Galatians 2:17–21 - Enough Is Enough

Harold Abrams was a British track athlete in the early 20th century. He’s portrayed in the 1981 movie Chariots of Fire. Abrams was Jewish, and he ran to fight the prejudice he endured as a Jew. He was very successful. In the 1924 Olympic games, he won the gold medal in the 100 meter dash.

There’s a scene in the movie, shortly before Abrams goes out to race,where he laments that he’s never known contentment as a runner. He says, “I’m forever in pursuit, and I’m not even sure what I’m chasing.” He adds that soon he’ll be out there on the starting line again, and he says, “I'll raise my eyes and look down a corridor of time -- four feet wide with ten lonely seconds to justify my whole existence. But will I?”

He was counting on winning to prove himself. But then he says, “I've known the fear of losing, but now I’m almost too frightened to win.” Why? What if winning didn’t satisfy that great need inside?

What if he won and there was no contentment or comfort of justification within? What if it still wasn’t enough?

There were some in the Galatian church saying that Christ alone was not enough. They said more was needed to stand approved before God and their fellow believers, though it would never be clear just how much would be enough.

These Judaizers (as they were called) claimed that if the Gentiles Christians didn’t obey OT ceremonial rules and the traditions of men born from those rules, then they couldn’t have assurance of being declared acceptable by God.

Those circumstances were different from Harold Abrams' circumstances, but the source of the struggle is the same. How can you enjoy the security of knowing that you’re good enough, even as you hear the opinions of others about what it takes?

How do you, like Harold Abrams and the Galatians, work to prove yourself worthy? Where does that need manifest itself in your life? The Galatian Christians were chasing ceremonial purity. Harold Abrams chased Olympic gold. What do you chase?

Scripture tells us that only in the Lord Jesus Christ can that chase come to an end. In this passage today, God speaks through Paul about our habit of reverting back to some system of measuring our worth and the worth of others by achievements.

But those who follow Jesus can say “enough is enough” – enough of letting worldly people and things define our worth, enough of returning to things we left when we followed Jesus, enough of chasing self-righteous justification.

God’s grace is enough to satisfy all that His law demands and to satisfy your soul. And when we begin to see how this need for justification manifests itself in our lives, we will fall into despair or self-loathing or apathy if we’re not comforted by the gospel.

Three gospel truths are on display in this passage. Notice the outline for you on page 6. When we obey the urge to justify ourselves, we only prove our great need, when we realize that we can never justify ourselves, God then proves His great power, and when Christ took our justification upon Himself, He proved His great sufficiency. Jesus demonstrated that He’s enough.

Now look again at verse 17. Paul says, “But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin?” William Hendriksen paraphrases this, and I leaned on his paraphrase to create my own. His comments were a great help throughout this passage. Paul is saying something like, “If the Judaizers are correct – and we are heathens for trusting only in Jesus Christ and not keeping ceremonial law – then is Christ a producer of heathens? Is Christ promoting sin? After all, Christ taught us this! So does Christ encourage sin with His gospel?”

Paul says emphatically, “Certainly not!” Then he says, verse [18], “For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.” In other words, if we succumb to legalism – returning to our old ways of seeking to be justified – then we are returning to what we left when we believed in Jesus, and that is what produces a heathen. That is how sin is produced in us.

Notice how Paul, in his pastoral way, even uses the pronoun “I” to relate to the Galatians. He knows that we all naturally do this. He’s saying, “If I turn back to what I turned from when I turned to Christ, then I prove myself to be a sinner.” Paul says this for himself, and Peter and Barnabas and the Galatians – and he says it for the church today.

For us, turning back is especially sinful because we know better. John 6 says that after Jesus delivered a difficult teaching, “many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” You see, when we obey the urge to justify ourselves, we only prove our great need. We’re turning from Christ, and demonstrate that we’re sinners.

But look at verse [19]. Paul says, “For through the law I died to the law,” Paul had strived for most of his life to keep the religious traditions handed down to him. He obeyed the ceremonial laws and the leaders’ interpretations of them very well.

But when Christ opened his eyes, He gained a right view of the whole law – even God’s eternal laws of morality. He realized that he had fallen terribly short of God’s holy standard. He saw that he had been delusional to believe that he had kept God’s law well enough, and that he was foolish to ever believe he had loved God with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, or that he had ever truly loved his neighbor
as much as he loved himself.

When God opened his eyes, Paul realized that God’s law did not commend him; it condemned him. But – the law did help Paul – in this way: it showed him what a sinner he actually is. The Judaizers thought, “The law proves that Gentiles are sinners,” which was true, but it proved that they were as well.

So, when Paul says, “through the law” he means the law showed him that he fell short, and when he says, “I died to the law” he means that he was freed from the law as his means of being justified. The law showed him that he could not perfectly keep it, and showed him that he had been foolish in trying to justify himself with it. Then he was set free from the law as his means of being made right with God.

But look at the result at the end of verse 19, “so that I might live to God.” Christ used the law to increase Paul’s understanding of how much he needed grace. This was God’s plan for how Paul could now live for God. Through the law no longer being Paul’s source of self-righteousness, he was then able to actually be righteous before God and bring God glory.

And like Paul, when we realize that we can never justify ourselves, God then proves His great power. With God’s amazing grace fixed in our minds, then He makes us able to offer Him true obedience. This is how God produces true righteousness in you and me!

Obeying the urge to return to a system of proving ourselves by some set of works is out of sync with the great truth of how God saves us. “Rebuilding what we tore down” diminishes the saving work of Christ on His cross. And that’s why Paul makes this next statement. Look at verse [20]. He says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

This statement is fascinating, even grammatically. Paul uses the perfect verb tense. This grammatical tense is used to describe something that happened in the past but which also comes to bear on the present and the future.

Paul wrote this when he was still alive, of course. But remember – he said he “died to the law,” which is to say that the self-righteous Pharisee named Paul who hoped in his ability to keep the law died. He trusted in Christ, and his old self – who aimed to justify himself – died effectively on that cross with Jesus.

Jesus, however, rose from the dead to new life, and now Paul has risen to new life as well – made new in the sight of God. Paul means to say here that Jesus with His righteous record justified him. Paul saw deeper into the depths of his own sin, though he hadn't seen the bottom. But he recognized that there was zero self-righteousness in law keeping. There’s no salvation in it – no justification in it.

But notice the rest of the verse. “And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.” Paul still aimed to live for God. He still wanted to obey God’s moral law – however, not to prove Himself but because it’s the best way to live. And yet, being clearly a sinner, how could Paul ever even give that a shot?

How could he have the strength to face whatever might come?

How could he hope to grow in living for God?

How could he hope to live a life that would please God? “By faith.”

By relying on the righteousness of Jesus who lived within him. By relying on Jesus, “who,” he says, “loved me and gave Himself for me.” By relying on the record Jesus imputed to him. By trusting that his own sinful record was taken from him and put on Jesus Christ. Paul echoes clearly in Philippians 4 how to live this life of faith. He says, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”

As the grace and knowledge of who Christ is and all He’s done for you grips your heart, you will begin to truly live for God. God will produce true righteousness in you.

As you grow more confident in the love of Christ and His sacrifice for you, you will be made stronger and able to endure in a way that brings God glory.

As the redemption that is in Christ Jesus envelopes more of your mind and your soul, your self-worth will begin to rise because you will know that you are worthy in Christ.

Colossians 3 says, “you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Paul says it “Christ who is your life.” Your self-esteem will actually increase as you esteem Christ’s opinion above all others. But when we return to our self-centered efforts to prove ourselves, we’re only rebuilding a worldly system of worth and meaning and value.

That’s what we do when we turn to other things to assure us that we matter or that we are worth something. So we have to always remember God’s grace, which is why Paul says in verse [21], “I do not nullify (or, reject) the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”

If you can justify yourself, then what did Jesus do on the cross? If there’s something for you to do to prove your value, then He died for no good reason. When Christ took our justification upon Himself, He proved His great sufficiency. He demonstrated that He alone is enough for us.

Apart from Him, whatever we chase or accomplish or acquire will never be enough. And as we go to His table today, these small elements that we will hold in our hands testify that Christ is enough, and with Him – in Him – enough truly is enough.

Let’s bow in prayer.