Romans 1:16 & 17 tells us pretty well what the Gospel is. We see in the latter part of verse 17 that it says the just shall live by faith. The question I have been asking myself over the past few months is am I living by faith. What does it mean to live by faith? What I am seeing as I read more about this is that there is an opposite of living by faith. When you can see what this is, it will make it simpler to understand what living by faith really is.

The opposite of living by faith is living under the law. I know we have all heard in times past, especially in our religious upbringings, that living by faith was determined by your level of success either in ministry, financially, health or any other external circumstance that would show whether you were living by faith or not. However, according to Paul, you are only living by faith if you are not under the law. If you are under the law you are not living by faith. Paul said in Galatians 3:12 that “the law is NOT of faith”.

I think we should ask ourselves the question if we are living by faith or under law? Do we trust in what we do or don’t do to gain God’s favor? Do we believe our works are an important part of obtaining favor with God? Do we believe we can do anything by our own works to gain or keep anything as it pertains to our redemption? If we are looking at any of these things to be blessed of God then we are under law. If you think God is going to give you any kind of blessing because of your good deeds or works, then you are still under law and are not walking by faith. If you believe you are going to be punished by God because of your deeds or works you are not walking by faith but are still under law.

If you believe that in spite of your works or deeds the Lord is not going to punish you, then you are walking by faith. If you believe that the punishment was taken for you by Jesus Christ at the cross then you are walking by faith. If you believe that all these things are yours because of the obedience of one Man Christ Jesus, then you are walking by faith. This one man’s obedience and this one man’s faith purchased your redemption. You cannot walk by faith and not see this. If you do not see this then you are still under law.

Now we must look at Whose faith it is talking about. If all the punishment due us was taken at the cross and all transgressions were taken as well. If the sin of the world was taken away at the cross and without any part played by us for this awesome thing called redemption to come into effect, then Who had the faith for this to happen? The faith we are talking about is of course the faith OF Jesus Christ. My faith had nothing to do with my redemption. It was Jesus that had faith to complete this whole plan apart from us having any involvement.

So when the verse says “the just shall live by faith” it is not talking about our faith. It is simply saying those that know they are just will walk according to what Jesus did for us and that through His faith and not mine. When you begin to see that is not your faith that determines your redemption but that it is determined because Jesus had faith to accomplish all this at the cross, it takes on a whole new meaning and you can begin to see that redemption is not by your works or deeds but by the faith OF the Son of God.