Galatians and Romans: The Truth of the Gospel

What is the gospel? You may think you know the answer to that question, it may seem obvious, and yet it’s not immediately clear, is it? Sometimes we get somewhat confused, and we’re not sure exactly how to explain what the gospel is. Is the gospel justification by faith alone, or is the gospel justification as well as sanctification, and how we need to grow and become more like Christ? I would argue that sanctification and the importance of living the Christian life is a consequence of the gospel, but it’s not the gospel directly.

What Is the Gospel?

The gospel itself is that we are righteous before God by faith in Christ, not by works of the law. Paul answers this question, what is the gospel, directly, explicitly, in both of these letters, in both Galatians and in Romans. And we read those passages, where he’s clearly saying, this is what the gospel is. In Galatians, he says, look, I want you to know that this gospel that I proclaim, I received it directly from Christ. It’s not a man-made gospel. I didn’t invent it with my own reasoning. It is received from Christ himself.

Of course, Paul in Galatians also presents the gospel in a way that is directly relevant to the specific situation that is happening in Galatia. And that’s why he talks about all of this controversy that’s happening with these false brothers who are creeping in and trying to enslave the Galatian Christians, telling them that they must be circumcised and keep the law in order to be righteous before God. And Paul says, I stood against them. I maintained and upheld the truth of the gospel for the sake of you Gentile Christians, that you might know the liberty that you have in Christ. So Paul is expounding the gospel in Galatians, but he’s doing so in the context of this specific controversy that is happening in the churches of Galatia. Same thing in Romans. Paul is preaching the gospel in Romans.

He directly says it there in verse 15, Romans 1.15. I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. We could even translate that as teach. I am eager to teach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. And then for the next 11 chapters, he is teaching the gospel. He’s explaining to them what the gospel is.

Different Rhetorical Situations

Romans: A Church Paul Did Not Plant

There’s a different situation, though. Paul did not plant this church in Rome. In fact, he had not yet even had a chance to visit them personally. He says, I’ve been trying to come and visit you, but I haven’t been able, I’ve been prevented thus far. But I desire to come to you.

Galatians: An Urgent Response to Crisis

Romans then has a different flavor to it than Galatians. Galatians is this urgent response to this crisis that is happening in churches that Paul himself had planted. He says in Galatians, I’m astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. So Galatians has this very polemical flavor to it, polemical meaning argumentative, fighting, dealing with, defending the truth of the gospel against these false teachers who are distorting the gospel and saying that the gospel is not faith in Christ but rather doing the law, keeping the law in order to be right with God.

It’s not exactly clear when Galatians was written, but it was written earlier in Paul’s ministry. Whether it was the very first letter he wrote or not is debated. Some say 1st and 2nd Thessalonians are earlier. But be that as it may, we know that Galatians is an early letter, back at the beginning of his ministry.

We can tell because if you compare with Acts, you see in Acts 13 and 14, Paul’s first missionary journey, where he goes to these churches in the region of Galatia. He and Barnabas, they were the ones that on the first missionary journey of Paul, planted these churches.

And then as a result of that, the question arose, what do we do with all these Gentiles who are coming to faith in Christ? Do they need to be circumcised? And Acts 15 verse one tells us that there were some Jewish believers in Jesus who claimed that you have to be circumcised in order to be saved. And they were pushing this upon the Gentile believers.

Romans after the Judaizer Conflict

Romans was written approximately a decade later. By then, this Judaizer conflict, this conflict between the Judaizers and Paul has settled, the dust has settled. The Council of Jerusalem has already met in Acts 15. This whole question of whether the Gentiles need to be circumcised has been settled and decided. And now Paul is writing to the Roman Christians, to a church that he himself did not personally plant. And he’s not writing with the same degree of agitation to make sure that they are not brought under slavery to the law by these Judaizers. That seems to be in the past. That was a decade ago. Now in Romans, Paul has the opportunity to take the time and to carefully unpack the gospel to, in effect, I would say, write an essay. He’s writing an essay in Romans.

This is what the gospel is. Let me explain it to you. And he calmly shows how both Jews and Gentiles are equally under the law, under God’s wrath, equally unrighteous and in need of the righteousness of Christ that is revealed in the gospel. And so it’s very helpful then to compare and contrast these two letters. Paul’s letter to the Galatians and Paul’s letter to the Romans. Even though they have different contexts, different situations, different tones. The tone of Galatians is more agitated and argumentative and full of urgent call to the Galatians to not listen to the false teachers. Whereas Romans is more calm, measured, presenting the gospel as an essay and explaining in more detail the truth of the gospel. And so this is a helpful thing when you’re studying the Bible is to compare parallel passages with one another. We do this, for example, with the study of the gospels.

Interpreting the Bible Vertically and Horizontally

We know there are four Gospels in the New Testament. At the very beginning of the New Testament, the Gospel according to Matthew, and the Gospel according to Luke, and the Gospel according to Mark, and the Gospel according to John. And these Gospels are very similar to one another. They’re telling us the same basic storyline. Beginning with the baptism of John, and the beginning of the ministry of Jesus, how he casts out demons and heals the sick, and then culminating in his cross and resurrection. The gospels are telling us the same story, and yet, they have slightly different ways of putting things, don’t they? Slightly different perspectives.

The Gospel of John, for example, is known for being strongly emphasizing the deity of Christ. Not that the other Gospels deny the deity of Christ, no, they as well speak of the deity of Christ, but John has a particular emphasis upon that, a particular focus upon that, and he brings it out in such wonderful ways.

A Fuller, Three-Dimensional Picture

This gives us a helpful way of interpreting the Bible. And it’s important to do this because the Bible is a unified whole. Even though it was written by different authors over thousands of years, yet the Bible was ultimately authored by God. The Holy Spirit inspired the various authors of Scripture, and therefore there is a unity to the Scripture, and therefore we’re required. It’s not just an optional thing where, it could be fun to compare Romans and Galatians or The gospel of John and the gospel of Matthew. No, we’re required to do that because we believe that this book is the word of God. That the canon of scripture from Genesis to Revelation is a unified whole given to us in two parts, the Old Testament writings and the New Testament writings. And all of it is a unified whole that teaches us about the gospel.

We can interpret the Bible both vertically and horizontally. Vertically means going in canonical order. You start with Genesis, you read Genesis, and then you go to Exodus. Or if you’re looking at the Gospels, you could just interpret the four Gospels vertically. Read Matthew first, then read Mark, then read Luke, then read John. But you can also read the Bible horizontally. That is, you can compare Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You can compare the Old Testament and the New Testament.

You can compare Romans and Galatians. And the beauty of that, not only is it because we’re required to do that because it’s the canon of scripture and God has given us this word that is a unified whole, but the beauty of it is that it also brings out a fuller depth to scripture. It’s like looking at a three-dimensional object as opposed to simply a two-dimensional Picture, you’re looking at a three-dimensional object and you’re rotating this glorious diamond of the truth of God from all different perspectives. And it brings out such wonderful insights into the truth of God’s word. We can look at Romans and Galatians then, similar to the way we compare the four Gospels with one another.

We can read them horizontally, we can compare them and see the parallel, see the parallel passages, and see how Paul makes the same basic arguments in both letters. And yet, also seeing the unique insights that each letter brings because of its specific situation. What are the similarities between Romans and Galatians? And actually, I struggle with that word, similarities, because it sounds like there’s still some difference, but really, it’s identities. What is the same doctrine that is found in both Romans and Galatians?

Similarities between Romans and Galatians

Paul Teaches the Gospel in Both Letters

in both, as we said, in both letters, Paul is explicitly teaching the gospel. In both letters, Paul is explicitly addressing the question, what is the gospel? It is the gospel of Christ. In Galatians, it’s the gospel that he received from the risen Christ on the road to Damascus when Christ revealed himself to the Apostle Paul, turned him around from being a Pharisee who was pursuing the law and persecuting Christians, and called him to be an apostle to the Gentiles. We see the same thing in Romans. Paul is teaching the gospel in Romans.

He is saying, I am eager to preach the gospel, to teach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. Even though you’re not one of my own churches that I planted, yet I desire, I am eager to teach you the gospel. The reason he’s doing this in Romans is because he wants to gain their support for his future plans to do missionary work in the far western regions of the Roman Empire, in Spain. He talks about that later in Romans 15.

And so if they’re going to support him in his mission to Spain, then they need to be on board with his gospel. And so Paul says, here is what I teach, here is what I preach. So the first similarity or even better identity between Romans and Galatians is that in both letters, Paul is explicitly answering the question, what is the gospel? The second identity is that in both, Paul defines the gospel as justification by faith in Christ alone, not by works of the law. And there are two key passages in Romans and in Galatians that are like parallels with one another. They’re similar to like in the Gospels, where you have the same account of, let’s say, the healing of the blind man in Matthew, and you can compare it with the healing of the blind man in Luke. Same thing in Romans and Galatians.

Justification by Faith, Not by Works of the Law

The key passages where Paul explicitly and clearly declares what the gospel is are in Galatians 2.16 and Romans 3.21.

Let’s look at the first one in Galatians 2.16. Paul says, Let’s back up to verse 15. He’s recounting the speech that he made to Peter when Peter was sinfully pulling back from having table fellowship with the Gentiles, hypocritically bowing to the pressure of the Judaizers. And this is what Paul says to Peter.

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. And yet we know, we are convinced that Here’s the gospel. We are convinced that a person is not justified by works of the law, that is a person is not counted as righteous before God by doing the good deeds that the law requires, but rather through faith in Christ Jesus. And so we also We Jewish believers have also believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. Because by works of the law, no one will be justified.

If you want just a simple, one verse, nutshell statement of what the gospel is, there you have it, Galatians 2.16. A person, whether a Jew or a Gentile, is righteous in the sight of God, not by doing good deeds, the law requires and calls for good deeds, but we’re not righteous before God by that, we’re righteous before God simply by what? Faith in Jesus Christ. By trusting in Jesus Christ. The parallel to that is in Romans chapter 3.

In Romans chapter 3, in verse 21 and following, we have the parallel passage to Galatians 2.16. After he has declared that the Gentiles are lacking in righteousness.

That’s a obvious conclusion. We don’t need to really think that hard about the fact that the Gentiles are sinners. Look at them, out there worshiping idols and engaging in sexual immorality. We get that, the Gentiles are sinners. Then in chapter two, he says, the Jews also are sinners. The Jews also, even though they claim to be better, they claim that they have the law, Yet in reality, they break the law just as much as the Gentiles do.

So he concludes that whole section, the first three chapters of Romans by saying, there is none righteous, no not one, Galatians 3.10. But then in verse 21, he then declares what the gospel is. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe whether Jew or Gentile, for there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are righteous, are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

And then he goes on to say in verse 28, We hold that one, that is a person, similar to Galatians 2.16, a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Same gospel, same idea, that we are righteous. We are counted as righteous in God’s sight, not by our doing the works of the law, but rather by believing in Christ.

Christ’s Obedience Is the Ground of Our Righteousness

Although in Romans, you can see that he has somewhat more time to flesh things out. So in Romans, he gets into somewhat more detail about why is it that we are able to be righteous before God, by faith in Christ. It’s not the faith in Christ itself. It’s not our faith that makes us righteous. It is faith in Christ that makes us righteous because of the work of Christ.

And so Paul here fleshes out the redemption that is in Christ. And what is that redemption? What is the reality that has caused us to be set free from our slavery to sin and to be right before God? It is the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ that he has by his blood has fulfilled God’s law and satisfied the justice of God.

So in both Romans and Galatians, Paul is teaching what the gospel is. In both, he defines the gospel as justification by faith in Christ. In both, in both Romans and Galatians, Paul focuses upon the work of Christ as the ground of our righteousness. We already saw that in Romans 3, verse 25, whom God put forth as a propitiation by his blood. But we see the same thing in Galatians.

For example, in Galatians 2, verses 20 and following, he says, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. You see very clearly there this idea that the righteousness that he’s talking about, being declared righteous, being justified, doesn’t come through the law, but rather it comes through the work of Christ, through his death, through his blood, through his sacrifice, through what Christ has done for us. And of course, as I’ve taught many times before, you have to always remember that when Paul speaks about the blood of Christ, or the death of Christ, or the cross of Christ, he’s using that to pick out the climax of the entire life of Christ, culminating in his sacrificial death on the cross. And so the active obedience of Christ is also included When Paul speaks about the blood of Christ, he’s not excluding the active obedience of Christ.

Why? Because, as Leviticus says, the life is in the blood. When the sacrifice is offered, its life is poured out as an offering to God. Christ poured himself out as a sacrifice to God, not only at the end when he hung upon the cross, but throughout his whole life. His was an obedient, suffering, wrath-bearing, law-fulfilling, sacrificial, and substitutionary life for God’s people.

But because it culminates in the cross as the pinnacle of His obedience, His obedience to the point of death, as He says in Philippians 2, Because it culminates in the cross, because it culminates in the pouring out of the blood of Christ upon the cross, Paul will speak about the entire work of Christ, the entire obedience of Christ, using that one word, blood, or death, or the cross of Christ. So the identities between Romans and Galatians is that both of them are very focused upon the work of Christ. On what Christ has done through his life and death, the act of obedience of Christ being fulfilled in his climactic obedience upon the cross.

That is the ground of our righteousness. The ground of our righteousness is not only that we believe in Christ, that’s simply the instrument by which we receive the righteousness of Christ. But the ground of our righteousness, the legal basis upon which we are accepted as righteous before God and accepted and our sins are forgiven, and there’s no condemnation. The ground of that is the work of Christ. It is the mission of Christ as the suffering servant, as the Lamb of God, as the obedient one who went to the cross for his people.

I think Galatians 2.21 is a wonderful encapsulation of the heart of the gospel.

If righteousness were through the law, If that’s how we were to get righteousness is by keeping the law, then Christ died for no reason. If the Judaizers are correct that the way we get righteousness is by committing ourselves to keeping the law, circumcision being a symbol of taking on the yoke of the law and committing yourself to live a law-obedient life, if the Judaizers are right that that’s the basis upon which we receive righteousness, then what was the whole point of Christ dying on the cross? And that’s like the most obvious thing. That’s what we believe as Christians.

That’s what it means to be a Christian, is that you believe in Christ, and you believe that his death was for you, that he died for your sins, that he lived a perfect life for you. That’s why Paul will then, the very next verse, which is actually the beginning of the next chapter, I’m still in Galatians here, right after saying, if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for nothing, the very next verse says, Oh foolish Galatians, you have to be foolish to miss this. Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?

It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. He’s remembering a few years before, not quite sure how long it was between when he first planted the church and when this letter was written, but let’s say a year or two before, he’s recalling what He preached when they were first saved. He preached Christ and Him crucified. He was proclaiming the cross of Christ so powerfully, so vividly, that it was as if He was publicly painting a picture of the crucifixion scene before their eyes. And it was when they heard the glory of the cross of Christ, that they, by the Spirit’s work in their hearts, were granted saving faith to trust in Christ for salvation and for righteousness.

So in both Romans and Galatians, Paul is teaching the gospel. In both, he defines the gospel as that we are righteous by faith in Christ, not by works of the law. In both, he focuses on the cross. He focuses upon the obedience of Christ that climaxes in the cross as the ground of our righteousness before God. And in both letters, Paul also talks considerably about faith as the way in which we receive this righteousness that has been revealed to us in the work of Christ. And he talks about how we must receive it as a gift. And we receive it by believing in Christ and by trusting in Christ.

Abraham as the Paradigm of Faith

And of course he uses Abraham as the great paradigm, the great example of what it means to have faith in God. Not simply faith that God is going to work things out for you, but faith in the specific sense of faith in the promise of God that he will save sinners by his grace. In both Romans and Galatians, Paul places significant emphasis on the example of Abraham. And he specifically quotes from a verse in Genesis chapter 15, verse six, when God revealed to Abraham that he was going to have a son. His very own son. He wasn’t going to be forced to rely upon his servant Eleazar of Damascus to be the heir, that he would have his own son, even though Abraham was old and his wife was barren.

God promised him. He said, look up into the sky and count the stars if you’re able, so shall your offspring be. Seemed impossible from Abraham’s point of view. He looked at himself, his own body, he looked at his wife, she’s old and barren, and he thinks, it doesn’t seem like it’s possible. But he believed God, it says. Genesis 15, verse six, he believed God. He trusted in God’s promise. He trusted that God would do what he promised to do. And the text says it was counted to him as righteousness. And Paul quotes that verse both in Galatians three, verse six, and in Romans four, verse three.

Abraham then becomes the paradigm of saving faith, which is ultimately what? It is a sense of our own utter bankruptcy and inability and therefore complete trust in God that he will do it. And that is what saving faith is. As applied to the gospel, it is knowing that you’re a sinner, knowing that you can’t keep the law, just like Abraham can’t have children, and his wife can’t have children in herself. So we know that we cannot keep the law, that we are sinners in God’s sight, that we have a corrupt heart, that we are total failures in the eyes of God if viewed in ourselves apart from Christ. And then we are trusting in God that he will do what he has promised.

That’s why the Apostle Paul, after giving that whole chapter in Romans chapter four about Abraham’s example of faith, he concludes by saying in Romans 4.23, these words, it was counted to him, quote unquote, quoting from Genesis 15.6, these words, it was counted to him, were not written for Abraham’s sake alone, but also for us. To whom it will be counted. It will be counted to us as who believe in Him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. So what is the gospel then? The gospel is that we are righteous before God because of what Christ has done, not because of our works.

And we receive the work of Christ, we receive his righteousness, which culminates in his death on the cross, we receive it by faith, just like Abraham, trusted in the promises of God, in spite of his own inability, and it was counted to him for righteousness.

Important Differences

And yet there are some important differences between Romans and Galatians. These are all the similarities. The same gospel, the same focus upon Christ and his work, the same emphasis on faith, trusting in Christ and receiving his righteousness. But there are some important differences as well. One of the big differences is because of that context that I talked about before, where Romans is an essay in which he explains the gospel very calmly and he’s able to give more attention to all of the nuances and all the scriptural arguments. Whereas Galatians is written in this very intense heat of the battle with the Judaizers. And so they have a different overall thesis. The overall thesis, the overall banner statement of Romans is Romans 1:17.

In it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God has been manifested, has been revealed. The righteousness of God is a phrase that is only found in Romans, not in Galatians. It’s also found in some other epistles like Philippians and 2 Corinthians. But in comparing these two, that phrase, the righteousness of God, is not used in Galatians.

But it is used in Romans because he wants to say that this righteousness is available for both Jews and Gentiles who are equally unrighteous. There is none righteous from the perspective of the flesh. Fallen humanity, whether it is the fallen humanity in the form of Gentile rebellion against God or in the form of the Jewish boasting in their keeping of the law when they do not truly keep it. In response to the unrighteousness of both Jews and Gentiles, the righteousness of God has been revealed.

And I believe that the righteousness of God means the righteousness that comes from God as a gift. And that it is received by faith alone. So the banner statement that Paul puts at the very beginning of Romans is that the gospel is the revelation of the righteousness of God that comes from God as a gift and is revealed in Christ in his death on the cross.

But in Galatians, he has a different banner statement, a different thrust, a different thesis statement. In Galatians, his main statement is Galatians 5 verse 1. There are other passages in Galatians that use the same language of freedom or liberty, but Galatians 5 verse 1 is a great one. He says, for freedom Christ has set us free.

Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. And that’s why as I was preaching through Galatians, I argued that the overall theme is gospel liberty. Gospel liberty, the doctrine of gospel liberty, the life of gospel liberty, the liberty that we have in Christ from the law as a covenant of works that condemns us, and from these Judaizers who are trying to enslave you.

They’re trying to enslave you and say, oh, you’re not good enough, you need to be circumcised, you need to keep the law. They’re in the congregation itself, and they’re trying to enslave these Gentile Christians. And they’re putting many pressure on them. They’re putting social pressure on them. They’re saying, we won’t even have table fellowship with you unless you get circumcised. We won’t even view you as a true member of the people of God until you get circumcised.

And so Paul then, because of that particular situation of Galatians, uses this language of gospel liberty. Stand fast in that liberty that you have in Christ and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery. That is the slavery of these Judaizers who are saying you have to do this in order to be right with God.

Different Arguments for the Gospel

Another difference between Romans and Galatians is not only this banner statement, righteousness of God for Romans, gospel liberty for Galatians, another difference is that Paul uses slightly different arguments for the gospel. In Romans, his primary appeal to argue for the truth of the gospel, that is the truth that we are justified by faith alone, is scripture. Paul uses scripture all over the place in Romans. And he gathers together many passages, not only Galatians 15, six, where Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness, but Psalm 130, which we sang before, he quotes that.

He quotes from Habakkuk chapter two, many passages, and he weaves all these passages together to argue that, as he says in Romans 3.21, that the righteousness of God is manifested to which the law and the prophets bear witness. The law and the prophets is simply a reference to the entire Old Testament. The law is the first five books of Moses, and the prophets is the rest of the Old Testament. The law and the prophets. Bear witness to this truth of justification by faith alone.

In Galatians, Paul does use scripture quite a bit. Scripture is very important for Paul’s argument, beginning in Galatians 3 verse 6 and continuing down to the end of chapter 4. But, before he does that, before he turns to Scripture, Paul builds some unique arguments for the Gospel that are not found in Romans. And this is very insightful and helpful for us. Again, we’re doing this three-dimensional understanding of the gospel. We’re spinning the diamond around. We’re looking at different facets of it.

Before Paul gets to the scriptural argument that occupies Galatians 3, 6 to the end of chapter 4, Paul appeals to experience, which is an unusual thing. In Reformed theology, usually we don’t like appeals to experience. We want appeals to Scripture. But Paul does appeal to experience. He appeals to the Galatians’ own experience of how it was that they came to know the Lord. And this is in chapter three and verses two through five. He says to them, let me ask you only this.

Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Back then, two years ago, whenever it was, were you keeping the law? Were you circumcised? No, you simply heard the gospel. You heard about Christ and Him crucified. Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by hearing the gospel and by believing it? Are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer or experience so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and work miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith? And the answer is obvious, so the rhetorical questions are saying obviously it’s not by works but by faith.

In addition, Paul also, if you back up into the previous chapter in chapter two, Paul also appeals to the experience of the earliest Jewish believers in Jesus. Remember, I began the whole sermon by looking at Galatians 2, 15 to 16, where Paul explicitly states what the gospel is. But notice how he frames it here. In Galatians 2, verses 15 and 16, he says, He’s talking to Peter. Peter is a Jewish believer in Jesus. He says, we, you and I, Peter, we ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. And yet, we, we who are Jewish believers, we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.

This, I believe, is very powerful and very important to keep in mind. Because it is easy for us to mistakenly think that Paul’s statement that the gospel equals justification by faith in Christ, and not by keeping the law, it’s easy for us to mistakenly think that that is a unique doctrine that Paul came up with. Or if he didn’t come up with it, that he received it from Christ, but it’s Paul’s own doctrine, and it’s not really the same doctrine of the other apostles. But according to this verse here, Paul is saying, Peter, you and I, we have experienced this same truth and we know it. We know it in our very being.

We know it to the core of our soul that a person is not righteous before God by keeping the law. But rather by faith in Christ. And that’s why we, even we Jewish believers who have the law, who have the opportunity to try to keep it and be righteous before God by doing it, yet even we Jewish believers knew that we couldn’t do it that way. And that’s why we too, he goes on to say there, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus. We also, as Jewish People, put our faith, put our trust in Christ so that we might be justified through faith in Christ and not through our attempts to keep the law.

This becomes very significant then in terms of our broader goal of trying to understand how the whole Bible fits together, comparing scripture with scripture, not only comparing Romans and Galatians, but now we have a key here in this one verse, in Galatians 2, 15 to 16, we have a key that unlocks the four gospels, does it not? According to Paul, When you look at the four gospels and you see the disciples growing in their understanding of who Christ is, witnessing the crucifixion of Christ, failing to keep the law, failing to love God and love the Lord, and then being restored afterward, just as Peter was restored when Jesus said, yes, you sinned by denying me, but you belong to me, you are my sheep. When we read the Gospels then through the lens of Galatians 2, verses 15 and 16, it unlocks the four Gospels because now we see the four Gospels as presenting to us this same reality of the disciples who are Jews by birth, who are learning as they grow in their understanding of who Christ is, who are learning that they are not righteous in themselves, that they are vile sinners before God, and that they are righteous in the sight of God simply by trusting in Christ.

And again, in Christ crucified. That’s why the four gospels are sometimes referred to as passion narratives with extended introductions. Because the Gospels are all about the cross. The Gospels are all about that, all about what Christ does at the end of the story. He goes to the cross to save his people. He goes to the cross to be the ransom for many, to pour out his blood for the forgiveness of sins. And then he’s raised again on the third day to restore his disciples to himself.

The experience of the very, very first believers in Jesus, who were all Jewish, had all been circumcised, who all had kept the law, The experience, or attempted to keep the law, tried to be law-abiding members of Israel, but the experience of the first Jewish believers in Jesus points us to the truth of justification by faith alone.

You can read the four Gospels in light of this doctrine. You can read the four Gospels in light of this reality that we are righteous before God, not by keeping the law, but by faith in Christ, and because of the work of Christ, which culminates in his glorious offering of himself upon the cross. There are several clues in the Gospels that we could think of that show us that. One is the constant conflict between the Pharisees, who are the ones pushing the law, and saying, you have to keep the law, and the disciples who are not keeping the law, who are sinners before God, and yet the Lord redeems them because they humble themselves and they acknowledge their need of the grace of Christ.

Galatians then, although it doesn’t have that same extended essay flavor of Romans, And Romans is wonderful, and it gives us some amazing doctrinal teaching that is so crucial for us to understand the gospel. But Galatians also, as we turn the diamond, has this other facet to it, has these amazing, beautiful passages where Paul appeals to the experience, not only of the first Jewish believers in Christ, but also of the first Gentile believers in Christ, to show us the truth of the gospel. That we are not righteous before God by our works, but rather by trusting in the work of Christ on our behalf. This is the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Next week will be the last sermon on this topic of comparing Romans and Galatians, and we will look at the second part of both Romans and Galatians. In Galatians, it’s Galatians five and six, and in Romans, it’s Romans five through eight, where Paul talks about the consequences of the gospel and talks about the life of gospel liberty in Christ.