ガラテヤの信徒への手紙2:17-21 Galatians 2:17-21,

生きているのは、もはやわたしではありません。キリストがわたしの内に生きておられるのです。　　　　　（ガラテヤ2:20）

パウロは旧約聖書の律法を厳格に守って生きていました。ところが、パウロは、イエス・キリストを信じるクリスチャンをつかまえて牢屋に入れるためにダマスコに向かって旅をしているときに、天におられる復活のキリストに出会いました。そして、キリストに「なぜ、わたしを迫害するのか」と叱られて自分の罪を知らされたのでした。天からの声に衝撃を受けて倒れたパウロは、目も見えず食べることも飲むこともできない状態になりました。ところが、キリストの導きによってダマスコでアナニアというクリスチャンに出会い、キリストを信じて回心し洗礼を受けました。パウロは自分の心境の変化を、フィリピの信徒への手紙の3章6節と7節で、自分は「律法の義については非のうちどころのない者」であったが、それを「キリストのゆえに損失と見なすようになった」と述べています。つまり、律法を厳格に守ることによって生きることをやめて、キリストを信じることによって生きることを始めたのでした。

そのような変化をパウロは19節で、自分は「律法に対しては」死んだと述べています。律法に対して死んだとは、律法との関係で生きることをやめたということです。そして、「わたしは、キリストと共に十字架につけられています」と述べています。これは、キリストが十字架の上で死んでくださったのは罪人である自分の救いのためであったから、キリストを信じた自分はキリストと共に十字架につけられたと同じだ、ということです。言い換えますと、自分はもはや律法を守って生きようとしたあの古い自分の力によって生きることはできない、ということです。それでは、パウロは何の力によって生きるのでしょうか？復活したキリストの力によって生きるのです。

20節の前半でパウロは「生きているのは、もはやわたしではありません。キリストがわたしの内に生きておられるのです」と記しています。これはクリスチャンの生き方をとてもよく表しているすばらしい言葉です。「キリストがわたしの内に生きておられる」とは、「キリストの霊である聖霊が私の内にあって、私に生きる力を与えている」という意味です。かつてのパウロにとっては、律法を実行することが生きる力でした。しかし、キリストを信じるようになってからは、キリストへの信仰が生きる力となりました。その信仰は、十字架によって示されたキリストの愛に基づいています。そこでパウロは、20節の後半で「わたしが今、肉において生きているのは、わたしを愛し、わたしのために身を献げられた神の子に対する信仰によるものです」と述べて、十字架によって示されたキリストの愛への信仰が自分の生きる力になっていることを明らかにしています。　　（9月17日の説教より）

For us human beings to live together in society, we need rules, such as laws and regulations. Companies that ignore rules and pursue profits unfairly will be prosecuted and judged when this is revealed. Individuals who ignore rules are also subject to social sanctions, and if they contravene the law, they will be judged and punished. So, is it a good way of life if you just follow the law, rules and regulations? Not really. There may be cases where a serious person who abides by the law and rules well may be a tyrant at home who has too much authority over his family and causes them to suffer. Or there are companies that skirt the law but make profits in unethical ways. Human beings must live by rules, but simply following rules expressed in writing is not enough to live a good life.

In ancient Israelite society, there was a set of rules called the Torah, which were written down in the Old Testament. The Torah, i.e., “law” is recorded in five books, from Genesis to Deuteronomy. The Jews of New Testament times placed great importance on living by this law. In particular, the Jewish Pharisees, to whom Paul belonged before he believed in Christ, interpreted the law in detail and strictly observed it in their daily lives. The question then arises: must the people of other nations who came to believe in Christ through Paul’s evangelism – Gentile Christians – also strictly observe the Old Testament law? The letter to the Galatians answers that question, so I would like to briefly review the circumstances behind this letter.

After Paul had left on his first missionary journey, preaching Christ in Galatia, which is now the south-eastern part of Turkey, evangelists from the church in Jerusalem came to the churches in Galatia. These evangelists took Paul’s authority lightly and taught differently from him. Paul had taught that a person could be saved by believing in Christ, but the later evangelists taught that “one could not be fully saved without not only believing in Christ but also undergoing the ritual of circumcision as required by the Old Testament law.” Circumcision is a ritual in which the skin surrounding the male penis is cut off as a sign that the Jewish people are God’s people. It was usually performed on the eighth day after birth, according to the Old Testament provisions of Genesis 17:12 and Leviticus 12:3. It was also performed for non-Jews converting to Judaism, even if they were adults.

This teaching caused great upset to the non-Jewish believers in the Galatian region, i.e., Gentile Christians. Then, to compound the upheaval, an event occurred in the Antioch church in the province of Syria, from which Paul had been sent on a mission. The events that took place are described in verses 11-14, which precede today’s passages. It can be summarised roughly as follows. Peter, the leader of the Jerusalem church, came to the church in Antioch. Peter evangelised and fellowshipped with the believers in the Antioch church. At first he shared meals and fellowship with the Gentile believers as well. However, some Jewish Christians from James the Lord’s brother, who was the leader of the Jerusalem church with Peter and John, came and told Peter something. Then Peter stopped eating with the Gentile believers. When Paul learnt of this, he objected to Peter to his face, saying that it was not right that he had stopped eating with the Gentile believers.

Jewish Christians from James, probably told Peter as follows: “The congregation of the Jerusalem church is suffering from the persecution by the nationalistic Jews because of the teaching that Gentiles can be saved without the ritual of circumcision. Please act wisely with that in your mind.” In other words, he may have explained the dangers which the congregation of the Jerusalem church faced and asked Peter to keep a certain distance from the Gentile Christians. Hearing this, Peter stopped eating fellowship with the Gentile believers. And the Jewish believers of the Antioch church and even Barnabas, a fellow worker of Paul, sympathised with Peter’s move. Thus, the Antioch church almost split into a Jewish party and a Gentile party. Not only that, but the Gentile believers were under pressure to undergo the ritual of circumcision and observe various ceremonial rules, such as food, as the Jews. Therefore, Paul publicly pointed out Peter’s error by saying, as in verse 14: “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

In verse 16 before today’s passages, Paul teaches about the relationship between Christians and the “law” as follows.

Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have 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.

When it says that “a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ,” “a person” means all human beings, Jews and Gentiles alike. And “because by works of the law no one will be justified,” at the end of the passage means “neither Jew nor Gentile will be justified by works of the law.” In other words, both Jews and Gentiles are sinners before God.

“Works of the law” means observing the provisions of the Old Testament law. And what is directly at issue here is the requirement to observe various ceremonial provisions, such as circumcision and food. Is it then only the observance of the ceremonial provisions such as circumcision and food that Paul means by the term “works of the law”? It would not be so. Because in 5:3 of this letter, Paul says: “I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.” In other words, “works of the law” means keeping the provisions of the whole law, not only the ceremonial provisions such as circumcision and food, but also ethical provisions such as the Ten Commandments. By observing the entirety of the ceremonial and ethical provisions of the law, Paul argues, no one can be counted as righteous before God.

By what, then, will one be counted as righteous before God? By faith in Jesus Christ! Verse 16 says: “Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law.”

After stating these things, in verse 17 of today’s passages Paul writes: “But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!” This is a difficult way of putting it. Perhaps Paul is responding to criticism directed at him. What kind of criticism is this: “If one does not have to keep the Old Testament law because one is justified by faith in Christ, does this not mean that one uses Christ as an excuse to sin?” In other words, the criticism is this: “Isn’t Christ ‘a servant of sin’ who causes people to sin?” To this Paul replies with conviction, “Certainly not!”

In the next verse, verse 18, Paul says: “For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.” This is perhaps even more difficult to understand than verse 17. “What I tore down” refers to the idea that a person is justified by works of the law. So verse 18 could be rephrased to mean, “If I say, ‘A man is justified by faith in Jesus Christ, and not by works of the law,’ and I act as if I could not be saved unless I kept the law, I prove that I was wrong in saying, ‘A man is justified by faith in Jesus Christ,’ in the first place, and that I was only a transgressor of the law.”

Specifically, this would be the way of acting like Peter, whom I mentioned earlier. At first, Peter believed that Gentiles could also be justified by believing in Christ, and he shared meals and fellowship with Gentile Christians. However, when he heard about the problems caused in Jerusalem by the teaching that Gentiles could be saved without the ritual of circumcision, he stopped eating with Gentile Christians. In other words, by his own actions, he steered himself in the direction of the idea that they could not be saved unless they kept the Old Testament law. This would mean that Peter was wrong in thinking that Gentiles could also be justified by believing in Christ. Paul does not mention Peter by name here, but he probably has Peter’s mistake in mind when he says: “if I rebuild what I tore down.” In other words, Paul is saying, “I will never go back to the idea or behaviour of being justified by works of the law.”

Why is this so, Paul says in verses 19 and 20 as follows.

For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Paul had been living strictly according to the Old Testament law. However, while travelling to Damascus to seize Christians who believed in Jesus Christ and put them in prison, Paul met the risen Christ in heaven. He was then made aware of his sin when Christ rebuked him, saying, “Why are you persecuting me?” Shocked by the voice from heaven, Paul fell to the ground and became blind, unable to see, eat or drink. However, Christ led him to Damascus, where he met a Christian named Ananias, who converted him and baptised him. Paul describes his change of heart in Philippians 3:6-7, where he states that he had been “as to righteousness under the law, blameless” but now he counted it “as loss for the sake of Christ.” In other words, he ceased to live by strict observance of the law and began to live by faith in Christ.

Such a change Paul describes in verse 19 as saying that he “died to the law.” Dying to the law means that he has ceased to live in relation to the law. He then states, “I have been crucified with Christ.” This means that since Christ died on the cross for my salvation as a sinner, my believing in Christ is the same as being crucified with him. In other words, I can no longer live by the power of my old self, which tried to live by the law. By what power, then, does Paul live? In the first half of verse 20, Paul says: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” These are wonderful words that describe the Christian way of life very well. “Christ who lives in me” means “the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, who lives in me, giving me strength to live.” For Paul in the past, the power of life was works of the law. But after he came to believe in Christ, his faith in Christ became his power to live. That faith is based on the love of Christ demonstrated by the cross. So Paul makes it clear that faith in Christ’s love shown by the cross is the power of his life when he says in the second half of verse 20: “And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

At the end of today’s passages, Paul says: “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.” These words show a strong determination: “I will never go back to the idea that I will be justified by works of the law, because if I went back to such an idea, Christ’s death on the cross would be meaningless.” So should Christians no longer think in terms of keeping the law? It is natural not to observe provisions such as the Jewish ritual of circumcision, but what about ethical laws such as the Ten Commandments? If a Christian no longer think about keeping the law, will he/she deviate from the way he/she should walk? As if to answer such questions, in chapter 5:16 of this letter Paul says: “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” This means that if you follow the way shown to you by the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, you will never deviate from the way you should walk.

Without knowing the cross of Christ, one can only live by the power of the old ego, which is self-centred. And even if one tries to control the old ego by observing some rules, in the end it remains self-centred and cannot have a right relationship with God. However, when you believe in the cross of Christ, you are given a repentant heart and your old ego dies day by day. Then, instead of living by the power of the old ego, one is given the power to live by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, and is shown the way to live. I want to believe in Christ, repent and live each day by the Spirit of “Christ who lives in me.”