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Justified by Faith Alone | Martin Luther · Reformed Thinking

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  Reformed thinking. Welcome back to the Deep Dive,
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  where we take the sources you share with us and distill them
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  down to their core insights, all designed just for you, the
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  curious learner. Today's Deep Dive is really into
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  the heart of history and theology.
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  We're looking at one of the most blistering yet comforting
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  defenses of Christian doctrine ever written.
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  We are focusing specifically on this intense, focused reading of
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  the Apostle Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, and particularly
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  chapter 3 as seen through the eyes of the Reformer Martin
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  Luther. That's right.
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  Our mission today is to really pull out the essential insights
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  on what the Bible means by Christian righteousness, what
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  the precise function of the law is, and of course, the singular
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  sufficient work of Christ. The core question Luther is
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  tackling, and the one we'll be wrestling with is this How does
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  God make us right in his sight? And maybe more to the point,
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  what happens when we misunderstand that or even fight
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  against that divine operation? It's a challenging topic.
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  The material itself seems to go right after our default setting,
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  you know. It does.
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  It directly confronts human reasons, inclination to seek
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  justification through our own effort and our own merit, rather
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  than just simple trusting faith. These sources, I mean they
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  declare nothing less than a Total War on self righteousness.
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  OK, so let's jump right in. Paul starts chapter 3 of
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  Galatians with what is, frankly, an insult.
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  It's a shocking way to open a chapter.
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  Oh, foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?
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  It's incredibly sharp language. And Luther in these sources, he
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  saw that sharpness not as coming from some, you know, petty
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  spider malice. He saw it as a necessity, a kind
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  of sincere and burning zeal that an apostle or a faithful pastor
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  has to have for the welfare of the Church.
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  So it's not an attack, it's a correction.
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  Exactly. It's the voice of someone who is
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  deeply emotionally invested in the health and eternal security
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  of his hearers, and he's watching them get LED astray.
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  The source material calls this kind of zealous rebuke
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  permissible, even necessary, as long as it's aimed only a
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  correction, never at revenge. But like a parent correcting a
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  child. That's the idea.
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  It's done for their welfare, the sources compared to a wound of a
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  friend. But you see in Proverbs, when
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  that same harsh word comes from an enemy, it's just spite.
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  But from someone like Paul, it's a huge benefit.
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  He's just trying to get them back on the right path.
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  And that path, he says, has been blocked by bewitchment.
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  It's such a strange word to use. It's a terrifying word, and
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  Luther takes it very seriously. He actually distinguishes
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  between two different kinds of deception that the devil uses.
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  There's a bodily deception which affects the senses, and then the
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  far, far more dangerous spiritual witchcraft which
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  attacks the mind. OK.
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  Let's start with the bodily kind.
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  That seems a little easier to grasp.
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  The sources give some really vivid examples to show what he
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  means. There's this incredible story
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  about Saint Macarius. A girl's parents bring their
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  daughter to him in the desert, and they are utterly convinced
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  she's not a human being anywhere.
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  They think she's a cow. A cow.
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  They swore by everything they could see and hear.
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  Their eyes saw the shape of a cow, their ears heard the sounds
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  of a cow, and they were just completely certain.
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  No amount of reason or evidence could persuade them otherwise.
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  That's, well, that's an astonishing example.
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  It really shows you the power to just trick the senses to make
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  people believe something that is not there at all.
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  Yes, and that's the point. Satan has this skill to
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  manipulate external perception. But then Luther quickly moves on
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  to the real threat here, the one that's much more insidious.
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  And that's the spiritual witchcraft.
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  Right, this is where the serpent doesn't just go after your eyes
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  or your ears, but he attacks the mind itself with false opinions.
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  And that's what makes it so devastating.
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  The individual embraces lies, really fundamental errors, and
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  what Luther calls horrible darkness, but they see it as the
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  clearest light and the most certain truth.
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  The mind gets locked in. Just like the parents who
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  thought their daughter was a cow.
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  Exactly like them, the spiritually bewitched are firmly
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  persuaded that their own vain dreams, their own
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  interpretations, their own man made religious ideas are the
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  most certain self-evident truth. So they become completely
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  resistant to correction. Completely, the sources say they
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  become more hard and unyielding than any anvil.
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  They won't admit Scripture or any reason brought against their
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  ideas. In fact, they'll boast about
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  their error, they'll swear by it, and they'll even persecute
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  others because they're so convinced they have the truth.
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  And Luther saw this in his own time with figures like Minzer
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  and Zwingli. He saw them as having rejected
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  the clear word of God on certain things, and they were so
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  bewitched by their own reason that they couldn't be corrected.
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  Yes, it's like being in an internal prison, a spiritual
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  delusion where you can't get out by your own strength.
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  And yet what's interesting is that Paul doesn't entirely
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  condemn the Galatians themselves.
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  Again, he sort of excuses them to an extent.
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  Right. He lays the ultimate blame on
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  the false apostles, the ones who were the enchanting agents sent
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  by the devil. And that's a really critical
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  distinction, because it's a caution for all of us.
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  The sources point out that nobody is so strong that they
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  can resist the devil's spiritual illusions by their own
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  willpower. Deliverance from this kind of
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  sorcery only comes through the external, objective Word of God
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  preached by those whose minds are free from it.
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  So. Justification isn't a mental
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  state we achieve on our own, it's a truth we're delivered to
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  from the outside. Precisely.
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  OK, so after establishing this, this terror of delusion, Paul
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  moves on. He confronts them with two
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  arguments that are well, they seem unassailable because they
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  rely on the Galatians own experience.
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  Yes, he's showing them that they're turn back to the law is
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  just illogical and spiritually disastrous.
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  The first argument is incredibly practical.
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  It's just about what they saw, what they felt, what they
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  witnessed. He asks this only what I learned
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  of you, received you the Spirit by the works of the law, or by
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  the hearing of faith. And that's a devastating
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  question. It is because it's grounded in
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  their undeniable, visible experience.
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  They had received the Holy Ghost instantly when they heard the
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  gospel. It was often accompanied by
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  manifest signs, you know, gifts, tongues, miracles.
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  You see this all through the book of Acts.
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  The Holy Ghost came down at the mirror preaching of Peter or
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  Paul often before any ritual like circumcision, and certainly
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  before they had time to fulfill the moral code.
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  He's basically saying, just look back at your own history.
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  Did the Spirit fall on you because you finally got the
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  Sabbath right, or because you achieved perfect obedience?
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  No, it happened the moment you heard and believed the promise
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  about Christ. And he draws an absolute line in
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  the sand here. He's not just talking about the
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  ceremonial law, like dietary rules or circumcision.
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  He means the whole law, the 10 commandments included.
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  So it's a complete division, the way of the law which is doing
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  versus the way of the gospel which is receiving.
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  There's no middle ground. That's the sharp point.
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  Either you got the Spirit by the law, or you got it by faith
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  alone. And their own history proved it
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  wasn't by the law. So all that labor, all that zeal
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  to satisfy the law, even with what feels like a good motive,
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  is futile. It's unprofitable for
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  justification. So the cause, which is faith,
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  has to come before the effect, which is the Spirit and the
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  works that follow from the Spirit.
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  It has to, and that first argument is about the logic of
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  it all. The second argument, though,
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  it's much more bitter. It deals with the spiritual
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  consequence. Paul says that by seeking
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  justification by the law, they are making Christ's crucifixion
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  out to be in vain, and even worse, that they do even crucify
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  Christ again. Wait, that is an astonishing
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  claim. I have to push on that.
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  How can trying to be good, trying to be right by following
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  God's own law, how can that be described as such a horrible
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  Christ denying sin? And that question gets right to
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  the heart of what Luther saw as the central spiritual disease of
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  humanity. The sources explain it through
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  the idea of substitution. If you hold the opinion that
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  you're justified by your own works, your merits, your
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  traditions, you immediately change Christ's role.
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  You're not seeing him as the savior anymore.
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  You're making him a severe judge who has to be pacified by your
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  effort. You're denying His singular
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  benefit as the mediator, the one who already did everything that
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  was needed. If you think you can earn or
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  maintain God's favor through your own performance, you are in
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  effect rejecting the grace He offers freely.
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  You're saying your death wasn't quite enough?
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  Jesus, I need to add my bit to it.
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  Precisely. And that makes his death of no
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  effect. It rejects the gospel, and
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  therefore in your heart you spiritually crucify him all over
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  again. You're saying the penalty hasn't
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  been fully paid? And for Luther, this wasn't just
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  some abstract theological point. He connected it directly to the
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  religious system of his day. Oh, absolutely.
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  He saw monasticism, the taking of all these vows, the doctrine
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  of super irrigation, you know, going above and beyond what God
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  commanded. He saw all of it as a monstrous
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  illusion from the devil. He called that whole system the
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  abomination standing in the holy place from Daniel's prophecy.
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  Because the person entering a monastery thinks they're doing
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  more than the average Christian. They think their works give them
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  greater merit. Yes, but the outcome is that
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  they become so deluded they can't see Christ as their only
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  justifier. He becomes an angry judge they
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  have to placate. So any person, a monk or a
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  moralist, who seeks forgiveness by their own works is a
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  crucifier of Christ in their own heart.
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  The search for self righteousness is by its nature
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  Christ denying. This leads Paul to that double
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  danger, first starting in the Spirit and trying to end in the
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  flesh. And we need to be clear about
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  what flesh means here. Right.
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  It's not just worldly vices like lust or greed.
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  In this context, the flesh means the righteousness of the law
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  itself. It's the reliance on human
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  performance, on effort, on striving for holiness as the
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  means of your justification. It's spiritual pride.
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  And the second danger? Having suffered so many things
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  in vain, and this is just heartbreaking, Luther saw it
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  happening all the time. What do they lose?
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  They lose everything. The pure doctrine they first
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  heard, the genuine faith they received, the good works that
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  were the true fruits of the Spirit, all the patients
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  suffering the endured for the gospel.
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  All of it just forfeited. In a moment, the second, a false
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  teacher leads you away from the truth of the gospel into a
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  doctrine of works. It's a tragic trade, the free
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  gift of the Holy Spirit for the terrifying, endless burden of
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  human performance. OK, so having shown the
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  destructive nature of works righteousness, Paul then needs
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  to build his positive case to really nail down that
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  righteousness comes only by faith.
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  He turns to the most important figure for the Jewish world,
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  Abraham. He does.
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  He goes right to the scripture proof from Genesis 15.6.
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  Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for
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  righteousness. The single verse holds the core
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  of the whole argument. And Luther's commentary on this?
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  It elevates faith to the highest possible level.
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  He calls it the chiefest worship, duty, and sacrifice.
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  Why? Why is faith the highest form of
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  worship? Because faith is the one thing
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  that gives glory to God. To believe God, to just assent
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  to His promises, is to count him as true, as righteous, as wise,
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  as merciful. It's the greatest thing a
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  creature can grant to the Creator because it acknowledges
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  Him for who he is. Without that active, trusting
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  faith, God loses His glory in us.
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  We are, in effect, calling him a liar by doubting His promise.
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  And that's exactly where our human reason rebels.
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  Our logical minds look at some of God's promises, the
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  resurrection, the Lord's Supper, the idea of an innocent man
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  bearing the world's guilt. And Reason says that's absurd.
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  That is precisely the point. And because reason finds God's
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  promises foolish or offensive, we humans naturally invent our
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  own services to God. Fasting, special prayers, vows,
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  self affliction, all in an attempt to appease what we see
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  as an angry judge rather than a faithful keeper of promises.
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  We try to give God something instead of just receiving what
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  He's offering. Yes, the justiciaries, the
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  works. Righteous people invent works,
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  but because they are trying to merit forgiveness, they deny God
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  His greatest attribute, His mercy, and they make Him a liar
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  in His promises. Faith, on the other hand,
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  believes God despite what reason says, and in doing so it
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  attributes true divinity to Him. And Paul also brings up this
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  critical historical detail about Abraham, the timing of his
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  justification. Yes, this is foundational to the
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  whole argument. Abraham was made righteous by
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  faith before he received the ritual of circumcision and an
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  incredible 430 years before the law was given to Moses at Sinai.
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  That timing is decisive. It's absolutely decisive.
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  The law showing up centuries later cannot possibly cancel out
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  or negate the free promise that was made to Abraham.
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  The promise was the original unconditional contract.
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  The law was later edition. So if Abraham, the father of the
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  whole nation, was made righteous without the law, then his
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  children have to be made righteous by the same means.
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  By faith alone, the principle established in Genesis can't be
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  overturned by the conditions set down in Exodus.
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  It's a simple, powerful argument.
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  So if we strip away all the human effort and striving, how
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  does Luther then define this Christian righteousness?
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  It seems to be a combination of something happening in US and
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  something happening for us. That's a great way to put it.
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  In this view, Christian righteousness has two essential,
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  inseparable parts. First, there's the faith of the
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  heart. It's active.
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  But, and this is key, it was always imperfect in this life.
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  Second, there's God's imputation, the divine
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  accounting which makes that righteousness perfect.
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  OK, so our faith is the thing that connects us to Christ, but
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  even in the holiest person, there's still sin leftover.
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  Right. Loser calls it concubiscence,
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  that remaining inclination towards sin, the impatience, the
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  fear, the doubt, the self centeredness that still clings
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  to us. If God judged us strictly on the
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  imperfect quality of our faith, nobody could stand.
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  And this brings us to imputation, which is where the
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  real relief comes in. It is imputation means that even
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  though those remnants of sin are still in the believer, God makes
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  a divine legal declaration. He says He will not impute unto
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  thee that remnant of sin. The true righteousness then,
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  isn't a quality that's poured into your soul.
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  It's a legal accounting, a divine cover, a verdict
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  delivered from outside of you. God accounts are weak,
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  struggling. Faith as perfect righteousness,
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  but only for Christ's sake. So you're not actually flawless
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  on the inside yet, but legally, judicially, you were declared to
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  be flawless. That's it.
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  The sources use this wonderful analogy of a chick under a hen's
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  wing. We're covered by the shadow of
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  Christ's wings, dwelling safely under the most ample and large
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  heaven of the forgiveness of sins.
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  We are not made righteous by doing, as philosophy in the Law
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  demand. We are made righteous by
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  receiving as divinity and the Gospel teach.
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  Faith begins it, but imputation perfects it.
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  Until the day of Christ, it's the only way a human being can
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  stand before a holy God. OK, so if the promise and faith
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  are central, we have to go back to the reality of the law.
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  And Paul presents this crushing counter argument that just slams
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  the door on any possibility of self effort, for as many as are
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  of the works of the law are accursed.
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  This is the universal curse of the law and it comes right out
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  of Deuteronomy curse. It is every man that continue
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  with not in all things which are written the book of the law to
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  do them. The law is completely
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  uncompromising. It demands absolute, non-stop,
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  perfect obedience to everything. And since nobody can do.
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  That since no person can perfectly continue in all
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  things, the law is necessary result for anyone who tries to
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  stand under its requirements is the curse, which means sin,
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  wrath and everlasting death. The law's operation, even the
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  holy moral law of God, brings people under condemnation.
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  You can't do anything else. It has no power to forgive, only
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  to command. And this truth just smashes the
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  idea that faith needs to be formed with charity or perfected
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  by our works before it can justify someone.
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  It does. Paul refutes that teaching
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  forcefully by just stating the law is not a faith.
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  The two operations are structurally different.
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  The law demands doing. It requires us to perform and
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  give our effort to God. Faith, on the other hand, demand
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  receiving. It requires us to surrender our
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  effort and just ascent to the promise of God.
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  So doing and receiving are opposites.
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  They can't both be the cause of justification.
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  They're completely contrary. The law which commands charity
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  and love has to be separated entirely from faith.
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  In the matter of being pronounced righteous before God,
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  faith alone justifies love and good works.
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  They follow justification. They don't 'cause it.
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  So with the law established as this ministry of condemnation
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  and death, Paul introduces the apex of his argument, really the
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  single greatest comfort of the gospel.
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  Yes, and this is it. Christ redeemed us from the
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  curse of the law by being made a curse for us.
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  That is just an astonishing radical claim, the cornerstone
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  of the Reformation. It is.
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  It means Christ was accounted the greatest transgressor,
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  whoever lived all the sins of the world, Paul's, Peters,
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  David's, yours, mine, they were all laid upon his body.
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  The sources are so clear that Christ, though innocent in
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  Himself, voluntarily received our sin, the sin done by us, and
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  laid the full weight of it on his own body, to make
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  satisfaction for them with his own blood.
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  So when the law found Christ standing in the place of
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  sinners, it condemned and killed him.
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  It did. It found him among transgressors
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  and executed its sentence on him.
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  And this is the singular comfort that has to Vanquish all
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  opinions of works. There's no longer any need for
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  us to earn anything because the ultimate transaction has already
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  happened. And that phrase made a curse for
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  us. It's all about that vicarious
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  substitution, the transfer of accounts.
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  It is we are called to clothe Christ with our sin, to say to
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  him, You are my sin, my curse, and in return you are my
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  righteousness, my blessing. This radical transfer is the one
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  work of divine power that abolishes sin, death and the
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  curse. The states are total.
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  If Christ is innocent and doesn't bear our sins, then we
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  bear them ourselves and we die under the curse.
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  But if He became guilty of all the sins we committed, then we
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  are delivered from all sins, not by ourselves, but entirely by
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  Him. This is the great combat where
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  Christ's invincible righteousness meets our sin and
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  His righteousness wins forever. It's a one time comprehensive
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  spiritual exchange. So now we have to ask the next
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  logical question. If the law doesn't justify, if
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  it only curses and condemns, then why did God give it?
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  Wherefore then serve at the law? And Paul provides the answer.
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  It was added because of transgressions.
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  As he says elsewhere, the law entered in that the offense
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  might abound. So the law wasn't given to make
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  people good. It was given so that
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  transgressions would increase and be made more known, more
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  visible, more terrifying. And this reveals what the
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  reformers called the double use of the law.
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  OK, let's break that down. The first use is the civil.
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  Use. The civil use is how the law
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  operates in society. In politics, it's a societal
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  restraint. It's necessary to bridle the
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  ungodly and the rebellious, mainly through the fear of
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  punishment. The jail cell, the fine, the
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  magistrates sword. This is necessary for civil
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  peace. It's like putting chains on a
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  wild beast to stop it from tearing everything apart.
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  But, and this is a big but, that doesn't make the person
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  righteous before God. Not at all.
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  It just forces them to obey externally, unwillingly, out of
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  fear of consequences. It doesn't change the heart.
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  The person is still unrighteous on the inside.
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  They only follow the speed limit because they see the police car.
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  OK, so that's the external function.
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  What about the second one, the spiritual use?
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  This one sounds much more terrifying.
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  It is, but it's ultimately for our good.
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  The spiritual use is where the law reveals sin and judgement,
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  not in a court, but in the conscience.
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  The sources describe the law here as the hammer of death, a
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  thundering of hell, the lightning of God's wrath.
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  And its main target is that beast of self righteousness,
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  that belief that we're basically good.
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  Exactly. The law is necessary to beat
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  down and break to powder the proud moralist, revealing their
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  total lack of purity and their complete guilt before a perfect
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  God. When a person is forced by the
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  law's demands to finally acknowledge their misery and
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  their damnation, this bruising prepares them to thirst for
• 19:59
  grace. So it has to break you down
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  before you can be built up in Christ.
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  Yes, you see this at Mount Sinai.
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  The people, even after being ceremonially purified, we're so
• 20:09
  terrified by the Law's majesty, the Thunder and lightning, that
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  they fled. The Law's effect is not to make
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  alive, but it terrify men into realizing the totality of their
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  sin. And that's its proper office.
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  And this is where it has to stop the laws of prison, but not a
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  permanent one. Exactly.
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  Paul clarifies the law's limit. It continued only till the seed
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  should come. This applies historically until
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  Christ appeared, and it applies spiritually in the conscience.
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  When the law has done its painful job, terrifying,
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  accusing, condemning, it has to step aside and allow the blessed
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  seed, which is Christ, to speak grace, peace and forgiveness.
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  Faith doesn't come in at that point, you're just left with
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  despair. Total self-destructive
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  desperation. The law shows you the disease.
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  Christ is the cure. And that's where the
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  schoolmaster analogy comes in. The law in its spiritual use is
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  definitively the schoolmaster or the tutor.
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  It prepares us, it disciplines us, but it's not the
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  destination. Precisely.
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  The ancient schoolmaster, the Pete Jugos, was a strict servant
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  whose job was to discipline the child and, most importantly,
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  lead him directly to the real teacher.
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  The law's job is to hold us captive under its condemnation
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  and lead us directly unto the Faith which should afterwards be
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  revealed. And once we come to Christ by
• 21:22
  faith, the spiritual prison ends.
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  We're no longer under the schoolmaster.
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  His harsh temporary supervision is over.
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  Faith alone is revealed as the way to receive deliverance from
• 21:32
  the law's condemnation from sin, death and the devil.
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  This deep dive into Galatians 3 really clarifies that central,
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  liberating distinction of Reformation theology.
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  The law always demands doing. It requires our perfect works.
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  But faith only requires receiving it.
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  Just a sense to the free, unconditional promise of God.
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  And righteousness is obtained by that free promise, not by the
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  law or by our own works. The key take away, I think, for
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  every learner is this faith alone is the singular cause of
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  justification because it gives God His glory.
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  It counts Him as true, merciful, and completely trustworthy.
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  And then good works and charity they have to follow, but not as
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  the source of our acceptance. No, purely as the fruits of the
• 22:15
  Holy Spirit, who has already been received through hearing
• 22:18
  and believing the Gospel. Well, thank you for sharing
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  these sources and participating in this deep dive into Galatians
• 22:22
  3 and the rigorous, comforting logic of Christian
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  righteousness. And here's a final thought for
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  you to carry with you this week. The one central doctrine that
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  most threatens the Kingdom of darkness is this declaration
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  that Christ alone is victor over sin, death, and the devil.
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  So ask yourself, what personal habit, private discipline, or
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  human effort do you still rely on as a quiet, private merit?
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  Now something you think gives you a slight edge with God.
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  Now, how does viewing Christ as having been made your curse,
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  taking that entire burden away from you?
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  How does that break that lingering false confidence in
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  yourself? This work of separating law and
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  gospel is the great spiritual task of a lifetime, to unwrap
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  Christ from our expectations of innocence and instead see Him
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  wrapped entirely in our own sin so that we might be wrapped
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  entirely in His righteousness. Until next time.