One doctrine that may rightly be called the heart of the gospel, so much so that if a church has it, it has the gospel and if a church loses it, it does not have the gospel, is but the doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone. Luther called it the "doctrine by which the church stands or falls"[1]. If that is true, then we have to lament over the fact that today, vast majority of Evangelical churches have fallen. For there is no deep and proper grasp of this fundamental and foundational doctrine either in the pulpit or the pew. As a result of this horrendous condition, many a professing Christian is caught up in a performance driven Christian life. They claim to have peace and joy when they keep all the religious rules their denomination has taught them. Or be drowning in gloom and doom, if they fail to keep up with it. On the one hand, they claim to live by faith in Christ and yet on the other hand, live like pagans trusting in their own works.
What is often forgotten by these legalistic Christians is, that no matter how sanctified one be, the righteousness one has, be it the Spirit-wrought righteousness, is not a perfect righteousness, that would give us the liberty to do away with the perfect righteousness of Christ. Unless one has some unbiblical notions of becoming perfectly sanctified while on earth, our righteousness, even the Spirit-wrought one, is never perfect and only progressing to be perfect. Hence all through our Christian life, we need to base our acceptance before God simply on the basis of Christ alone. Remember a legalist is not merely someone who is going around condemning people with erroneous understanding of the law, rather a legalist is anyone who trusts in his own obedience and not in the obedience of Christ for us. His death as our pardon and His life as our perfection is the exclusive and firm gospel-foundation, on which one needs to live the Christian life. It is quite grievous that most churches these days do not teach anything about this liberating and gracious goodness of the good news. They are all so caught up in heralding one imperative after another.
D.A Carson, research professor of the New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, expounds Galatians 2:11-21 and unpacks in a very gripping manner this truth of justification in Christ alone. After his exegesis, he then moves onto real practical aspects of what it means to believe in our acceptance and standing before God on the basis of Another's Perfect Righteousness. It is quite alarming that this truth about Christ's imputed righteousness alone being our Perfection before God is not carefully studied or appreciated by today's pastors. Thus churches are full of people who are struggling to please God with their own works. Moreover these pastors who are ignorant of the gospel are rather preaching only rules, regulations, imperatives and obligations. The role of the gospel in motivating us to good works is merely assumed or sometimes even forgotten. Thus the church is lost in this ocean of legalism, forgetting the gospel truth that our standing before God is not based on our righteousness. As John Piper said, "our good works is never the root but the fruit of our justification."[2]
Carson's exposition is rich with exegetical insights and theological precision. His deep knowledge of the original languages and years of experience in exegesis in these languages, makes his sermon exegetically sound and sensitive. May this sermon awaken the hearts and minds of Christians who are lost in a paganistic understanding of living their Christian life. For as Carson says, “We are justified because 'Christ loved me and gave His life for me.' And everything else is paganism”. [3]
Footnotes
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[1] Traditionally attributed to have been said by Luther, though many modern scholars do not agree with this. However it could very well be a derivative of Luther’s writings on justification, like the one quoted here from his introduction to Galatians,
In this epistle, therefore, Paul is concerned to instruct, comfort, and sustain us diligently in a perfect knowledge of this most excellent and Christian righteousness. For if the doctrine of justification is lost, the whole of Christian doctrine is lost. And those in the world who do not teach it are either Jews or Turks or papists or sectarians. For between these two kinds of righteousness, the active righteousness of the Law and the passive righteousness of Christ, there is no middle ground. Therefore he who has strayed away from this Christian righteousness will necessarily relapse into the active righteousness; that is, when he has lost Christ, he must fall into a trust in his own works. (Martin Luther, Luther’s Works – Volume 26: Lectures On Galatians 1535, trans. Jaroslav Pelikan, p. 9.)
[2] John Piper, Did Jesus preach the gospel of Paul, T4G 2010.
[3] D.A Carson, An Apostolic Disputation – and Justification, Clarus 2008
