OUR FATHER BEFORE WHOM WE ARE JUSTIFIED BY FAITH

The book of Galatians chapter 3 verses 9 - 14 contains the Apostle Paulˋs sophisticated and condensed analysis of the function of the law vis-à-vis justification by faith.

First, Paul invoked the principle that a curse would befall anyone who did not completely follow the law. This meant that if at anytime a person was unable to follow the letter of the law, they were subject to its judgement and if anyone tried to follow any part of the law as a means of attaining righteousness, they were obligated to follow the entirety of the law. This requirement meant that trying to qualify as righteous under the law was utterly impossible for any human. 

To compound matters, the book of Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 4 says this;

But the just shall live by his faith.

This precept asserts that only those who lived by faith would be qualify as justified.

It is into this insurmountable equation that Christ came to the earth and was able to live a life that was perfect under the law by fulfilling every requirement of the law since is birth. In His perfection, He subjected Himself to the ignominy of death on a cross and in doing this, He became a curse because it was written in the law that anyone who hangs on a tree was cursed. 

The gospel unto salvation that Paul preached was the synthesis of these strictures where there was only person who ever fulfilled all righteousness under the law. 

The rest of the human race was condemned to the judgement of death under the law but because living by faith was the means by which justification before God could be attained, we who were condemned by the law, could live by faith in the One who had fulfilled the law and in doing so, we are are able to come out from under the sentence of death under the law because Christ, the one who had attained  righteousness under the law, was condemned under the law on our behalf.  

Faith is the mechanism by which the righteousness of Christ is conferred upon us thus justifying us. This faith is the same faith that Abraham lived by and was justified before God and all of us from the realm of the gentiles have access to this mechanism of faith by which we are justified before God and can receive the promise of the Spirit of God by which we can live unto God.

 10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written,e  “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” 11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” 12 Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.”

13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Amen.

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