Living by Faith

THE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS

LIVING BY FAITH

Gal 2:17-21

17 "If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. 19 For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"  

NIV

This is a most difficult concept to understand, but we think it might mean that if we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, which is being justified through faith and then because of our freedom from the law, we feel we have a license to sin. Paul is stating that would mean Jesus promotes sin. Paul makes it clear that this is not the case. Living for Christ, having the freedom from the law does not mean Jesus promotes us to sin. Being a believer does not give us freedom from deceit and holy morality. The idea of rebuilding what was destroyed seems to reference the idea promoted by the Jews about circumcision. Because of being justified by faith, the law which requires circumcision has no bearing on justification by faith. That law was destroyed by Christ. But if the Gentiles were forced into obedience to the law, hence rebuilding the law, it would only prove them to be sinners, or lawbreakers for no one can be justified by the law and therefore if they are not justified they are lawbreakers, sinners, condemned. It is the same with us. Because we are justified by faith in Jesus, we have been set free from the law and the penalty of death for breaking that law. However, that does not give us a license to sin. Yet at the same time, it does not mean that we should rebuild a complete set of rules and regulations or customs which we determine would have some bearing on our justification. That is to say, we cannot say we have any partnership in our justification as it is solely an act of God. However, we do need to exercise faith in Jesus. Some would say that it is our act of partnership, but we cannot even have faith unless it was not given to us by God. In some sense we are responding in the affirmative, using that faith to believe rather than rejecting that faith. But it is merely a response to that which God has done for us. We cannot act on our own to cause our justification. So let us not try to rebuild a law from which we have been ser free. Let us not endeavor to live by rules we establish but live in Christ. Our old self has been put to death with Christ and we now live in Christ. This then would mean we do live in accordance with Christ by faith. Paul makes it clear that as we live in this body, which is still prone to sin, we live by faith in Jesus who loves us and gave himself for us. We cannot set aside that grace trying to gain righteousness by the law, or in our case those rules of do’s and don’ts. If we think our righteousness has anything to do with how holy we try to live, or how well we abide by those rules and regulations, then Jesus died for nothing. That is not to say we should not make every effort to live to please God. But what does that mean? Does no smoking, no drinking, no dancing, no whatever other rules we think are right and holy, please God? What about no gossip or no greed, or no jealousy or no envy or no holding a grudge, does the please God? How can we live a perfect life? We are all still subject to some form of sin in our lives as long as we live in these bodies. So then how can we do or not do anything in the flesh that pleases God? The one thing we know for sure is that it pleases God if we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We have been told that the one work of God is to believe in the one he sent, Jesus. So we live by faith. We no longer live as us, which is living as sinners condemned, but we already died and now live in Christ. The life we live in the body, we live by faith.