Our Sufficiency

Our Sufficiency

Comments on Galatians with an ear to Luther’s commentary

Scripture Text: Galatians 2:17 and 2 Corinthians 3:4-5

Series: Comments on Galatians

Today's Scripture Jigsaw

If we are not justified by what Christ did for us on the cross, all is lost. You may claim that, yes, Christ justified you but now you must add to what he did with a sufficient supply of your own saving works. That argument cannot hold for it is neither scriptural nor logical. Nowhere in Scripture are we told that Christ’s saving work is inadequate — quite the contrary. Further, if our own works are saving or must be added to what Christ did, then there was no need for the Son of Man to suffer. Worse, his victory was shallow because it did not accomplish what God intended. 

Thanks be to God that what Jesus did does indeed make us righteous unto God. Nothing we add to Christ’s work makes us any more just. Christ did and does not need our assistance to save us. Thus, one day a minister of the gospel will stand over our graves and ask, “Death, where is your victory?” Death does not have the victory. Instead, Christ is victorious over sin and death. We live in his victory not our own. 

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