Bc – We are Not Justified by Deeds of the Torah 2: 15-16

We are Not Justified
by Deeds of the Torah
2: 15-16

DIG: What does justification by faith mean? How does Paul use the term as compared with his opponents (2:15-16)? Why do these differences matter so much? Comparing verses 2:15-16 with Paul’s preaching in Acts 13:38-39, how would you sum up what the gospel is all about?

REFLECT: The heart of the gospel is having a right relationship with ADONAI apart from deeds. What difference would it make to you if you had to earn your way to heaven by keeping all of the 613 commandments of the Torah? If you can get to heaven in any other way than faith in the shed blood of Messiah, did He die in vain? Can you imagine anyone saying to God the Father, “I don’t need Your Son. I’ll figure this out by myself. I’ll find another way to heaven?” Do you know someone in your life that thinks like this? How can you pray for them this week?

In Galatians 2:11-21 the scene changes from Yerushalayim and the council there to Syrian Antioch, where the first Gentile church was established. Paul and Barnabas served as spiritual leaders, with help from three other men (see the commentary on Acts, to see link click Bn – Barnabas and Sha’ul Sent Out from Syrian Antioch). Paul continues his rebuke of Peter and the defense of his salvation equals faith-plus-nothing gospel.

Earlier, we saw that Peter visited the believing community in Antioch, the largest center of believers outside of Yerushalayim. He found a community in which Jewish believers and Gentile believers freely intermingled, worshipped together, and even ate together. Peter did the same until certain men from James (2:12) arrived and applied pressure on the Jewish believers to separate from the Gentile believers. When Peter gave in to their pressure, Paul rebuked him in front of everyone.

The heart of mankind’s spiritual dilemma is that we are incapable of overcoming the total sinfulness that separates us from ADONAI. Job’s friend Bildad asked: How can a person be justified before God (Job 25:4a)? How can a guilty and condemned sinner be made righteous, and thereby acceptable to a holy and pure God? Justification by faith is Ha’Shem’s answer to that dilemma and need. In explaining the true doctrine of justification, Paul first states what it is here in 2:15-16, and then gives his defense of this important doctrine in 2:17-21 (to see link click Bd – Through the Law I Died to the Law).

Paul’s rebuke of Peter (see Bb – The Antioch Incident: How Can You Force Jews to Live Like Gentiles) culminated in one of the most forceful statements in the B’rit Chadashah on the doctrine of justification – the very doctrine that Peter and the men from James were, in effect, renouncing by their hypocritical separation from Gentile believers.⁶¹

We are Jews by birth and not sinners from among the Gentiles (2:15). The word we is emphatic and serves to emphasize the sharp contrast which Paul is about to make between himself, Peter, all other Jewish believers, and the Gentles. First-Century Judaism divided the world into two main categories: Jews and Gentile sinners (see Ba – Gentiles during the Second Temple Period). It’s as if Paul was saying, “As for us, by nature we are Jews, not habitual sinners like the Gentiles.” If you would like Paul to elaborate on what he means by Gentile sinners, just read about God’s wrath against sinful humanity in Romans 1:18-32 and he will tell you exactly what he means by castigating the entire Gentile world as Gentile sinners.

In this verse, one of the most important in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, the word justified occurs for the first time in the Bible. Yet we know that [whether Jew or Gentile] a person is not justified by deeds based on [obeying the 613 commandments of the] Torah, but rather through putting trust in Messiah Yeshua (2:16a). Justification is the act of ADONAI whereby, negatively, He forgives the sins of believers, and positively, He declares them to be righteous by transferring all the righteousness and obedience of Messiah to them through faith. Whatever is true of Him is true of them. It’s just-as-if-I’d never sinned.

At the Jerusalem Council, Peter declared the same truth in response to these belonging to the [sect] of the Pharisees who had believed (Greek: peoisteukotes from pisteuo, meaning to believe, to have faith in, to trust in) stood up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the Torah of Moshe” (Acts 15:5). He declared: Why do you challenge Gentile salvation and put God to the test by putting a yoke on the neck of the [Gentile] believers – which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But instead, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Yeshua, in the same way as they are (Acts 15:10-11).

Martin Luther, who started the Protestant Reformation, said that if the doctrine of justification by faith is lost, all Christian doctrine is lost. In this last section of Chapter 2, Paul was inspired by the Ruach ha-Kodesh to introduce this most essential doctrine, a doctrine he had preached and explained to the Galatians on many occasions. He uses the verb form of justification (Greek: dikaioo) four times in verses 16-17 and the noun form (Greek: dikaiosune) once in verse 21, where it is translated righteousness. In the B’rit Chadashah these and other forms of the Greek word are variously translated as justify, justification, righteousness, just, righteous, and justified.

So even we [the Jewish believers] have put our trust in Messiah Yeshua, in order that we might be set right [justified] based on trust in Messiah and not by deeds based on Torah – because no human will be justified by deeds based on Torah (2:16b).

And to be justified by Yeshua Messiah, the believing Jews needed to reject the deeds based on Torah. It was as if Paul was saying, “Because we are Jews by nature, and we saw the need for Yeshua Messiah, and believed that He is sufficient for all of our spiritual needs, why now do we suddenly compel the Gentiles to believe in a covenant that we ourselves found that we could not keep? We couldn’t keep the 613 commandments of Moses, and that is why we turned to Yeshua Messiah. Why ask the Gentiles to keep it?

This is the condition of the Jewish believer today. No amount of Torah-keeping can make a person righteous, because the root of sinfulness is in the fallen nature of the human heart. Our basic problem is what we are . . . not what we do. Sinful acts are merely the outward expression of a sin nature that contains sinful thoughts. As a result, no amount of deeds can save a person, because the best of human deeds cannot change the sin nature of the person doing them. Moreover, we know that whatever the Torah says, it says to those trying to obey all of the 613 commandments of Moses for salvation, in order that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world be shown to deserve God’s judgment. For in His sight no one living will be considered righteous (Psalm 143:2) on the grounds of a legalistic observance of Torah commandments, because what Torah really does is show people how sinful they are (Romans 3:19-20 CJB).

The Torah is important as a mirror to show us our sinfulness; but it can only reveal sin, not remove it. But now God’s righteousness apart from the Torah has been revealed, to which the Torah and the Prophets bear witness – namely, the righteousness of God through trusting in Messiah Yeshua, to all who keep trusting. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. They are justified as a gift of His grace, through the redemption that is in Messiah Yeshua . . . for we maintain that [we] are justified by faith apart from the deeds of the Torah (Romans 3:21-24 and 28).

Only faith in Yeshua Messiah can bring a person the gracious gift of righteousness that provides forgiveness and salvation. Faith/trust/belief in Christ is not mere intellectual assent to the fact that Jesus died and rose for our sin (see the commentary on Hebrews Al – How Shall We Escape If We Ignore So Great a Salvation), but is personal trust in His death to remove and forgive our own sin. It is a total surrender to Him, not only as Savior, but also as the Lord of our life Therefore, submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you (James 4:7-8a).

All claims that salvation is through belief in Yeshua Messiah plus something else are blasphemous, satanic lies from the pit of hell. There can be no effective or acceptable human addition to Christ’s work on the cross. This passage is as clear and forceful statement of the doctrine of justification by faith alone as can be found in the Bible.⁶²