Whose Faith Is It?

I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

How do you live a life of faith as a Christian? Do you keep a set of rules or uphold certain traditions? Certainly, you are to reject evil and resist all temptation to sin; but, by what standard? These questions have been asked since the time of the apostles.  And for just as long, there have been differences of opinion. Since Christianity emerged out of Judaism, it was natural for the first Jewish Christians to expect the non-Jewish Christians to obey the Jewish religious law. But the Apostle Paul was vehemently opposed to this thinking.

When Paul wrote to the believers in Galatia, he laid out for them the fundamentals of the gospel. So, it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” This way of faith is very different from the way of law, which says, “It is through obeying the law that a person has life.” But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. Galatians 3:11-13

The victorious Christian life is more than identification; it is substitutionary. It is a life exchange with Jesus Christ. Paul’s personal testimony supports his teaching and is a verse worth memorizing. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Whether the English verse reads ‘faith in the Son of God’, as in most modern translations, or ‘the faith of the Son of God’, as in this older English translation, the faith required for victory originates in God himself. When Jesus lives in you, the same faith that took him to the cross to triumph over sin and death is the faith that now lives in you!

Read: Galatians 2

Listen: Stand In Faith