Both/and is inclusive. Either/or is exclusive. Both/and creates allies. Either/or creates adversaries. Paul uses both/and a lot. Both men and women, Jews and Gentiles, freemen and slaves, barbarians and cultured. But, when it comes to faith and law in relationship to justification, Paul allows no both/and. It is either faith or law.

Paul’s Contention about Faith

In Galatians 2:15-16 Paul uses justified to mean declared righteous. When he uses works of the law he means works of obedience to the whole law – ceremonial, moral, judicial. That allowed us to establish the negative point Paul makes: “by works of the law no one will be justified.” He means: By obedience to the law no one will be declared righteous before God.

But to understand his positive point we must look at what he means by through faith in Jesus Christ, and the similar phrases so we also have believed in Christ Jesus and justified through faith in Christ.

Bear with me because we have to do a little grammar lesson. In verse 15 when he says “through faith in Jesus Christ” Paul uses the genitive case for “faith”. The thing about the genitive is that it requires a preposition, but it does not specify which one. Now remember what you learned about prepositions in school. A preposition is a word you can use with “house”: in, with, under, on, in, by, etc.

The two possibilities for this phrase are: “in” or “of.” If we choose “of” then Paul says the faith(fulness) of Christ. If we choose “in” then Paul says, as in most translations, faith in Christ. In the first case, Paul would be talking about Christ’s faith or faithfulness. In the second case, he would be talking about our faith in Christ. In the first case, Paul is telling us that we are justified before God by the faithfulness of Christ. He would then be telling us that we are counted righteous because the faithfulness of Christ is credited to us. That is true, but I do not believe that is what Paul means here. (With regard to “justified” and “works of the law” the issues are critical for they have to do with the gospel itself. However, the issue of whether the faith here is Christ’s faithfulness on our behalf or our faith in Christ while important, is not critical. Either way the gospel is the same.)

But, I believe Paul means to speak about our faith in Christ resulting in our justification: (1) There is no place elsewhere that Paul writes of the faith(fullness) of Christ. (2) In the other two phrases about faith Paul does use prepositions, the one time clearly “believed in or into Christ Jesus” and the other “justified by faith in Christ.” It seems likely that he has the same idea in mind all three times he refers to it.

To paraphrase, Paul says, “We know that a person is not declared righteous by doing any kind of works of obedience to the law, but through faith in Christ. So we also have put our faith in Christ Jesus in order to be declared righteous by faith in Christ and not by works of obedience to the law, because by the works of obedience to the law no one will be declared righteous before God.”

Here Paul is making the same point he makes, using similar language in Romans 4, where he uses the case of Abraham to establish that it is by faith we are counted righteous. Pointing to Abraham’s faith in the promises of God’s grace, and citing Genesis 15:6, Paul writes: “That is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness. But the words ‘it was counted to him’ were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raises from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (4:22-25).

What Paul argues in Galatians 2:15-16 is that even he and other Jews who are not “Gentile sinners” – pagans, heathen, immoral, no covenant with God – nevertheless have found that despite all their advantages and privileges, they could not obtain justification through the law. Their covenant relationship with God, their monotheism, their knowledge of the law, their moral righteousness when compared to Gentiles, would not establish sufficient righteousness before God for Jews, so they found that they, too, just like the Gentiles, could obtain righteousness before God by believing in Christ in order to be justified by faith.

Faith is the instrument, the connector, the means.
Christ is the object of faith.
Justification is the result of faith in Christ.

It cannot be both faith and law. It must be either works of the law or it must be faith in Christ Jesus. It cannot be works of the law because by works of the law no one will be justified. Faith in Christ Jesus is the only way to be declared righteous before God.

Paul’s Clarifications about the Law

After contending for the truth of justification by faith, Paul offers two clarifications about his stance on the law. They are a response to the teaching and criticisms of the teachers from Jerusalem were preaching that Gentiles needed not only to believe in Christ, but also to do works of the law, particularly to submit to circumcision, follow the food laws, and keep the Jewish Sabbath and holy seasons.

First, Paul addresses the objection that he is using Christ to encourage unrighteousness: ‘But, if by our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found sinners, is Christ then the servant of sin?’

Paul’s Jewish opponents were saying, “If you have fellowship with uncircumcised Gentiles, who eat unclean foods and do not keep our Sabbath and festivals, then you become one of them. You become like ‘Gentile sinners’ and bring Christ into all this by teaching that faith in him is all that is needed for justification. You are turning Christ into a servant of sin. You are putting him in the position of being a supporter of sin. By teaching justification by faith alone in Christ, you are using Christ to give them cover for their disobedience, and you are making yourself, a circumcised Jew, one of them.”

Paul’s answer: Certainly not! Absolutely, no way. What Paul says is the exact opposite of the “Amen.” Amen means, “Let it be so!” while Paul says, “May it never be so!”

It is unthinkable that Christ should in any way be associated with sin. He ate with Jewish sinners, who were excluded from the righteous who would inherit the kingdom. The Pharisees complained about it, because by doing so he contracted ceremonial uncleanness. Paul’s association with Gentile sinners is no different. Christ did not approve of sin, nor does Paul. You cannot use the case of either of them eating with those who are unclean to make Christ a servant of sin.

Then Paul addresses what would be the effect of his bowing to the criticisms and demands of his Jewish opponents: Now what if I rebuild what I tore down? What if Paul now taught that the Gentiles should be circumcised? He had torn down the law in part by refusing to ask Titus to submit to circumcision. Now what would he accomplish if he reversed his stance and required Gentiles to undergo circumcision? What if he now said that faith in Christ was not enough for justification and that works of the law were necessary?

Paul responds, I prove myself to be a transgressor. All that he would accomplish is to make clear he is a sinner under the law’s condemnation. By rebuilding the law, Paul would not obtain righteousness for himself or for Gentile converts. The law would show only how unrighteous all of us are. The law cannot help the sinner be right with God; it can only cast its spotlight on the sinner’s unrighteousness.

Rather, Paul says, “For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. The law showed me my sin, condemnation, and inability, but the law could not help me to have a living relationship to God. I realized that, if I were going to be alive to God, I needed more than to believe in him, fear him, and try to keep his law. I could never be justified by keeping the law, because I cannot keep the law. When it comes to being right with God, I cannot let the law have any role whatsoever. The law cannot make me righteous. I have to say to the law, “I am dead to you, so that I can be alive to God.”

We have a wonderful and powerful illustration of justification by faith when we come to the Lord’s Table. What do you bring to the Table? Nothing. All is provided. What do you do? You accept what is offered. As you receive the bread and wine with faith, you receive Christ and all his saving benefits.
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William H. Smith is the pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Miss.