It's not because we followed the law. Galatians 2:16-19

Yes, I am aware, I already covered 2 Galatians 2:16, but there is always that one last thing, and I am trying to keep the posts relatively short. Read this verse from one of the standards like the NIV, and you get a very impersonal feel. I feel as though I have to read it several times to understand the meaning.

Galatians 2:16 NIV know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

So I opted to try the Easy to Read Version and found that it makes the point without all the religious doublespeak.

“So we have put our faith in Christ Jesus, because we wanted to be made right with God. And we are right with him because we trusted in Christ—not because we followed the law. I can say this because no one can be made right with God by following the law.”

Why would anyone want to put their faith in another?

Perhaps out of necessity; possibly their words were convincing; or maybe, they were charismatic and dressed nice. Short of some miraculous vision, one in which you see Jesus (It happens daily,) few of us have seen Him. No one could describe him as a well dressed, handsome man.

Isaiah 53:2 NASB For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.

There is a method of approaching others about the gospel in which you, in a sense, defend the message of Jesus with good, solid arguments. This approach is referred to as Apologetics. While I find it interesting that someone can stand toe to toe with some argumentative blowhard, it is not my cup of tea, that and I see my memory to be borderline useless anymore.

As I have read the Bible I never really saw God finding a need to play the Apologetics card. Instead, He merely said, “As for me”; after making that statement He just went on to fulfill the promises made, regardless of what the person He made the covenant with would do. (And yes, I get it, that many of those promises took hundreds of years in some cases.) If you were to ask me, why do you trust God, or, how could you put your faith in Him? I would have to say because He has consistently stayed faithful to His Word. Simply put, He is believable. Take Jesus, for example; He told the disciples what He was going to go through and why. It's evident that most of those who traveled with Him did not understand what He was telling them, but it did not slow Him down. He still rose from the dead, and many witnessed to the fact that He appeared to them, alive.

All these things give me reasons to believe Him, and I have.

Paul says,

“So we have put our faith in Christ Jesus, because we wanted to be made right with God.”

I think, in some way, I wanted to be right with Him. Growing up in church, we went down front to pray, and there repented every week, as though the power of God never took root in us. See, this is what I am talking about when I tell you that religion is filled with false teachings. Sure, the pastor may stand in front of and say you are forgiven, but then you wait for next week because they will tell you what a sinner you are. Understand something. When you put your faith in Christ Jesus, it is a permanent gesture on your part. The Father engraves you on his hand, and you are ever before Him.

I contend that this book we carry around, (at least some of us do,) is a profoundly Jewish book. The subject matter carries a Jewish style at every turn. Galatians 2:17 is one of those places we can see this.

Galatians 2:17 NASB "But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be!

“if, while seeking to be justified in Christ,”

The Jews considered the Gentiles to be wholly idolatrous and lost causes to God. Why then would a phrase like this be associated with a Gentile? It wouldn't. It would most definitely be attributable to the Jew, as their lives were little more than efforts to be justified, but not in Christ. If you take the phrase on step farther, and consider how the early church was primarily Jewish, up to the point that they balked at the possibility of Gentiles joining in without enduring Jewish rituals found under the law of Moses, such as circumcision.

So, Paul writes as a Jewish believer, that had experienced the concept of trying to be justified in Christ, while performing what constitutes works for redemption religion/faith.

“we ourselves have also been found sinners,”

Keep in mind that the sentence effectively starts with the word “if.” This phrase continues to play a huge role in our understanding of what Paul is saying.

• “we ourselves” – The Jewish community of believers.
• “have also been found sinners,”
  Wait a minute. Since we like to read this letter as though it was written to Gentiles, people who as new believers, only have an understanding and background in the newly appreciated grace of Christ, then this idea of having been found sinners, doesn't make sense. It does, however, make sense when applied to a Jewish community that thought their righteous acts (acts mandated by law, and tradition) made them holy and acceptable to God. It did not.
  I told you that the Jewish community deemed outsiders to be godless pagans. There must have been a realization in some of the Jews that without a relationship with Christ Jesus, there was no acceptance, and therefore no righteousness.
• “ is Christ then a minister of sin?”
  This statement could only apply if one had accepted the extraordinary sacrifice offered by the Father, and performed by the Son. The implication then would be that the acceptance of Yahshua as the Messiah sent by the Father, as the prophets foretold, caused many Jews to see precisely how unrighteous they indeed were.
  If acceptance causes this kind of effect, then the presumption is that Christ is the administrator of sin. Is that true? Hardly, as He merely shines a light into your soul through the Holy Spirit; that light shows you the sin.
  Stop here for a moment. Focus on the truth that “sin” is simply your missing the mark of the target at which you are shooting. We have these opportunities to hit the mark multiple times on any given day.

The Greek word for minister is diakonos and means an attendant or waiter. Christ then, would be thought of as being God's waiter? Sin is the Greek word hamartia, meaning offense or sin. So, Christ would be the waiter that brings you a variety of infractions to use? Don't be ridiculous.

Galatians 2:18 is a continuance of Paul's thought and theme, so pay attention. I am going to give you three versions, starting with one of the most difficult.

Galatians 2:18 KJV For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

If I was not paying attention, nor reading with purpose, I could readily be asking what buildings did Paul destroy? The obvious extension of such thought is that committing a crime, such as the destruction of property, makes you a transgressor; a criminal. The problem, however, is that what Paul destroyed was people; in particular, Jewish believers and their desire to trust and cling to things such as tradition and bad religion. (Stop. Am I saying that Judaism is a bad religion? Only if it tries to circumvent acceptance of the Messiah, through a multitude of added on rules and laws, which is exactly what they did.)

Galatians 2:18 CJB Indeed, if I build up again the legalistic bondage which I destroyed, I really do make myself a transgressor.

The Complete Jewish Bible states the case rather bluntly when it says, “if I build up again the legalistic bondage which I destroyed.”

Question? Did Paul destroy Judaism? No! But, he did have a considerable influence on many Jews; and, this impact included the Gentiles toward the end of his life. So, when he refers to something which he destroyed, he is speaking then of changes in individual lives.

One more version, the Easy To Read version.

Galatians 2:18 ERV But I would be wrong to begin teaching again those things that I gave up.

The ERV translation makes it personal and prompts us to consider that the legalistic bondage Paul felt was primarily internal. The destruction, on the other hand, was more about what he gave up. If I were to try and figure out what Paul/Saul gave up that day, on the road to Damascus, it is all wrapped up in personal history, Jewish traditions, community status, acceptance on an intellectual level with the Pharisees, and entirely possible that monetary and family issues were impacted.

Vincent's Word Studies declares,

“Peter, by his Christian profession, had asserted that justification was by faith alone; and by his eating with Gentiles had declared that the Mosaic law was no longer binding upon him. He had thus, figuratively, destroyed or pulled down the Jewish law as a standard of Christian faith and conduct. By his subsequent refusal to eat with Gentiles he had retracted this declaration, had asserted that the Jewish law was still binding upon Christians, and had thus built again what he had pulled down.”

I also like what Finis Jennings Dake tells us.

“If I act like a Jew, and enjoin the observance of the law upon Gentiles, which I have repeatedly asserted and proved to be abolished by the death of Christ (Eph_2:14-15; Col_2:14-17; 2Co_3:6-15; Hebrews 7:11-10:18), then I build again the things I destroyed and thus make myself a transgressor, undoing my justification by faith in Christ.”

Moving forward into more muddy water; we look at Galatians 2:19.

Galatians 2:19 NASB "For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God.

How did that come about? I am not sure, using this translation that I even understand. So, again, I indulge in alternate translations.

Galatians 2:19 CJB For it was through letting the Torah speak for itself that I died to its traditional legalistic misinterpretation, so that I might live in direct relationship with God.

In the CJB I get the sense of something I had suspected for a long time. The Torah contained the freedoms that Paul taught. Paul, who was well trained in the Torah, expounded this new freedom from example and a fresh understanding, that he obtained directly from Jesus (in a vision.) It was this understanding alone, for over ten years, that has opened my eyes to what I see in the Old Testament, a knowledge of where, Jesus, as a human, obtained the truths and freedoms He taught.

Our Monday morning study leader invited a lady to give a brief testimony. Raised a Catholic, she somehow meets a Pentecostal young man, and attempts to date him. That young man, whom I know personally, got her to come to our Holy Spirit and fire inspired church; at least it was back then. She said that during the prayer time, at the end of the service, that her now-husband said, I am going down front for prayer. Someone nearby told her, you should go down also; and, she did. That night she received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and spoke with other tongues. Apparently, she was sixteen at this point and wanted to please her parents. So when she went home and told them that she was now filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues, they exploded on her. She was taken to the priests to bring her back to some form of normalcy for their family. She said, the priest talked with for a time and then stepped out to tell the parents that in time she would be back to normal. When the priest returned she began to describe to him about the love of God, and how he too should be teaching this (at which point she showed him out of Corinthians. As she spoke, she could feel the presence of God fill the room, and she began speaking to the priest in tongues. He again excused himself so that he could talk with her parents. He told them that she just spoke to me in perfect Latin. It would be important to note that she did not know Latin. Well, you might think that everything went great for her, but it did not. The parents restricted her from seeing this young man for two years; however, at the end of that time, the two got married.

What's the point of this information?

Somehow, this young lady stepped out of God's way, without realizing what she was doing, and let the “Torah” speak for itself. When it did, several lives were, in time, dramatically changed. That priest and a nun from the school she went to went on to become Holy Spirit filled Catholics (These are known as Charismatics.) As this dear lady finished her “testimony,” one of the men in our group asked a legitimate question; he said, “as a Catholic, did you read the Bible? To which, she answered rather emphatically, NO. We were taught not to, as we would misinterpret what it said.
Interesting, I have heard far too many teach a version of that very thing, in spite of sound bible teachers instructing us to let the scriptures interpret scripture. Sadly, most Christians seem to think no one can understand the Bible and therefore must have someone to teach them. This kind of thought is in opposition to what Paul tells us here in Galatians 2:19.

“For it was through letting the Torah speak for itself.”

I perceive from this statement that Paul was able to gain access to the scrolls that were so few and costly that they were only maintained at the Synagogues. There is an alternative possibility, and that would be that Paul relied upon the training and memory of what he learned as an up and coming Pharisee. In reading these scrolls, he was this time, given new and fresh insight. These words were no longer laws to govern, but guides to freedom. As I write these words, images of Jephthah crossed my mind. I have I ever seen him, no, but my mind, as I read the story in Judges 11, paints a vivid picture of someone who would fit the imagery of a motorcycle gang member. Short tempered and harsh as they could come, thanks to childhood abuse at the hands of half-brothers, he frees Israel from its oppressors and goes on to become listed as a hall-of-famer. When you read the story, you see a man guided more by grace and muscles than law (the Torah.) Even in God's story (if I may call it that,) grace and mercy shine like the sun at every turn.

We were deemed righteous

Through Justification - We were deemed righteous.

Without fanfare, hoopla, and all the festive sounds of a celebration it came - our justification.

Life came in place of death. Previously we had no options, we were all dead men walking, but on that day everything changed.

Do you think anyone noticed, felt different, or made radical changes to their lives because of it. Yes, there were some dramatic moments. Some of which equaled any nail biting movie scene, for graves popped open and people came back to life. There was an earthquake, the sun went dark at midday, and the one that few would have been aware of, the curtain within the temple, thick and dense, ripped in two starting at the top and tearing all the way to the floor; in a sense exposing God openly to the world and the world to God.

Justified in God's eyes. Paid for, and now free to choose. Prior to Christ's death man had no choice. Instructions after the law came showed man how to momentarily alleviate guilt, but it brought no life.

Abram, he hoped for ...
But what did he base his hope upon? God had showed himself to Abram in dreams and visions on several occassions. Apparently they were so explicit that Abram was able to relay what he saw at a later date.

Having had one of those moments I can remember thinking that I should write this down. I did not. Upon awakening I remembered little of what was said, only the concept that the end of my life was filled with great joy. Having lived another 32 years since that revelation I have experienced very brief punctuations of joy in a sorrow filled life.
Do I understand it all? No. What I do take away from all this is that there is something more; a promise of things to come, perhaps heaven, and that I have my hope in.

Abram had a promise of things to come and he hoped in those things. Apparently he remembered his.
Did he have the potential for sorrow and doubt? Yes.

Let's ponder this for a moment. God hears his plea for a family, and yet it is many years before Issac is born. You really think that space in time did not get to him. When Sarai offers him Hagar, Abram seems to jump at the chance. He certainly did put up much of a fight.
Looking forward a few years later. Ishamael, the product of his relations with Hagar, has to be sent away almost as though he did not exist. Good, bad, or indifferent this is a son to Abram and a crushing blow.

Isaac comes along, and is now of an age where he can see the logic of what is happening  and might even be able to put up a fight, and yet the boy becomes obedient, perhaps even submissive to the father's will. Isaac may have even had an understanding of what was taking place. Unless God comes through this boy is about to become the sacrifice. Obviously God comes through, but make note you hear nothing of Sarah anymore until her death.

Sometimes it feels as though even if you can read about the love that God has toward us, that it is still just a mind game. How much less would this have been the case with Abraham. He had the same potential issues to deal with, and Satan was not going to let up on him any less than us.
Here is where we have a slight edge. Abraham had to believe that there was a reality to what he saw in the dreams and visions in order to obtain righteousness. A right standing with God. He had no life in himself; he was a dead man. Christ died for our sins, and rose again for our life, our justification. Therefore we are alive and righteous in God's eyes. Paul makes clear that we have to believe that to be considered sons, adopted, and joint heirs with Christ, and a joint heir enjoys the same benefits as the heir does, right? Then if nothing else happens, heaven is my hope. There are other things that make me feel alive, kinda like writing this blog, or responding to the spirit when He tells me to speak.

I truly believe that there is a heaven, promised by Jesus himself, and that he invited all who will believe in him, a life with him and the Father.

What do you hope in?

Abraham believed God.

Rom 4:3  For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
Seems straightforward enough, but very simplistic. In reality I suppose it is. Stretch this out there a couple more years perhaps, to a time after the snatching away has taken place. All those people that the church has deemed evil have had to take a stand, refusing to take the beasts mark, or worship the beast. For their stand they will be beheaded (this, by the way, is a fundamental Islamic teaching and methodology.) Because they have refused to take the mark, then we have to assume that in some bizarre or sincere way they have accepted that Jehovah is God. Here is the absolutely amazing part, God calls them saints. After a period of time, which is God prescribed, he raptures them to heaven.
Now did anyone see the FAITH in this, for it was certainly counted unto them as righteousness. That should sound familiar seeing as it is the same phrase that was used on Abram.
Consider that word "it", we will come back to that.

Now for a brief interlude:
Warning!!! I am going to leave this in because this is a great example of why we should read our bibles for ourselves, and not allow someone's fairy tale to allow us to form an image or opinion of who God is.
Abram, apparently an old man, has set up camp in the desert. Let's call it that for the sake of the story. Flat, somewhat desolate, and relatively open; anyone could see for miles if a camel was approaching. The tent where Sarai is getting ready to cook dinner is about a hundred yards away, and Abram has bent over gathering some sticks. Totally aware of what is around him because there are some dangers around these parts due to snakes and such.
When Abram stands himself up and turns to go back to the tent there is a man standing there. Abram leaps a few feet backward, drops all firewood he has gathered and grabs his chest in shock. Where did you come from?

This was a man standing before him. Alright let's think this through. When Jesus' disciples said show us the Father, what was Jesus response? Possibly a little dissapointment then a revelation unveiled to them. If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. That should not be so odd to us then to make the connection. This was Jesus, himself, standing before Abram.
What other possibilities are there? An angel, someone might say. Ok, lets ponder that a moment. Daniel saw an angel and he fell on his face as if dead at the presence of the angel.
Here is the passage that I am referring to.
Daniel 10:4-9 KJV  And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel;  (5)  Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz:  (6)  His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.  (7)  And I Daniel alone saw the vision: for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves.  (8)  Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength.  (9)  Yet heard I the voice of his words: and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the ground.

Abram experienced nothing like this, and did not describe the person he saw in this manner. Someone so remarkable would surely evoke some kind of comment. Just to stretch the imagination a bit I will use the imagery of Tom Selleck. Tall, handsome, a sturdy frame, and I suppose you could say he is dimpled, but there is that signature moustache. I can picture him in my mind just that quickly. And yet Abram does not yet speak of anything remarkable. How odd.
What does scripture describe Jesus as? "he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. " Isa 53:2

But here is the rub, what did he say?
Suppose some stranger startles you, and before you can take a breath begins his spill about the latest super sponge that will absorb 1000 times its own weight in liquid simply by dropping it lightly upon your carpet. Say what!
I think my response might be something along this line. I do not know who you are or why you have just sneaked up on me, now get out before I help you out.

In a way that was pathetic. Pathetic because I used it as an analogy of what an amazing story Abram's faith is.
But here is the practical truth. No less amazing, but God was showing himself to Abram over the course of time in dreams and visions. Why is that so remarkable? Because God is doing this with the Muslim peoples, and many are coming to Christ. It is said that they go in pursuit of the Jesus of their dreams, wishing to speak out to someone who will understand, that they have chosen to follow the true God and king.

God had spoken to Abram on several occasions, and in a sense had become a familiar acquaintance with Abram. After rescuing Lot, blessing Melchizedek, refusing the king of Sodom's attempts at gifting, Abram has another vision. In it he asks God "what will you give me, seeing I go childless,?" Continue to read the 15th chapter of Genesis and you find a man that seems to have become well acquainted with the most high.

So God tells him that his seed will be as the stars in the heavens. Abram has seen a lot, and God has spoken to him on several occasions at this point. God has shown himself strong on Abram's behalf and is very believable by this time. When God says you are going to have children, when after many years of trying, and apparently quiting that idea. What do you do? You try again. That may not be the keenest idea that Sarai has heard lately, but she goes along with it.
Did it work immediately? No. Sarai even suggests that he try it with Hagar. Bad idea, but it proves a point, the problem is not with Abram.

Is this the point at which we can definitively say that Abram showed tremendous faith and that was what demonstrated to God that Abram should be counted as righteous?
Doesn't answering this question tend to evoke ramifications that we are trying to tell God what should and should not be deemed faith?

I told you to consider "it" earlier. Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. I do not see any way you can see this as anything other than belief. Belief in what though?
If I used the poor example of a someone big and scary suprising me, then telling me what was expected of me, my motivation might be more fear motivated, and that is certainly not faith. The simple kids song that goes like this, "faith is just believing what God said he would do" might be the simplistic explanation.

Paul's letter to the Romans, where this sort of started for me, has one of the simplest recipes for belief, therefore our being counted as righteous is as simple as:

Romans 4:21-25 Moffatt NT  (21) Abram was .. convinced that He was able to do what He had promised.  (22)  Hence his faith was counted to him as righteousness.  (23)  And these words counted to him have not been written for him alone  (24)  but for our sakes as well; faith will be counted to us as we believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,  (25)  Jesus who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised that we might be justified.

- The "Him" - is of course God.
- Jesus our Lord implies that you choose to belong to him.
- Jesus died. There is no two ways about that, and the responsibility falls solely on God, for scripture tells us that God put him on that cross. The fact that he was delivered up was explicitly for the purpose of covering our trespasses, once for all time. Any attempt at diminishing that is to say that God's payment of his son was not enough.
- That same Jesus who died, rose again. He was raised that we might be justified.  The ISBE defines the term “to justify” as:  in a legal sense, the declaring just or righteous.

Pastor Greg Laurie of Calvary Chapel defines justified this way. It is just as if I had not sinned.

Well I have blabbed on long enough. I hope you find that God is particularly pleased with you, as you have chosen to walk with him. I will thrown in one last example that I threw at the bible study the other night. If in the process of making a cake you decide to make it blue. You get the food coloring and drop in several drops. As you begin stirring the batter it eventually becomes entirely blue with no trace of other color seen. The day we accepted Him that raised Jesus from the dead God dropped some of his color in us. It is impossible to get that color out from that point on, and over the course of our life here on earth we get stirred, so gradually, until on that day we meet him face to face, that color is permeating every aspect of who we are until we are completely overtaken by his color and none of our own shows anymore. Now there is little hope for you.
God bless and love ya.