And the Law Is Not of Faith (Galatians 3:12)

2025-06-17

And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. (Galatians 3:12)

The law is about performance. If you can perform everything that is in the perfect Law of God, you will live. This is reiterated in the following: Leviticus 18:5; Nehemiah 9:29; Ezekiel 20:13, 21. What do we see in the Old Testament? Repeated failure and judgment.

When we get to the New Testament, something new is taught. We are shown that not only can we not perform, but that we need God’s righteousness. Even if we could perform the requirements of the Law, we would still lack His righteousness.

This is why something new is introduced: faith. We trust Him to save us and perform the perfect requirements of the Law. Maybe we cannot perform, but the Lord Jesus can. We call on Him not only to be saved, but to perform the day-to-day service that we cannot provide to God.

We don’t try harder, we trust harder.

Moreover, we trust Him not only for Him to perform in us that which we cannot, such as righteous actions versus sins. We also trust Him for things that are daily duties. That project at work? Yeah, we trust Him for that. But what if something is easy for us naturally? We don’t need Him for that, right? No, we trust Him for that also. Whether we are accustomed to some task or not accustomed, we need Him. We cannot fall into the trap thinking that anything can be done on our own. Whether moving mountains or sailing smoothly, or whatever it is, we don’t try harder, we trust harder.