7. “The Just Shall Live By Faith”
The Scriptures declare many times that ‘the just shall live by faith’ (Hak 2:4; Rom 1:17, Gal 3:11, Heb 10:38). Let us ask a few questions. Who are they that shall live by faith? The just are the ones who shall live by faith. Who are ‘the just’? The just are those whom God has justified. When do the just begin to live by faith? The just begin to live by faith when they believe in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ – Romans 1:16-17. The justified ones who begin to live by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ continue to live by faith. Sometimes they foolishly cease to live by faith, like the Galatian believers, Gal 3:1-9. If it is the just who shall live by faith, then it is clear they must be justified before they are able to live by faith. Their justification must be prior to their exercise of faith. It is the justified alone who shall live by faith in the blessed Saviour.
But what about Romans 3:22! A brother said confidently,
“The meaning of verse 26 is clear: God is the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Because of this and other verses, I believe that God justifies (declare righteous) the person after He gives faith and the person believes.”
Let us see what the passage actually says, ‘… that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” [the KJT read this "that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.." The text does say that God is the justifier of the believing one in Jesus. It does not indicate when God the justifier justified the one who believes in Jesus. To determine when God justified a person who are believing in Jesus, the Scriptures have declared plainly in these words. God justifies the ungodly, not when an unjustified man believe in Jesus. God is indeed the justifier of him who believes in Jesus, i.e., he is believing in Jesus because God has justified him. It is like saying, "God is the giver of life of the one who eats." That is, he eats because God has raised him from the dead. It is not... the dead one eats and God gives him life!!!
God justifies an ungodly person NOT because he believes in Jesus. An unjustified ungodly man is still under the condemnation of death! God justifies an ungodly man so that he may have faith in Jesus. Justification is the cause; believing in Christ is an effect. For that reason, the 1689 Confession says, “Faith is not alone in the person justified,” i.e. faith is the effect, the product of justification. A person has faith in Jesus because God has justified him… i.e., God is his justifier. The truth is, God justifies first, and the Spirit works the grace of faith to make believing possible. God is the life-giver of the one who believes in Jesus means God’s prior act of giving of life enables the recipient of that life to believe in Jesus.
What about Eph 2:8? “For by grace you have been saved through faith (feminine), and that (neuter) not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” What about it? ‘And that not of yourselves’ means salvation does not proceed from yourselves. The word rendered that ‘touto’ is in the neuter gender, and the word faith (pistin) is in the feminine. The word ‘that’ does not refer to ‘faith’ as being the gift of God, but to the salvation by grace of which Apostle Paul had been speaking. This is the interpretation of the passage which is the most obvious, and which is now generally conceded to be the true one. Some critics, however, maintain that the demonstrative pronoun 'that' refers to faith. As a matter of grammar this opinion is certainly doubtful, if not untenable; but as a matter of theology it is a question of very little importance [Barnes]. Elsewhere in the Scriptures it is explicitly said that we are saved through the faith, i.e. the faithfulness, of Christ, Romans 3:22; Gal 2:16, 3:22 (KJV).
Whether this passage proves it or not, it is certainly true that faith is a saving grace worked within the heart of a justified person by the Spirit of God. It exists in the child of God only when the Holy Ghost produces it there, and is, in common with every other Christian grace, to be traced to the Spirit’s agency on the heart. This view, however, does not militate at all with the doctrine that man himself believes. It is not God that believes for him, for that is impossible. It is his own mind that actually believes, or that exercises/utilizes the grace faith. See Ro 4:3. In the same manner repentance is to be traced to God. It is one of the fruits of the operation of the Holy Spirit on the soul. But the Holy Ghost does not repent for us. It is our own mind/heart that repents; our own heart that feels; our own eyes that weep—and without this there can be no true repentance. No one can repent for another; and God neither can nor ought to repent for us. He has done no wrong, and if repentance is ever exercised, therefore, it must be exercised by our own mind/heart/will. It is the same with believing. God cannot believe for us. We must believe, because God is pleased to appoint faith - receiving and resting on Christ and His righteousness alone - as the sole instrument to experience the blessedness of our justification FREELY by God in Christ, of having a vital interest in the salvation God has accomplished for us in Jesus Christ.
I conclude that those who teach that justification is conditioned upon man’s act of faith fail to do justice to the Biblical statement of ‘the just shall live by faith.’ The saved shall live by faith. It is not, as is popularly believed by faith you shall be justified by God (from eternal condemnation.). By believing in the truth of the gospel of your salvation by God in Jesus Christ, you shall indeed be saved from this perverse generation, be saved from the sorrows and miseries of sins and disobedience. Christ finished the work of saving you from eternal condemnation, and God has applied that salvation to you by free grace through His gracious act of calling you unto eternal life.
Faith that saves you is the faith that will enable you to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling here and now in this life.
