The just shall live by faith.
This question is answered in a few words by the apostle Paul, in Rom. 1:16, 17: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; … for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” But the answer encompasses so much that it will take all etermity to plumb the depth of its meaning.
There are two main points: (1) salvation from sin, (2) the power of God exerted to accomplish that salvation. We wil briefly consider them in order.
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, because it reveals the righteousness of God. This shows that it is the revelation of the righteousness of God, that brings salvation. It is the righteousness of God that saves from sin. Since unrighteousness is sin (1 John 5:17), and sin is the transgression of the law (1 John 3:4), it is evident that righteousness is obedience to the law of God. The following texts also show it: “Thou shalt call His name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins.” Matt. 1:21. “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” 1 Tim. 1:15.
Since sin is the transgression of the law, then to save you from sin, from the transgression of the law, is to make you obedient to the law, a keeper of the law. Therefore the gospel is the revelation of the power of God to work righteousness in you to manifest righteousness in your life. The gospel proclaims God’s perfect law and contemplates perfect obedience to it. But the power of God is required to exhibit righteous acts in your life. Your power is completely inadequate. This is easily seen when you recognize what the righteousness is, that is to be revealed in the life. The text says that it is “the righteousness of God.” The righteousness of God is set forth in His law. Isa, 51:6,7. Now who can do the righteousness of God? Who can do acts that are as righteous as those that God does? Clearly only God Himself. The law of God sets forth God’s way. Ps. 119:1, 2. But the Lord says, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isa. 55:9. Therefore your effort to keep the commandments of God will fall as far short as the earth is lower than the heavens.
All people are fallen. The work of the gospel is to raise you to a place at the right hand of God. But can you lift yourself from earth to heaven? You can as easily raise yourself from the ground to the sun, by placing your hands under the soles of your feet and lifting, as you can raise yourself to the height of the requirement of God’s commandments by your own actions. You know that when you try to lift yourself by placing your hands under your feet, you are only holding yourself down, and the harder you lift, the more your weight presses downward. So it is with all of your efforts to make yourself what God’s law demands. You are only adding to your guilt, for “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” Isa. 64:6. That which you do yourself is from self, it is selfishness; and selfishness has no place in the plan of salvation. That which is of self is of Satan; it is wholly evil. See Mark 7:21-23. The gospel proposes to save you from yourself; therefore if you plan to do the work that God requires either wholly or in part by yourself, then you are planning to do the best you can to thwart God’s plan.
Many people do this ignorantly, but the result is the same. It was because the Jews were ignorant of God’s righteousness that they went about to establish their own righteousness. Rom. 10:1-3. If you realize the infinite depth and height and breadth of the character of God, which is summed up in His law, you will readily see that nothing short of the power of God can produce that character in you. Only God Himself can do the works of God. For you to assume that you by yourself are able to do God’s righteous works, is to make yourself equal with God; and that is the very “mystery of iniquity” itself.
The work of the gospel is to put God’s righteous works in the place of your unrighteousness. It is to work in you the works of God, and to cause you to think the thoughts of God. It is to save you from all unrighteousness, to deliver you from “this present evil world,” to redeem you from all iniquity; that is the result. By what means is it to be accomplished? By the power of God. We must know what that power is, and how it is received.
Immediately after the statement that the gospel is the power of God to salvation, the apostle tells us how we may know the power. “For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead.” Rom. 1:20. That is, God’s power is seen in the things that He has made. Creation reveals the power of God, for His power is creative power. The fact that God creates is what distinguishes Him as the one true God. The Psalmist says: “For the LORD is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols [nothing]: but the LORD made the heavens.” Ps. 96:4, 5.
Again we read: “But the LORD is the true God, He is the living God, and an everlasting king; at His wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide His indignation. Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens. He hath made the earth by His power, He hath established the world by His wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by His discretion. When He uttereth His voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and He causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; He maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of His treasures.” Jer. 10:10-13.
Ps. 33:6, 9, tells us how the Lord made the heavens and the earth: “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” “For He spake, and it was; He commanded, and it stood fast.” It was made by His word. When God speaks, the very thing itself exists in the words which describe or name the thing. Thus it is that He “calleth those things which be not as though they were.” Rom. 4:17. If you call a thing that as though it were, it is a lie; but not so when God so speaks, for His very word causes it to exist. When He speaks the word, there the thing is. “He spake, and it was.” The same word that creates also upholds. In Heb. 1:3 we read that Christ, who created all things, upholds all things “by the word of His power.” The creative power of the word of God is seen in the preservation of the earth and the heavenly bodies, and in the growth of all plants. Also the words of the Lord by the prophet Isaiah: “To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number; He calleth them all by names by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power; not one faileth.” Isa. 40:25, 26.
The reason the word can do all these things is because the word of God is living. Being the breath of God, it has the incorruptible nature of God, so that its power never diminishes. Isaiah 40 is wholly devoted to showing the power of God. The word by which all these things are upheld is spoken of in verses 7, 8: “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it; surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” The apostle Peter quotes these words, and adds: “This is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” 1 Pet. 1:25.
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And the power of God is shown in creating and upholding the earth; therefore the gospel is the creative power of God exercised for saving you from sin. So the apostle says: “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God.” 2 Cor. 5:17, 18. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Eph. 2:10. The work of redemption is the work of producing a new creation-new people, new heavens, and new earth by the same word that created all things in the beginning.
What greater encouragement can God give you than this? The power that works in you to do that which is well-pleasing in the sight of the Lord, is the same power that made the heavens and the earth, and which upholds them! Why should there be any discouragement?
Remember that He who upholds all things by the word of His power, is “able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory, with exceeding joy.” Jude 24.
Living By Faith- E.J.W., and A.T.Jones
Maranatha