Righteousness

“…by the works of the Law no flesh is made righteous.” (Gal. 2:16c)

In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he mentions a curious encounter he had with Peter (a.k.a. “Cephas”), which Peter had visited the church in Antioch, and all had been well…until… Other Jewish christians came up from Jerusalem, and suddenly Peter got nervous. He stopped dining with, and interacting with the Gentiles in the church, presumably on account of a cultural assumption that the Jewish Christians might frown upon him treating the Gentile christians as equals in the faith. 

So Paul confronted him. Actually, the word in the NASB is, “Paul opposed him to his face.”

But that’s not what I want to talk about today. A lot of scholars and commentators have commented on Paul’s confrontation and the numerous factors playing into why this all happened in the first place. And plenty has been written and said about the theology of unity within the Church and the deleterious hazards of dissension or separation within the Church, so I’m not going to address that today.

I want to take a brief look at a phrase Paul used in verse 16. It’s actually inseparable from the surrounding verses (especially verses 14c-21), but this verse captures the essence of the whole passage, in my opinion.

“By the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.” (Gal. 2:16c NASB)

In verses 15 and 16, Paul reminds Peter (and probably the rest of the assembled Jews, given the fact that he was publicly opposing Peter to his face) that we are all made righteous by faith in Jesus Christ. None of us, therefore, have any advantage over one another (such as the Jews over the Gentiles in this passage). We all come to God on the same terms.

But Paul then takes it a step further here by referencing Psalm 143:2, “in Your sight, no living man is righteous (justified).” We see a delicate weaving together of the Ceremonial Law (the law of Moses, etc) with the much broader Moral Law. Paul addresses both laws at once.

“By the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.”

The Greek terms used here show us some of the layers and multiple meanings this phrase can have. First, the word “sarx” can mean flesh, meat, externality, the body, human nature,  a human being, or even carnal activities and carnal thinking. “Dik-ah-yo-o” then means to render or show as just or innocent, free, justified, or to be righteous.

In one sense, the Ceremonial Law is addressed. By this, no person is justified. Simple and clean. But in another sense, the Moral Law is also addressed.

Morality is not a set of scales whereby we try to do equal measures of good and bad, perhaps a slight bit more good. By the works of the Moral Law, no carnal behavior is considered righteous, or balanced out to create a righteous person. (See how I re-interpreted the verse using the alternate meanings of the Greek words?)

In God’s sight, and in light of His perfect holiness, none of us are perfectly righteous. What this DOESN’T mean is that we live (or don’t live) “good lives,” or perform good actions and behaviors. What this means is that we don’t live perfectly RIGHT-ly according to our originally designed purpose. The point is about getting back to our primitive health and original design before the stains of the Fall, and this is only possible through a transformational faith in Jesus Christ.

It’s not about behavior modification. It’s about a radical transformation of our mind, body, and spirit through our faithful lockstep living with Jesus Christ, our Lord. In other words, “righteousness” in these verses (or “justification” depending on your translation) means “right-relatedness to God.”