The just shall live by faith.
“Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Rom. 5:1
“Therefore by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of One, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.” Rom. 5:18, 19.
“The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.” 1 Cor. 4:20. The promises of the gift of the Gospel are not matters of mere theory, but a fact. And in order to show you the reality of the power, Jesus Christ came to earth and demonstrated it in such a way that you can comprehend it. In the life of Christ you will find every Gospel truth illustrated. Let’s see something of how the above texts worked in real life.
A woman was bleeding and her life had been slowly and steadily wasting away for many years. She had spent all her income in a vain attempt to recover her health, and was only made to suffer more from the experiments of many physicians. Then she heard of the great Physician and went to Him. She was timid and the multitude of people pressed about Jesus so closely that she could scarcely approach Him. But “she said within herself, If I may but touch His garment, I shall be whole.” Her faith was rewarded, for as she touched the border of His garment, she was fully healed immediately.
Although Jesus was crowded and jostled by the people, He instantly detected that gentle touch. That touch was different from every other, because it was the touch of faith, and drew power from the person of Jesus. When the disciples wondered that in the midst of such a crowd He should ask, “Who touched Me?” He said, “Someone did touch Me; for I perceived that power had gone forth from Me.” That power was the power of His life: for it supplied the woman’s need, and what she wanted was life.
Here you have something that your mind can understand, and your senses can appreciate. A real thing was done. Something real went from Jesus into the woman. It was not imagination; it was not a figure of speech; but it was an actual fact that the woman was healed. She had the life that she lacked before, and that life came from Jesus. You can never know what life is only its Author can understand it but you do know the need of it, even of the righteous life of Christ. Now you will see how to obtain it.
The words of Jesus to that poor woman show that she was healed in the same way and by the same means by which you are justified and have peace with God. He said to her, “Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace. Luke 8:48. If you should apply the words of the Apostle Paul to her particular experience, you might read, “Therefore being made whole in body by faith, she had peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Perhaps this may enable you to grasp more fully the reality of the righteousness which comes by faith of Jesus Christ.
Nothing is said about forgiveness of sins in this instance, but you may be sure from other instances that such faith as the poor woman had, brought healing of the soul as well as the body. But you don’t need to doubt whether this is really parallel to Rom. 5:1, and the illustration of the truth stated there, for you find the same words used with direct reference to sins. In the preceding chapter (Luke 7) you are told of the sinful woman who anointed the feet of Jesus, after her tears of repentance had washed them. Jesus did not repel her, but said to her, “Thy sins are forgiven.” And then He said words almost identical to what He said to the bleeding woman you have been reading about. To the woman who was well in body, but morally diseased with sin, Jesus said, “Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.” Luke 7:50, Compare Luke 8:48.
This proves beyond all possibility of doubt that the same thing is done in the forgiveness of sins that was done in healing the woman who was bleeding. The method is the same, and the results are the same. Therefore as you know that something real was done for the diseased woman, so you may be sure that something real is done for you as a repentant sinner. Just as something real, although invisible, went from Jesus into the person of the diseased woman, making her perfectly well and strong, even so you are to know that something real comes from Christ into your person as a repentant sinner, making you whole, and free from sin.
That something is nothing less than the life of Christ. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. “If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Verse 7. The blood is the life; and so it is the life of Jesus Christ that cleanses you from sin. Rom. 5:10 says in continuance of the statement that being justified by faith you have peace with God through your Lord Jesus Christ. “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”
Many think that the forgiveness of sins by the imputed righteousness of Christ, is something that exists only in the mind of God. Of course they acknowledge its reality, yet at the same time they do not realize it. There is always something unreal about it in their minds. The trouble is that they fail to grasp and to make real the living connection between Christ and them. There is between the true disciple and Christ a connection as real as that between the vine branch and the parent stock. The forgiveness of sins is too often thought to be illustrated by the payment of a poor man’s debt by a rich friend. If a rich man pays the debt of a poor man, and the banker credits the poor man with the sum, then the record on the books shows that the debt is cancelled. Of course the poor man is benefited, but he does not actually receive anything that will keep him in the future. But it is different when God for Christ’s sake forgives your sins.
Christ “gave Himself for our sins.” Gal. 1:4. His life is given to be revealed in your mortal flesh. 2 Cor. 4:11. Just as the sap flows through the vine to the farthest branches, and just as the life of Christ went into the poor, diseased woman, to make her perfectly well, so the sinless, endless, inexhaustible life of Christ flows into you when you have faith in Him, to cleanse you from sin. and to make vou walk in newness of life.
Christ’s life on earth was one of obedience to the commandments of God. John 15:10. The law of God was in His heart (Ps. 40:8) so that His very life was the fullness of the law. He fulfilled the righteousness of the law. Matt. 5: 17. That is, the fullness, the perfection of the law, appeared in His life. And it is by this life that you are saved. It is not that you are accounted righteous because Jesus of Nazareth was righteous two thousand years ago, but because “He ever liveth,” “the same yesterday, and today, and forever,” to save you by the power of His endless life, when you come to Him.
Jesus fulfilled the righteousness of the law, in order “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Rom. 8:4. The Revised Version reads, “That the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us,” and gives “requirement” in the margin, as an alternative. The idea is, that Christ kept the law, in order that its every requirement might be fulfilled in you. Not by you, but in you: for you have no power to do even what you know to be right. But Christ dwelling in you does the right by His own power through all your members when you yield them to Him. This He does for all who trust Him. And thus it is that “by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.”
You may note two things. First: The miraculous healing of the poor woman shows you how you are made a partaker of Christ’s life. Second: You learn what will happen as you are a partaker of Christ’s life. You learn by reading the Ten Commandments, and by studying the life of Christ. All that was in His life when He was on earth, is in it now, and that is what He gives to you, And that which was not in His life cannot possibly be given to you in it. Everything that is not in His life is sin, and Christ is not the minister of sin.
Living By Faith- E.J.W., and A.T.J.
Be not deceived.
Maranatha