Reason or Response: Galatians 2:15-16
Salvation comes to us because Jesus died; what we do after is a response to the gift of salvation He already gave. God loved us because He is God, not because we earned His favor. We love Him and each other as a response to His love, not to get Him to love us more.
Having talked about the example of Peter, Paul now gets to the heart of the theology. These verses may not seem significant at first, but this section of the letter is the heart of Paul’s theology. These verses are the core of everything else to follow.
Paul asserts we are not justified by works of the Law but rather through the faithfulness of Christ. Some translations have “faith in Christ,” which I personal consider a weaker translation although it is grammatically acceptable. The only reason we are in relationship with God is because Jesus died and our sins are forgiven through that event.
A couple days ago I walked into one of my colleague’s classrooms. He placed a quote on his board. The quote is taken from a great sermon preached in 1741 by a minister named Jonathon Edwards. The sermon is called “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” The quote said:
“You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.”
This quote goes hand-in-hand with Paul's claim. I am not saved because of anything I do. I am not saved because I’m a good person. I’m honestly not a good person. Only God is good. I’m not saved because I am smart. I am not saved because I love other people. I am not saved because I want other people to grow in their faith. I’m not saved because I have a great marriage and love my wife.
We are saved because Jesus Christ died on the cross. That’s the end of the story. That’s the mic-drop moment. When people ask me when I was saved, I don’t talk about my baptism story or the moment I first believed in God. I was saved two thousand years ago when Jesus died on the cross. Granted, my salvation didn’t matter to me for centuries after that moment. Still, my salvation took place as the sky darkened, the temple curtain was torn, an earthquake shook the earth, and Jesus died. We live forever because Jesus died.
Our belief and displays of love to others are still important. Because of the faithfulness of Christ, we believe in Him. Everything we do is in response to God’s gift of salvation. We can follow Him because His death makes it possible. We can love other people because His death makes it possible. We can have a great marriages and spiritual relationships because His death makes it possible. Salvation comes to us because Jesus died; what we do after is a response to the gift of salvation He gives.
