THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH
(First part)
Memory verse: (Romans 1:16-17) “ For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live by faith ”
This week we’re going to learn the lifestyle of the new creation in Christ (2Cor5:17). When man fell, he stopped depending on God and began depend on his natural senses, this is called living by the flesh. But when we believed in Jesus Christ, we were born again, we became new creation, living in spirit beings, alive towards God, reconciled to God, sensitive to God, hearing God’s voice, sensing his presence and love, fellowshipping with the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God dwelling in our lives etc. The new creation is justified by God through the sacrifice of Jesus (Rom3:26). God has made us just through Jesus’ death on the cross. So, we are now called the just in Christ. We have been made righteous through Christ (2Cor5:21). In the above scripture, the just is the new creation, the believers. And this scripture teaches that the new creation lives by a new law. This law is called the law of faith. Our walk as new creation is dependent on faith. We depend on God again, we depend on the ability of God, without Him we can do nothing, our victory comes from Him, our new life in Christ depends on the finished work Jesus accomplished on the cross, in his resurrection and his position as Lord and the Christ seated at the right hand of God.
We have been restored to depend on God. Our life does not depend on what we do but what Christ did on the Cross. The epistles of Paul as he labored to explain and teach this mystery of the gospel of our salvation, he kept teaching to almost every church this spiritual law of faith. Let us see them: “ the just shall live by faith ” (Rom1:17) to the church of Romans, to the church of Corinthians he taught “ for we walk by faith not by sight ” (2Cor5:7), to the church of Galatians he wrote “ the just shall live by faith ” (Gal 3:11), to the Ephesians he said to them: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast (Eph2:8-9). The writer of the book of Hebrews emphasizes the same law, “ the just shall live by faith ” (Heb10:38).
Tomorrow’s subject: ‘who has believed our report’
