December 1, 2024 | Faith that Justifies (Core Value: Faith)

Transcript:

This morning, we're going to start in Romans chapter 1. Before we get to that text, though, if you weren't with us two weeks ago, we started into the book of Habakkuk. And I want to give you a quick overview because we're going to take one phrase, a familiar phrase from Habakkuk, "the just shall live by faith," and we're going to go back to that phrase and see how Paul and two other writers In the New Testament pick up that phrase, that quote from Habakkuk, "the just shall live by faith," and how they use it.

So in order to put ourselves into that position I want to think back through what it is that Habakkuk is saying, before that phrase comes up. So at that time in Habakkuk, the kingdom of Judah had been really in a terrible place for decades.

Its leadership had been characterized by idolatry, by greed, by cruelty, by injustice. We've seen those things a few times throughout history from leaders. We know what it looks like when a nation or a country or a city, where any place is ruled by idolatry, injustice, greed, and cruelty.

Finally, under Josiah, it seemed like reform was going to happen. Things seemed to be looking better. They returned to God's law. They were blessed. Josiah goes out to war against Egypt and Josiah is killed. And after that, the next king was even worse than the previous ones.

So, these are, these are evil times. Not just like a rough year. If you think back and imagine in American history that the end of the 1800s into the beginning of the 1900s seemed like a wonderful time. Progress was happening all over the place.

Seemed like there was peace, seemed like things were going well, and then here comes World War I. And then here comes the Great Depression, shortly after. And right on the heels of that, here comes World War II. And you can understand why people would have thought, "Is it ever going to get any better?" And you could feel maybe the, the social whiplash of the end of the 1800s and all the excitement and it's better and it's good and look at all these wonderful things and then is it ever going to happen?

You go from good times where you say maybe there's a bad year, maybe there's a bad week but overall things are improving. Or we'll call them evil times where you say I don't know how things will ever get better. Habakkuk's lived through all of that. It was terrible. I don't think it can get better. Oh, look, it's going to reform. And then there's nothing here. It's never going to be any better.

So how does a believer in God handle evil times like that? The kind where you say, not I had a bad year, but I don't know if it will ever be, if life on this earth will ever be what I want it to be. How does a believer handle that? So at that moment, Habakkuk cries out while he's feeling that.

He's not stoic. I can take it. He's not saying, well, I don't need to ask God. He cries out to God and says, God, why is this happening? Why do I see all of this injustice in Jerusalem? How long are we going to be headed in the wrong direction?

God responds to him and says, check this out, Habakkuk. You're never going to believe it. I'm going to raise up a new global superpower and they will come and bring justice on the kingdom of Judah. They're going to be fast. They're going to be fierce. They're going to be fearless. And they're also going to be blasphemous idolaters.

Habakkuk goes, wait, what was that? What was that last one? I, like, I know you're judging your people, God. This is just paraphrased from the beginning of chapter two of Habakkuk. I know you're judging your people. I understand that, but shouldn't you use somebody who's more moral to judge your people? Isn't that how that ought to work, God? Are these people, the Chaldeans, the Babylonians that you're raising up, are they just going to keep right on going, being cruel and fierce and idolatrous forever?

I was doing a little more reading after the last time I spoke on this, actually, and the way Habakkuk talks to God here is very abrupt. It can sound more polite in, in English, but I was reading more about it. He's asking a rhetorical question, you know, the kind of question where you know the answer. And he's basically accusing God with rhetorical questions. But he's accusing God, God, you're gonna let him keep going? What are you thinking? That's a great plan. Let the Babylonians take over. That's a little more the feel.

But he also says, God, I need this answer. And I'm going to wait for it. At the beginning of Habakkuk chapter 2, he says he climbs to the top of the tower. It's a military term, but it's also a perspective thing. Right? When, when you are looking around and you say, I don't see how all this fits together, one of the things you can do is climb up to try to see perspective.

That's what he's doing. He's saying, God, your answer does not seem to fit. But instead of saying, forget you, I'm out. He says, God, your answer does not seem to fit. So I'm going to climb this tower and I'm going to look for whatever perspective you'll show me.

When God's answer doesn't seem to fit in your life, do that. Say, God, I'm going to climb the tower. I want to know the perspective. Think about in John, the man born blind and the disciples come. Who sinned, this man or his parents? And Jesus says, come with me up this tower. No, he was blind so that God would be glorified. They said, your answer doesn't seem to fit Jesus. Come look at the perspective.

Now that's where God responds again. He says, there's a lot of things that you don't understand Habakkuk, but I want you to understand one big piece. I want you to make it plain for everybody who sees it. I want people to know judgment will come. God is just. It may seem slow. It may seem like wicked people prosper. It may seem like righteous people are suffering. That may be happening right now. Judgment will come when it does. The just shall live by faith. That's where that quote comes from.

In that buildup, you get to this place. And from the beginning of the book, God has, he's going to judge the things that Habakkuk has listed. Violence, injustice, cruelty, greed, idolatry. That judgment is going to come no matter what.

So you might think, and probably Habakkuk did think this, but you might think God's solution is going to be when justice comes, put away violence, greed, injustice, cruelty. Right? If he's going to come judge these things, you'd think the answer would be, stop doing them. In other words, our human instinct might be to say judgment is coming, so you need to live a changed life.

How many of you saw some version of the Christmas carol yet this year? That's Charles Dickens message. Judgment's coming, so live a changed life. Now he may not explicitly say, depending on your version, Is God doing the judging? Is it just people who come after you? But there's a sense. Judgment's coming, so live a changed life. We're all born with that kind of instinct that says here's judgment. Oh, I've got to try to do better. And we've all felt the frustration of trying to do better.

God's message is not judgment is coming, so live a changed life. Since judgment is coming, the question is how do I gain my life before a holy God? When judgment comes, how do I have life? And that's where we get this phrase, you trust him. "The just shall live by faith."

This is the core of the gospel. Now we could say if, if God saves you, will you live a changed life? Yes. God changes people. God's spirit doesn't come live inside your life and then there'd be absolutely no change. That doesn't happen. But if we only get that message, we'll miss the core of the gospel, and we'll sound a lot like Charles Dickens: "judgment's coming. So live a changed life." But instead we need this phrase, "the just will live by faith."

Habakkuk almost gets all the way to the core of the gospel. What he doesn't spell out for us is, how is just related to faith? We know in judgment, the just, the people who are righteous, will live and somehow it's connected to faith.

But Habakkuk doesn't know all of those details. That's why I started earlier saying, Come, long expected Jesus. There's a longing. When Habakkuk wrote down these words, I have to think he had a longing. I said, okay, the just shall live by faith. I want to be one of those. How does that work, God? I want to know. Longing to know.

And when, Jesus took on flesh and dwelt among us. He showed people how it worked. He told people how it worked. In many ways, Habakkuk really just knew what the tax collector knew, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." And in chapter 3, which we'll look at later, Habakkuk says, God, in wrath, remember mercy. Be merciful to me, a sinner.

He didn't know how it all worked, and he got almost to the heart of the gospel. This morning, we're going to look at how the New Testament takes the phrase the just shall live by faith. We won't unpack everything about it because you can't in this amount of time. I don't think you could if you had forever.

But we'll talk about how the New Testament uses this phrase, the just shall live by faith, and how it is the core of the Gospel. Before we do that, let's pray and ask God's help.

Lord, in this simple, short phrase, we see truth. You have said, this is true. We see goodness, because you graciously are giving us such a wonderful gift. And Lord, we see beauty, because you don't exclude anyone who would come to you in faith. The worst person, the best person, the poorest person, the richest person, the most popular person, the least popular person. All approach you in exactly the same way through Christ. It's beautiful. So work that in our hearts this morning. May we believe your truth. May we delight in your goodness. And may we love your glory more because of these few moments together this morning. In Jesus name. Amen.

Romans 1, starting in verse 16, Paul says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith, for faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

Now, as we talk about this, there's two pair of words that can be a little bit slippery. Many of you may have heard this, but some of you may not, so when he says the righteous shall live by faith, the word just, the word righteous, righteousness, justice, all of those words in Greek come from the same root word. We translate righteousness and just sometimes differently. In this case, they quote it in the ESV to say the righteous shall live by faith. It's the same root as the just. So when you talk about just, it's not a different idea from righteous. When you talk about justification, it comes from the same root word. So all of these words that have to do with just, justification, justice, righteousness, all of these words are one family of word, even though in English it can look like two.

The same thing's true of the word faith and belief. We use two different words, but it's the same family, the same root words in in Greek. And it depends on which part of speech we're using for English. But when you see faith and when you see belief, so here when he says, for salvation to everyone who believes. And then he concludes that with, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. You should in your mind, connect faith and belief. They're the same thing.

So if, if we were gonna make an awful English version of it, we'd say, uh, it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who faiths. You're like, well, that doesn't really work. You could say to everyone who believes, and then you'd have to say, the righteous shall live by belief. That kind of works. That's the idea. When you look at these pairs of words, sometimes we separate them in our minds because we have different words in English. But in Greek, we shouldn't.

So as Paul starts off here, he tells you, here's the good news. I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God.

If you don't understand the gospel, it's like taking the power cord out. I'm It's like unplugging the vacuum cleaner from the wall. It doesn't work anymore. If you add to the gospel, see it says the gospel is the power of God. That's kind of like saying gasoline is the power of your car. If you don't have gasoline, obviously it's not going anywhere. Unless you have an electric car and that's a whole different discussion. But if you don't have gasoline, it's not going anywhere.

Guess what happens if instead you add mostly gasoline and you add enough cheese dip into your gas tank. Doesn't work, right? Because the power of your car is no longer really the power of your car.

The same thing's true of the gospel. If you take the gospel out, you don't have the power of God. But if you add to it, you lose the power of God as well. There's nothing more crucial, more central to the Christian faith than the gospel. We can disagree. You all know many people who are believers, who I'd say, they are gonna be in heaven with us one day, I think. And we disagree on a whole lot of things. That's okay. But we can't disagree on the gospel.

One person who says the only way to heaven is by faith in Jesus Christ and nothing you can do adds to that merit. One person, another person who says, sure, Jesus, plus this, that's not the same. The core of Christianity is the gospel, the foundation of Christianity. That's why Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation for all who believe.

Because, he goes on to say, verse 17, in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. Now, throughout history, different people have wrestled with this phrase. Martin Luther famously did. And one of the things that he struggled with is he understood this first to mean God is righteous. So there's like an impossibly high perfect standard, and that's what God is. And therefore, that's what God demands of us.

And he says, so the gospel reveals that God demands perfection from you. And he wrestled with that because he said, that's not good news. Because I'm not perfect. And he kept wrestling and he had, he had fear. If you read some of his biographies, he had this just emotional angst. He cared about that a whole lot more than some of us ever have. And he wrestled with his fear because he tried to do what was right so much. He was in a monastery. He was, um, depriving himself of food. He would do the things that monks did, asceticism, where they would even, even harm themselves in some ways to try and get closer to God, which was misguided. God doesn't ask you to do that.

But he was trying so much, and he found he kept failing, and kept failing, and kept failing. So he was under this weight that said, It's not good news to reveal the righteousness of God that he has a perfect, impossible standard.

But is that what's really revealed in the gospel? And one of the things that he discovered, and many others, It's not that there's an impossibly high standard that you have to meet. That's not what's revealed in the gospel. That's revealed in the law. You can go through the Old Testament. You can find all kinds of standards that God says, A holy God requires this, and you say, Well, I don't measure up to that.

That's been revealed. But what's revealed in the gospel is yes, that God demands righteousness. Yes, that we don't have it. But the what's revealed in the gospel is that the only hope is that God gives the righteousness that he demands. If God doesn't give it, we'll never earn it. We'll see that more in Galatians.

And we have to be careful with this word righteousness, because even the way I've been using it so far can sound like here's like the perfect standard. And if you measure up, you're righteous. Part of that problem is, sometimes we think, Okay, so there's this perfect standard. God is righteous means God measures up to some standard above Him.

That doesn't work because there is no standard above Him. So you have to back up and say, Well, what does it mean to be righteous, exactly? Yes, there is a standard, but God is the standard. That's who He is. It's His nature. So as we back up, instead of thinking, What I want to encourage you today, instead of thinking as, here's the, I have to get an A plus on this righteousness test. Think instead of being rightly related to God. Now, one way to do that would be to perfectly keep all of God's law. I'm going to assume none of us think we've done that.

So we'll move past that one and say, then what, how else? That's Paul, that's Paul's point here. Revealed in the gospel is the way that God gives righteousness, a right relationship with him, apart from the law. That's what he's going to say more in Galatians in just a minute. That's what's revealed. You can be rightly related to God, even though God knows what you thought last week. And he doesn't grade on a curve. Right? He doesn't go, well you were better than all of these people over here. So I guess I'll give you a C.

No, the gospel reveals that even though God demands righteousness, God has given it apart from the law.

And he says you can have a right relationship with him. You can be just, you can be justified. Again, justified, righteous, all of those words fit together. And we know this is the direction that Paul's going. I wish we could, you know, unpack the book of Romans, but we'd be here till Wednesday. So instead, we know this is the way he's going because he continues in verse 18, he says, The wrath of God is revealed against unrighteousness. Okay, we get down to verse 20. Certain things can be known about God from creation. Everyone's without excuse. Why? Verse 21, familiar verse. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him. They weren't rightly related to Him. They didn't give worship to God. They didn't give thanks to God.

As a result of that. I'll summarize what he continues to say is their problem, because they weren't rightly related to God. They didn't honor God, they didn't know God, or they didn't give thanks to God. Because of that, we have futile thinking, foolish darkened hearts, lustful impure hearts, dishonorable passions, evil, covetousness, malice, envy, murder, strife, deceit, gossip, slander, hatred, insolence, pride, disobedience, foolish, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. That's the rest of Romans 1.

But the root of it, he's not giving you a list to say, did you measure up to this standard? No, the root of it is You're not rightly related to God. They didn't honor God or give Him thanks. And because of that, there is a fruit that comes. So what God does, He doesn't tell you, Alright, you're not rightly related to Me. Here's all the things that come from that that you break. Now fix all of those and you can be rightly related to Me. If He did, we'd be dead. No chance.

It's like Thomas Jefferson, when he was talking about his program for self improvement, he would say, I'd focus on this one virtue so hard and I'd make some progress. And then I think, all right, next month, I'm going to work on this virtue. And I find that I lost all of that progress. That's exactly what it would be like. I'm going to try really hard to not struggle with envy. And maybe, maybe you succeed. In the meantime. Pride grows up over here. Or maybe it's not envy, but it's greed. Or it's not greed, but you're heartless towards others.

You see, all of these things, we're never gonna solve our problem by trying to deal with all of this list. And God knew that, and He knew we could not keep it. What we need is to be rightly related to God. And that's what the gospel is. That's the core.

When He talks, uses this phrase, the just shall live by faith. Paul is pointing and saying, here's what righteousness looks like. He takes, emphasizes the phrase, the just in this part of Romans. Here's what the just looks like. Those who are rightly related to God.

So if you'll turn over to Romans three, with that as a backdrop, I want to just read and paraphrase slightly, explain a little of this loosely from verse 21 and following.

But now the righteousness, the right relationship with God, that comes from God, has been shown apart from the law. Although the law and prophets bear witness to it. In other words, the law is not the way to have the right relationship with God. The righteousness of God, that right relationship with Him, through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

You see the connection between a right relationship and faith. It's available for all who will believe.

For there is no distinction, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified, are declared righteous, are brought back into or brought into a right relationship with God by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Because Jesus absorbed all of God's wrath against unrighteousness, and all of the fruit of not being in a right relationship with God. Jesus took all of that on Himself. And he bore that punishment. Because of that, God can freely give to anyone who believes the invitation: be in a right relationship with me. Have righteousness.

So in Romans, the just is the emphasis. Let's go to Galatians chapter 3.

Here we'll pick up the next phrase. The just shall live. What does it mean to live, we're closer to having a, a good view, a good understanding of how faith and righteousness are related. And Paul does talk about that, that in Romans, but he talks about it more concisely here in Galatians chapter three.

In verse six, he says, just as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. For salvation, the important connection to Abraham is not ethnicity, it's not the Mosaic law, it's not I kept the law and did all these things, it is faith. God is going to justify or make those who have faith, he's going to count that as righteousness, as a right relationship to him. Just like he did with Abraham.

Get to verse 9, you have the conclusion. So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. Well, why? Why is that? The way God works with this, verse 10, for all who rely on works of the law are under a curse for his written curse to be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them.

See, faith is all about what you rely on. It's just another way of talking about it. What do you count on? What do you rely on? And he says, if you rely on works of the law, even if you're adding it to the gospel, but if you rely on works that you do, it's like pouring cheese dip into your gasoline. You're adding something to what is supposed to be the power of God, and it will take it away. It won't be the power of God. That's his point. If you rely on works of the law, You are cursed.

Now, verse 11, Now, it is evident that no one is justified, is brought into a right relationship before God by the law. For, here's our phrase, The righteous shall live by faith. But the law is not of faith, rather the one who does them shall live by them.

Now, we could spend a long time unpacking that, and we will in the future. But what we want to see is the law was never supposed to give life. He says that specifically down in verse 21. Is the law contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not. If a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness, then a right relationship, would indeed be by the law.

The law was never given for that purpose. The law could never do it. Faith did it. Abraham didn't have righteousness because he kept the law. Abraham had righteousness because he believed God and God counted it as righteousness.

The just Are going to live by faith. They're going to live, instead of being under the curse and the punishment that comes with relying on your own efforts, the just will live, they'll have life because of what Jesus has done for them. That means you don't add anything.

I want to ask you what you're tempted to add? To be in a right relationship with God. What are you tempted to add to the gospel? We don't add love for our neighbor. You should love your neighbor. You should not rely on loving your neighbor to put you in a right relationship with God. You can't and won't love your neighbor enough to do that.

We don't add church attendance. I'm, really glad you're here this morning. If you're here this morning saying this is how i'm gonna be in a right relationship with God earning something from him. It's not how it works.

We don't add baptism. Baptism is a good thing. It's a great step of obedience It's not part of what puts you in the right relationship with God.

We don't add penance or feeling bad for our sin or making up for sin. Should we feel bad when we sin? Sure Should we confess? Should we try to restore? Yes, absolutely.

But if we're going to the core of the gospel, what gives me a right relationship with God? It's not any of these things. It's not the bible reading we should do. It's not prayer. It is Is my faith in Jesus Christ alone? That's it. And God looks on that and counts that faith as righteousness.

Because what I'm doing is coming to him, I'm not keeping all the law. I can't keep all the law. But I come and I say, Jesus kept it for me. I come and I say, I don't have to earn a standing before you because you invited me to come. We could say like, Alistair Begg, if you're familiar with his clip. The man on the middle cross said I could come.

We use this picture a lot. If, if you're standing at the gates of heaven, fictionally, and somebody looks at you and says, Why, why should you get into heaven? It can tell you a lot about your answers if you're honest. What is my answer? If your answer is anything other than Jesus, you're adding something to the gospel. The good news is, Jesus said, if I trust him, I can come in. We're done. That's the good news of the gospel. That's why Paul's not ashamed of it. Because it is a true and good and beautiful message.

Last example is from Hebrews 10 if you want to turn over there. There verse 38 says, My righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

Notice that phrase at the beginning, my righteous ones, the way it's translated in the ESV, the righteous ones, the same quote, the just shall live by faith. Notice he doesn't say one will have faith and then not have faith. What he says in verse 39 is those who have faith will continue and preserve their souls.

This text pushes you to the reality of the last part of the phrase. We started with the just. A right relationship with God, that is a wonderful gift. What's it mean? It means you're gonna live. You're not gonna be under the curse that comes from relying on your own works. You're gonna have true life because the law could never give you life, but the gospel does.

Because your faith is counted as righteousness. The last one, by faith. Hebrews, if we looked at the overall context, it pushes you to say, Is my faith real? I want you to imagine with me, you're on a plane. Getting ready to skydive. Large plane, we're all in there together. We've all got our parachutes on. We can sit here and talk about relying on our parachutes all we want to.

We can sit here and say, Do you rely on your parachute? Do you rely on your parachute? Oh yes, oh yes. Great. We can sing songs about our parachutes. We can say whatever words we want to say about our parachutes, but when it comes down to, Am I jumping out of that plane? Which one are you relying on?

I can tell you where I'd be. I'd be like, uh, no. Because ultimately what it comes down to is I want to rely on that plane a whole lot more than that parachute. I'm still relying on something. I'm not flying on my own. And if you, you might find the wrestling, you might find the struggling, but if you say, there's no way I'm jumping out of this plane, you rely on the plane more than the parachute.

When it comes down to it, and you know God's judgment comes because God is a righteous and holy and just judge. What do you rely on? Do you rely on Jesus and His righteousness only? Not like, yeah, I trust in Jesus. Oh God, I've done pretty good over here. I mean, I've worked pretty hard too. That counts for something, right?

Or do you jump and say, God, if Jesus doesn't save me, then I cannot be saved. If my soul is not safe through your judgment because of what Jesus did, then it will never be safe because I tried to be better. If my soul is not protected by Jesus because you count his righteousness as mine, if my soul's not safe like that, then no amount of church attendance, no amount of prayer or Bible reading, no amount of baptism, a love for neighbor, will do anything.

But I'm gonna jump and I'm gonna pull the cord on that parachute and say, the man on the middle cross said I could come. That's faith. That's what this text point pushes you to the wet just shall live by faith, by total reliance on Jesus.

I want to say one quick word because I think some of you might think, I want to trust in Jesus, but it feels like there's a battle. Fair, I understand. Does that mean you definitely don't trust in Jesus if it's a battle? No.

But that's the kind of faith you're called to. If you're a believer in Jesus, that's the kind of faith He is working in you. And I have seen, and you have seen, many older believers facing the end of their lives, who have struggled off and on through their life, who say, no, my faith is in Him and Him alone. That's what we want to strive toward. That's the kind of faith that will be counted as righteousness, so that the just shall live by faith.

Now, quickly, two things. Why does this matter? Why don't we spend the whole time talking about justification by faith, using slightly different terms sometimes? Why don't we take this phrase from an obscure book in the middle of a prophet, in the middle of the Old Testament, the just shall live by faith, why don't we talk about it?

There's a million things we could put there, because the gospel is the core of Christianity, but I want you to think of two. One, the truth that the just shall live by faith saves you from slavery to your performance. That means you can have rest.

It's not that we measure up in order to have a relationship with God. It's not even that God gives you a perfect record and now you try really hard not to mess it up. Because you'll mess that up too. Instead, it is that God has given you a right relationship to him through faith in Jesus Christ.

It's kind of like the difference between being dating and engaged and married. We look forward to being with Jesus when the husband of the church, right? When he returns and we celebrate the marriage supper of the lamb and we're married. Great.

Maybe your experience when you first if you if you're married, maybe when you first started dating You remember that? I've got to put on like my best face. Maybe even the guy spends a long time getting ready to go on a date, maybe? And you think, I don't think she'll really like that I love football that much, so I'm gonna pull that back a little bit. I'm not saying to do that, I'm just saying we're all tempted.

You would not want to live that way your whole life, would you? Probably not a good plan then, definitely not a good plan forever. But sometimes we do that, like we're, like we're dating God somehow. And I've got to make sure somehow I keep this good face in front of him. Like, well, God, I know I messed that up, but they did this really bad thing. And God, I tried to be really good over here so you can bless me, right? It's exhausting. You don't live like that with your spouse now.

If we don't get the gospel, right, we might think we're dating Jesus like that and find that relationship very exhausting.

On the other hand, when you say I'm engaged to Jesus. He's committed to me with a hundred percent faithfulness. And I can love that. And I can rest in it. I love him and I want to please him. I don't just go doing whatever makes him mad. But I'm safe. The core that the just shall live by faith saves us from depending on our performance. It saves us from slavery to our performance and from the exhaustion that comes with it.

Second thing. A right understanding of justification by faith saves us from pride. Ephesians 2 says, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. Not of works. Why? Lest any man should boast.

Or Romans 3, after we read earlier, continues, What becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, by a law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. This truth, that the just shall live by faith, is what is supposed to strike at the root of pride in our lives.

So we come and say, I have nothing to boast in. I'm not wiser. I'm not smarter. I don't work harder. None of that earns me anything. But instead, like we sang last week, all my boast is in Jesus. All my hope is His love. And I will glory forever in what the cross has done. None of it's me. Which means you can boast all you want in Jesus. And never have pride.

So this little phrase, the just shall live by faith, it needs to be part of our heartbeat. Because the gospel is the core of Christianity. It will give you rest, and it will save you from pride. Let's take a moment and let's respond to God in prayer.