but that by law no one is justified with God [is] evident, because The just shall live on the principle of faith;
Paul has just said that everyone who stands on law-keeping is under a curse. Now he proves from the Jewish Scriptures themselves that God never cleared anyone on that road, and his proof is one line from the prophet Habakkuk.
One writer weighs the phrase "in the sight of God," then the logic of Paul's one-sentence proof:
Notice first the force of the words, "in the sight of God." Law was a justifier of man with man, as Paul himself is a witness. For a man who counted things by human standards, being a strict and consistent Pharisee was "gain." But the law, once you know its real force, is spiritual, and by nature opposed to the sinful nature in us. So the legal righteousness he had long treasured, and could fairly boast of, turns into unrighteousness when God's light examines it. Notice also how his reasoning works. He states a general truth: "The just shall live by faith." If that is so, no one lives by any other means, because that is the only means by which men are justified.
Writers point out that Scripture speaks of two courtrooms, not one.
Scripture shows us both sides. One is to be justified in the eyes of God (Galatians) by faith alone, which no works of law can achieve. The other is to be justified in the eyes of men through works of faith (James).
The quotation comes from a prophet grieving over a ruined nation. The New Testament uses that one line three times, and the stress falls on a different word each time. (Older translations read "the just"; the ESV has "the righteous.")
The prophet grieved over the ruin of His people. God's dealings puzzled him, because deliverance did not come quickly. God told him that "the just shall live by his faith." The phrase comes three times in the New Testament, and each time for a different purpose. Look at Romans 1 and the emphasis falls on "just"; in Hebrews 10 it falls on the word "live"; in Galatians 3 on "faith."
Here faith is the point at issue, set side by side with a law that could supply neither righteousness nor life.
Here, then, faith is put in the forefront, and Paul did not stop there, although he did not lose sight of its link with righteousness or with life. He put faith side by side with the law, which could give neither the one nor the other.
Law and faith run on opposite principles, and the Jews of Paul's day missed the difference:
They looked on the law as being the means of their justification. They were content with a very shallow obedience to some of its demands. They were "seeking to establish their own" righteousness, as Paul puts it in Romans 10:3. In this they failed completely, because their own Scriptures had already recorded that "the just shall live by faith." And faith is not the principle the law rests on; that principle is works. The whole matter, briefly summed up, stands like this: by law men come under the curse and die. By faith men are justified and live.
The difference is not one of degree but of kind — one road asks you to produce something, the other puts you right.
Doing right is one kind of perfection; being set right is another. The first was what the law uselessly offered. The second is the blessed reality of the gospel, once faith receives it into the heart.
"Justified" is a bigger word than "forgiven":
The "just" or "righteous," in the language of the Spirit, are not only the "forgiven." The single word "justification," as Scripture uses it of God's redeemed people, holds three distinct ideas that cannot be separated. First, it means the sinner's pardon — the forgiveness of his sins. Second, it means deliverance both from the fear of punishment and from the shameful sense of guilt in the sight of God. Third, it means that God credits righteousness to him.
Justification and daily life run on the same track. What clears you is what sustains you:
In this simple statement God denies the idea that men can gain either righteousness or life by their own works. The principle that justifies a man must also be the principle he lives by. And the principle he lives by must be the one that justifies him... Christ cannot be your life without also being your righteousness. He must be both righteousness and life to all — or, if He is neither, then Judge.
Living by faith is not one act at the start. It is a whole way of relating to God:
To live by faith is to walk with God; to cling to Him; to lean on Him; to draw from His endless springs; to find all our resources in Him... to know Him as our only resource in all difficulties and in all our trials.
- Evident — Paul needs no long argument. One line from Habakkuk settles it: if the righteous live by faith, no one is justified any other way.
- Before God — the law could win a man a good name among people. Held up to God's light, that same righteousness turns into unrighteousness.
- Faith — the New Testament uses the same line three times. Romans stresses "just," Hebrews stresses "live," Galatians stresses "faith."
- Justified — the word covers three things: pardon, release from guilt and fear, and righteousness credited to the believer.
- Live — the principle that justifies you is the principle you then live by. Faith is not one topic in the Christian life. It is the whole walk with God.
but the law is not on the principle of faith; but, He that shall have done these things shall live by them.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.