Galatians Words ~ Word 4: Faith

Sola gratia, sola fide, solus Christus. Salvation is by grace alone though faith alone in Christ alone. This Latin phrase is the motto of the Protestant faith. The great reformer Martin Luther was known to add the word 'alone' after the words grace and faith in passages such as the one we are in today. 

[We] “know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.” Galatians 2:16

Sola fide – through faith alone. Because the Galatian believers were being led to turn to believing that they had to add works of the law in order to be justified by God, Paul will reaffirm that justification is by faith in Christ alone. Add nothing else to it.

Three times in this one verse he uses the word faith – we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ, we have put our faith in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ. Paul is very clear here. When you believe the gospel of grace you are believing in the faithfulness of God through Christ. John Stott says, when we put our faith in Christ Jesus it is “to put our whole trust and confidence in Jesus Christ to save us.” 

We put our faith in Christ, not just for salvation, but for all of our life. Paul will go on to say in this letter that:

• ·       We “live by faith in the Son of God” 2:20
• ·       By believing what we have heard about faith in Christ, “we receive the promised Spirit”. 3:2,5,14
• ·       We who have faith “have are blessed along with Abraham”. 3:9,14
• ·       Through faith we are “sons of God”. 3:26
• ·       By faith we will receive the final not guilty verdict when we stand before God, “the righteousness for which we hope”. 5:5
• ·       We become a part of “the household (or family) of faith”. 6:10

All this is ours through faith alone in Christ alone.

In the book of Romans Paul reminded us that, “Faith comes from hearing the message (gospel, good news), and the message is heard through the word of Christ”. Romans 10:17. In Galatians Paul reminds them to hold onto that message they heard through faith when Paul shared with them the word of Christ – Christ’s teachings and example. Hold onto that message of faith and don’t let anything sway you away from it or try to get you to add anything to it, for you have been saved through faith in Christ by grace alone.

We are called to live by faith, and although at times we may doubt that we have enough faith, remember it not about how big our faith is, but about how big God is. We have placed our faith in Him and in His faithfulness. That is where the faith we are called to live by comes from. We did not have to do anything to earn it and we don’t have to work hard to muster it up, we must simply trust God and rely on His faithfulness through the power of the Holy Spirit within us. 

We will continue in this same passage for our next word on Friday.

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