Justification is near the heart of the gospel. What does the word justification mean? Justification is the teaching that God accepts us through Christ.
Now there is a bit to untangle in that definition.
Christian confession must answer the question: Why did Jesus die on the cross? According to Scripture, Christ died to pay the penalty for our sin.
No sin was in him, and so his death was taking what he didn't have in order to give what only he could give.
He took our sin so that he could give us his sinlessness.
He took our unrighteousness so that he could give us his righteousness.
Justification is the way to refer to what the death of Christ on the Cross accomplished for those who trust in him. Through Christ, we are justified, that is, pardoned and accepted by God in Christ.
Galatians 2:15-21 puts its finger on the heart of the gospel. Let's walk through the passage to understand what is at the heart of the gospel.
Sinners Who Survive
Paul says, "we are not Gentile sinners." What prompted Paul to get here? In order to demonstrate the validity of the gospel, he recalls a moment where he stood up to Peter. I love this story. Here are two heavyweight disciples, one who speaks well and the other who writes better, and they have a moment where they butt heads. They have a legitimate disagreement over the substance of the gospel.
In Galatians 2:11, Paul says, Peter stood condemned. Why did Paul confront Peter? Paul didn't condemn Peter. Peter was already condemned, so Paul opposed him. Peter was acting in fear, being inconsistent, and playing the hypocrite. In the words of 2:14, his conduct was not in step with the gospel.
Any activity not in step with the gospel is rightly identified as hypocrisy. There are all types of hypocrisy—some more out front than others but hypocrisy nonetheless.
Anytime we trust what we do instead of what Christ has done, we play the game of hypocrisy.
God will accept me if I just do a little more (fill in the blank), we convince ourselves, instead of realizing that we are totally accepted by God because of Christ!
Jesus doesn’t need you to bring anything to him to be accepted by him. His desire for you is to come to him as you are beautifully broken, rejected but restored, sinful yet saved, prone to wander yet tethered to the cross. Filled with faith and drawn to Jesus, who saves.
Don’t be like Peter. Peter was wrong! It wasn’t the first time he was wrong. It was a few years earlier for Peter that he met a Savior he denied come to meet him on the shores of the sea of Galilee. Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me?
And Jesus would have asked him 10,000 times!
At the heart of the gospel is sinners who survive. There is space to repent, space to make it right, space to take your thoughts captive and placed under the obedience of Christ.
Each breath an unbeliever takes is space given by God to come to repentance. Every act of hypocrisy can be made right. Jesus is alive. Today is the day of salvation.