The Righteous Live by Faith

3 May 2009
Speaker: David Tan
Text: Galatians 3:1-14

The letter of Paul to the Galatians represents one of the most important books in the Bible, describing how humanity is justified by God, or put right with God. In Chapter 3, Paul continues his defense of this key teaching in Christian theology. The focus here is how a Christian attains righteousness.

The cross of Christ

At the heart of our Christian faith is the cross of Christ – not the baby in the manger, not the Virgin birth, not even the resurrection (because there can be no resurrection without Jesus’ death), not answered prayers, and not even the 2nd coming of Jesus or the final defeat of Satan.

1 Cor 1: 23 “… but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.”

Gal 6:14 “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which* the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

So important is the centrality of the cross that Paul reprimands the Philippians for rejecting the accomplished work of Jesus on the cross. In buying into the Judaizers false teachings, these Christians had dismissed Jesus' sacrifice as nothing. This is because the faith that saves does not rest in keeping the Law and its rituals, but in believing that Jesus’ death on the cross had done what the Law could not do, and made us right with God.

What is the significance of the cross and how does it save us?

Christ redeems

The imagery used by Paul tells us that Jesus’ death on the cross was a price paid in blood to buy the world out of slavery to sin (Gal 3:22): Jesus has redeemed us. In order for God to forgive, a price had to be paid. Just because God forgives does not make sin disappear – either humanity pays or God pays. Thankfully, Jesus the Son of God paid the world’s debt of sin on the cross.

The act of forgiveness involves bearing someone else’s wrong. Jesus spared us from paying the debt of sin by bearing it upon Himself. Jesus has demonstrated what forgiveness means and we are called to follow His example. In the words of Bonhoeffer, “…the call to follow Christ always means a call to share the work of forgiving men their sins. Forgiveness is the Christlike suffering which is the Christian's duty to bear.”

Law condemns

In 3:10 Paul says again that the Law cannot help us – it merely condemns us. It is like a curse, exposing our sin. None is righteous before God. Arguing from Leviticus 18:5, Paul stresses that unless one keeps God’s law perfectly, there cannot be favour with God. But out of God’s generous mercy, He forgives our sin by taking our place on the cross, bearing our punishment, taking the full force of holy wrath on behalf of the whole world. As John Stott puts it so clearly:

“The essence of sin is we human beings substituting ourselves for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for us. We…put ourselves where only God deserves to be; God puts himself where we deserve to be.”

This is what Scripture means when it says, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor 5:21).

The generosity of Jesus displayed on the cross, is what Paul calls ‘grace’ (Eph 2:8). As Abraham himself was counted righteous simply by believing in God, the Christian too is justified by the simple act of faith in God’s promise.

What does the cross of Christ mean for us today?

In 2:16, Paul uses a legal term to describe justification – how God declares sinners innocent. More incredible still, using accounting imagery, Paul says in 3:6 as God counted Abraham as righteous, Jesus’ righteousness has also been credited unto us on the basis of our faith. Our debt has been paid in full on the cross. God presses the reset button – we start clean and fresh.

The promise in Habbakuk 2:4 that “The righteous shall live by faith” anticipated Jesus’ finished work on the cross. To be made righteous is to enjoy God’s favour. When we have favour with God, we’re able to live in fellowship with God. (Stott) The blessing that comes to us through Abraham (referred to in v9) is our justification. All we need to do to be saved is to accept it in grateful faith.

If God does not justify, all humanity stands condemned. That Jesus has made it possible for us to enjoy both favour and fellowship with God gives a Christian’s new purpose in life – the pursuit of holy living to the glory of God.