The just shall live by faith.
“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Rom. 5:1. What does this mean? What is it to be justified? Both professors and non-professors often mistake its meaning. Many of the former think it is a sort of half-way house to perfect favor with God, while the latter think it is a substitute for real righteousness. They think that the idea of justification by faith is that if you will only believe what the Bible says, you will be counted as righteous when you are not. All this is a great mistake.
Justification has to do with the law. The term means making just. In Rom. 2:13 we are told who the just ones are: “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” To be just means to be righteous. Therefore when you are just you keep the law. So it follows that when you are justified, or made just, you are made a doer of the law.
Being justified by faith, then, is simply being made a doer of the law by faith. “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight.” Rom. 3:20. The reason for this is given in the previous verses. It is because there is none that doeth good. “They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Verse 12. Not only have all sinned, but “the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Rom. 8:7.
So there is a double reason why you cannot be justified by the law. In the first place, since you have sinned, it is impossible that any amount of subsequent obedience could make up for your sin.
The fact that you don’t steal anything today, does not in the least do away with the fact that you stole something yesterday; nor does it lessen your guilt. The law will condemn you for a theft committed last year, even though you may have refrained from stealing ever since. This is so obvious that it does not need any further illustration or argument.
Secondly, you have not only sinned, so that you cannot be justified by any amount of later obedience, even if you were able to do it, but it is impossible for you by nature to be subject to the law of God. You cannot do what the law requires. Listen to the words of the apostle Paul, as he describes your condition when you want to obey the law: “For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow not; for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” Rom. 7:14-18. It is therefore clear enough why you cannot be justified by the law. The fault is not in the law, but in you. The law is good, and that is the very reason why it will not justify a wicked person.
But what the law cannot do, the grace of God does. It justifies a person. What kind of people does it justify? Sinners, of course, for they are the only ones who need justification. “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Rom. 4:4, 5. God justifies the ungodly. Isn’t that right? Certainly it is. It does not mean that He glosses over your faults, so that you are counted righteous, although you are really wicked; but it means that He makes you a doer of the law. The moment God declares you righteous, that instant you are a doer of the law. Surely that is a good work, a just work and a merciful one.
How are you justified, or made righteous? “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” Rom. 3;24. Remember that to justify means to make you a doer of the law, and then read the passage again: “Being made a doer of the law freely, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” The redemption that is in Christ Jesus is the worthiness or the purchasing power of Christ. He gives Himself to you the sinner. As you believe, His righteousness is given to you. That does not mean that Chris’s righteousness which He did two thousand years ago is laid up for you, to simply be credited to your account, but it means that His present, active righteousness is given to you. Christ comes to live in you when you believe, for He dwells in your heart by faith. So while you were a sinner, you are transformed into a new person, having the very righteousness of God.
So it will be seen that there can be no higher state than that of justification. It does everything that God can do for you short of making you immortal, which is done only at the resurrection. But this does not mean that, being justified, there is no more danger of your falling into sin. No; “The just shall live by faith.” You must continually exercise faith and submission to God, in order to retain His righteousness- in order to remain a doer of the law.
This makes clear the force of these words, “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law.” Rom. 3:31. That is, instead of breaking the law, and making it of no effect in your life, you establish it in your heart by faith. This is so because faith brings Christ into your heart, and the law of God is in the heart of Christ. And so “as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.” The One who obeys is the Lord Jesus Christ, and His obedience is done in your heart when you believe. Since it is by His obedience alone that you are made a doer of the law, so to Him alone shall be the glory forever and ever.
Living By Faith- E.J.W., and A.T. Jones
Maranatha