Guys Can You Explain It? Easier? Just Wondering

Galatians 3:11-12
Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith." The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, "The man who does these things will live by them."
 
You are 16 years old? … so I will try explain it how I when I was 16 : )
Everybody here was 16 once, so they can share as well : )

Your question is actually a big question: people can write many chapters to explain it, but I will try to stick to “easier” : )

Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith.
· We accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior by faith.... we live this life in the same manner: accepting Jesus Christ as the author and finisher of our faith.

The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, "The man who does these things will live by them."
· Law is our sense of what is right and wrong…put it into writing….it is the usual definition of law.

· If we try to live by law: we can become proud of ourselves that we can able to accomplish it…. Proud will make us blind: because actually, no one can really accomplish it.

· Thus, what I see by “The man who does these things will live by them” is a sad status for that man.
· He will be continuously be feeling guilty: since a honest man will admit he is guilty of not abiding the law.

Similar to “Live by the sword, die by the sword” : if we are harsh to other people, we will also be harsh to ourselves: a sad thing indeed.
 
And then….. if we accept that everything is God’s will…. then there is no really a sad thing : )
 
Galatians 3:11-12
Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith." The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, "The man who does these things will live by them."

Papapeg..........the Gospel reveals the righteousness of faith..........and the righteousness which God alone imputed to faith. Christ wo is the righteousness of God is put to the account of faith.
(Read carefully Romans4:3; 5,6, 9, 11-13 as well as Rom. 10:6-10.

The recipient of God' wonderful grace stands before God s if he had nver committed any evil. God's grace provides for the sinner and brings to the sinner God's holiness because it was the blood of God that lowed through the veins of Jesus.
God purchased the salvation of sinners with His own blood.

We are saved by faith, we are kept by faith, we are rewarded by faith and every blessing from God must be accepted by faith.

The meaning of ther statement........."from faith to faith" is not from one degree of faith to another, but that God blesses the believer on the principle of faith. God offers justification to the unbeliever on the ground of faith, not on the basis of works. We are justified by faith and the JUSTIFIED shall an must live on the principle of faith.....or better said------
faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus.
 
Hi Papapeg,

Justification simply means that a person is seen as righteous before God. The law shows us how to be righteous, therefore we cannot discard it but the problem is that nobody has ever been able to keep the whole law of God. The Old Testament provided a sacrificial system whereby people could be forgiven of their sins but time and again they would sin, just like we do, and they would have to go to the high priest and do another sacrifice.

The New Testament changed all of this. Jesus, never sinned therefore He was righteous before God's sight. He paid the penalty for sin - death and God made His sacrifice an everlasting one. So whoever believes in Jesus (true faith) is automatically covered by His sacrifice and is seen as righteous before God - justified, set free from sin and death.

We are not made righteous, but are declared righteous through Christ. When God looks at us He does not see our unrighteous hearts but He sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

God's law remains but it is through faith we are saved. Imagine if the Old Testament system of sacrifice was still in place, every time we sin we would have to make the trip and go to Jerusalem and kill a lamb to make right for our sins. All we have to do now is confess our sin to Jesus and repent (turn away from sin - the breaking of God's law) and we are still seen as righteous before God, not because of what we have done but because of what Jesus has done.
 
Papapeg...G'day and welcome.
The answers that you have been given so far are correct enough, but I suspect that they answer a question you did not really ask.
The statement that you cite in Galatians 3:12: "The man who does these things will live by them." comes from Leviticus 18:5.
Paul is contending with false teaching that is being given to the Galatian Christians.
Consider as a stage setting: Gal 3:1,2,3.
Now jumping forward to V11, Paul is simply quoting from Leviticus which just says that a person who embraces the 'Law' will need to be seen to live in fidelity (faithfulness) to that Law. The Nkjv renders V5 thus: "You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the LORD." (emphasis added)
Now any honest individual will see straight out that they can not possibly keep the law...perfectly, so the Lord has graciously provided the perfect solution to this, our dilemma. Christ did keep the law perfectly and that, He did on your behalf and my behalf. So what Paul is saying is that we don't need to look to the law to please the Lord God anymore, we need to look to Jesus as our champion who lived by the statutes and judgments of the Lord on our behalf.
Hope this helps,
calvin
 
The answers that you have been given so far are correct enough, but I suspect that they answer a question you did not really ask.
:)
It is so easy to say too much and miss an 'effective' answer. I found myself writing a long reply and going off at so many tangents.

'Clearly no one is justified before God by the law'. The law is not good enough. Example, my house-worker can do a million tasks for me, she will never qualify as my wife.

'The righteous will live by faith'. Those who want to live a life to please God will live by faith. The bible's definition of faith is in Heb 11:1, 'Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen'. Note that it is not blind faith but is in ''substance'' and ''evidence''. Evidence of His existence is all around us. Psalms 19:1, Romans 1:20. Now when it comes to living by faith, understand what faith exactly it is that we need to build on. A child does not need much faith or to grow in faith that his father exists (can you grow much in faith that gravity exists? ), rather we grow in faith that he is good and keeps to his word. We have to add your verse to John 3:16 to get a better perspective. Our faith, trust and hope has to be in Jesus to please God. We live with faith in Jesus and His finished work on the cross.

'The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, "The man who does these things will live by them'.

'Does these things' is referring to the man who chooses to live by faith. Simple example here would be, a child is not a child because he is obedient, rather a child will be obedient because he is a child. Obedience starts when we acknowledge God as our Father and it improves as we grow in faith and trust that He is good and keeps to His word.
 
Papapeg,

You didn't specifically "ask a question" in your first post, but I can see that some uncertainty does exist, so I'll point out some clear differences in the dispensations of the OLD covenant and the NEW covenant.

Jesus came in the....
"fulness of time"....Ephesians 1:10....(the completion and end of "TIME").

This is the AGE OF ETERNITY....

http://www.blueletterbible.org/search/translationResults.cfm?Criteria=and in the age to come eternal life&t=RSV&sf=5

As was pointed out in another post, the Jews had to perform rituals and make sacrifices to God in order to receive "purification" from their violations of Mosaic law (Mosaic law was the COMBINATION of 10 commandments PLUS all of the rules/ordinances that Moses decided to add to the commandments). The purification that the Jews received was just temporary and had to be repeated yearly on the day of atonement, BUT NOW, that Jesus became the FINAL and everlasting.eternal sin sacrifice,...PURIFICATION IS ETERNAL.

Ephesians 2:15 "by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances".

James 1:25 and 2:12 "the PERFECT law"....."the law of LIBERTY".....

.....(the modern day moneychangers rather we be under their control so that we will just keep bringing them our money, they have no need to let us know about this "liberty" LAW).

For the last 2000 years, The Lord's "church" (the collection of all who have Jesus as their savior) have been living in the "age of eternity" (few believers realize/understand it because it is not TAUGHT).

When Jesus hung on the cross, blood AND WATER flowed from His side (His Spirit will teach us to have "LIVING water" in our hearts if we are a good student). This is so that we...

"neither thirst" (Revelation 7:16).

Unfortunately, there have always been many believers (both OLD and NEW covenant believers) that only "hunger" to get from God whatever they can.

...and they also do it without truly/sincerely LOVING HIM and His ways of goodness....(God is light and we should walk as children of light).

"good and right, and true"....Ephesians 5:8.....

....(yes, God wants us to be "lovers of goodness",...in the O.T., the Jews would only do "good" because they were COMMANDED).

WE (Jesus believers) worship GOD ETERNAL), the Jews did not have GOD ETERNAL, nor did they have the FINAL sin sacrifice (the final and permanent CLEANSING).

God is not limited to ANYTHING, so He always 'FORESAW' everything that ever will happen (even since BEFORE the foundation of the world......because He is ETERNALLY "God", so,...His 'sending Jesus' is not "NEW" to Him (it's not a surprise to HIM), it's only "NEW" to humanity)....

http://www.blueletterbible.org/search/translationResults.cfm?Criteria=the foundation of the world&t=RSV&sf=5

......BUT, before Jesus came to earth and was crucified, the Jewish scriptures only TOLD them of a promised Messiah,....and so, they never entered/received ETERNAL REST ("The Lord's DAY" is the ETERNAL SABBATH REST)....

"they shall never enter my rest" (even though God's Son had already FINISHED God's dispensations since the foundation of the world......reference from the previous link).

In the O.T., the Jews only worshipped "Jehovah God" (the house of Israel only had ONE steward/master..."Jehovah God", they did not have The SON (neither did they know that the promised Messiah would be a "son").....yes, God always had a "Spirit", but neither did the Jews include the Spirit in their worship,...and God's Spirit was not "ETERNAL" either...

Hebrews 9:14 "eternal spirit.....purify your conscience".

The Jews did not have THREE manifestations/dispensations of God (what some call 'trinity'), they only knew of ONE 'steward'/master/"HUSBAND" of the kingdom of God (Jehovah).....this was spoken the Judaizer Jews that accepted Jesus as the Messiah (they were now engaged/"betrothed" to Jesus)...

2 Corinthians 11:2
"I betrothed you to Christ to present you as a pure bride to her one husband" "her" is "ISRAEL").

It is because of ALL that Jesus did (the crucifixion AND the giving of the Spirit), that not only our flesh can be purified, but also our "CONSCIENCE" if we learn from His Spirit to always do the right thing so that our conscience will be clear every day.

The Jews were like the Zealots (they wanted an EARTHLY KINGDOM...a kingdom of MAMMON)....we should be careful not to imitate the "sons of the kingdom"......

http://www.blueletterbible.org/search/translationResults.cfm?Criteria=while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness there men will weep and gnash their teeth&t=RSV&sf=5

Our devotion should be one of gentleness and sincerity. not hypocrisy and 'forced' goodness. We should have the ability in our heart AND MIND/attitude to do feel deep sentiment (a person can have many 'EMOTIONS') like the woman who wiped Jesus's feet (Luke 7:44),....we should be able to 'cry' and FEEL sorrow (the precursor of LOVE...God is LOVE). When we truly FEEL sorowful sentiment, water drips from our eyes (it is not 'dead' water, it comes from the heart).......if we TRULY believe, then....

"He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, 'Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.', John 7:38.

Full salvation ("purification of the flesh" ONLY will not yield the "better things that belong to salvation", Hebrews 6:10) requires being a SON OF GOD (instead of only a "saint"). It's the "living water" of a pure heart ("Spirit") that combines everything in harmony in the heart and mind of the believer.......

http://www.blueletterbible.org/search/translationResults.cfm?Criteria=these three agree&t=RSV&sf=5

There are other functional differences between the O.T. dispensations and the N.T. dispensations that have not been taught.

The NEW dispensation/covenant is VERY different. Since the crucifixion and everything Jesus did 'HAPPENED' and salvation was ACCOMPLISHED/DONE/FINISHED/FINALIZED, now our devotion/worship should be to have a better, deeper, more close relationship (true worship depends on moving on and going "ahead" after having received the benefits of the doctrine about Jesus being the everlasting "sin" sacrifice).

In order to have a deeper RELATIONSHIP with God, we shouldn't just believe that HE EXISTS ("faith TOWARD God"), but we should believe and understand/feel that He is a loving king God.......

"For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him"
Hebrews 11:6....

......(IF we WANT TO "draw near")....."WANT to" instead of being forced by books.....(of course it is wise to "want to").

So, we should have a "faith for faith" Romans 1:17,...and also we should have JESUS as our ONLY foundation (we should no longer have a "repentance foundation").

"Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God" (Hebrews 6:1).

We have the SAME GOD, but the ETERNAL DISPENSATION (but we are not Jews, they were baptized into MOSES, we are spiritually living IN JESUS (the spirits inside of Jesus's body have no gender....("neither male nor female").

1 Corinthians 10:2 "and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea".

John 10:8 "All who came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not heed them".

...even John the Baptist clearly stated that Jesus "ranks before me", John 1:15.


God wants to be "Abba Father" to us, NOT "MASTER" so that we can be a "SON" of God.......He tells us to be a....

"lover of goodness, master of himself" and that nthere should be no "self-abasement" (Colossians 2:18).

Maybe there just needs to be a CLEAR statement that things really are different in the 'JESUS DISPENSATION' (age of ETERNITY)....I trust that I made that obvious.

All verses are from the RSV.
 
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