The just will live on faith
Does the righteous ‘live on faith’ or ‘live on every word that comes out of God’s mouth’? Now, Christ is the faith that was to be manifested (Gal 3:24), the incarnate verb, therefore, the just will live by Christ (Rom 10: 8). Everyone who has risen with Christ is because they live on faith, and the prophet Habakkuk testifies that those who live by faith are righteous.
The just will live on faith
Table of Contents
“But to him who does not practice, but believes in him who justifies the wicked, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Rom. 4: 5)
Introduction
The exposition of the apostle Paul is striking when he affirms that “God justifies the wicked” (Rom. 4: 5). Based on what does God justify the wicked. How can God, being righteous, declare unjust just? How to do it without compromising your own justice? If God said: “… I will not justify the wicked” (Ex 23: 7), how can the apostle to the Gentiles claim that God justifies the wicked?
Grace and faith
The answer is simple: God justifies sinners freely by his wonderful grace! Although the answer is simple, the question remains: how does He do this? The answer is also simple: by faith “… To lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Gal 3:24).
In addition to God justifying the wicked, it is certain that man is justified by faith “Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; whereby we also have an entrance by faith to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in the hope of the glory of God ”(Rom. 5: 1-2).
Does God justify because of the trust that man places in Him? Was man’s belief the justifying entity?
The answer is found in Romans 1, verses 16 and 17:
“Because I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes; first from the Jew, and also from the Greek. Because the righteousness of God from faith to faith is discovered in it, as it is written: But the righteous will live by faith” (Rom. 1:16 -17).
Although in the Old Testament, God repeatedly tells Israelite judges that they should justify the righteous and condemn the wicked, and declare about Himself: “… I will not justify the wicked” (Ex 23: 7), the apostle Paul uses Habakkuk who says,‘ The righteous will live by faith’, to demonstrate that God justifies the wicked!
God justifies man through Christ
Through the observation that the apostle Paul makes of Habakkuk, it is evident that faith does not refer to man’s trust, but rather to Christ, the faith that was to be manifested.
“But before faith came, we were kept under the law, and closed to that faith that was to be manifested” (Gal 3:23).
What faith would be manifested? The gospel of Christ, which is the power of God, is faith made manifest to men. The gospel is the faith that Christians are to strive for (Jd1: 3). the gospel message is the preaching of faith (Gal 3: 2, 5). The gospel is faith, through which grace was revealing. “For by grace you have been saved, through faith; and this does not come from you, it is the gift of God “(Eph. 2: 8). The gospel did not come from any man, but it is the gift of God “If you knew the gift of God and whoever is asking you: give me a drink, you would ask him, and he would give you living water” (John 4:10).
Christ is the gift of God, the theme of the preaching of faith, through which man has entrance to this grace. Therefore, when the Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God, it has to be said that the faith that pleases God is Christ, faith should be revealed, and not, as many think, that it is man’s trust (Heb 11: 6).
The writer to the Hebrews, in verse 26 of chapter 10 demonstrates that there is no sacrifice after receiving the knowledge of the truth (gospel) and that, therefore, Christians could not reject the confidence they had, which is a product of faith (gospel) (Heb 10:35), since, after doing the will of God (which is to believe in Christ), they should have patience to reach the promise (Heb 10:36; 1 John 3:24).
After quoting Habakkuk, the writer to the Hebrews goes on to speak of those who lived by faith (Heb 10:38), that is, men like Abraham who were justified by the faith that was to be manifested “Now, as the Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, he first announced the gospel to Abraham, saying,” All nations would be blessed in you “(Gal. 3: 8).
For God everything is possible
Abraham was justified because he believed that God would provide the Seed, something impossible in his eyes, just as it is in the eyes of men that God justifies the wicked “Now, the promises were made to Abraham and his descendants. He does not say: And to the offspring, as speaking of many, but as of one: And to your offspring, which is Christ” (Gal 3:16).
Christ is the firm foundation of the things that are expected and proof of the things that are not seen. “Now, faith is the firm foundation of things hoped for, and proof of things not seen. Because by it the ancients obtained a testimony”(Heb 11: 1-2), for the righteous live and receive a testimony that he has pleased God through Christ (Titus 3: 7).
The word that Abraham heard is what produced the patriarch’s belief, because “But what does it say? The word is with you, in your mouth and in your heart; this is the word of faith, which we preach… ” (Rom 10: 8), since “So that faith is by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17). Without hearing the word that comes from God, there would never be man’s confidence in God.
The element that produces justification is the word of Christ, for it contains the power of God that makes it possible to justify the wicked “To know: If you confess with your mouth to the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Since with the heart one believes for righteousness and with the mouth one makes confession for salvation” (Rom 10: 9-10).
When man hears the gospel and believes, he receives power for salvation (Rom. 1:16; John 1:12), and discovers justification, as he passes from death to life because he believed in faith (Rom. 1:17). It is through the gospel that man becomes a child of God “For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:26; John 1:12).
The power of God
Why did the apostle Paul have the courage to claim that God does what He himself forbade the judges of Israel to do? Because they did not have the necessary power! To do a just unjust thing, it is necessary to have the same power that Jesus demonstrated in healing a paralytic after forgiving his sins.
“Now that you may know that the Son of Man has power over the earth to forgive sins (he said to the paralytic), I tell you, get up, take your bed, and go to your home” (Lk 5: 24).
Justifying faith is God’s power “… That we might be justified by faith” (Gal 3:24), because when a man believes he is baptized in the death of Christ (Gal 3:27), that is, he takes up his own cross, dies and is buried “Or do you not know that all who were baptized in Jesus Christ were baptized in his death?” (Rom. 6: 3). Now he who is dead and justified is in sin! (Rom. 6: 7)
But, all who believe and die with Christ, also confess Christ according to what he heard and learned “Since with the heart one believes for righteousness and with the mouth one makes confession for salvation” (Rom 10: 9-10).
Now whoever confesses Christ is because, in addition to be baptized in Christ, he has already put on Christ. Confession is the fruit of the lips that only produces those who are connecting to real Oliveira “For as many as you have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal 3:27); “Therefore, let us always offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of the lips that confess his name” (Heb 13:15); “I am the vine, you are the branches; whoever is in me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; because without me you can do nothing (…) My Father is glorified in this, that you bear much fruit; and thus you will be my disciples ”(John 15: 6, 8).
The testimony that God gives that man is just falls on those who, after being buried, put on Christ, that is, only those who have already risen with Christ are declared righteous before God. Only those who are generated anew, that is, who live through faith (gospel) are just before God “The righteous will live by faith” (Hc 2: 4).
The righteous will live on faith, that is, the faith that was to be manifested and which we now preach (Rom 10: 8). Everyone who has risen with Christ is because they live on faith, and the prophet Habakkuk testifies that those who live by faith are righteous.
Therefore, anyone who does not trust his own actions, but rests in God who justifies, his belief is imputed to him as justice “But to him who does not practice, but believes in him who justifies the wicked, his faith is imputed to him as righteousness” (Rom. 4: 5); “And he believed in the Lord, and he charged it with righteousness” (Gen. 15: 6), because by believing man is conformed to Christ in his death and rises by the power of God, the new man being created and declared righteous by God.
The word of the Lord is faith made manifest, and all who believe in it will not be confused “As it is written: Behold, I am putting in Zion a stumbling block and a rock of scandal; and everyone who believes in it will not be confused” (Rom. 9:33), that is, in the gospel, which is the power of God, the righteousness of God is discovered, which is of faith (gospel) in faith (believing) (Rom. 1: 16-17).
The righteous will live on Christ, for every word that comes out of the mouth of God will live man, that is, without Christ, who is the living bread that came down from heaven, man has no life in himself (John 3:36 ; John 5:24; Mt 4: 4; Heb 2: 4).
