2. The second scripture is that of the eleventh verse of the same chapter, ‘But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident; for, The just shall live by faith.’
These words, ‘the just shall live by faith,’ are taken out of the Old Testament, and are thrice used by this apostle in the New. (1.) To show that nothing of the gospel can be apprehended but by faith: ‘For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.’ ‘As it is written, The just shall live by faith’ (Rom 1:17). (2.) To show that the way to have relief and succor under temptation is then to live by faith: ‘Now the just shall live by faith’ (Heb 10:38) (3.) But in this of the Galatians, it is urged to show how holy and just soever men be in themselves, yet as such they are dead, and condemned to death by the law before God. But that no man is justified by the law, in the sight of God, is evident; for, ‘the just shall live by faith.’
The word ‘just,’ therefore, in this place in special, respected a man that is just, or that so esteems himself by the law, and is here considered in a double capacity; first, what he is before men; secondly, what he is before God. (1.) As he stands before men, he is just by the law; as Paul before his conversion (Phil 3:4). (2.) As he stands in the sight of God; so, without the faith of Christ, he cannot be just, as is evident; for ‘the just shall live,’ not by his justice or righteousness by the law.
This is the true intent of this place. Because they carry with them a supposition that the just here intended may be excluded from life, he falls within the rejection asserted within the first part of the verse. No man is just by the law in the sight of God; for ‘the just shall live by faith’: his justice cannot make him live, he must live by the faith of Christ. Again, the words are a reason dissuasive, urged to put a stop to those that are seeking life by the law; as if the apostle had said, Ye Galatians! What are you doing? Would you be saved by keeping the law? Would you stand just before God thereby? Do you not hear the prophets, how they press faith in Jesus, and life by faith in him? Come, I will reason with you, by way of supposition. Were it granted that you all loved the law, yet that for life, will avail you nothing; for, ‘the just shall live by faith.’
Were it granted that you kept the law and that no man on earth could accuse you; were you therefore just before God? No; neither can you live by works before him; for ‘the just shall live by faith.’ Why not live before him? Because when we have done our best, and are applauded by all the world for being just, yet then God sees sin in our hearts: ‘He put no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight’ (Job 15:15, 4:18). There is then a just man that perished in his righteousness, if he wants the faith of Christ, for that no man is justified by the law, in the sight of God, is evident; for, ‘the just shall live by faith’; and the law is not of faith.
3. The third Scripture is this—’ We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified’ (Gal 2:15,16).
These words are the result of the experienced Christians in the primitive times; yea, of those among them that had given up themselves before to the law, to get life and heaven thereby; the result, I say, of believing Jews—We who are Jews by nature. But how are they distinguished from the Gentiles? Why, they are such that rest in the law, and make their boast of God; that know his will, and approve the excellent things; that are guides to the blind, and a light to them that are in darkness; that are instructors of the foolish, teachers of babes, and which have the form of knowledge, and of the truth of the law (Rom 2:17-19). How far these attained we find by that of the Pharisee—I pray, I fast, I give tithes of all (Luke 18:11,12); and by the young man in the gospel—’ All these have I kept from my youth up’; and by that of Paul—’ Touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless’ (Phil 3:6). This was the Jew by nature, to do and trust in this. Now these attaining afterward the sound knowledge of sin, the depravedness of nature, and the exactions of the law, fled from the command of the law to the Lord Jesus for life. ‘We knowing’ is—We that are taught of God, and that have found it by sad experience, we, even we, have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law. Surely, if righteousness had come by the law, Paul and the Jews had found it, they being by many privileges far better than the sinners of the Gentiles; but these, when they received the word of the gospel, even these now fly to Christ from the law, that they might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law.
