The Righteous will Live by Faith!

 Read Galatians 3

And so we come to Leviticus, Habakkuk, and James as we explore Paul’s letter to the Galatians.

First to Leviticus.

Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord.

The law was given for our own good.  It was a guide, a guardian, an overseer to our human nature.  It showed the people God’s way.

They knew what the Egyptians did.  They knew what their ancestors did when they lived beyond the Euphrates. They would soon know what the people in the Promised Land did before they took possession. The law told God’s people not to do these things. But the law never got them or us all the way to salvation.  Why?

Nobody could or ever did live by the law, at least not by all of it.  Not even the patriarchs. Jesus was the only one who lived fully by the law, but the law did not bring him to righteousness.  He was righteous from the beginning.

James counseled us that if we choose to live by the law, we had better keep the entirety of the law.  Obeying most of the law or all of the law when we can make it fit into our world is not fulfilling the law.

This whole best-effort thing doesn’t cut it as far as righteousness goes.

So, we are toast, right?

The righteous will live by faith.  If you think that this is a New Testament mentality, realize that it was given as one of God’s answers to one of Habakkuk’s complaints about the lawlessness of God’s own people.

The righteous will live by faith.  Jesus did not do away with the law.  The law is still good, but it is faith that gets us to righteousness.

We are children of Abraham by the promise fulfilled in Abraham’s seed—Jesus Christ.  Now consider Paul’s words to the Galatians in this context that we have set.

Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.  But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.

Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed.  So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.  Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

The law is good. It was given for our own good, but it can’t get us home.

The promise to us to be sons of Abraham and children of God comes as a gift of God.

Those who want to receive this gift will live by faith in the one and only Son of God. We believe!

What we are talking about is salvation—coming into right standing with God.  Receiving this gift of right standing through faith.

There is an extensive discourse that follows once you receive the gift.  Once you are in right standing, the law, the Spirit that lives within you, the prophecies and promises of God, the wisdom literature of God, and all of the counsel contained in the Bible become what we will call the full biblical witness.

The law has become a mentor and is no longer a guardian.

You come to right-standing with God by faith.  You receive the gift of salvation by faith.  You live by faith.  When you do that, the full biblical witness becomes visible to you.  This full biblical witness is not a guardian but a friend.

You have eyes to see and ears to ear how to live a godly life.

You will likely find yourself fulfilling the law by living a life of love, but your salvation came through faith.  We live by faith.  We walk by faith

It’s a lot to chew on, but let’s begin with the righteous will live by faith.

The righteous will live by faith!

Amen.