AM Sermon, 28 December 2025, Lebanon Presbyterian Church (PCA), Abbeville County, South Carolina, USA Brothers and sisters, as we continue our series in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, we come this morning to what may be the very heart of the epistle—and indeed, one of the clearest and most powerful statements in all of Scripture about how a sinner is made right with God. The question is as old as humanity itself: How can I, a guilty sinner, stand before a holy God and be accepted? Men and women in every age have sought the answer. Some turn to religion, piling up rituals and good works, hoping they will be enough. Others turn inward, trusting their own sincerity or moral efforts. Still others despair altogether, convinced there is no hope. But the Word of God cuts through all of these and declares with unmistakable clarity: justification—our being declared righteous before God—comes only through faith in Jesus Christ, not by works of the law. To appreciate the force of Paul’s words, we must remember where we are in this letter. Paul has just described his confrontation with Peter in Antioch. Peter, who once ate freely with Gentile believers, drew back when men came from James. His withdrawal sent a dangerous message: that Gentile believers were second-class unless they adopted Jewish law. Paul would not stand for it, because the truth of the gospel was at stake. What follows in verses 15 through 21 is Paul’s theological explanation of that confrontation. Here he lays down the gospel in the clearest of terms. And friends, this is not merely an old controversy about Jews and Gentiles in the first century. It is a message for us today. For every heart here is tempted in some way to turn back to law, to trust in our own works, to add something to Christ. Paul shows us that to do so is to empty the cross of its meaning.