification Is by Grace Alone | John Calvin · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. In our deep dive for today,
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we're opening up a pretty serious discussion looking at
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some core thinking right from the Reformation itself.
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We're going to be examining John Calvin's commentary on Galatians
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chapter 2, verses 15 and 16. That's right.
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And this passage, it's really the engine room of Reformation
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theology. We're going to get into Calvin's
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analysis of why justification are right.
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Standing before God can only be by grace alone, through faith
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alone. This means we'll have to wrestle
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with some foundational concepts. Things like law, merit, sin, and
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what it even means to be considered righteous in God's
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sight. I mean, the core question is how
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does a sinful human being even begin to approach a perfectly
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holy God? OK, let's unpack all of that.
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Our mission for this deep dive is to get a really solid grasp
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of Calvin's distinction between justification by the law and
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justification by faith. Want to see why the free gift of
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God is the only way to salvation and what that means for how you
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and I approach God, not just on Sunday, but every single day?
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This isn't just an academic exercise.
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It it really shapes the entire structure of the Christian life.
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So we'll start with the Apostle Paul's statement in Galatians
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2.1516. He starts by distinguishing Jews
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from Gentiles, but then he brings them both to the same,
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well, crushing conclusion. He says, knowing that a man is
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not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of
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Jesus Christ, For by the works of the law shall no flesh be
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justified. My first question is why does
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Paul start by leading us straight to the law only to
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immediately declare that it fails?
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Well, it's entirely deliberate. I mean, you could almost call it
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a stroke of theological genius. Paul reaches this general
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conclusion that justification would require observing the
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whole law perfectly. He doesn't start with grace.
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He starts right where we all start, with our human tendency
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to rely on ourselves. He has to.
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He has to 1st destroy that foundation of self righteousness
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before he can even begin to lay the foundation of Christ.
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So the law is introduced not as a way to get salvation, but as a
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kind of diagnostic tool to show us that salvation is impossible
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on our own terms. Precisely.
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Paul is forcing us to confront a really widespread, you could say
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endemic error that frankly persists across all cultures and
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religions. And that's the folly of
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believing we can somehow get God's favor through our own
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merit, through our own effort, or our own inherent goodness.
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I mean, think about it. It's almost a universal idea.
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If you're a decent person, if you do enough good deeds, you
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can somehow earn acceptance with your Creator.
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And Kelvin, in his commentary, he really hammers this point
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home. He says man is seriously
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mistaken in these matters. So why is our so-called goodness
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not enough? Is it just that we don't do
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enough good things? Or is the problem deeper, more
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structural? Oh, it's absolutely a structural
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problem. If you think about the
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relationship between the creature and the creator.
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God deserves the absolute best of everything that's in our
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power, all the time and every thought, every word, every deed.
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So if we do anything less than perfect, unceasing obedience,
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we're immediately in debt. Whatever good we think we do, if
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it's stained by just a little self-interest or pride or
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imperfection, it just fails to meet the standard.
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God is owed total, flawless allegiance.
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Right. And the source reminds us that
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God was, in a sense, prepared to accept total obedience as worthy
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of salvation. It frames the law as a covenant
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of works based on that promise in Leviticus 18.5.
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Whosoever keeps the law shall obtain life and salvation.
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Yes, and that's the hypothetical, and it's so
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crucial to understand it. When God issued that statement,
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He meant it. If any human being after Adam's
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fall could perfectly fulfill every single statute, every
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requirement, every hour of their life, they would have earned
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life. The problem isn't the law's
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ability to save, The problem is our ability to keep it.
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The promise is perfect, but, well, we are not.
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So this contract, it exists, but the moment a single infraction
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occurs, that promise is just rendered void.
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The path of merit is forfeited. It's a road that's closed off to
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all of us. That's it.
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Paul's logic here is just relentless.
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If we rely on the law for our standing before God, then we
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have to stand or fall based on what the law demands.
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And the laws demands are impossible for fallen humanity
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to meet. So we claim to merit grace
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because God promised to account law keepers as righteous.
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We are just completely mistake and the reality is that no one
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keeps it perfectly. So their law is the standard
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then? The only reality it can actually
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deliver to us is universal guilt.
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That is the sobering truth Paul forces us to see.
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We all stand guilty before God. We're not just in need of a
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little improvement. We have the sentence of
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condemnation hanging over our heads, and it's justified by our
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own rebellion and transgression. That is the condition of
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humanity outside of Christ. The law functions like a judge
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who has no choice but to declare the verdict guilty.
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And if the verdict is guilty, then the remedy has to come from
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an outside source. We can't generate the perfection
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we need from within ourselves. It has to be an external
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intervention. God must forgive our sins and
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accept us as righteous despite our unrighteousness.
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Look, if we could kick the law, we wouldn't need grace.
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We deserve the reward. But since we can't keep the law,
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grace is the only option left. Any attempt to mix the two to
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try to earn the reward while also needing forgiveness is to
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just fundamentally misunderstand both the law and the Gospel.
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OK, so to drive this point home, this idea of universal guilt,
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Paul then transitions into a comparison between the Jews and
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the Gentiles. The Jews, who were by nature
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Jews with all their covenantal privilege, they still had to
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conclude that they needed faith in Christ, just like the sinners
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of the Gentiles. This comparison it seems like
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it's explicitly designed to just extinguish any sense of inherent
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superiority. It absolutely is.
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It's meant to dismantle any kind of self congratulation.
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And what's really crucial here is how Calvin interprets that
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phrase Sinners of the Gentiles. Paul uses uncircumcision and
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Gentiles almost as synonyms to refer to the pollution we all
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inherit from Adam, that innate corruption that places everyone
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under condemnation from birth. They're seen as outside the
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covenant, outside the visible mercy of God.
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And the Jews, on the other hand, had this special covenant, the
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sign of circumcision, the promises.
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They must have been deeply ingrained with this idea that
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they were separate from that universal pollution, that they
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held some kind of favored status.
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They did, and this led to huge theological errors and, frankly,
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personal arrogance. The Jews often boasted thinking
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that God had somehow, you know, neutralize or freed them from
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the curse of Adam. Because of their special
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privilege. They failed to humbly
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acknowledge their own unworthiness.
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They wrongly believed God preferred them because they were
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somehow inherently better or more moral or more worthy than
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the Gentiles. They saw their privilege as
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something earned, not something gifted.
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That's the key distinction, isn't it?
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Believing a gift is earned. That's exactly where arrogance
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comes from, leading to what Calvin calls wicked ingratitude.
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They failed to attribute their unique status just to God's free
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hand. That is the heart of the moral
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critique. They became puffed up with
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pride. The passage outlines the
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tremendous honor that was given to the Jews, adoption, being
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God's people, the sign of circumcision, the covenant, and
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critically, the promise of the Redeemer.
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They were in fact exalted far above all other peoples, but it
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was through no effort of their own.
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But then in Romans chapter 3, Paul completely flips the
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script. He asks if the Jews have an
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advantage over the Gentiles in terms of meriting justification,
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and his answer is none at all. So how does Calvin harmonize
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that? The tremendous spiritual
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advantage on one hand, and then none at all when it comes to the
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final verdict. The harmony is in recognizing
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the law's true function. Their privilege was a witness to
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God's grace. It prepared the way for Christ.
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But when a Jew stands before God's judgement seat and tries
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to use the law as his defense, that privilege suddenly becomes
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a liability. Because they had the
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instruction, they had the doctrine, they knew God's
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standard, and yet they transgressed it knowingly.
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So if Gentiles are condemned for their ignorance of the full law,
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the sources suggest the Jews are condemned twice as much because
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they had the instruction and still transgressed.
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It's a terrifying application of divine justice.
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They can't escape God. Why?
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Just because they had the doctrine.
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They fall under a harsher judgement precisely because
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their unworthiness was magnified by the light of the truth they
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possessed. The distinction between Jew and
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Gentile was never about worthiness or righteousness.
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It was purely because God chose them out of His free bounty.
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An unmerited election. I find the application the
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source makes for today just fascinating, the parallel it
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draws between the Old Covenant Jews and the children of
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believers in our time. This is where it suddenly
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becomes very relevant for anyone listening.
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Yes, and Calvin uses this parallel to universally condemn
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self trust. He argues that children born to
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believers are no better in their actual nature than children born
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outside the covenant. The source uses strong
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historical language like children of Turks or Gentiles.
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The point is, we all share the same original sin.
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We are all part of a corrupted mass.
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None of us, just by our birthright, can exalt ourselves
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or think we're more worthy than our neighbors.
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And yet they are considered sanctified and dedicated to God,
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often receiving the sign of the covenant through baptism, which
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is called a supernatural gift. This is covenantal grace at
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work. This privilege means they are
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regarded as the people of God, and they're among the elect.
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But the key point is that the status is not because of their
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nature. It's entirely because of God's
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grace and His covenant promise. Just like the Jews under the
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law, it's a gift, a promise, a dedication.
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It is not a measure of achieved righteousness.
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It places them under God's special care and responsibility,
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but it does not by itself justify them.
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So the lesson is clear, whether you were born into the Jewish
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covenant, a Christian family, or into total ignorance, our
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starting line before the judgement of God is exactly the
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same universal condemnation. That's right, the term sinners
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of the Gentiles just refers to those who continue in their
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spiritual filth, unwashed by the grace of Christ.
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Circumcision was the visible sign that God accepted Abraham's
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family as his own. But if we ask why this
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distinction existed in the 1st place, the answer is only grace,
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Pure, sovereign grace. Pauls whole goal is to strip
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away every last vestige of boasting.
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Okay, so since Paul has established that the law can
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only condemn, he then argues that the converted Jews, once
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they realized their guilt, had to seek refuge in God's free
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bounty, recognizing salvation in Christ alone.
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And this realization forces this direct, absolute comparison
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between law and faith as two mutually exclusive systems for
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justification. This is the principal matter.
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This is the very point on which the Reformers took issue with
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their theological opponents, what Calvin refers to as the
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Papists, meaning the 16th century Roman theology.
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The source acknowledges that their opponents would say they
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are justified by faith, but they insist on adding a qualifier,
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not by faith alone. And that one edition, Calvin
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argues, spoils the whole thing. It destroys the gospel.
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Let's clarify that historical context.
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Khaled's critique isn't some modern political statement.
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It's a very precise theological argument against the idea of
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infused grace, the idea that faith requires our cooperation,
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our merit, to achieve a justified state.
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Exactly. They saw the need for Christ as
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a mediator, but they insisted on adding human merit, our
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preparation, our cooperation, our works, as a necessary
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component. They tried to create a partial
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justification by works and a partial justification by grace.
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But Paul's use of but by faith implies a total rejection of all
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that we try to bring to God to please Him.
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The door is shut tight to all personal merit.
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Paul is showing that the only way to come to God is through
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faith, making it a clear opposite to the law as a means
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of justification. Let's look at the two different
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presuppositions here. How does the actual structure of
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the law differ from the structure of faith?
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We can define them by how they approach God's standard, the
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law. It presupposes A transactional
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relationship, a reciprocal one. If we fulfill what God requires,
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if we deliver perfect obedience, we will be found to be worthy
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servants, and God will give us the promised reward.
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God becomes, in a sense, our debtor.
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That seems like an impossible position to put yourself in,
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trying to make God your debtor. It is impossible and it provokes
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His wrath because we're demanding something we haven't
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earned. If we seek to be justified by
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the law, we have to deserve it fully.
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The moment we fall short, the whole system just collapses and
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we stand condemned. It's a system built on
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confidence in yourself. OK.
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And then we have faith. Faith, on the other hand,
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presupposes a completely different posture.
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It presupposes that we are poor, lost, condemned souls.
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We come to God realizing we have nothing.
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We are spiritually bankrupt and we must find what we so
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desperately need entirely outside of ourselves in Jesus
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Christ. We have to come humbly
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confessing we can't get salvation except as a free,
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unmerited gift. It's a system built on complete
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desperation and reliance on someone else.
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The source uses a really powerful analogy here, the two
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men seeking food and shelter, to illustrate the difference
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between the law, which is merit, and faith, which is a free gift.
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Let's spend a minute on this, because it clarifies the whole
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attitude. Right.
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The analogy contrasts 2 guests approaching a host.
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The first man has money. He has a full wallet.
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He receives courteous entertainment.
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The host is satisfied because payment has been received and
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the guest is no longer indebted. This is the way of the law.
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I paid my debt. I deserve the service.
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The transaction is complete. And the second man?
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He's poor, utterly destitute, he has to beg for alms.
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His very life depends entirely on the providers mercy, because
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he can give him nothing in return.
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He has no claim, no merit, no coin.
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This is the way of faith, coming as poor beggars, relying
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completely on the free unilateral gift of the provider.
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The huge difference is in the psychological state.
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The first man has confidence in his own resources.
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The second man has absolute confidence only in the
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generosity of the host. That's the critical insight.
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Anyone who approaches God trying to offer their own merit, their
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own good works, is essentially trying to pay an infinite debt
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with counterfeit coin. They're turning their back on
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the grace of Christ because they think they can merge these two
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incompatible systems. To claim even partial merit is
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to fundamentally reject the idea of grace as a gift.
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But I can anticipate an objection one the source
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addresses. Since both the law and faith
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come from God, how can they be in opposition to each other?
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That's a valid intellectual puzzle.
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I mean, God created day and night, water and fire, things
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that differ, but they complement each other.
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So the objection is, if the law and the Gospel both come from
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the same righteous God, shouldn't they complement each
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other in justification? And what's Calvin's response to
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that using the fire and water analogy?
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He agrees that they both exist in a suitable order.
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Day and night complement each other for our rest and our work.
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Fire and water complement each other in their different
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functions. But if you try to use them at
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the same time for the same function, they clash.
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If you try to mix fire and water together in the same bucket,
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they cancel each other out. So applying that to
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justification. Those who believe that we are
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justified by the law and the gospel are, in Calvin's words,
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crashing heaven and earth together.
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He suggests it would be easier to mix physical fire and water
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than to mix these two ideas. The opposition only exists when
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you try to use the law for justification, which it was
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never intended to do after the fall.
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If we understand why God instituted them both the law to
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condemn, the gospel to save, we discover their separate
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harmonious functions. OK, so before we go any further
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into how faith works, we absolutely have to define the
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term justification itself. It's the whole subject and it's
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so often misunderstood. Indeed, Calvin states that
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justification means being accounted righteous in the sight
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of God. This legal, declarative language
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is essential. It does not mean we are made
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intrinsically righteous in ourselves instantly.
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Rather, it points to the favor God bestows upon us, the legal
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verdict he delivers when we become his children.
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So why does Scripture use the word justify a legal term
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instead of just saying God loves us or God pities us?
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If we just say we're saved by grace, we miss the reality of
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God's perfect justice. The term justify forces us to
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acknowledge our miserable condition before we get the
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remedy. By Adam's sin and our own
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continuing sins, we are lost and deserving of wrath.
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We would never understand the radical nature of the remedy
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unless we first recognize that we stand legally condemned and
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need to be put right judicially with him.
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And that need to be put right comes from God's unchanging
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character. Absolutely.
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God cannot deny Himself. He embodies sovereign justice,
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perfection, purity, and since we are totally corrupt, totally
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defiled by sin, it follows that a holy God must attest that sin,
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and consequently he must hate us in that sinful state.
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This leads directly and necessarily to the sentence of
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eternal damnation. So we had to be justified.
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Cleanse from the penalty of our sins before we can be acceptable
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to God and truly appreciate His mercy.
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Yes, if we acknowledge that we are sinners, we realize God
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hates sin. Yet though He hates the sin, He
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has provided a way to save the Sinner.
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He does that by forgiving our sins and by cleansing us from
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the guilt through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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God essentially washes us clean legally so that He can receive
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us into favor. This legal necessity is why the
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Scriptures use the declarative word justification.
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And this definition brings us right back to that historical
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debate between the reformers and their 16th century critics who
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are focused on infusion rather than imputation.
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They'd ask. Faith doesn't make a person
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perfect, so how can it justify us?
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They just failed to grasp the forensic, legal nature of the
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term. They confuse justification,
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which is God's declaration about us, with sanctification, which
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is God's process of making us holy.
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Justification in Scripture refers to God covering our sins,
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canceling our debt through Christ's death, and imputing
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Christ's righteousness to us. It's a change in legal status,
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not necessarily an immediate, total change in our moral
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perfection. The source gives two key
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scriptural references that really define this accounting
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righteous through imputation. Let's start with David in the
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Psalms, quoted by Paul in Romans.
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OK, so we look at Romans 4, verses 6 and seven, which
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references Psalm 32. David describes the blessedness
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of the man to whom God imputed righteousness without works,
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whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
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This establishes justification as an act of imputation, God
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counting us as righteous, covering the record of our
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failure. The debt is cancelled and the
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credit is assigned. In the second passage, it drives
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home the incredible mechanism of that imputation, the
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substitutionary work of Christ. That would be Second Corinthians
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5.21. Christ was made sin for us,
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meaning He received the legal condemnation and penalty due to
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us for our sins, that we might be made the righteousness of God
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in Him. We are accounted righteous not
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based on our own progress, but because Christ's obedience was
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perfect, insufficient, through union with Him, His perfect
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record is legally transferred to us and our guilty record is
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legally transferred to Him. This is the great exchange, and
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it explains the whole meaning of forensic justification.
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So if. Justification is by faith.
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What does faith actually mean? It's not enough to just say
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belief without specifying the object of that belief.
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A simple intellectual agreement, as the source notes, is useless.
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Right. We have to recognize that the
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Lord Jesus Christ is the sole object of our justifying faith.
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If salvation is through faith, it is only if we believe in the
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finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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True faith is the spiritual hand that reaches out and takes hold
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of the righteousness found entirely in Him, because we find
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in Him everything we need for our justification.
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And this connects directly back to the cancellation of sin and
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the appeasement of God's wrath that we just talked about.
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Absolutely. Forgiveness of sins and the
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satisfaction of God's deserved wrath happens only through the
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shedding of Christ's blood. By his sufferings and death, He
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made satisfaction for our sins. This means true faith has to
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look to the cross, realizing we must seek no further means of
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payment other than the sacrifice made by God's only Son.
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If we try to add our own works, we're diminishing the
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sufficiency of that sacrifice. I find it really helpful how the
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source connects Christ's specific titles to the benefits
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we receive through faith. It shows that our justification
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is tied directly to who He is. It connects the dots
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beautifully, doesn't it? He is called God's beloved Son
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so that we might be beloved and accepted in Him.
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We share in His favored status. He's called the Righteous 1 so
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that we may partake of His righteousness.
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That's the imputation we rely on.
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And critically, He is called the Holy 1 so that we may be
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sanctified in Him. That emphasizes that while
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justification is a moment in time, sanctification is the
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necessary ongoing outcome of being united to Him.
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The source also critiques those who failed to grasp this,
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particularly those who confuse this reliant object focused
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faith with just a simple abstract belief.
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Yes, they raise that objection. You often hear from James, too.
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Even devils themselves believe. The critics defined faith as a
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mere intellectual, imagining that there is a God who created
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and controls the world. They have this barren
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intellectual ascent, but they remain willfully ignorant of the
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necessity and the sufficiency of Christ.
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They are, as the source describes it, asleep in their
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ignorance, yet they call themselves good Christians.
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So without looking specifically to Jesus Christ, we can't
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possibly know remission of sins, or how to approach a holy God,
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or how to put our genuine trust in Him, or how to have any piece
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of conscience or hope of eternal life.
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All of that remains utterly beyond our reach until the Holy
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Spirit introduces us to Jesus Christ and we cast ourselves
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upon Him in total dependence. True, justifying faith brings
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grace precisely when we recognize that we are wretched
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creatures and abominable in God's sight, and we seek a
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remedy only in Christ, not in ourselves.
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So true faith is an act of reception.
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It accepts that Christ offered himself as the perfect
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substitute to redeem us from the curse watching us in his blood.
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Yes, and that acceptance brings assurance.
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By His perfect obedience, He has canceled all our transgressions,
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allowing us to be assured that God accepts us as His children.
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And that's not based on our feeling, but based on His
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promise tied to Christ's work. If we don't look to Christ, we
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simply don't know what justifying faith really is.
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So after demonstrating that even the converted Jews had to be
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saved by faith, Paul finishes the thought with that decisive
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clause. For by the works of the law
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shall no flesh be justified. This dramatically expands the
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condemnation of the law to the whole world, encompassing all of
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humanity. In that phrase, no flesh.
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And Calvin breaks this down into 3 crucial levels of application.
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OK, let's start with the 1st and most obvious 1, the leveling
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effect between Jew and Gentile. The source states that the Jews,
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despite their unparalleled historical privileges,
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circumcision being chosen as God's inheritance, they had
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absolutely no hope of salvation except through God's pure grace
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alone. Paul sets them at the exact same
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level as the Gentiles. They have the same status for
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God's judgement seat, universally guilty.
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The purpose here is theological equality and sin.
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The second application then, targets a different kind of
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person. Not the outwardly depraved, but
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those who trust in their apparent morality.
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It targets pride in the outwardly good.
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Exactly this term, no flesh targets the bigoted and the
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hypocrites who make a dazzling show of holiness before other
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people. Paul wants to expel all the
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pride that men may have about their own perceived virtues.
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I mean the overtly sinful, the drunkards, the debauch.
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They know they can't boast, but the bigoted and the
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self-righteous often deceive themselves into thinking they
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deserve paradise, as if God were somehow indebted to them for
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their piety. And these hypocrites might
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appear publicly chaste, sober and harmless, but within they
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are full of corruption, pride, ambition, greed, wickedness.
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They're masters of pretense. They might regularly attend
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religious rites fast, observe feast days meticulously, and
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then become utterly puffed up with vain pride because they
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only compare themselves to other people, not to the perfect
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standard of God's law. But Paul declares that it's
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pointless to separate ourselves from one another based on
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outward appearance. Whether you're a public Sinner
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or a private hypocrite, we must all humble ourselves equally.
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The sources cite that sobering assessment from Isaiah, where
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even our best works are called filthy rags in God's sight.
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Why such harsh language for someone who's just trying to be
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good? Because the motivation is
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fundamentally flawed. If they don't ascribe to God
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what is rightfully his, the glory for any good thought or
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action, they are robbing God of honor.
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It makes their seeming virtue an act of deep seated pride and
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ambition. Their works, performed by a self
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seeking will, just cannot stand before divine purity.
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So the warning is clear. Even those who make a very good
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outward show of religion will be condemned before God if they are
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trusting in that show. Paul's goal is to annihilate our
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trust in our own merits. Indeed, the source warns against
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judging by appearance. All that glitters is not gold.
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Even if a man were perfectly righteous in our estimation,
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reputed to be an Angel, yet within, if his heart is not
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wholly devoted to God's glory, there would be nothing but
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corruption in his standing. But the term no flesh goes one
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radical step further. In his third application, it
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actually includes believers themselves.
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Yes. When Paul says no flesh, he
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includes those who are justified and sanctified believers because
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despite being renewed by the Holy Spirit and grafted into
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Christ, they are still considered flesh because of
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their continuing imperfection and sin in this life.
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They have spots and blemishes. They are, as the Reformers
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famously said, simultaneously justified and yet still sinners,
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simul justus ET picator. So this condemnation is general
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and perpetual. Whoever seeks justification by
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the works of the law, even the holiest person that ever existed
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will find himself guilty before God's standard.
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To illustrate this, the source cites the Great Patriarchs
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Abraham, David, Noah, Job, and Daniel.
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These figures, known for their immense faith and righteousness,
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we're not justified by their achievements.
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They could only be justified in God's sight through grace alone.
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Their lives serve as proof that even the highest human virtue
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falls drastically short of the divine requirement.
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So the lesson here is aimed directly at anyone today who
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boasts in their own merits. If they can't match the
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righteousness of these patriarchs, and yet even those
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patriarchs fell short, then they're boasting must be driven
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to excessive pride by the devil. That's the key take away for
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self-assessment. Those who have truly progressed
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in God's school, those who really know themselves, realize
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they are so far from the standards set by these ancient
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figures. The Holy Spirit's profound
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purpose in the life of a believer is to constantly cast
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down those who exalt themselves to convince us daily that we
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lack even the tiniest drop of self generated righteousness,
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forcing us to seek all that pertains to our salvation only
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in the free grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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OK, so if justification is wholly outside of ourselves, an
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external gift from God, how do we prepare to receive it?
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What's the necessary internal condition to approach Christ?
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It can't be merit, So what is it?
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The only real preparation for belief in Jesus Christ is what
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Calvin calls being touched with a real, vivid sense and
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awareness of our sins. This is the foundational posture
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of humility and desperation that has to come before we can rely
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upon Christ. If we don't feel the weight of
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our condemnation, we will never flee to the Redeemer.
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Which speaks directly to the law, fulfilling its function as
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a schoolmaster or a mirror, showing us our lost state and
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forcing us to look somewhere else for rescue.
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Indeed, Christ specifically directed his call to those who
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recognize their need. He said, Come unto me, all ye
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that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
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And Isaiah described him as being sent to preach good
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tidings unto the meek, to proclaim liberty to the
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captives. The audience for the gospel is
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the oppressed, the captive and the meek, those who know they
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are spiritually bankrupt. Which means that those who take
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pleasure in their sins or who minimize their failure before
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God will never truly come to Christ.
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The source is quite stark on this.
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It warns against mockers of God and those who loudly boast of a
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complete faith while showing no evidence of humility or
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repentance. These are often people, the
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source states, with some harsh 16th century language, who have
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never once tasted true religion or the fear of God.
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They are self deceived, proclaiming assurance without
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ever having experienced the anguish of condemnation.
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That's a challenging point. A man's boast of complete faith
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is often evidence that he lacks a drop of it.
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Because true believers, having been exposed to the purity of
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the law and the reality of their own ongoing imperfection, they
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express their faith in great weakness.
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They know that the little they have is only because God took
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pity on them. Their confidence is not in the
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strength of their faith, but in the object of their faith,
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Christ. So how do we get this necessary
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persuasion that the law can't justify us?
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How does someone cultivate this vivid sense of sin without just
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falling into despair? To be truly persuaded, we have
28:35
to perform a daily reckoning. We must set God before us on His
28:38
judgement throne every single day and summon ourselves before
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Him morning and evening, knowing we have to give an account of
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our whole lives. We must compare ourselves not to
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our neighbors, but to the infinite standard of God's
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holiness. And the outcome of that rigorous
28:52
self reckoning, when you do it honestly, is immediate and total
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condemnation. We have to realize that if God
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were to act according to strict justice, we would be sent to the
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pit 100,000 times over. It's only because God pities us
29:05
and raises us up in His infinite mercy that we survive.
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We know that we are under condemnation every single time
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we compare our reality with God's perfect standard.
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And that realization creates the necessary spiritual pain, that
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anguish over sin that forces us, like desperate beggars, to seek
29:21
rest in Christ. We had to seek Him, knowing that
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salvation in whole or in part is granted only as a free gift.
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And Paul isn't just saying we find something we lack in Jesus
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Christ and then we supply the rest ourselves.
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He's saying there is no salvation whatsoever outside of
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Jesus Christ. He is the beginning and the end
29:38
of faith. He is All in all.
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We are to deny ourselves and give ourselves to Him wholly and
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completely, knowing we can only bring condemnation on ourselves.
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This ensures all the praise and glory belong entirely to Him and
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this realization of total dependency.
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It ensures that the justified believer never lapses back into
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trying to earn their own merit. So to conclude this deep dive
30:00
into Calvin's commentary on Galatians 2, Paul's argument is
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really a call to radical humility and exclusivity.
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We cannot mix fire and water. We can't claim partial merit and
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still claim we need Christ. The law performs its crucial,
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damning function by showing the universality of our guilt,
30:14
forcing the soul to look away from self effort.
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Right. The knowledge that we can only
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bring condemnation upon ourselves forces us to deny
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ourselves and give ourselves holy to Christ.
30:25
Justification is God accounting us righteous, illegal
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declaration by covering our sins through Christ's perfect
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obedience. That's the only way God can
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accept US given His sovereign justice and holiness.
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The essence of this doctrine is that our standing is totally
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secure because it resides entirely outside of ourselves.
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So the final thought for you to consider is this.
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If justification is solely about God imputing Christ's
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righteousness and covering your sins, thereby securing your
30:53
standing regardless of your daily performance, how does this
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change the way you evaluate the value and the motive of your own
30:59
good works today? Knowing that cannot pay the
31:02
debt. Do they proceed from a kind of
31:04
slavish fear, or do they perceive from a grateful
31:06
response to the gift you've already been given?
31:09
The Source ends this robust theological discussion with a
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prayer, a prayer for greater awareness of our sin and for
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growth and repentance, a grace we all need to exercise all our
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lives so that we may magnify God's grace in Christ and place
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our entire trust in Him until we receive faith's reward.
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Thank you for joining the Deep dive.