The statement the righteous will live by faith is a very beautiful and important statement. It addresses the key to our righteousness, faith. Paul is addressing the conflict between two alternate roads to righteousness, trusting and trying. Trying is to act in a way that seems pure and Godly. Trusting puts our trust in a Savior who paid the price for sin. Paul appeals to their experience of faith in his effort to convince them to stay on the faith track.
He asks, did you receive the Spirit By observing the law, trying, or by believing what you heard, trusting. He knows that they began in the Spirit. They are now trying to reach the goal through human effort. Paul further emphasizes his point by reminding them that their experience is in harmony with the Scriptures. He shows them through Abraham their experience is Scriptural. In Galatians 3:6 Paul says Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Then in verse 7 Paul says “Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham.” Paul is talking about a spiritual kinship to Abraham. Those who believe are kin, children of Abraham. He is not talking a physical action, trying, that makes one a kin to Abraham. Listen to a very powerful verse 9. “So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”
I came across a very applicable very applicable illustration. “Consider the difference between a sailboat and a rowboat. In a spiritual rowboat the sailor is dependent upon human effort, In a spiritual sailboat the sails are raised in faith and the undying power of the wind of the spirit moves the boat--it is still entirely necessary that the boat move, but the power source of the sailboat is unquenchable.”
Let’s be men and women of faith who trust.
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